Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Just days after Donald Trump announced his third bid for the White House, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan denounced the twice-impeached former president’s political future, calling himself a “Never-Again-Trumper.”

“I’m proud of the accomplishments [during the Trump administration] — of the tax reform, the deregulation and criminal justice reform — I’m really excited about the judges we got on the bench, not just the Supreme Court, but throughout the judiciary,” Ryan told ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that aired Sunday. “But I am a Never-Again-Trumper. Why? Because I want to win, and we lose with Trump. It was really clear to us in ’18, in ’20 and now in 2022.”

While Republicans secured the House with a razor-thin majority, they failed to flip the Senate. The “red wave” that was widely predicted this midterm season did not come to pass. Ryan put the blame directly on the former president.

“I personally think the evidence is really clear,” Ryan said in his first Sunday show interview since he left office in 2019. “The biggest factor was the Trump factor … I think we would have won places like Arizona, places like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire had we had a typical, traditional conservative Republican, not a Trump Republican.”

“With Trump, we lose,” he added.

“We lost the House in ’18,” Ryan continued. “We lost the presidency in ’20. We lost the Senate in ’20. And now in 2022 we should have and could have won the Senate. We didn’t. And we have a much lower majority in the House because of that Trump factor.”

During the interview, Ryan pointed to the Trump-endorsed candidates’ lackluster performance during the midterms. At least 30 of the former president’s hand-picked candidates, including some of the most notable nominees in various states, lost in their general elections after winning their primaries.

“He can get his people through the primaries, but they can’t win general elections,” Ryan said. “We get past Trump, we start winning elections. We stick with Trump, we keep losing elections. That’s just how I see it.”

And if Trump is once again the GOP nominee for president?

“We [will] probably likely lose the White House,” Ryan said, adding that he thinks suburban voters don’t like Trump or the candidates he endorses.

In 2016, Trump managed to hold off a crowded GOP presidential field with only a plurality of the vote in the early primary states. Despite that dynamic, Ryan said he isn’t worried that the same dynamic could play out in 2024 — that a packed field of Republicans would split the vote and once again clear the way for Trump to win the party’s nomination.

“This is my hopeful scenario,” Ryan said. “That we consolidate around somebody that is forged from this primary process capable of winning the general election, and I bet we — I bet that happens.”

Ryan remains hopeful, he said. As long as the nominee is not named Trump, he believes the Republican candidate will win the White House. He’s looking for a “Reagan 2.0.”

“I really believe a Reagan 2.0 conservative is something that will be — that the country will want, I think that our voters will want,” he said. “I think that our voters will want someone that is a good, verifiable conservative, problem solver, but also a unifier and somebody who’s not so polarizing.”

Ryan backs McCarthy on road to speakership

Republicans will have an extraordinarily slim majority come January, which means every vote in the Republican caucus will matter. Ryan believes current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is the person to lead the House as speaker, saying McCarthy is the “best vote counter” he’s ever worked with.

“There isn’t anybody better suited to running this conference than Kevin McCarthy,” Ryan said, endorsing his former colleague. “He’s been good for conservatives, frankly, but he’s also a person who really understands how to manage a conference.”

When Ryan was speaker, he had a much larger majority in the House than what the Republican party will have in 2023.

“No matter what bill you’re going to bring to the floor, it is almost impossible with that tight [of] a majority to have just only your party passing legislation,” Ryan said.

“Having said that, there’s nothing as unifying as a really razor-thin majority,” he continued. “It makes people realize I can’t get everything I want; I have to be a part of a team; I’m going to have to not negotiate and compromise.”

Ryan said McCarthy understands he needs the entire conference to work with him. He said McCarthy will be able to motivate the different wings within the Republican Party — from more moderate-leaning districts to the Tuesday Group to the Freedom Caucus.

Prior to the midterms, at least nine impeachment resolutions against President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet were introduced by representatives such as Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene. The basis for the resolutions ranged from the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to the president’s son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

“Would it be a mistake for Republicans that instead of getting the ideas you’re talking about — getting into, you know, heavy, heavy investigations?” Karl asked.

“No, they need to do oversight,” Ryan pushed back, adding that he thinks there should be some accountability with Hunter Biden and the other investigations.

“I’m a big Article 1 guy,” he continued. “What that means is I very strongly believe in the legislative branch of government conducting thorough oversight of the executive branch to hold them accountable.”

But he still thinks the Republicans need to push forward an agenda to address the problems every day Americans are facing.

“Can they chew gum and walk at the same time?” Ryan said. “Have investigations, have oversight hearings, hold the executive branch to account, and offer new ideas and solutions to our problems? Yes. That’s what Congress is supposed to do.”

“I think there are important issues in our culture that need to be litigated and we need to preserve our country’s principles, but it’s not enough to just, you know, be really good on Twitter and survive in the entertainment wing of our party,” Ryan added. “You have to offer a country solutions.”

Ryan once again charts his path forward for GOP

Ryan left office in 2019 after spending 20 years in Congress, four of which he was speaker of the House, working under both a Democratic and Republican president. But he said he’s not done trying to find solutions to America’s problems. He’s out with a new book: “American Renewal: A Conservative Plan to Strengthen the Social Contract and Save the Country’s Finances.”

“In this book, we offer very granular solutions to the big problems confronting America,” Ryan said. One of his major concerns, he said, is what he called the unsustainable debt trajectory that America is on. He said his book offers “a conservative plan to help this country get over its enormous challenges.”

Ryan acknowledged that Americans want health and retirement security, but he believes the current programs are unsustainable in the 21st century.

“Medicare trust fund goes bankrupt in this decade,” Ryan said. “The Social Security trust fund goes bankrupt in 2032.”

But Ryan, the self-proclaimed optimist, believes these problems are solvable.

“There are changes that you can make to the Social Security system today that [guarantees] people counting on this program will always have those benefits,” he said. “We’re going to have to reform these programs so that you and I and the next generation on down actually have something. That’s the kind of conversation we have to elevate our debate to I think in our federal, national politics, and I think we can because America has always gotten it right at the end of the process.”

Praise for Pelosi’s legacy

When asked about current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stepping down from her leadership role, Ryan complimented her and her legacy.

“Obviously, she and I usually disagree on things, but first woman Speaker — a career to be proud of,” Ryan said. “She broke a glass ceiling, and there’s a lot to be proud about there.”

Addressing the attack on the speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, he called it “awful” and said he’s been thinking a lot about it.

Nancy Pelosi cited one reason for her stepping down to spend more time with her family, which Ryan understood. He himself retired from political office to spend more time with his family. He now teaches economics at the University of Notre Dame, has a poverty foundation and works at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.

A return to politics?

“You talked about the direction of the party and the direction of the country. Are we ever going to see you back in politics?” Karl asked.

“I like doing it the way I’m doing it now,” Ryan said.

When asked if he would run for president in 2024, Ryan said, “No, I mean, I’m definitely not running in 2024. I don’t think I — it just — I have presidential-sized policy ambition, but I really don’t have presidential-sized personal ambition, so I just don’t see myself doing that.”

“OK, so we can take that as a maybe,” Karl joked.

“No,” Ryan said, laughing. “I don’t think so.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday said he expects the incoming Republican majority will give in to its “lowest common denominator” members by pursuing decisions like removing him from his committee assignments.

In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Schiff was asked by co-anchor Jonathon Karl about GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s promise to kick Schiff off the intelligence committee, to which Schiff responded that he thinks McCarthy will follow the lead of hardline lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

“Well, I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do. He’s a very weak leader of this conference, meaning that he will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator, and if that lowest common denominator wants to remove people from committees, that’s what they’ll do,” Schiff said.

McCarthy has said that removing lawmakers like Schiff from their committee posts was a precedent set by Democrats when they and some Republicans voted to strip Greene of her committee work as punishment for her history of inflammatory and conspiratorial statements.

McCarthy has also claimed Schiff, who sits on the special House committee investigating last year’s insurrection, used his intelligence chairmanship to politicize his committee.

On “This Week,” Schiff took another view.

“It’s going to be chaos with Republican leadership. And, sadly, the crazy caucus has grown among the Republicans,” he added, noting that some newly elected Republicans representing deep-red districts are bringing firebrand reputations similar to Greene’s.

Karl also asked Schiff if he thought Attorney General Merrick Garland made the right decision by appointing a special prosecutor to oversee the Justice Department’s investigations into former President Donald Trump, who just launched a third presidential campaign.

The department is investigating both Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his alleged mishandling of sensitive and classified government documents after leaving office. He denies wrongdoing.

“It’s the right thing to do, and most particularly if you ensure that it won’t cause any delay,” Schiff said. “So, if the same prosecutors that have been investigating the former president and others can be moved on to the special prosecutor’s team, then there’s every reason to do it, no reason not to do it.”

Schiff’s “concern,” he said, was on the urgency of the work.

“Leading up to this point … they were very slow at the department to work up the multiple lines of effort to overturn the election. It took them a long time to get started, and the delay has already been baked in. I hope that the special prosecutor will move with alacrity,” he said.

During the final weeks of the House Jan. 6 committee’s work before the Republican majority takes over, Schiff said he and the other committee members were weighing what kind of criminal referral to make about Trump’s actions — “I think the evidence is there,” he said — and what response to make to Trump resisting their subpoena.

“We have very limited options,” Schiff said while calling Trump “cowardly.”

Schiff also lambasted Elon Musk’s decision to let Trump back onto Twitter after the former president’s account was suspended after the insurrection.

“It’s a terrible mistake, Schiff said. “The president used that platform to incite that attack on the Capitol.”

Likewise, Schiff said he disagreed with the Biden administration’s decision to back a claim of legal immunity for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in connection with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident.

“We ought to put our value on life not oil, and I think this is a tragic decision,” Schiff said.

As for 2024 and the next presidential race, Schiff said he was backing Joe Biden, who just turned 80, should Biden run for a second term: “I think he’s extremely capable … If he wants to continue, I’m for him.”

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(LAS VEGAS) — As the Republican Party continues to reel from its disappointing midterms showing, prominent conservatives are participating in this weekend’s Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership meeting.

The annual meeting in Las Vegas is a popular stop for party figures looking to connect with a key voting bloc. With midterms in the rearview mirror and focus shifting to 2024, a host of potential Republican presidential candidates will take the stage this weekend.

Former President Donald Trump, who announced his 2024 candidacy this week, will give virtual remarks on Saturday.

On Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined their visions for the party.

Despite underperforming in key battleground states during the midterm elections, Pence celebrated Republicans winning majority control of the House and the end of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership.

“Thank you for all you did to ensure Republican victories across this country and thank you for electing a new Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives and ending the speakership of Nancy Pelosi,” Pence said.

House Republicans are already moving full steam ahead with investigations into the Biden administration and his family. This week, Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and James Comer of Kentucky pledged to “pursue all avenues” of wrongdoing and called probes into the president’s family a “top priority.”

Pence said congressional oversight had a “critical role” but also urged the party to create an “optimistic” agenda in time for the 2024 cycle.

“It’s important to make the argument against the administration’s policies in public debate,” he continued. “I truly do believe that to win the future, we as Republicans and our elected leaders must do more than criticize and complain. We must unite our party around a bold optimistic agenda that offers a clear choice and lays a lasting foundation for victory in 2024 and beyond.”

Pence largely avoided any direct criticism of Trump in his remarks.

Pompeo, meanwhile, made an effort to separate himself from Trump. He referred to a Washington Post headline that declared he was one of Trump’s most loyal cabinet members.

“I did everything that I could to be loyal to the oath I took when I raised my right hand. It was for the country,” he said. “It wasn’t loyalty to a person, a party or faction, it was to you and the promise we had made to the United States of America.”

Pompeo was also not shy about teasing a possible run in 2024, alluding to a future presidential debate with Pence.

“Who knows, the next time we’re together, we might be on stage with multiple podiums,” he said.

Addressing the GOP’s midterm underperformance, Pompeo said he wished Republicans had “done better” at the polls.

“Personality and celebrities aren’t going to get it done. We can see that,” he said.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan took the toughest tone on Friday, saying what should have been a red wave “was barely a ripple.”

Other attendees slated to speak at the annual meeting are former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday, marking the first time a sitting president has reached that milestone while in office and fueling speculation about how his advancing age will affect his political future.

Biden — who was the oldest person to assume the presidency in January 2021, just 61 days after his 78th birthday — has said he intends to make another White House bid, even as his age-adjacent peers, including 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have made the decision to step away from leadership in order to make way for a younger generation.

“My intention is that I will run again. But I’m a great respecter of fate and this is ultimately a family decision. I think everybody wants me to run but we’re going to have discussions about it. And I don’t feel any hurry one way or the other to make that judgment.” he said last week, after helming what many say is the most successful midterm election for a sitting president’s party in decades, though noting that those results would not have an impact on his decision to run again.

Biden is the oldest person to serve as commander in chief in the nation’s history. Should he seek reelection in 2024 and win, the president would be 86 by the end of his second term. He has said he’ll talk over his future with his wife and the rest of his family over the holidays.

Biden has said he is hoping that he and his wife “get a little time to actually sneak away for a week around between Christmas and Thanksgiving” and that his decision to run for reelection will likely “be early next year we make that judgment.”

During a White House briefing with reporters on Friday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the first lady would be having a brunch for Biden on Sunday for his birthday, following his granddaughter Naomi’s wedding at the White House the previous day.

“Usually, they celebrate on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving because everyone is going to the family is going to be here this weekend, he will have an opportunity to celebrate his birthday he wanted on his actual day,” she said.

Biden’s birthday comes right as national conversation is focused on the age of those at the top of Democratic leadership, just days after Pelosi announced that she would step down from leadership as House Democrats transition into the minority for the next Congress.

“The hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect,” she said during her farewell speech on the House floor.

In a lengthy statement after her announcement, Biden noted his long history with Pelosi.

“I’ve seen her in action during my career as Senator, Vice President, and now as President,” he said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, 83, and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, 82, also announced they would step aside from their leadership posts shortly after Pelosi’s declaration.

New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 52, officially declared his bid for Democratic leader on Friday. Reps. Katherine Clark, 59, will vie for minority whip and Pete Aguilar, 43, is bidding to be caucus chair, ushering in a generational shift in House Democrats’ top spots.

On the future of the Democratic Party, Pelosi told reporters, “That’s up to them, I want it to be whatever they want it to be.”

Pelosi has maintained support for Biden throughout months of questions about his political future, particularly another run for the White House.

When asked by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” last Sunday, Pelosi said she thinks Biden should run again.

“Yes, I do. I mean President Biden has been a great president for our country. He has accomplished so much,” she said. “He has been a great president, and he has a great record to run on.”

Biden, known in public life for his long history of personal tragedy, has maintained that he is a “respecter of fate” regarding his decision to move forward as standard-bearer for his party and the nation.

“Fate has intervened in my life many many times. If I’m in the health I’m in now — from a good health. And, in fact, I would run again,” he said during a sit down interview at the White House with ABC News’ David Muir late last year.

But he’s faced a good deal of opposition–from both Democrats and Republicans– surrounding his seemingly likely decision to move forward for reelection.

One ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in late September found that 56% of Democrats and independents that tend to vote for Democrats said they wanted “someone other than Biden” to run in the next presidential election.

A number of Democrats have said they wish Biden would step aside for a “new generation of leadership” echoing what Pelosi noted in her departure from control.

During the campaign cycle, Democrats such as Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, have openly suggested he shouldn’t run for another term.

Biden’s health and mental acuity is sure to be subject to intense scrutiny if he were to announce his 2024 bid for the White House, especially from Republicans who have long ridiculed his infamous gaffes during speeches, among other motor skill missteps.

In September, Biden asked about the whereabouts of Indiana GOP congresswoman Jackie Walorski, who was killed in a car crash earlier this year, during a White House conference.

The only candidate in the running so far for the 2024 presidential contest is 76-year-old former President Donald Trump, who launched his third White House campaign Tuesday evening. Trump was the second-oldest person to assume the presidency, at 70 years old.

-ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Ally Hutzler and Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — After a significant loss in the courts earlier this week, the Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on its fight to keep its student loan relief program alive.

The program, which aimed to relieve between $10,000 and $20,000 in student loans for borrowers who make below a certain income, was blocked by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals after six conservative states brought a lawsuit against the Department of Education, arguing that the policy is an abuse of power.

In an escalation of the legal fight, the Biden administration has asked the justices to overturn that nationwide injunction and let the program go on, arguing that Education Secretary Michael Cardona is completely within his authority because of a law called the HEROES Act, which gives the power to cancel loans during a national state of emergency like the pandemic.

“On the merits, the plan falls squarely within the plain text of the Secretary’s statutory authority,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the Supreme Court filing.

“Indeed, the entire purpose of the HEROES Act is to authorize the Secretary to grant student-loan-related relief to at-risk borrowers because of a national emergency — precisely what the Secretary did here,” Prelogar wrote.

It is the secretary’s job “to ensure that borrowers affected by a national emergency are not worse off in relation to their student loans,” Prelogar argued, and if the Department of Education didn’t act, there could be a “spike” in loan defaults when the pause on student loan payments lifts in January.

That impending deadline of Jan. 1 — when the nearly two-year long moratorium on payments is expected to end — adds extra pressure on the administration.

Officials rolled the program out in late August with the pledge that anyone who applied before mid-November could have their loans canceled by the time payments resumed.

As legal losses halted that timeline, though, the Education Department began to consider extending the moratorium once again — though officials caution that it’s not an ideal plan.

“…The Department estimates that if it temporarily extends the existing COVID-19 pandemic payment and interest accrual pause for federal student loan holders, it will cost taxpayers several billion dollars a month in unrecovered loan revenue,” the Department of Education Under Secretary James Richard Kvaal said in a recent legal filing.

Still, advocacy groups, including the Student Debt Protection Center and the NAACP, are pushing for the administration to keep the moratorium in place while the courts decide, rather than ask people to begin paying down their loans again with the fate of the program up in the air.

The groups argue that it will undermine the Biden administration’s own argument for the debt relief if it lifts the moratorium without any loan cancellations, since the reason for canceling debt is that the pandemic left people in a position where they would be unable to get back on their feet if the moratorium was lifted without any assistance from the government.

The Supreme Court is expected to respond to the Biden administration’s request in the coming weeks.

The court could also be asked to weigh in on another case, developing in a lower court in Texas, that has also blocked the loan program.

A federal judge in Texas on Thursday ruled the student debt forgiveness policy, goes beyond the authority of the Education Department and the power of the executive branch.

U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman was appointed by former President Donald Trump, and the lawsuit was brought in October by the conservative Job Creators Network Foundation.

The debt cancellation program was already on hold, unable to discharge any loan payments because of a temporary stay in a federal appeals court that is reviewing a separate lawsuit brought by six conservative states.

A final decision is that case is pending.

If the Supreme Court decides not to overturn the appeals court decision putting the program on pause, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to set the case for expedited argument.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spoken candidly with print reporters about her husband’s assault, what she called “survivor’s guilt” and her decision to step down from Democratic leadership.

“If anything it made me think about staying,” Pelosi told reporters about the violent, attack against Paul Pelosi in their California home last month that authorities say appeared to be politically motivated.

“No, it had the opposite effect,” she continued. “I couldn’t give them that satisfaction.”

Pelosi did ultimately decide to end her time as speaker, announcing it in a dramatic floor speech to her colleagues on Thursday. She will remain in Congress representing her San Francisco district as a member of the caucus.

“I quite frankly, personally, have been ready to leave for a while,” she told reporters from the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other print outlets. “Because there are things I want to do. I like to dance; I like to sing. There’s a life out there, right?”

Pelosi, 82, made history as the first and only woman to be elected speaker. She’s worked with four presidents as a leader of the Democratic Party, and is revered for her legislative prowess and fundraising abilities.

Walking onto the House floor Thursday to give her farewell speech, clad in a suffragist-white pantsuit, she received a standing ovation from her colleagues.

“I feel balanced about it all,” she told the print reporters. “I don’t feel sad about not having a leadership position,” she said.

As for who will succeed her, Pelosi said at the time she wouldn’t endorse anyone. New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries officially announced his bid for Democratic leader on Friday. After his announcement, Pelosi released a statement saluting Jeffries, as well as Reps. Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, for stepping up to take on top leadership roles within the party.

On the future of the Democratic Party, Pelosi told reporters, “That’s up to them, I want it to be whatever they want it to be.”

“They will have their vision, they will have their plan,” she said.

Addressing her husband’s recovery after the attack required him to undergo surgery to repair a skull fracture, Pelosi said he’s “doing okay.”

“But the traumatic effect on him, this happened in our house,” she said, adding their San Francisco residence has turned into a “crime scene” after the attacker broke into it early in the morning on Oct. 28.

The alleged attacker was looking for Nancy Pelosi, according to a federal complaint.

“If he had fallen, slipped on the ice, or was in an accident and hurt his head, it would be horrible, but to have it be an assault on him because they were looking for me is really — they call it ‘survivor’s guilt’ or something,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump launched his third White House campaign Tuesday evening, getting a very early head start in the next election cycle that could see challenges from, by some predictions, nearly a dozen other Republicans looking to oust him as the head of the GOP.

According to preliminary assessments by aides and observers in the party, the 2024 dynamic is likelier to seem more like 2016’s months-long primary fight — with its quarreling campaigns and competing headlines — than 2020’s glide to re-coronation.

While Trump enters the race as the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, Republican operatives said they expect he won’t have the primary field to himself for long, given his mixed track record at the ballot box and his personal and legal baggage.

One GOP strategist allied with a potential primary challenger said Trump’s Tuesday announcement speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort — in which he promised “America’s comeback starts right now” — was “not anything that would discourage people from thinking about running against him.”

“He was subdued, he was on topic, he stayed on teleprompter. As far as what I would consider a dynamic announcement, I didn’t see much there,” said the person, who, like others, agreed to be interviewed for this story on the condition of anonymity so as to not direct ire to their professional relationships.

In roughly hour-long remarks, Trump portrayed his one term in office as a “golden age” and periodically alluded to a message of teamwork while contending that successor Joe Biden, whom Trump had sought to prevent from taking office, had brought “pain, hardship, anxiety and despair.”

Trump also occasionally veered into conspiracy theories, including about China, while returning to some frequent topics like what he called the scourge of drug dealers, widespread immigration and “rotting” cities turned into “cesspools of blood.” He touted his own style of international relations and his handling of the economy compared to Biden.

“If you were a pro-Trump person, you loved it. And if you were an undecided, it didn’t move you,” the strategist said. “And if you were somebody that didn’t like him, that didn’t change your mind.”

The setting, at a ballroom at his club, marked a departure from Trump’s typically boisterous campaign rallies that often toggle between prepared remarks on policy and stream-of-consciousness comments on the controversy du jour.

He also stayed away from cultural third rails like abortion after three Supreme Court justices he appointed helped scrap constitutional protections, fulfilling a promise Trump made to Republican voters during his previous two runs. And he made only a passing reference to the 2020 presidential race after election deniers in top midterm races fell short and exit polls indicated that midterm voters punished the party for its support of such views.

“He needed to show voters that he properly understands the stakes in 2024, and I think his speech accomplished that,” said another GOP strategist, who added that Trump has “got to show that he has the ability to look forward.”

Some allies of the former president swiftly announced their endorsement of his new bid, with House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York voicing her support before he even made his speech.

“Yeah, 100%,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Wednesday when asked if he backed Trump’s 2024 campaign. “I look at winning and losing. He won while he was here. He helped the American people. And I like his policies. I like how tough he is. We need a president that’s gonna stand up, be tough, not just domestically but internationally. And he does that.”

Still, the speech’s tone didn’t please everyone in the party, with one Trump ally saying they were “bored,” while others cast doubt on whether Trump, famous for his reputation for riling up the grassroots, would maintain a restrained pitch.

“For all the people who claim they are turned off by his bombastic style, it’s ironic they are now complaining he’s too focused and toned down,” said one former administration official, who still conceded it was “doubtful” that Trump would remain as subdued moving forward.

And while Trump enters the race with a high floor of support with the Republican primary electorate, plenty of money and nearly universal name recognition, strategists expected he’ll still have to fight for the GOP nomination.

Among those thought to be considering presidential bids of their own are Govs. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., Larry Hogan, R-Md., Kristi Noem, R-S.D., and Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Tim Scott, R-S.C.

Some may yet be dissuaded from running against Trump given his sway, though there have been indications the former president’s hold on the party is not as ironclad as it once was, particularly after the disappointing midterm cycle for Republicans in which some of his chosen candidates in marquee races lost — helping Democrats defy historical patterns and hold the Senate.

The Club for Growth, the anti-tax group that used to be close with the former president, released polls the day before Trump’s launch showing him trailing DeSantis in key states. And The New York Post, a conservative tabloid that lavished Trump with praise for years, buried news of his launch on page 26 on Wednesday with the headline “FLORIDA MAN MAKES ANNOUNCEMENT.”

Other potential contenders have also indicated their plans aren’t being adjusted in light of Trump’s launch.

Pence in recent days has insisted in media interviews that there are “better options,” while Pompeo tweeted on Wednesday that “we need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood” after Trump called himself a “victim” over various investigations.

“I do think that over the coming weeks, multiple candidates are going to announce,” said John Thomas, the head of a pro-DeSantis super PAC. “I think the next five to 10 days are going to be telling to see if cracks begin to emerge, and those cracks may turn into canyons and end up causing the former president to lose a primary.”

Still, strategists warned against underestimating Trump, who emerged as the 2016 Republican nominee after a chaotic primary and went on to win the White House despite late-breaking scandals like the Access Hollywood tape.

And should the GOP field get crowded for 2024, strategists said that could simply help Trump repeat his 2016 success in which he won the nomination with a plurality of the vote while the rest of the party’s delegates were divided among a crowd so large that it required two debate stages.

“It will be incredibly hard if everybody gets in line with the president for anybody to challenge him,” Thomas said.

More immediately, Trump’s announcement has thrown the end of the current midterm cycle into uncertainty, with his candidacy possibly firing up both parties’ bases ahead of next month’s Georgia Senate runoff.

Republicans are eager for Herschel Walker to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock to keep the Senate at 50-50, creating some procedural obstacles for the majority party, while Democrats are hopeful that Warnock could win, bumping up their caucus to 51-49.

It’s still unclear if Trump intends to campaign for Walker — which the Republicans who spoke for this story said they don’t want after his involvement in last year’s two Georgia Senate runoffs preceded losses in both races.

“I just think it reminds people that he’s out there and with the Senate not being in the balance, it’s going to be even harder to get voters out to vote,” said Georgia conservative radio host Martha Zoller. “And I think that’s true for Democrats and Republicans.”

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(WASHINGTON) — In a scathing statement, Tom Petty’s estate on Thursday night threatened to sue Arizona Republican Kari Lake’s “failed” campaign after it used Petty’s song, “I Won’t Back Down,” in a video this week, days after Lake’s opponent, Katie Hobbs, was projected to win the race for governor.

“The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song, ‘I Won’t Back Down’ was stolen and used without permission to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign,” Petty’s estate said in a statement. “This is illegal. We are exploring all of our legal options to stop this unauthorized use of Tom’s beloved anthem.”

Lake had tweeted a video Wednesday of campaign trail highlights put to two minutes of the song from the late singer-songwriter.

Since the statement from Petty’s estate, the video tweet has been removed from Lake’s account. The Lake campaign did not immediately return an ABC News request for comment.

The warning comes days after singer-songwriter Issac Hayes’ estate said it was exploring legal options after former President Donald Trump played a song co-written by Hayes Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago when announcing his 2024 bid.

It’s also not the first time an artist has gotten angry with Lake.

Early in her campaign, when Lake previously walked out to “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister, the band’s frontrunner, Dee Snider, publicly blasted what he said was her unauthorized use of it.

“As the songwriter & singer I DENOUNCE EVERYTHING @KariLake STANDS FOR!” Snider tweeted in August. “It was you and people like you that inspired every angry word of that song!”

With both Trump and Lake facing threats of legal challenges from artists’ estates, they also appear to be conferring on Lake’s own legal options from his Mar-a-Lago club, following her projected loss this week.

After long refusing to commit to accepting the results of her race if she lost, Lake also tweeted another video Thursday to say that she’s “still in this fight” and has legal minds exploring “every avenue,” while the latest statewide results have her down by 16,780 votes.

“Now I am busy here collecting evidence and data,” Lake said, after falling relatively silent since Hobbs’ projection. “Rest assured, I have assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week. I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs.”

Lake speaks directly to the camera in the two minutes and 27-second video, first telling supporters, “I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that I’m still in this fight with you.”

“My resolve to fight for you is higher than ever,” she says.

Lake traveled to Florida overnight Wednesday to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, two people connected to the campaign told ABC News, and attended a luncheon Thursday hosted by Trump’s America First Policy Institute.

Hobbs, meanwhile, is focused on her transition, her campaign manager told ABC News Thursday, when asked about Lake’s videos and resolve to “fight.”

“Governor-elect Katie Hobbs is laser-focused on her transition, building a team that is ready to hit the ground running on Day One,” said Nicole DeMont, Hobbs’ campaign manager. “Arizonans made their voices heard on November 8th, and we respect the will of the voters.”

The statewide canvass of results is set for Dec. 5 in Arizona, leaving Lake a small window of time to bring any legal challenges.

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on Friday formally announced his bid to become House Democratic leader, a move that, if successful, would make him the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress.

In a letter to his Democratic colleagues, Jeffries, from Brooklyn, New York, said it is his “hope” to find “common ground” with Republicans, but if the opposing party “continues to major in demagoguery and minor in disinformation, their bankruptcy of ideas must be aggressively exposed on an ongoing basis.”

“Our top non-governmental priority, for the sake of the American people, must be retaking the majority in November 2024,” he wrote.

House leadership elections will take place Nov. 30.

His statement comes the day after Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she will not seek reelection as leader of the House Democrats at the start of the next Congress, when fellow California Rep. Kevin McCarthy succeeds her as speaker and Republicans take the majority.

“For me, the hour’s come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect, and I’m grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility,” she said in a speech from the House floor.

The two other top leaders in the Democratic caucus, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, are also stepping aside from their roles.

Pelosi has led the conference for nearly 20 years and, as speaker, was for a time the highest-ranking woman in the federal government. She said in 2018 that she would only serve two more two-year terms as speaker, a post she previously held from 2007 to 2011.

Hoyer and Clyburn, too, have been in leadership for more than a decade each. Both of them said Thursday that they would support Jeffries, currently chair of the House Democratic Caucus, to be the next leader. (Clyburn has said he will seek to remain in another role on the leadership team.)

Along with Jeffries, two other lawmakers have emerged as the likely choices for the top of the Democratic leadership team in the House: Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark is expected to be minority whip and California Rep. Pete Aguilar is expected to be the caucus chair.

Here’s what to know about each of them:

Hakeem Jeffries

Jeffries, first elected in 2012, has long been considered Pelosi’s heir apparent, rising through the ranks to land a perch in the party’s House leadership.

In a statement after Pelosi’s speech on Thursday, he called her “the most accomplished” speaker in the country’s history but did not allude to his own plans.

“She has been the steady hand on the gavel during some of the most turbulent times the nation has ever confronted,” he said.

A 52-year-old descendant of enslaved people, Jeffries could be a potential history-maker himself if Democrats retake the House in future cycles: He would be the first Black speaker.

Jeffries has a reputation as a capable operator inside the conference with sharp media skills to sell a Democratic message to the public (and a penchant for referencing Biggie Smalls in floor speeches).

However, he could face some opposition from the most vocal progressives in the House, who labeled him a centrist.

“I’m a Black progressive Democrat concerned with addressing racial and social and economic injustice with the fierce urgency of now. That’s been my career, that’s been my journey and it will continue to be as I move forward for however long I have an opportunity to serve. There will never be a moment where I bend the knee to hard-left democratic socialism,” he told The Atlantic last year.

Katherine Clark

Clark, who currently serves as assistant speaker, would also represent a generational change at 59 years old.

Besides Pelosi, she is currently the only woman in House Democratic leadership and has built ties with the conference’s freshman.

With Pelosi’s departure, Clark’s ascension to the whip position — where she would be responsible for corralling unified votes from Democrats — would ensure that a woman would hold a senior leadership spot, something that Clark has said is important to her.

“I think there is something about women’s leadership styles that are built on listening, building consensus and listening not just to people — our constituents — but also to my colleagues that come from different districts, have different concerns, different pressures than I do,” Clark told Axios last year.

Pete Aguilar

At 43, Aguilar would be the youngest member of the expected Democratic triumvirate. As the current caucus vice chair, he is also the highest-ranking Hispanic member of Congress.

Aguilar has been heavily involved in immigration negotiations on Capitol Hill and saw his profile rise as a member of the select committee probing last year’s insurrection.

After he won reelection to his House seat last week, Aguilar said he intended to fight against Republicans’ legislative agenda and sought to cast the GOP as anti-social spending and anti-worker.

“As we wait for all the votes to be counted, I am deeply concerned about Republican plans to make inflation worse by cutting Social Security and Medicare and to help China by passing tax breaks for wealthy corporations that ship jobs overseas,” Aguilar said in a statement. “Democrats in Congress must fight back to give working families more breathing room and be prepared to stand up to Republican-led efforts to make it easier for oil companies to gouge consumers at the pump.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence said this week that he’s not going to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee, claiming that doing so would violate the separation of powers between Congress and the White House.

Pence, on a media blitz to promote his new memoir, told CBS News that he was “closing the door” on speaking before the panel after previously stating that he’d consider it.

“The Congress has no right to my testimony,” Pence said. “We have a separation of powers under the Constitution of the United States. I believe it would establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a vice president of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.”

Pence, though now adamant against sitting before the committee, said he otherwise expects to speak about the Jan. 6 attack “to some degree for the rest of my life” and has been doing so in interviews or town halls with ABC, CBS, CNN and others.

As then-vice president, Pence was at the U.S. Capitol when rioters breached the building and was forced to hide at an underground location for hours before Congress was able to certify President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Pence has been praised repeatedly by committee members for standing up to former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race.

Pence hasn’t minced words of late when it comes to Trump’s behavior, telling ABC News’ David Muir earlier this week that Trump’s words on Jan. 6 were “reckless” and endangered his life and the lives of others.

In an exclusive interview, Pence told Muir about the first discussion he had with Trump in the aftermath of the insurrection, about whether he regretted his own rhetoric in the aftermath of the election and why Trump wasn’t taking calls during the riot.

Pence has also recently delivered critiques of the Jan. 6 panel. Speaking with CBS, he accused the committee of being partisan.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., pushed back on Pence in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Select Committee has proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engagement with Vice President Pence, so it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of our investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book,” the two lawmakers said.

Thompson and Cheney said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had the opportunity to appoint Republicans to the panel but chose not to. The two Republicans who serve on the committee — Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, both vocal Trump critics and departing members of the House — were appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“The Select Committee has consistently praised the former Vice President’s refusal to bow to former President Trump’s pressure to illegally refuse to count electoral votes on January 6th,” Thompson and Cheney said. “But his recent statements about the Select Committee are not accurate.”

The committee has not subpoenaed Pence but has subpoenaed Trump for documents and testimony in a historic move.

Trump sued to block the subpoena and the committee has since said it’s evaluating all of its options to try and compel his participation.

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