(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday said its team tasked with identifying potential attorney-client privileged materials that were seized in the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month has already completed its review and is in the process of addressing possible privilege disputes.
In a filing acknowledging receipt of District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order Saturday, which indicated she was leaning towards granting a request from Trump’s legal team to appoint a special master to intervene in the ongoing review of documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, the department said its filter team already “identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.”
As the department has acknowledged in previous filings, that filter team is separate from the team involved in the DOJ’s ongoing criminal investigation.
The Trump legal team, however, has asked for the appointment of a special matter to undertake a review of any materials in the search that could be covered by executive privilege, though it’s unclear how such materials would be identified or what basis there would be to exclude them from the DOJ’s ongoing investigation.
The department also notified Judge Cannon that the DOJ and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are conducting a classification review of materials recovered from Mar-a-Lago as well as a separate intelligence community assessment of any potential risk of national security that would result in disclosure of any of the classified materials.
The DOJ says it expects to file a more detailed response to Trump’s request for a special master by end of day Tuesday, in line with the deadline set Saturday by Judge Cannon. Trump’s attorneys have previously said they were told by the DOJ that they would oppose such an appointment.
A hearing is currently set for Thursday at 1 p.m. in West Palm Beach where Judge Cannon will hear arguments from both sides on the request.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday pushed back on Republicans who called President Joe Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness plan unfair — with Sanders arguing the GOP turned a blind eye to government assistance in other sectors.
“I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires,” Sanders, I-Vt., told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“Suddenly when we do something for working people, it is a terrible idea,” he said.
While Sanders agreed with Biden’s decision to forgive some federal loans — up to $20,000 for Pell grant recipients and up to $10,000 for individual federal loan recipients, both with a $125,000 income cap — the lawmaker also said he would go a step further by making public colleges and universities tuition-free to keep the U.S. “competitive in the global economy.” Sanders has long lobbied for such a move.
Biden on Wednesday announced a three-part student loan relief plan, which he had been considering in some form since before he took office. The program also continues the COVID-19 pause on federal student loans repayments, pushing it through December, with payments resuming in January.
On “This Week,” Stephanopoulos pressed Sanders on the arguments of fairness and scope.
“Several of your Democratic colleagues who are up for reelection this year have criticized [the policy] as well,” he said, citing those who say Biden’s plan isn’t clearly funded, doesn’t address larger school affordability issues and left out people without loans who could still use relief.
Sanders agreed that while not everyone who needs help will benefit from the loan forgiveness, those in need of assistance with student debt should not be ignored.
“Maybe, just maybe, we want to have a government that works for all working people and not just the people on top,” he said.
He renewed his longstanding calls to raise the minimum wage, provide free health care and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
On “This Week,” Stephanopoulos pressed Sanders on the arguments of fairness and scope.
“Several of your Democratic colleagues who are up for reelection this year have criticized [the policy] as well,” he said, citing those who say Biden’s plan isn’t clearly funded, doesn’t address larger school affordability issues and left out people without loans who could still use relief.
Sanders agreed that while not everyone who needs help will benefit from the loan forgiveness, those in need of assistance with student debt should not be ignored.
“Maybe, just maybe, we want to have a government that works for all working people and not just the people on top,” he said.
He renewed his longstanding calls to raise the minimum wage, provide free health care and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Stephanopoulos also asked about the affidavit used to justify the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month in relation to sensitive and classified documents that the government says he took with him when he left the White House. (Trump denies wrongdoing; many Republicans say it is a political attack.)
A redacted copy of the affidavit was released late last week and shows that at least 180 classified documents were recovered from Trump’s estate by the National Archives and Records Administration in February, some of which were labeled as “top secret.”
“It’s just incomprehensible to me,” Sanders said in response. “But then again, when we talk about President Trump, there’s a lot of incomprehensible things.”
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., conceded on Sunday that former President Donald Trump should have returned the sensitive and classified documents that the government says he took home with him after leaving office, which led the FBI to raid Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Blunt was repeatedly pressed by anchor George Stephanopoulos before he answered a question about how he felt about what the Department of Justice said Trump did.
Initially responding to Stephanopoulos’ question, Blunt drew comparisons to Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey for their past conduct related to records.
But Stephanopoulos pushed back, noting that it wasn’t the same.
“You’re still not answering the question. You are critical of Secretary Clinton, who actually turned over what she had … what we have here is a situation where the president did not turn over these documents,” Stephanopoulos said. “Can you say whether this was right or wrong?”
“He should have turned the documents over,” said Blunt. “I’ve had access to documents like that for a long time. I’m incredibly careful,” he said.
But he took issue with the timing of the probe.
“What I wonder about is why this could go on for almost two years and less than 100 days before the election [and] suddenly we’re talking about this rather than the economy or inflation or even the student loan program you and I were going to talk about today?” he said.
“Well, it went on because the president didn’t turn over the documents, correct? He was asked several times,” Stephanopoulos said. “He didn’t turn them over. He was subpoenaed, he didn’t respond to the subpoena.”
“I understand he turned over a lot of documents,” Blunt claimed of Trump, seemingly referring to classified papers that were returned to the government in the months before the FBI search, after a protracted back-and-forth.
“He should have turned over all of them,” Blunt said. “I imagine he knows that very well now.”
But the Missouri lawmaker also said that the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which he sits, had questions that needed answers from federal investigators — such as why they weren’t aware of this case.
“Why haven’t we heard anything about this if there was a national security problem?” Blunt said, adding, “The oversight committee should have been told.” He said that the committee expects to soon hear from the director of national intelligence.
Blunt was also asked to react to President Joe Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness plan for borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year in 2020 or 2021. White House officials told reporters last week that they believe “43 million federal student loan borrowers will benefit, and of those, 20 million will have their debt completely canceled.”
“I just thought it was monumentally unfair,” Blunt said. “Unfair to people who didn’t go to college because they didn’t think they could afford it, unfair to people who have paid their loans back.”
“It’s just bad economics, with long-term devastating effects on the student loan program,” he added.
The White House’s loan forgiveness program has faced vocal opposition from Republican lawmakers who argue, in part, that it will exacerbate historically high inflation.
But “most economists said it’s not going to increase inflation,” Stephanopoulos said. An analysis last week by Goldman Sachs reached such a conclusion, finding that the restart of other loan payments would likely offset the money forgiven.
“Most economists are wrong,” Blunt responded. “We’ve got to do everything we can to slow the economy down. You don’t slow the economy down by forgiving debt and giving people another $24 billion to spend that they would have spent paying off the student debt.”
(BETHESDA, Md.) — A State Department employee was killed this week while riding her bike in Maryland.
The Montgomery County Police Department confirmed Sarah Joan Langenkamp, 42, was struck by a flatbed truck on the afternoon of Aug. 25 while riding a bicycle at the 5200 block of River Road in Bethesda.
Langenkamp was a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Numerous offices have cited her as the head of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section at the embassy.
“We can confirm the death of Foreign Service Officer Sarah J. Langenkamp,” a State Department spokesperson told ABC News on Saturday. “The Department of State extends its deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms. Langenkamp.”
“We cannot provide further comments due to privacy and law enforcement sensitivity considerations. We refer you to the Bethesda Police Department for additional information,” the spokesperson said.
Langenkamp’s husband Daniel served at the Kyiv embassy as spokesperson. A CBS News report published earlier this year documented how the Langenkamp’s sons were able to reconnect with them after the family was separated due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Police say they were called to the scene of the accident just after 4 p.m. on Thursday. A preliminary investigation by the Collision Reconstruction Unit found the driver of the vehicle, which was a red 2014 Volvo flatbed truck, and Lagenkamp were both traveling in the same direction when the collision occurred.
The driver, who remains unidentified, was heading east and was turning right into a parking lot at 5244 River Road when they struck Langenkamp, authorities said. Langenkamp was run over by the truck and was pronounced dead at the scene.
River Road was closed as law enforcement, including Montgomery Fire Rescue, responded to the crash.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to the Montgomery County Police Department. The department did not immediately respond to ABC News’s request for additional comment.
Langenkamp is the second State Department employee to be killed in a biking accident this year.
Shawn O’Donnell, a 40-year-old foreign service worker for the agency, was killed after being struck by a Mack cement truck on July 20 in the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom in Washington, D.C.
O’Donnell was one of three people killed in bike crashes in the city in July. Community members gathered outside city hall to demand change, calling on Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser to make her plan for zero traffic deaths by 2024 a reality, ABC News affiliate WJLA reported.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s plans to cancel student loans will particularly impact Black Americans, who carry much of the burden of student loan debt.
“The burden is especially heavy on Black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay for it,” Biden said in a tweet. “And the pandemic only made things worse.”
For those making under $125,000 a year, $10,000 in loans will be erased. For borrowers who received federal Pell grants, which is aid given to undergraduate students who display “exceptional financial need,” up to $20,000 in loans could be canceled.
Nearly 45% of borrowers, or 20 million people, will have their debt fully canceled, according to the White House.
For the remaining 55%, a new plan will offer more relaxed terms for loan repayment. This means cutting the amount that borrowers have to pay each month in half, from 10% to 5% of discretionary income, and covering borrower’s unpaid monthly interest, among other efforts.
“I just can’t underscore what a huge deal this is in millions of borrowers’ lives,” said Kyra Taylor, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
Impact on people of color
Several racial advocacy groups have cheered Biden’s decision as a “step in the right direction.”
“Approximately one in four Black Americans have negative net worth — meaning their total debt exceeds their total assets,” said the civil rights group National Action Network in a statement. “The administration expects the first $10,000 of debt relief will move over half a million Black Americans from a negative to a positive net worth.”
More Black students take out loans than white students: 71% compared to 56%, according to the research organization Education Data Initiative.
Black college graduates owe $25,000 more in student debt on average than white graduates, the Department of Education found. And four years after graduation, 48% of Black students owe an average of 12.5% more than they borrowed, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Black students make up 72% of Pell grant recipients, according to the DOE.
A typical Black borrower will see his or her loan balance cut nearly in half and more than one in four Black borrowers will have their balance forgiven, according to the White House.
Black women, in particular, carry a disproportionate burden of student debt. They hold nearly two-thirds of the nearly $2 trillion outstanding student debt in the U.S., according to data from the Census Bureau.
About half of Latino borrowers will have their entire federal loan debt forgiven thanks to the $10,000 loan cancellation plan, according to higher education research and advocacy group Excelencia in Education.
“Because of racial disparities in intergenerational wealth, Black and Latino students aren’t just more likely to need to borrow student loans to go and get an education, but we also know that predatory for-profit colleges that cost more to attend also target Black and Latino populations around the country, which results in many Black and brown borrowers having larger balances,” Taylor of National Consumer Law Center said.
Advocates say there’s more to do
Following the announcement, some criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough to tackle racial inequities and college affordability, which will continue to impact students and borrowers.
Several critics pointed to the persisting racial wealth gap as a reason to further improve student cancellation for students of color most burdened by economic inequality. In 2019, the Brookings Institute found that the median white household held $188,200 in wealth, which was 7.8 times that of the typical Black household.
The National Action Network has called on Congress to “provide relief by passing legislation to further build upon the president’s actions.”
“The $125,000 income cap will leave a large amount of the population behind, especially in an era of high inflation,” said NAN. “A Black doctor or attorney who earns above the cap could very well have six-figure student debt. Low levels of cancellation might leave already distressed Black borrowers struggling with repayment.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also spoke out in favor of a larger relief plan.
“President Biden’s cancelation of some student debt for certain Americans is a step in the right direction but wholly insufficient to make a serious dent in the student debt crisis and growing racial wealth gap,” said CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw in a statement.
He continued, “We call on President Biden to use his executive authority to cancel at least $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers and create interest free federal student loans that will help millions of Americans trapped in compounding interest-based debt that in many cases has become impossible to pay back.”
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday will host a fundraiser with Senate candidates in key battleground states a week after appearing to criticize the “quality” — of some GOP Senate candidates.
Herschel Walker, running for Senate in Georgia, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, and Rep. Ted Budd, running for Senate in North Carolina, will attend McConnell’s event in Louisville, Kentucky, a source familiar with the planned event confirmed to ABC News.
The same source said the event had been organized in June.
Last week, McConnell seemed to suggest that the quality of some GOP candidates could make it more difficult for the party to retake the Senate.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” McConnell said at a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Florence, Kentucky, last week. “Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
The comments fueled more criticism from former President Donald Trump, who once again voiced his disapproval of McConnell, going as far as calling for his removal as the Senate Republican leader.
“Mitch McConnell is not an Opposition Leader, he is a pawn for the Democrats to get whatever they want. He is afraid of them, and will not do what has to be done. A new Republican Leader in the Senate should be picked immediately!” Trump said in a statement Wednesday.
Trump and McConnell have at times been at odds during the midterm election season as Trump continued to assert his powers over the Republican party, endorsing candidates up and down the ballot.
While McConnell and Trump aligned on Senate candidates in Georgia and Nevada, the two are in a standoff in Alaska’s Senate race.
McConnell’s super PAC has backed Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Arkansas — who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial — in her reelection bid against Trump-endorsed candidate Kelly Tshibaka. Tshibka has publicly said she would not support McConnell as GOP leader. The two candidates have both advanced to the general election.
After a primary season in which McConnell tried to stay relevantly neutral, he is doubling down on his efforts of ensuring Republicans take back control of Congress.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to McConnell, announced it is reserving $34.1 million in Pennsylvania, $37 million in Georgia, and $27.6 million in North Carolina to support the Republican nominees.
“The stakes in this election could not be higher. It is imperative that Republicans regain control of the Senate and serve as a firewall against President Biden’s disastrous policies. I am determined to do everything I can to ensure our candidates have the resources they need to win this November,” said McConnell.
The spat between McConnell and the former president have left vulnerable candidates stuck between seeking help from McConnell and his Super PAC as they are being outraised by their Democratic opponents while also maintaining their close ties to Trump, who has endorsed all three candidates attending the fundraiser.
Oz, who is holding a rally with Trump next weekend in Pennsylvania, tried to distance himself from McConnell’s remarks, saying they weren’t about him.
In a Fox Business interview, Oz said McConnell has “expressed himself quite clearly with his pocketbook” and claimed the senator has donated tens of millions of dollars to the ex-television host’s campaign.
“He was highlighting that the quality of candidates does matter a lot in statewide races. It always matters,” Oz said.
In Georgia, Walker downplayed McConnell’s remarks to ABC News Tuesday.
“I got in this race to win it. I never got in it to follow Washington around. I said I’m here for the people,” Walker said.
Budd did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Political experts said McConnell’s comments are emblematic of a growing sentiment among a subset of Republicans who are now grappling with a lack of experienced candidates embattled with scandals in a contentious general election cycle.
“I think McConnell is, you know, just upset that, you know, that Trump pushed all these inexperienced and fringe candidates for Senate nominations and I think he was absolutely truthful on saying that this is could very cost Republicans control of the Senate,” Alan Abramowitz, Professor emeritus of political science at Emory University said.
Georgia’s GOP Lt. Gov Duncan told ABC News that name recognition can only take candidates so far.
“I mean, the whole gravitational pull towards, you know, finding some sort of, you know, star or celebrity status, individual to run seems to be the perfect recipe to win a primary, but it’s proving to make it more difficult to win a general,” Duncan said.
“Republicans failed to recruit or nominate their strongest candidates in a number of these Senate races and ended up with candidates who I think are struggling as a result,” Abramowitz added.
McConnell’s comments not only highlight the tense battle for regaining a GOP majority but also puts the political future of former President Donald Trump on the ballot in November should his backed Senate candidates not win in the general election.
All three Republican candidates are lagging behind their Democratic opponents, according to FiveThirtyEight’s recent polling average.
Georgia’s Democratic Sen. Warnock leads Walker 46.2% to 44.4%. Dr. Oz lags behind opponent John Fetterman by nine points. In a tighter race, North Carolina’s Cheri Beasley leads Budd by 0.1%.
Now, Republicans are pushing for a more unified message among party leaders and hope candidates start focusing on drilling down delivering a strong conservative policy message.
“Our problems continue to get worse and worse and heavier and heavier and heavier. And to me, that’s forcing Americans back to saying, okay, timeout, I’m gonna have to spend more than 10 seconds watching a commercial before I make my decision or Hey, I’m not gonna just vote for the person that’s the snarkiest on Twitter anymore. I’ve got to go figure out what this person believes on inflation, national security, immigration, all the big issues that are now affecting kitchen tables and boardrooms and everything in between,” Duncan said.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Friday made public the redacted affidavit that supported the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
After reviewing the DOJ’s proposed redactions Thursday, a magistrate judge had ordered the redacted affidavit filed in the public docket by noon Friday.
A coalition of news organizations, including ABC News, had argued that the release was in the public interest.
The FBI special agent tasked with writing the affidavit supporting the search of Mar-a-Lago writes that as a result of their ongoing criminal investigation they had “probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified [National Defense Information] or that are Presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at [Mar a Lago].”
“There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at [Mar a Lago],” the affidavit continues.
The redacted affidavit is a total of 32 pages with an attachment, including a May 25 letter signed by former President Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran outlining what is described as Trump’s authorities regarding presidential records.
The unredacted portions of the affidavit put on display the timeline of the Justice Department’s investigation leading up to their unprecedented move to search the residence of a former president.
It was kicked off, according to the affidavit, after a special agent for the National Archives’ inspector general sent a criminal referral to DOJ revealing that the 15 boxes handed over by Trump’s team in January revealed “highly classified records” intermingled with otherwise innocuous documents.
The affidavit goes on to outline further interactions between NARA and Trump’s team to secure the return of records that were improperly taken from the White House.
Between May 16-18, the affidavit says, an FBI review revealed that in those 15 boxes handed over in January 2021 there were 184 total documents bearing the following classifications:
67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL92 documents marked as SECRET25 documents marked as TOP SECRET
“Further,” the affidavit continues, “the FBI agents observed markings reflecting the following compartments/dissemination controls: HCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI. Based on my training and experience, I know that documents classified at these levels typically contain [National Defense Information]. Several of the documents also contained what appears to be FPOTUS ‘s handwritten notes.”
The affidavit then details communications between DOJ and one of Trump’s top lawyers, Evan Corcoran, in May 2021, in which Corcoran claimed Trump had the “absolute authority to declassify documents” and that the letter be provided to any grand jury investigating the matter.
The filing then further references a public Breitbart article from May 5 featuring an interview with former top Trump aide Kash Patel, who sought to rebut claims Trump took classified materials to Mar-a-Lago because he claimed Trump had declassified the docs en masse. There’s no evidence this happened, however, and Trump’s team has produced no such documentation proving as much.
Later in the affidavit, DOJ details a letter from one off its lawyers to Corcoran that “reiterated” Mar-a-Lago was not authorized to store classified information and requested the room docs were stored in to be further secured and the docs “be preserved in that room in their current condition until further notice.” There is no mention in this section of DOJ instructing the president’s team to simply add a lock to the room, though that is what Trump’s legal team has claimed repeatedly — this is a direct request from DOJ that the documents not be moved from the room.
An unredacted header later reads, “There is Probable Cause to Believe That Documents Containing Classified NDI and Presidential Records Remain at the Premises.”
And following several pages of redacted lines, the affidavit agent concludes that, “Based upon this investigation, I believe that the STORAGE ROOM, FPOTUS’s residential suite, Pine Hall, the “45 Office,” and other spaces within the PREMISES are not currently authorized locations for the storage of classified information or NDI. Similarly, based upon this investigation, I do not believe that any spaces within the PREMISES have been authorized for the storage of classified information at least since the end of FPOTUS ‘s Presidential Administration on January 20, 2021.”
“As described above, evidence of the SUBJECT OFFENSES has been stored in multiple locations at the PREMISES,” the affidavit says.
In their original request for sealing the affidavit, the agent states that keeping it sealed was necessary because the FBI had still “not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation.”
“Premature disclosure of the contents of this affidavit and related documents may have a significant and negative impact on the continuing investigation and may severely jeopardize its effectiveness by allowing criminal parties an opportunity to flee, destroy evidence (stored electronically and otherwise), change patterns of behavior, and notify criminal confederates,” the affidavit states.
The affidavit also outlines the procedures agents would use in executing the search, that a Privilege Review Team separate from the ‘Case Team’ would search Trump’s personal office and “be available to assist in the event that a procedure involving potentially attorney-client privileged information is required.”
“If the Privilege Review Team determines the documents or data are not potentially attorney-client privileged, they will be provided to the law-enforcement personnel assigned to the investigation,” the affidavit says. “If at any point the law-enforcement personnel assigned to the investigation subsequently identify any data or documents that they consider may be potentially attorney-client privileged, they will cease the review of such identified data or documents and refer the materials to the Privilege Review Team for further review by the Privilege Review Team.”
ABC News’ Will Steakin and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Several Republicans who were nominated as firebrands in purple states are now eyeing post-primary messaging pivots in a policy acrobatics routine that could determine the outcome of marquee races.
Politicians modulating their campaign strategy after winning their party’s nomination is a tale as old as primaries themselves, and Democrats and Republicans alike are expected to adjust their approaches as the November midterms near. But strategists and experts say that for some GOP hopefuls, evolving the hardline stances they took while campaigning to their base — on issues like abortion access or baseless fears of widespread election fraud — could prove a more difficult feat than in the past.
Republicans seeking gubernatorial and Senate seats in swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and elsewhere are already indicating they’ll change their tone on hot-button issues — a swivel some operatives say is borne out of necessity in their narrowly divided states.
“If the campaigns are about the last election or Trump or abortion, then they fail because voters get to decide what the most important issues in the race are and they have. It’s clear: It’s the economy, it’s inflation, it’s [the] cost of goods and services,” said one senior GOP strategist working on several midterm races, who requested anonymity to speak more candidly about the cycle.
“If they’re going to be successful,” this strategist said of nominees like Blake Masters, Doug Mastriano and others, “they’re going to have to connect with voters’ top concerns.”
Already, some of these candidates who ran to the right flank of the GOP to clinch their nominations have since signaled what amounts to a vibe shift, focusing more on so-called kitchen table issues and in some instances altering their stances on culture war third rails.
For example, Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator who is the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee there, initially ran on a platform that included a near-total ban on abortions with no exceptions. He’s also been accused by federal prosecutors of trying to send fake electors to support former President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 race; and he was outside the Capitol during last year’s riot, though he insists he didn’t enter the building and has condemned the violence.
Since winning his primary — and in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the resulting backlash to a Kansas anti-abortion amendment — Mastriano has virtually stopped talking about the issue and switched from talking about the 2020 election to discussing inflation and his plans to slash energy and COVID-19 regulations.
He also said on Fox News last month that “there’s nothing extreme about me” after reports of ties to the founder of Gab, a social media platform notorious for some of its users’ extremist right-wing content.
Tim Michels, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Wisconsin, ran his primary campaign as an election hardliner, flirting with the impossible idea that the state’s 2020 election results could still be overturned two years after the fact to differentiate himself from former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, his main primary competitor.
Yet after defeating Kleefisch, Michels released a general election ad focusing on his record as a businessman and high gas prices and briefly removed language from his campaign website highlighting Trump’s endorsement. And after saying at a Trump rally before the primary that his “No. 1 priority is election integrity,” he declared in his primary victory speech that “jobs and the economy are going to be my No. 1 priority.”
In Arizona, Masters, the GOP Senate nominee, ran as an “anti-progressive,” saying that “Trump won in 2020” and advocating for a federal “personhood law” that would completely ban abortions, a procedure he dubbed “demonic.” He also leaned on ads packed with metaphorical red meat, including a Second Amendment-themed clip stating that short-barreled rifles are “designed to kill people” and another calling San Francisco “disgusting” while walking through a homeless encampment.
More recently, though, Masters told a local newspaper the federal government “should prohibit late-term abortion, third-trimester abortion and partial-birth abortion” but that otherwise the decisions should be left to the states and that Arizona’s current law banning abortion after 15 weeks is “reasonable.” His first general election ad also featured his wife explaining that he wants “Americans to be thriving” over inspiring music.
Still, Democrats are pressing what they see as an advantage — the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s first ad buy of the race between Masters and incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly highlighted Masters’ past statements on abortion and Social Security.
Operatives tell ABC News that such pivots are wise in states where, even in an expected GOP wave year like 2022, relying solely on the party base could be a campaign’s death knell.
“If they want to be successful, they have to broaden their message,” said Mike DuHaime, who helped former Republican Gov. Chris Christie twice get elected in New Jersey. “Yeah, you need the Republican base to be fired up — but you need to win over independents, and you need to win over some conservative, moderate Democrats. And you’re not going to do that by carrying Trump’s water about an election that happened two years ago. They need to move forward.”
There is plenty of room to adapt, DuHaime said.
“I think, many, many undecided voters won’t be tuning into this race until October,” he said. “So, there’s certainly time. But you need to make that decision.”
To be sure, Democrats are also expected to face pressures of their own to turn back from their base. Republicans pointed to progressive nominees for Senate in battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — Lt. Govs. John Fetterman and Mandela Barnes, respectively — as places where Democrats may have to modulate their own messaging to a more narrowly divided November electorate.
However, some Republicans in crucial races will find themselves walking a particularly tough tightrope after espousing conspiracy theories over the 2020 race — sometimes for an audience of one.
“If you’re an election denier, you’ve gotten former President Trump’s support because of that. You can’t pivot from that,” said GOP strategist Bob Heckman. “Trump has made it clear that if people try stray away from him, he’ll criticize them and then you jeopardize your base. So I just think you have to stay with where you are.”
Some candidates, like Arizona’s GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, have expressed no interest in making the traditional post-primary changes to their campaign.
Lake made falsehoods about the 2020 race a cornerstone of her GOP nominating bid. And, according to her team, voters can expect similar rhetoric from her primary heading into November, which aides pitched as effective state advocacy.
“We have no plans to change our Arizona First message and our detailed policy positions speak for themselves,” Lake spokesperson Ross Trumble said.
Still, Republican operatives and officials by and large say they think their candidates are taking some of the right steps back toward the center.
“When you talk about messaging, I believe you’re gonna see Sen. Mastriano talk about … things that are so much more important to the average Pennsylvanian than the 2020 election or his personal position in regards to abortion,” said Sam DeMarco, the chair of the Allegheny County GOP in Pennsylvania.
Comments like that from DeMarco, who played an active role in trying to cut Mastriano off from winning his May primary, underscore another notable development.
Cooperation between state and local Republican Parties could be crucial to winning races in key battlegrounds. And despite strong criticism from hardliners against those groups, and reluctance by some GOP officials to embrace the eventual nominees, it appears bridges weren’t permanently burned.
In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey, the chair of the Republican Governors Association who endorsed Lake’s main primary rival, has since urged Republicans to coalesce behind the entire GOP slate this November.
And in Pennsylvania, officials have put past concerns about Mastriano — and the concerted efforts opposing him — in the rearview mirror.
“Soon after the primary was over, there was a call with all the county chairs and the state party and Sen. Mastriano, and I was very impressed with the things he said,” DeMarco, the Allegheny GOP chair, told ABC News. “He talked about how many of the folks he knew on the call hadn’t been initial supporters of this. And he understood that and that that was OK. But now he was the nominee, and we all need to come together.”
The base spoke; the party adjusted. Whether other voters will rally around the nominees is a different question entirely.
A Fox News poll from July, for instance, showed independent voters widely favoring Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general and Mastriano’s Democratic opponent, 47-19.
“It’s not just about issues — it’s not about taxes, the economy, crime, what have you. It’s about certain things fundamental to our democracy and to honesty that are going to give a lot of voters pause,” said veteran GOP strategist Doug Heye. “And maybe inflation is still at a bad enough number in three months that they’re like, ‘Well, you know, I don’t like this person, but …’ Or maybe they can’t get that out of their minds.”
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom told ABC News that his state’s historic vote Thursday to ban the sale of new gas engine vehicles by 2035 is a game changer in the country’s goals to curb its dependency on fossil fuels.
The California Air Resources Board approved the new regulations Thursday afternoon following a long public comment process. California became the first state in the nation to issue such a direct phase-out of gas-powered vehicles, and Newsom told ABC News he is confident other states around the country will follow suit.
“There’s nothing else that will move the needle on greenhouse gases more than tailpipe emissions,” he told ABC News.
Under the new rules, automakers cannot sell any car, pickup truck, minivan, SUV or other passenger vehicles that emit greenhouse gasses.
Motorists can continue driving gas-fueled vehicles that were bought prior to the 2035 deadline, according to regulation. They will also be allowed to purchase used gas-powered vehicles after the rules take effect.
The state will allow for one-fifth of new car sales after 2035 to be plug-in hybrids that run on batteries and gas.
The plan sets targets for the number of new non-gas powered cars sold of 35% by 2026 and 68% four years later.
Newsom said he pushed for this strict deadline, not only because of the increasing effects of climate change in the state, such as droughts and increased wildfires, but also because the market for EVs and other zero-emissions vehicles is on the rise.
Roughly 16% of cars sold in the state are electric, hybrid or hydrogen-fueled, he said.
“It’s the world we invented that in so many ways is accelerating this trend,” Newsom said. “And so we thought, [the] policy is the accelerator, can we accelerate this even further.”
Newsom acknowledged that there are still some hurdles to achieving the benchmarks, including the high cost of EVs and the nation’s charging infrastructure. Still, he noted that those costs have been coming down and his state is making investments to assist those drivers.
He also noted more automakers are committing to selling more zero-emissions vehicles.
At least one automaker has given its approval to the state’s new plan. Ford called the new rule “a landmark standard that will define clean transportation,” in a statement to ABC News.
During Thursday’s hearing, a representative from Kia said they supported a transition to electric vehicles but called California’s timeline “extremely challenging.”
Newsom said he was confident that more automakers would get on board with the California plan and so will other locations. He noted that 17 other states have already adopted California’s tailpipe emission standards, which are stricter than the federal government, and they are poised to emulate the ban on gas-powered cars as well.
“California automobile manufacturers that are forced to comply, all of a sudden, [and] have to create or decide to create one car or multiple cars for multiple markets. They’d rather invest in one car one technology and if you get these other 17 states, you’re getting close to over a third of all vehicle sales in the country. Now all of a sudden you’re at a tipping point. And that changes going forward,” he said.
Republican governors have previously criticized Newsom over his policies on emissions, but Newsom predicted that they will soon see the benefits of a faster transition to zero-emission vehicles. He noted that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has welcomed Tesla and provided the company with tax breaks for their manufacturing facilities in the state.
“This is an opportunity that presents itself for all these other governors,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Some of the Americans who qualify for the Biden administration’s federal student loan forgiveness plan may not see relief before payments are due again in January, officials acknowledged on Thursday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News at a briefing that the forgiveness policy is something that the administration wants to make sure “happens right away” — but she stopped short of a specific timeline commitment to borrowers, deferring to the Department of Education (DOE).
“I don’t have a timeline for you. That is something that the Department of Education is going to work on,” Jean-Pierre said. “That is something, again, that the Department of Education is going to focus on. It is important. We want this to happen for these individuals.”
Politico in July obtained a DOE memo that senior officials prepared for Education Secretary Miguel Cardona which stated that the forgiveness plan potentially allowed “immediate eligibility determination for millions of borrowers, the first cancellations within 45 days of announcement and millions of cancellations within 90 days.”
Jean-Pierre on Thursday stressed that the administration wants to be certain that debt forgiveness is enacted in tandem with the restart of student loan payments, something the DOE will “be focused on.”
A key provision of the White House plan is that about 8 million borrowers may be eligible for automatic loan forgiveness because their income data is readily available to the DOE.
But for the rest of those with federal loans, debt balances may not shrink before repayments begin on Dec. 31 — which is the deadline for the latest extension of the pandemic-era student loan pause enacted by Biden on Wednesday.
His announcement that Pell grant recipients will receive up to $20,000 in federal loan forgiveness and non-Pell borrowers will owe up to $10,000 less on their loans — if they make under $125,000 per year — came just a week before the restart of payments for America’s $1.7 trillion in federal student loans after a two-year COVID-19 freeze.
The White House has also confirmed that the application forms some of the borrowers will need to use for the debt cancellation are not yet ready, with no timeline for their disbursement. (Officials are referring borrowers to studentaid.gov for more information.)
At Thursday’s White House briefing, Jean-Pierre struggled to answer rounds of questioning about exactly how the federal government will foot the bill if this trillion-dollar promise.
“Let’s see who actually takes advantage of this, then we’ll have a better sense of what this is actually going to cost,” she said, noting that Biden’s work to lower the deficit during his time in office and that lifting the student loan payment pause would help bring $50 billion into the Treasury.
Even without a price tag, she added, “We do believe this will be fully paid for because of the work this president has done with the economy.”
A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania’s business school found that erasing $10,000 in student loan debt will cost about $300 billion. If the program continues for 10 years, the cost becomes $330 billion, or $344 billion if there is no income limit, per the report.
Because the federal government backs many student loans, U.S. taxpayers will likely foot the bill — something Biden addressed directly on Wednesday, comparing the debt cancellation to the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan forgiveness program during the pandemic.
“No one complained that those loans caused inflation. A lot of these folks in small businesses are working in middle-class families. They needed help,” he said. “It was the right thing to do,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Gabe Ferris and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
