Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Some Democratic lawmakers are calling on House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy to resign after he said over the weekend it would be “hard not to hit” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel he hopes to win if Republicans take back the House chamber in next year’s midterm elections.

“I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel. It will be hard not to hit her with it,” McCarthy said at a GOP fundraiser in Nashville Saturday, after Tennessee’s Republican members of Congress gifted him with an oversized gavel.

McCarthy’s comment was met by laughter among the audience of 1,400, according to audio posted to Twitter by a Main Street Nashville reporter and not disputed by McCarthy’s office.

It comes nearly seven months after the attack on Jan 6. when a pro-Trump mob invaded the Capitol with some rioters taunting, “Where’s Nancy?” while they scouted her out, and one man, armed with a taser, kicked up his feet on a desk in her office.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill responded on Twitter Saturday, saying “a threat of violence to someone who was a target of a #January6th assassination attempt from your fellow Trump supporters is irresponsible and disgusting.”

While McCarthy’s office hasn’t commented publicly on the growing backlash to his comments, an aide to McCarthy said “he was obviously joking” without commenting further.

The speaker herself has not weighed in.

But some of her Democratic colleagues have rushed to her defense with California Reps. Eric Swalwell and Ted Lieu calling on McCarthy to resign.

“America has suffered enough violence around politics. @GOPLeader McCarthy is now a would-be assailant of @SpeakerPelosi,” Swalwell wrote on Twitter.

Lieu posed a question to McCarthy: “Don’t you think America has had enough political violence?”

“You should never be encouraging or threatening or joking about causing violence to anyone, including the Speaker of the House. You need to apologize for your statement, or resign,” he said.

Other Democrats have put pressure on McCarthy to apologize. Republicans have largely stayed silent.

“Violence against women is no laughing matter,” New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the No. 5 House Democrat, said on Twitter.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., a former police chief who is challenging GOP Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for his Senate seat, also weighed in.

“Speaker Pelosi used her courage and moral compass to lead us to pass the Violence Against Woman Act. Kevin McCarthy thinks joking about hitting a woman is funny. When someone shows you who they are, believe them,” she said.

Some activists on Twitter — amplifying the hashtag “#ResignMcCarthy” over the weekend — raised how the GOP leader voted against the reapproval of the Violence Against Women Act in April 2019.

His comment and its backlash come after weeks of growing bitterness between lawmakers in Washington on issues such as mask mandates order by the Capitol physician and how to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the building they work inside.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — With 3.6 million Americans at risk of being evicted as soon as Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated her call to the Biden administration to immediately renew the now-lapsed eviction moratorium on Monday after House Democrats over the weekend failed to pass legislation via unanimous consent to extend it to Oct. 18.

“As they have called upon the American people to mask up, to be vaccinated and to take other public health precautions, it is critical, in recognition of this urgency, that they extend the eviction moratorium,” Pelosi said of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a new letter to Democratic colleagues Monday morning. “Putting people on the streets contributes to the spread of the virus.”

It comes after freshman Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who highlights how she was once homeless herself, spent her third night sleeping on the Capitol steps to protest the end of the moratorium even as most House lawmakers had already headed home for the August recess.

As Pelosi says she now awaits a new response from the administration, the White House said last week that it can’t unilaterally extend the moratorium because of a Supreme Court ruling in late June when Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the 5-4 majority, said he would block additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”

But Democratic leaders have put the responsibility to extend the measure — which they’ve called a “moral imperative” — back on President Joe Biden and the CDC, which first implemented the moratorium last September, after the Biden administration on Thursday, one day before the House adjourned for August recess, called on Congress to pass legislation.

Despite the 11th-hour scramble by lawmakers, the moratorium expired on Saturday.

With the Senate back in session to focus on unprecedented infrastructure legislation, the chances senators would pivot to a moratorium extension are slim.

“Action is needed, and it must come from the Administration,” Pelosi said in a joint statement with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark, D-Mass, on Sunday evening. “As the CDC doubles down on mask-wearing and vaccination efforts, science and reason demand that they must also extend the moratorium in light of the delta variant.”

The Democratic leaders also called on the Treasury Department to indicate how state and local governments can more efficiently deliver the billions in rental assistance Congress has authorized since last December. Of the $47 billion available, only $3 billion has been sent out so far.

Pelosi on Monday also announced House Democrats will have a presentation Tuesday from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, whose department transferred the funds earlier this year, which were intended to help renters and landlords with payments during the moratorium catch up — but dispersing those out has been a slow process.

While the House adjourned for its August recess, Pelosi has teased that she could call members back to bring legislation. However, without a desire in the Senate to pass an extension, she’s putting the onus back on Biden.

The president, who was leaving Camp David for the White House Monday, has not yet directly responded to Pelosi’s latest letters, but he has also called for the acceleration of congressionally-approved rental assistance funds.

“There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement Friday.

Progressive lawmakers including Bush, who has been homeless, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have called on their colleagues to do more.

“We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “Now, there is something to be said for the fact that this Court order came down on the White House, a month ago, and the White House waited until the day before the House adjourned to release a statement asking on Congress to extend the moratorium.”

She and other progressive Democrats, who also penned a letter to urge the Biden administration to take action, joined Bush and activists outside the Capitol over the weekend to draw awareness to what they call a public health emergency.

“Extending the eviction moratorium is a matter of life and death for the communities we represent,” they said in the letter.

Bush, who was still on the Capitol steps Monday, told ABC News over the weekend that she was “frustrated” and “disgusted” that the moratorium was not extended and didn’t have plans to leave.

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau survey from late June and early July, about 7.4 million adult tenants reported they were behind on rent.

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(WASHINGTON) — After days of deliberation, senators who negotiated a bipartisan infrastructure package unveiled the legislative text of the massive proposal Sunday night.

The 2,702-page bill was released after weeks of deliberation among a bipartisan group of 10 senators and members of the administration.

The bill, worth $550 billion in new spending, will address core infrastructure needs. It includes $110 billion in new funds for roads and bridges, $66 billion for rail, $7.5 billion to build out electric vehicle charging stations, $17 billion for ports, $25 billion for airports, $55 billion for clean drinking water, a $65 billion investment in high-speed internet and more.

The Senate will begin deliberation on amendments as it heads into the work week. Members of both parties have said they support a robust amendment process that will give lawmakers the chance to try to modify the bill.

There’s not yet an agreement on how many amendments will be considered, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear late Sunday night that he wants to see the Senate act swiftly to pass the legislation.

“Given how bipartisan the bill is and how much work has already been put in to get the details right, I believe the Senate can quickly process relevant amendments to pass this bill in a matter of days,” Schumer said.

Members of the bipartisan group heralded the agreement as a triumph of bipartisanship.

In a politically contentious environment with an evenly divided Senate, the bipartisan group said they felt it was important to demonstrate that across-the-aisle work can yield results.

“This process of starting from the center out has worked,” Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and the chief Republican negotiator in the bipartisan group, said on the Senate floor Sunday evening.

“I am delighted to demonstrate to the American people that we can work across the aisle in a bipartisan way to achieve real results that matter to the people of this country,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, added.

It is not yet clear how many Republicans will ultimately vote to pass the legislation after amendments are considered, but the bill enjoyed broad bipartisan support in a key procedural test vote last week. Seventeen Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — voted with all of the Democrats to advance the legislation.

The bipartisan agreement is just one part of the two-pronged approach Democrats are taking to try to pass President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan into law.

Schumer has long stated that after the bipartisan bill is passed Democrats will work on moving a separate $3.5 trillion budget bill using a process called reconciliation, which allows them to bypass the usual 60-vote threshold necessary to pass legislation in the Senate.

That second, larger package is expected to include funding for things like pre-K, housing, health care and other items that Republicans struck from the bipartisan plan in order to achieve a more narrowly tailored infrastructure proposal.

To pass the budget bill, Schumer will need the support of every Democrat serving in the Senate. It’s not yet clear he’ll have it.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., the chief Democratic negotiator on the bipartisan infrastructure deal, released a statement last week which said she does not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion.

Several members of the Senate Budget Committee, which will handle that larger bill, say that for now, they’re focused on passing the bipartisan bill and on opening discussions about their package.

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday he supports issuing subpoenas to anyone who has information about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and what action former President Donald Trump took — even members of his own party, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

“I would support subpoenas to anybody that can shed light on that, if that’s the leader that’s the leader,” Kinzinger told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “Anybody with parts of that information, with inside knowledge, can probably expect to be talking to the committee.”

“I would expect to see a significant number of subpoenas for a lot of people,” Kinzinger added.

Kinzinger, R-Ill., said that while some members of Congress attempt to brush off the events of Jan. 6 because it’s “politically inconvenient,” the committee is determined to get a full account of the truth.

“If anybody’s scared of this investigation I ask you one question, what are you afraid of? I mean, either you’re afraid of being discovered, of having some culpability in it or, you know what? If you — if you think it wasn’t a big deal, then you should allow this to go forward,” he said.

Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are the only two Republicans appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the House select committee spearheading the investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. The panel held its first hearing Tuesday, with emotional witness testimony from four police officers who responded to the attack.

The committee plans to meet on Zoom during the August recess to plan next steps, including issuing “quite a few” subpoenas, Chairman Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., said on Friday. He added that staffers will meet with Justice Department officials next week and members have requested a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“This cannot continue to be a partisan fight,” Kinzinger said during Tuesday’s hearing. “I’m a conservative, but in order to heal from the damage caused that day, we need to call out the facts. It is time to stop the outrage and the conspiracies that fuel the violence and division in this country and — most importantly — we need to reject those that promote it.”

Karl pressed Kinzinger on how the committee intends to enforce subpoenas on fellow members of Congress if they refuse to comply.

“I intend, at least, on the committee, to get to a full accounting of the truth,” Kinzinger responded. “And if somebody thinks that they can stand up and use — maneuvers to try to string this investigation out and hope that people lose interest — at least me, and I know the other members of the committee, are determined that we are going to get to that answer.”

“So it may cost you a lot in legal fees to try to resist, but we’re going to get to that answer,” Kinzinger continued.

Karl also asked Kinzinger whether the committee would subpoena the former president.

“It seems clear that you would want to talk to Donald Trump himself, am I right?” Karl asked.

“We may not even have to talk to Donald Trump to get the information,” Kinzinger responded. “There were tons of people around him.”

The Republican House Leadership held a press conference an hour ahead of the hearing on Tuesday where members tried to blame Pelosi for the attack on the Capitol.

“The American people deserve to know the truth that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility as speaker of the House for the tragedy that occurred on January 6th,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said.

Karl asked Kinzinger about it Sunday.

“They protected Donald Trump from blame here and they’re blaming Nancy Pelosi for the fact that Trump supporters invaded the Capitol, and — including her office. Can you explain to me what they’re talking about?” Karl asked.

Kinzinger called Stefanik’s comments “insane.”

“To me it’s mind blowing and it basically shows the desperation to try to derail this,” Kinzinger said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump has not yet said whether he’ll run for president in 2024, but he’s already raising a huge war chest in case he does.

New disclosure reports filed Saturday night show that his affiliated political committees have a total of $102 million in cash on hand going into July, after bringing in more than $80 million in the first six months of 2021.

The massive fundraising sum the committees reported include transfers of donations dated December 2020, though the exact amount transferred from last year is unclear.

According to his team, the latest fundraising total, which spans from Jan. 1 through June 30, comes from 3.2 million contributions.

The money will also come in handy in the midterm elections in 2022, where he could pump tens of millions of dollars into a quest to take back the House and Senate from Democrats.

The latest figures are a show of continued fundraising prowess from Trump, whose massive post-election fundraising success has come amid baseless fraud claims about the 2020 presidential election.

Since the election, Trump and his team have solicited hundreds of millions of dollars for an “Election Defense Fund” and seeking support to fight the 2020 results. But little of that has actually gone to such efforts so far, disclosure filings show.

The latest filings show that much of the amount raised by Trump’s various committees in the first six months of this year have been saved in the bank, while much of the rest has been used for various fundraising and consulting expenses.

Roughly $3.8 million of the spending from Trump’s old presidential campaign committee were labeled as various “recount” expenses, including $2 million in recount legal consulting and $76,000 paid to Giuliani Security & Safety for “recount travel expenses.”

Another $5.8 million was reported as general legal consulting fees.

Trump’s newly formed PAC also reported giving $1 million in contributions to the America First Policy Institution, affiliated with pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.

More than $80,000 has also gone to lodging at Trump’s properties, filings show.

Trump has remained very popular among his base in the first six months of the Biden administration.

Over the past few months, the Republican National Committee as well as multiple Republican candidates vying for key races in the 2022 midterms have fundraised off of Trump, using his name and appealing to his supporters in fundraising emails and messages, hosting fundraisers at Trump properties and even flocking to Mar-a-Lago to feature the former president himself at supporter events.

ABC News’ John Santucci contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — In a new letter to President Joe Biden and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, progressive members of Congress are calling for the CDC to “leverage every authority available to extend the eviction moratorium” after the House failed to take action Friday to extend the eviction ban set to expire Saturday at midnight.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., along with Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., signed on to the letter, seen first by ABC News, urging the administration, which has said its hands are tied by a June Supreme Court ruling, to act.

In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July but signaled in its ruling that it would block any further extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”

In a statement Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would have supported the CDC extending the ban, but “the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available,” and called on Congress to take action.

That led to criticism by some progressive members of Congress that the call to action for addressing a known problem came too late, just as Congress was about to recess.

House Democrats launched a last-minute effort to pass legislation that would keep the protections in place but failed to pass it before gaveling out of session for recess Friday evening.

In their letter Saturday, the lawmakers said they will continue to work legislatively to address the expiring moratorium, as well as to get billions in previously approved funding out to help renters and landlords — a process that has gotten off to a slow start.

“In the meantime, we are continuing to work diligently to push for legislative action and ensure that states and localities in our districts are disbursing the billions in critical emergency rental assistance to renters and property owners that Congress passed most recently as part of the American Rescue Plan,” the lawmakers write.

“Extending the eviction moratorium is a matter of life and death for the communities we represent. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight. We implore you to act with the urgency this moment demands,” they add.

Bush, who previously struggled with homelessness, took her protest to Capitol Hill Friday night, sleeping on the steps of the Capitol after Congress failed to act.

“This is personal for me. I lived in a car! I lived out of a car with two babies and my partner. I know what that’s like. And I will not sit by and allow it to happen to other people because it happened to me. I won’t,” Bush told ABC News in an interview Saturday.

“I will show up and I will speak up, not only me — Congresswoman Ayanna Presley was out here with us last night. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was out here with us last night. We are making sure that people know this is not OK and we won’t sit by,” she added.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to the Senate Floor Saturday to urge action as well, and later joined Bush outside the Capitol.

“Look, I agree that the eviction moratorium is not a long-term solution. But let me be very clear, it is the right, short-term action is how we keep families safely in their homes while states deliver emergency aid,” Warren said.

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(WASHINGTON) — In a new letter to President Joe Biden and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, progressive members of Congress are calling for the CDC to “leverage every authority available to extend the eviction moratorium” after the House failed to take action Friday to extend the eviction ban set to expire Saturday at midnight.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., along with Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., signed on to the letter, seen first by ABC News, urging the administration, which has said its hands are tied by a June Supreme Court ruling, to act.

In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July but signaled in its ruling that it would block any further extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”

In a statement Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would have supported the CDC extending the ban, but “the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available,” and called on Congress to take action.

That led to criticism by some progressive members of Congress that the call to action for addressing a known problem came too late, just as Congress was about to recess.

House Democrats launched a last-minute effort to pass legislation that would keep the protections in place but failed to pass it before gaveling out of session for recess Friday evening.

In their letter Saturday, the lawmakers said they will continue to work legislatively to address the expiring moratorium, as well as to get billions in previously approved funding out to help renters and landlords — a process that has gotten off to a slow start.

“In the meantime, we are continuing to work diligently to push for legislative action and ensure that states and localities in our districts are disbursing the billions in critical emergency rental assistance to renters and property owners that Congress passed most recently as part of the American Rescue Plan,” the lawmakers write.

“Extending the eviction moratorium is a matter of life and death for the communities we represent. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight. We implore you to act with the urgency this moment demands,” they add.

Bush, who previously struggled with homelessness, took her protest to Capitol Hill Friday night, sleeping on the steps of the Capitol after Congress failed to act.

“This is personal for me. I lived in a car! I lived out of a car with two babies and my partner. I know what that’s like. And I will not sit by and allow it to happen to other people because it happened to me. I won’t,” Bush told ABC News in an interview Saturday.

“I will show up and I will speak up, not only me — Congresswoman Ayanna Presley was out here with us last night. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was out here with us last night. We are making sure that people know this is not OK and we won’t sit by,” she added.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to the Senate Floor Saturday to urge action as well, and later joined Bush outside the Capitol.

“Look, I agree that the eviction moratorium is not a long-term solution. But let me be very clear, it is the right, short-term action is how we keep families safely in their homes while states deliver emergency aid,” Warren said.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats’ attempt to pass an extension of the eviction moratorium via unanimous consent request failed late Friday ahead of a six-week recess. The moratorium will end Saturday.

The measure was objected to by Republicans, none of whom supported the bid.

“We are proud and pleased that, overwhelmingly, House Democrats have understood the hardship caused by rental evictions and support extending the eviction moratorium to October 18, 2021,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Whip James E. Clyburn said in a joint statement after the failed bid. “Unfortunately, not a single Republican would support this measure.”

The eleventh-hour attempt to pass an extension came after hours of delay as leaders tried to scramble support for the extension.

In a letter to colleagues earlier Friday, Pelosi said the October date would align with the public health emergency declaration that was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Previously, Democrats had floated extending the moratorium through the end of the year, but some moderates had complained that the timeframe was too long.

“Congress has the power to direct the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium, as we encourage state and local governments to distribute the money that we allocated,” Pelosi wrote.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky noted in a statement last month that the July extension would be the final one.

Pelosi also called on states and localities to distribute the Congress-approved rental assistance, of which there is more than $40 billion remaining in the pot.

Progressives lashed out at the White House and party leaders for their failed last-minute scramble to extend the eviction moratorium.

“Everybody knew this was happening. We were sounding the alarm about this issue,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters in a gaggle outside Pelosi’s office. She was joined by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who has been outspoken about the time she spent homeless in pushing for the extension of the moratorium.

“The court order was not yesterday, the court order was not Monday, the court order was a month ago,” Ocasio Cortez continued. “We had a financial services hearing about it, members were bringing alarms to the administration about it.”

“The fact that the [White House] statement came out just yesterday is unacceptable. It is unacceptable,” she said. “I want to make that very clear, because the excuses that we’ve been hearing about it, I do not accept them.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday, “Given the recent spread of the Delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability.”

Pelosi told reporters Friday following the defeat that the extension of the eviction moratorium failed in part due to the last-minute notice from the White House about the need for Congress to fix the issue with legislation.

“Really, we only learned about this yesterday. Not really enough time to socialize it within our caucus to build … the consensus necessary,” Pelosi said. “We’ve had beautiful conversations with our members … when it comes, though, to the technicalities of legislation, we just need more time.”

Hoyer added, “There were obviously some concerns about landlords getting payments, as well as the renters.”

Hoyer said an “overwhelming number” of Democrats wanted to pass the extension, but some had concerns about getting payments to landlords who have not been able to enforce rent collections.

“This is really so unfair” to the landlords, housing providers, as well as renters, Pelosi added.

Pelosi warned that further legislative action is possible in August.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A commitment to American labor helped fuel President Joe Biden’s bid for the White House as he promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” It was an embrace that many of the major federations, associations, teamsters and brotherhoods in the nation requited by endorsing his candidacy.

But the support for Biden’s leadership that united more than 50 union groups during the campaign threatened to splinter publicly this week, over mixed reception of his plan to require federal workers get the COVID-19 vaccine or face regular testing and other restrictions.

Even before Biden’s announcement, segments of the federal workforce rumbled with dissension. Some groups representing large numbers of workers raised preemptive objections.

“It is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent,” the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) said in a statement the day before Biden made his announcement, adding that they encourage members to “voluntarily get vaccinated.”

Following the announcement, an APWU spokesperson underscored that while their workers are government employees, they are an independent agency — and thus don’t have to adhere to Biden’s new policy.

A White House spokesperson said that employees of independent agencies are not required to be vaccinated, but are strongly encouraged to do so.

“Make no mistake, we support being vaccinated as the most effective path and means to eliminate the COVID-19 virus, but not at the cost of our Constitutional rights that we protect and hold as self-evident,” Larry Cosme, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) said. ​​

Biden’s new policy is not a mandate but a choice: Either get vaccinated, or face potentially inconvenient restrictions. Federal government employees and contractors onsite will be asked to “attest to their vaccination status” by showing proof. Those who decline to be fully vaccinated, or decline to show proof that they are, must wear a mask at work, social distance and get tested for the virus once or twice a week; they may also face restrictions on official travel.

It all comes as Biden contends with flagging vaccination rates and the delta variant’s exponential spread — both of which threaten hard-fought wins in the fight against COVID.

After the new vaccine policy had been spelled out Thursday, major union groups reacted with a largely tepid response, with many members voicing concerns about personal freedoms, privacy and the policy’s practice.

“We have a lot of questions about how this policy will be implemented and how employee rights and privacy will be protected,” National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) National President Tony Reardon said in a statement to ABC News. “This approach appears to establish a process for employees to voluntarily disclose their vaccination status.”

NTEU represents 150,000 federal employees across 34 departments and agencies. For those employees who wish to keep their vaccination status confidential or choose to remain unvaccinated, Reardon said, “a testing protocol will be established.”

The largest union representing federal employees, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said they expected any new policies to be “properly negotiated with our bargaining units prior to implementation.”

“We are seeking details on many aspects of this plan,” NTEU’s Reardon said. “We will work to ensure employees are treated fairly and this protocol does not create an undue burden on them.”

NTEU endorsed Biden’s candidacy during the 2020 election, as did AFGE and APWU.

So did National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in U.S. history. They represent more than 170,000 members nationwide, including some VA nurses, and while saying vaccination is “critically important,” they said they place the greatest emphasis on the importance of “respecting the need for medical and religious accommodations.”

“The Biden administration is trying to thread that needle,” NNU President Deborah Burger told ABC News. “You have to honor those accommodations, and move forward.”

At least one major federation of unions is going ever further than Biden in its stance on vaccines: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Tuesday that he would support a full vaccine mandate.

“It’s important, if you are coming back into the workplace, you have to know what’s around you. If you come back in and you are not vaccinated, everybody in that workplace is jeopardized,” Trumka told C-SPAN. “What we need to do now is to get more people vaccinated, and I think the mandate is a very acceptable way to do that.”

The AFL-CIO endorsed Biden during his candidacy, as did one of its largest member unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — but this week, the two diverged on the matter of mandates: AFT President Randi Weingarten said that vaccine protocol should be arbitrated in the workplace itself.

“In order for everyone to feel safe and welcome in their workplaces, vaccinations must be negotiated between employers and workers, not coerced,” Weingarten said in a statement ahead of Biden’s announcement, cautioning that a get-the-shot-or-get-fired protocol would risk losing health care staff at a time when they’re most needed, and when “staffing levels are already low from the trauma of the past year.”

On Thursday, Biden pleaded for Americans to appreciate how urgent the situation has become.

“It’s literally about life and death,” Biden said in announcing the policy. “That’s what it’s about. You know and I know, people talk about freedom. But I learned growing up, from school and my parents: With freedom comes responsibility.”

ABC News’ Jordyn Phelps, Sarah Kolinovsky and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Handwritten notes from former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, released Friday by the House Oversight Committee, appear to show that former President Trump tried to pressure the Department of Justice to declare there was significant fraud tainting the 2020 presidential election.

The documents were obtained by the committee as part of its investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The notes are from a December 27, 2020, phone call between Trump and then-Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen.

According to Donoghue’s notes, Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department had no power to reverse the outcome of the election.

“Understand that the DOJ can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election, doesn’t work that way,” said Rosen, according to the notes.

“Don’t expect you to do that, just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” Trump replied, per the notes.

At another point in the call, the notes showed Rosen and Donoghue trying to convince Trump that his allegations of voter fraud were false.

“Sir we have done dozens of investig., hundreds of interviews, major allegations are not supported by evid. developed,” Donoghue told Trump, per the notes. “We are doing our job. Much of the info you’re getting is false.”

Trump however would not be swayed.

“‘We have an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election,” he said, according to the notes.

“These handwritten notes show that President Trump directly instructed our nation’s top law enforcement agency to take steps to overturn a free and fair election in the final days of his presidency,” House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said in a statement. “The Committee has begun scheduling interviews with key witnesses to investigate the full extent of the former President’s corruption, and I will exercise every tool at my disposal to ensure all witness testimony is secured without delay.”

The release of the notes comes days after the Justice Department determined that six former Trump Justice Department officials, including Rosen and Donoghue, can participate in Congress’ investigation.

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