Politics

(WASHINGTON) — A new super PAC backed by former President Donald Trump is injecting money into key 2022 races, investing $4 million in a new round of ad spending in battleground states, according to new financial data.

The series of seven- to eight-figure ad placements from super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. on Wednesday in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada is a last-minute boost from Trump’s team ahead of the November election. It follows months of criticism from Trump skeptics within the GOP that the former president is not spending enough to support 2022 GOP candidates, despite his massive fundraising power.

Wednesday’s placements are the second round of ad spending by the new PAC, which was launched in late September and kicked off its first round of placements in the same Senate races earlier this month.

According to ad tracking firm Ad Impact, Make America Great Again Inc.’s biggest investment in the latest ad placement was a $1 million ad buy in the race between Democrat Tim Ryan and Trump-endorsed J.D. Vance in the Ohio Senate race, followed by $770,000 in spending on the rivalry between Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

The latest spending also includes a $725,000 investment in the Arizona Senate race, $681,000 in the Georgia Senate race and $653,000 in the Nevada Senate race, according to Ad Impact.

With the new spending on Wednesday, the super PAC’s total ad spending through mid-October amounts to roughly $8.6 million, according to the ad data and past disclosure filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

In all, Make America Great Again Inc. has spent $2.4 million in the Ohio Senate race, $1.8 million in the Arizona Senate race, roughly $1.6 million each in the Georgia and Pennsylvania Senate races, and $1.3 million in the Nevada Senate race.

But the Trump super PAC’s spending so far remains a small drop in a bucket compared to the 2022 races’ massive ad placements made by the Republicans’ Senate Leadership Fund and the Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC.

Make America Great Again Inc. has yet to disclose how much money it’s raised so it’s unclear how more it could end up spending over the final weeks of the campaign, but the launching of the new super PAC — which by law can make unlimited independent expenditures in support of candidates — now allows Trump and his team to make sizable investments to directly back GOP candidates he has touted.

In contrast, Trump’s existing leadership PAC, Save America, can donate to other PACs and super PACs — but can only make limited direct contributions to candidates. It’s made a series of $5,000 donations to candidates over the last two years — as well as giving upwards of $6 million to various super PACs and outside groups — but critics have pointed out that’s only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars Save America’s joint fundraising operation has raised over that period.

Instead, much of Save America PAC’s money has gone to consulting and fundraising — as well as to covering legal fees associated with the congressional investigation into Jan. 6 and the fraud cases against Trump’s namesake company in New York.

And Save America’s fundraising has increased over the last few months, with the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee raising $24 million in the third quarter of this year, compared to $17 million in the second quarter, according to its latest FEC filing.

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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown “no interest” in engaging in “meaningful diplomacy” with Ukraine, after eight months of bloody war.

“Our purpose is simple. It’s to stand with the Ukrainians, to make sure that their country remains independent … and, ultimately, to have the strongest possible hand at a negotiating if one emerges, because President Zelenskyy has said himself — at some point, this is going to end through diplomacy,” Blinken told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in a sit-down interview airing Thursday on Good Morning America.

Stephanopoulos pressed Blinken on that point, noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has “also said he’s not going to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, only with the next Russian president.”

“Well, he’s been clear that diplomacy is going to have to bring this to an end at some point,” Blinken responded. “But what we’ve seen thus far is no interest on the part of Putin in meaningful diplomacy.”

When asked whether he thinks Putin is “still rational,” Blinken said: “It’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s mind. I think he’s rational, but the decisions he’s making — or maybe better put, his objectives — are not rational.”

Meanwhile, OPEC+, a group of oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, announced earlier this month that it will significantly slash production in order to boost prices. The move has forced the United States to release 15 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve, leaving many in Washington to question whether Riyadh remains an ally, even though Saudi Arabia voted in favor of a U.S.-backed United Nations resolution last week condemning Moscow’s illegal attempts to annex parts of war-torn Ukraine.

“The step that Saudi Arabia and the OPEC+ organization took was one that was deeply unfortunate and also deeply misguided,” Blinken said, “to the extent that this causes oil prices to go up and Russia’s exporting oil, it’s helping to line Putin’s pockets.”

“We’re all trying to restore economic growth,” he added. “That’s exactly the wrong time to engage in production cuts.”

Stephanopoulos pressed Blinken on whether those are “the actions of an ally.”

“In this instance, it’s not,” Blinken replied. “But we have a multiplicity of interests with Saudi Arabia.”

Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine and its global economic fallout are not the only challenges the United States is facing abroad. With Chinese President Xi Jinping poised to secure an unprecedented third term in office, Blinken said he believes Beijing will seek a speedy reunification with Taiwan, a self-governing island that split from mainland China in 1949, though Beijing claims it as its territory. Xi, who has been in power for over a decade, has made clear his desire to reunite China with Taiwan and, in his speech opening the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on Sunday, he gave no indication of changing course on the issue.

When asked whether he thinks Xi will speed up the reunification process “by any means necessary,” Blinken said: “Potentially by any means. Through coercion and pressure and potentially, if necessary, by force.”

The U.S. government has a “One China Policy” that recognizes the people of mainland China and Taiwan as being part of “One China,” views Beijing as China’s sole legal government and does not support an independent Taiwan, but considers the matter “unsettled.” Washington is also militarily supportive of the self-governing island and maintains extensive commercial and unofficial ties.

“We’re committed to doing everything we can … to make sure that Taiwan has the ability to effectively defend itself against aggression,” Blinken added. “We’ve also made very clear to China that our expectation is these differences will be resolved peacefully.”

Stephanopoulos asked Blinken what he has to say to Americans who may feel “the world is more dangerous now than it’s ever been.”

“I say yes, it is dangerous. It is complicated. It is full of challenge. And part of it is because we know what’s happening around the world in real-time in ways that we never did before,” Blinken replied. “But at the same time, I’m also seeing incredible opportunities, and opportunities that we have to find ways to seize.”

“One of the first instructions I got from President Biden in taking this job was to reenergize our partnerships,” he added. “That’s what our diplomacy’s all about. And later today, here in Philadelphia, I’m going to get a chance to swear in some new American citizens — one of the parts of my job that gives me the greatest satisfaction.”

Stephanopoulos noted how Blinken’s “face just lit up.”

“It’s the renewal of our country,” Blinken responded. “My late stepfather, he became a citizen of the United States … and he used to say to me: ‘You know, you are an American citizen by a very happy accident of birth. I’m an American by choice.’ That’s a very powerful thing. That’s what carries our country forward.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has yet to formally subpoena former President Donald Trump, in part because investigators are still trying to find someone authorized to accept service of it, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

Last week, the committee took the historic step of voting to subpoena the former president, with all nine members of the panel voting to approve the resolution to compel him to testify about the attack on the Capitol, which the committee argues was the violent culmination of Trump’s many efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

But multiple lawyers representing Trump have told committee investigators they aren’t permitted to formally accept service of the subpoena on behalf of Trump, sources familiar with the deliberations say.

The subpoena is expected to be issued in short order once committee investigators learn who is formally representing Trump in the matter, and after the panel agrees to additional details regarding deadlines for Trump’s compliance and the precise details of the documents they are seeking. The subpoena could be issued as soon as Thursday, the sources said.

Rep. Liz Cheney said on Tuesday the formal request from the committee would happen “shortly.”

Both Evan Corcoran and John Rowley have told committee investigators they don’t have authorization to accept service of the subpoena on behalf of the former president, according to people familiar with the communications. Corcoran is representing Trump in matters related to the Mar-a-Lago documents probe and Rowley — in addition to Corcoran — has been representing Trump on executive privilege issues involving former White House aides who have received grand jury subpoenas.

The committee has also contacted attorney Justin Clark, who has said he also isn’t authorized to accept it, sources say.

Neither Corcoran, Rowley or Clark responded to ABC News’ request seeking comment.

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for the Jan. 6. committee declined to comment.

Trump has previously told advisers that he’d welcome a live appearance before the committee, according to sources familiar with his thinking, but he has yet to say publicly whether he’ll cooperate. He has denounced the committee and the Jan. 6 investigation.

And if Trump were to offer to testify live in response to the panel’s subpoena, the committee would need to negotiate the terms of such an appearance.

“I think that’s going to be a negotiation,” committee member Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told ABC News’ This Week.

“I’ll only address that when we know for sure whether or not the president has tried to push to come in and talk to us live,” Kinzinger said.

In a 14-page memo addressed to committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and posted to social media on Friday, Trump did not answer whether he would comply with the subpoena to testify. He instead continued his attacks on the panel and continued to make false claims about the 2020 election.

“This memo is being written to express our anger, disappointment, and complaint … with all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on what many consider to be a Charade and Witch Hunt,” he wrote.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence had this to say on Wednesday night when asked if he would vote for Donald Trump in 2024, if his former boss were the Republican presidential nominee: “There might be somebody else I’d prefer more.”

Speaking at Georgetown University about the future of conservatism, where he also took questions from students, Pence declined to rule out a bid of his own for the White House but said there were other priorities before him.

“When I tell you as I have every confidence that the Republican Party is going to sort out leadership, all my focus has been on the midterm elections and it’ll stay that way for the next 20 days,” he said. “But after that, we’ll be thinking about the future — ours and the nation’s — and I’ll keep you posted.”

His comments came in conversation with Mo Elleithee, a Democratic National Committee official, executive director of Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service and a larger part of the Young America’s Foundation’s college tour by the former vice president, who became estranged from Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection — when pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and briefly sent Pence and gathered lawmakers into hiding.

Since then, Pence has continued to speak publicly about his own vision for the GOP.

In prepared remarks on Wednesday, he only mentioned the midterm elections once, predicting GOP flips across Congress and beyond.

“Frankly, I’m very optimistic that in 20 days, we’ll soon have new majorities in the House and Senate and in statehouses around America that will stand for freedom without a problem,” he said.

But, asked by a student how being Trump’s vice president had affected his own future in the Republican Party, he joked, saying he’s not particularly a long-term planner.

“I can tell you whatever the future holds for me and for [my wife] Karen Pence, it’ll be our heart’s desire just to reflect at the right time, maybe in the months ahead, determine what our calling is and [we] will follow that calling come what may,” he said.

When asked by another student to highlight something he liked in both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Pence quipped, “Look at the time.”

Later, he added that he and Biden had a strong working relationship while both served in Congress and that he called Harris after she was tapped to be Biden’s running mate — the first Black woman and first person of Asian descent on a major party ticket — to extend prayers to her and her family.

“I can’t identify a policy that I agree with in the Biden administration. But again, you know, I think I think you could say that some of these ideas are bad without saying they’re a bad person,” he said.

During a brief question-and-answer session, Elleithee asked Pence how society could move past a culture of intense partisanship.

He pointed to friendships with Democrats in Congress, including the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement, as proof of occasional common cause across the aisle.

“There’s a wide range of issues that we can agree on, issues that we can find practical solutions for the American people on, that I think all begins with treating others the way we want to be treated,” he said. “And I really do believe that there’s a hunger in this country today for getting back to the way Americans deal with one another.”

Pence’s 30-minute speech at Georgetown focused on his background, how he evolved politically and religiously and the effect former President Ronald Reagan had on that transformation. As he repeatedly says, he’s a “Christian, a conservative and a Republican — in that order.”

But he noted something specific about his style, as he saw it.

“I like to say, ‘I’m a conservative, but I’m not in a bad mood about it,'” he said, also referring to himself as “Rush Limbaugh on decaf” when he hosted his radio show in Indiana before he won his bid for Congress.

Elsewhere, though, he spoke more gravely of the dangers posed to the country by Democratic opponents and a “woke agenda” — a warning far apart from some of his other comments about Democrats on Wednesday night.

“In one short year and a half, the Biden-Harris administration has unleashed a tidal wave of left-wing policies that have in many ways wiped out the progress that we’ve made to the detriment of the American people,” he argued. “Frankly, sometimes I think Democrats have moved so fast that the left hand doesn’t know what the far-left hand is doing.”

About 25 minutes into his speech, a group of students stood up and walked out of the venue. He referenced them in a seemingly ad-libbed addition.

He also continued to criticize the Biden White House over gas prices, presumed threats to freedom of expression and more.d

He praised the younger generation as one capable of great change and the “last line of defense on the Constitution of the United States.”

“As you study the American founding and understand what’s made this country exceptional and unique, grow in your own heart and mind,” he told attendees, including students.

He also spoke earlier Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative group, where he cautioned against “unprincipled populism” overtaking his party. He said the GOP must continue to embrace smaller government, strong national defense and “traditional moral values.”

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(CHANDLER, Ariz.) — Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for president in 2020 as a Democrat and endorsed Joe Biden after her exit from the race, on Tuesday campaigned in Arizona for the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, a fervent election denier Trump loyalist.

The move follows her dramatic public departure from the Democratic party, denouncing it a week ago on social media as an “elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.” In Chandler, Arizona, Gabbard warned against those that “deny the existence of truth” before remarking with glowing support her endorsement of Lake, one of the most outspoken election deniers.

“I feel like a rockstar up here, Tulsi,” Lake said in front of at least 250 people. “You are a rockstar, Kari,” Gabbard responded.

At the campaign event, less than three weeks ahead of the midterm elections, Gabbard acknowledged that some have told her it was “odd” that she would be campaigning for Lake in Arizona as a former Democrat — but she dismissed those concerns.

“It’s only odd if you’re focused on the wrong things,” Gabbard said of her endorsement. “If you’re paying attention, you recognize that what we share in common, Kari and I and every one of you, is that pride, and it is the courage…It is clear eyes to recognize the threats to our safety, to our borders, to our communities, to our families and our kids that are coming from today’s so called woke radical Democrat Party.”

Gabbard’s Arizona visit follows her Monday travel to New Hampshire, where she stumped for Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc and garnered heat for comparing President Biden to Adolf Hitler.

“Even Hitler thought he was doing what was best for Germany, right? For the German race. In his own mind, he found a way to justify the means to meet his end. So, when we have people with that mindset, well, you know we’ve got to do whatever it takes because, as President Biden said in that speech in Philadelphia, that those who supported Trump, those who didn’t vote for him are extremists and a threat to our democracy,” Gabbard said in an audio recording obtained by the Daily Beast.

Lake, who once donated to former President Barack Obama’s campaign, said on Tuesday that it was “no secret” that she was once a Democrat, too.

“I registered as a Democrat for four years. I was disappointed at the time at the establishment Republican Party,” Lake said. “I know it’s hard sometimes to kind of go, ‘gosh, darn it, we got it wrong. I voted for the wrong guy.’ But we don’t judge.”

Gabbard has not announced her next step in American politics, or if she’d consider jumping to the Republican Party. She’s long spoken out against the nationwide two-party system, however, leaving some to speculate that she may find a political home as an independent or in a third party.

But her recent campaign stops for Republicans and invocation of traditionally conservative talking points like “wokeness” and her focus on the border marks a sharp retreat from her support for Biden in 2020, when she suspended her unconventional presidential campaign.

“It’s clear that Democratic primary voters have chosen, Vice President Joe Biden, to be the person who will take on President Trump in the general election,” she said as she dropped out of the race, adding that, “I’m confident that he will lead our country, guided by the spirit of aloha respect and compassion, and thus help heal the divisiveness that has been tearing our country apart.”

Despite her status over the past 20 years as a Democrat, Gabbard over the past few years has become somewhat of a Republican darling, appearing often on Fox News and in August, she guest-hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” following the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.

On Tuesday, Gabbard warned against those who deny truth only to reinforce their own beliefs, referring to the topic of children who identify as transgender, not the widely debunked claims of election fraud that have been a centerpiece of Lake’s campaign.

“We have to go back to the basics because the basics are under attack. When we have people in power who deny the existence of objective truth, that leads to a very dangerous place because that means that whatever they say is what they will enforce through their laws,” Gabbard said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken told “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos in a new interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law in illegally annexed parts of Ukraine “speaks to his desperation” as Ukrainian forces continue to make progress in rebuffing the invasion.

“Just in the last few weeks, he’s tried to mobilize more forces. He’s gone through with this sham annexation of Ukrainian territory,” Blinken said in a preview from the sit-down, which will air Thursday on “Good Morning America.”

“Now, in saying that he’s declaring martial law in places that he claims to have people who somehow want to be part of Russia, that speaks to his desperation,” the secretary said.

Blinken’s remarks come after Putin issued an order this week declaring martial law in four Ukrainian provinces that he seized in September, which was widely denounced by the international community.

Putin also placed all of Russia into various levels of heightened “readiness.”

When Stephanopoulos noted that second declaration and questioned Blinken if Putin is preparing for “all-out war,” Blinken said Russia’s invasion is already becoming more indiscriminate in its violence.

“Going increasingly after the civilian population in Ukraine, indiscriminately bombing, targeting even power plants, bombs falling on schools, on hospitals — that’s pretty close,” Blinken said.

More of Stephanopoulos’ interview of Blinken airs Thursday on “Good Morning America.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a series of steps aimed at easing the oil supply crunch and lower gas prices, which have become a major domestic concern ahead of the November midterms.

Biden confirmed the release of 15 million barrels from the nation’s stockpile — known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — in December.

“With my announcement today we’re going to continue to stabilize markets and decrease the prices at a time when the actions of other countries have caused so much volatility,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room.

This isn’t a new tranche, administration officials told reporters earlier, but rather the final 15 million barrels from the 180 million that Biden pledged this spring to release over six months.

Biden on Wednesday also said the administration is taking the unusual step of planning to buy oil to rebuild the strategic reserve once crude falls below $70 per barrel. Officials said that step is meant to send a clear signal to the market and incentivize domestic oil production.

To that end, Biden also went after oil companies on Wednesday — accusing them, as he has in the past, of price gouging at a time of historic profits.

“You should not be using your profits to buy back stocks or for dividends,” Biden said in remarks directed to energy companies. “Not now, not while a war is waging. You should be using these record-breaking profits to increase production and refining. Invest in America for the American people. Bring down the price you charge at the pump to reflect what you pay for the product.”

Oil executives previously testified before Congress to address concerns about their prices but have insisted it is the result of larger economic forces, including supply and demand. The oil companies and some energy analysts have also repeatedly pushed back on Biden’s calls to ramp up production, saying that increasing production is not so simple or easy and that other factors are at play.

Gas prices have started to drop in the last week, but the national average for a gallon of gas is 20 cents higher than one month ago, according to AAA — with gas prices also 56 cents higher than one year ago, though down from their summer high of more than $5 per gallon.

“But they’re not falling fast enough,” Biden acknowledged Wednesday. “Families are hurting.”

The Biden administration claimed some success in lowering prices over the summer and continued to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and “other actors in the market” for the rising prices this fall.

The cost of gas, paired with overall high inflation, have led to months of withering criticism by Republicans as polls show voters are sour on Biden’s handling of economic issues.

Though the midterm elections loom, and while the 15 million more barrels of oil won’t be released until December, administration officials said Biden is making an announcement now because of standard Department of Energy policy that requires a notification of the release a month and a half in advance.

Biden denied the action was politically motivated — to help Democrats before the midterm elections — when questioned by a reporter Wednesday.

“It’s motivated to make sure that I continue to push on what I’ve been pushing on and that is making sure there’s enough oil that’s been pumped by the companies, so that we have the ability to be able to produce enough gas that we need here at home,” Biden responded.

Other actions to address oil supply, according to officials, potentially include some limits on oil companies’ exports to other markets. The administration has also not ruled out additional releases from the U.S. reserve, the officials said, with a decision on a January release to be made in November.

“We’re keeping all tools on the table, anything that could potentially help ensure stable domestic supply,” one official told reporters.

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(WASHINGTON) — A former member of the Oath Keepers testified Tuesday that he believed he and other members of the far-right group were preparing to fight to prevent President Joe Biden from taking office as they traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 — an account that the federal government believes bolsters its case as it seeks to convict five Oath Keepers of the rarely-used charge of seditious conspiracy.

Jason Dolan, 46, pleaded guilty more than a year ago to conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding and he entered into a cooperation agreement with the government against the militia group.

As part of his plea, Dolan admitted that when he traveled to Washington, he brought an M4 rifle that he left at a hotel in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 6, 2021; and that he was part of the so-called “stack” formation of Oath Keepers that was seen climbing the east steps of the Capitol during the insurrection.

Dolan is the first cooperating witness from the Oath Keepers to take the stand against five members of the group currently standing trial on charges of seditious conspiracy and a host of other alleged felonies. Among the accused is Stewart Rhodes, the group’s founder. The five have pleaded not guilty.

The trial is now in its third week and is expected to stretch well into November.

Dolan, who served in the Marines for 20 years before retiring, testified on Tuesday that he was an alcoholic and grew increasingly radicalized in 2020 as he watched videos and online content pertaining to the presidential election. He said he found the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers as he was looking for ways to “vent” about Donald Trump’s loss to Biden and then discovered the group, made up mostly of former military and members of law enforcement.

Prosecutors showed texts from Dolan — sent via Signal, an encrypted service — to other Florida Oath Keepers where he openly discussed being prepared to resort to violence to prevent Biden from taking office in January 2021.

“If I’m lucky I get a prison sentence, tagged with treason, or a bullet from the very people I would protect,” Dolan wrote in one message, according to what was shown in court. Under questioning from the government, Dolan said he believed he was mentally preparing himself at the time to fight and “back up my words with actions.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nestler asked Dolan about a late-December 2020 message from Rhodes to the group where Rhodes stated, “We need to push T[r]ump to do his duty. If he doesn’t, we will do ours.”

Dolan said he believed Rhodes meant specifically in the message that if Trump wasn’t going to act then the Oath Keepers would have to be willing to resist an “illegitimate government.”

“There was a feeling our country was slipping out of our fingers, and we needed to defend our country,” Dolan said. “Conquer or die.”

The government then showed the jury Dolan’s M4 assault rifle that he stored at a Virginia hotel on Jan. 6 and asked him directly if he was preparing to use it to take up arms against the government. Dolan answered, “Yes.”

He later said he brought “hundreds” of rounds of ammunition with him on the drive from Florida.

He said that he and other members stored their firearms at a hotel just outside Washington with the understanding that if then-President Trump invoked the Insurrection Act, they’d be able to bring their weapons into the city to work alongside pro-Trump forces in the government against people opposed to Trump.

“You would be fighting with pro-Trump forces basically against pro-Biden forces within the United States government?” Nestler asked.

“Yes,” Dolan said.

Asked more directly, Dolan said that Oath Keepers believed if Trump didn’t stop the certification of Biden’s victory by invoking the Insurrection Act, then they would have to take matters into their own hands.

“That we will — we will act to stop the certification of the election now, by any means necessary,” Dolan said. “That’s why we brought our firearms.”

Defense attorneys throughout the trial have denied the group ever planned to use weapons stored near the Capitol to attack the government and that so-called “quick reaction forces” were meant to be defensive in nature, if the group was to come under attack by anti-Trump protesters.

Dolan testified Tuesday that when he and others were outside the Capitol, the mood grew furious as they learned then-Vice President Mike Pence had refused to delay certification of the election.

“I think you kind of felt a palpable feeling where the crowd went from being [a] pretty, pretty happy, joyful crowd to a pretty pissed off crowd,” Dolan said. “You could almost feel the crowd change.”

Three of the five Oath Keepers on trial — Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs and Jessica Watkins — entered the Capitol on Jan. 6; the other two, Thomas Caldwell and Rhodes, the founder, did not. But prosecutors have alleged Caldwell and Rhodes were key in the planning and organizing.

Dolan testified that when people were preparing to climb the steps of the Capitol, he heard members of the pro-Trump mob begin to chant, “Oath Keepers, Oath Keepers,” which he said “felt pretty neat” in that the group was seemingly being called up to help.

He said he joined the crowd in chants of “treason, treason” because he truly believed that’s what members of Congress had done in certifying the election. He wanted them to feel afraid of him, he said — and so be “scared into doing the right thing.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday will announce a series of steps that, administration officials say, will address the oil supply crunch and lower gas prices, which have become a major domestic concern ahead of the November midterms.

ABC News previously reported that among those moves, Biden will confirm his administration is releasing 15 million barrels of oil from the nation’s stockpile — known as the strategic petroleum reserve — in December.

Officials said this isn’t a new tranche but rather the final 15 million barrels from the 180 million that Biden pledged this spring to release over six months.

In addition, officials told reporters on Tuesday as they previewed the announcement, the administration will take the unusual step of planning to buy oil to rebuild the strategic reserve once crude hits between $67 and $72 per barrel. The officials said that step is meant to send a clear signal to the market and incentivize domestic oil production.

To that end Biden will also go after oil companies in remarks on Wednesday — accusing them, as he has in the past, of price gouging at a time of historic profits.

Oil executives previously testified before Congress to address concerns about their prices but have insisted it is the result of larger economic forces, including supply and demand.

“The president’s committed to doing everything in his power to respond to the price increases resulting from [Vladimir] Putin’s war. That’s what he’s done,” one senior official said on Tuesday, referring to the administration’s view that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting U.S.-led opposition have upended energy markets.

“These new announcements are a continuation of that commitment,” the official said.

Other actions potentially include some limits on oil companies’ exports to other markets, the officials said — with the first official telling reporters: “We’re keeping all tools on the table, anything that could potentially help ensure stable domestic supply.”

The administration has also not ruled out additional releases from the U.S. reserve, the officials said, with a decision on a January release to be made in November.

Gas prices have started to drop in the last week, but the national average for a gallon of gas is 20 cents higher than one month ago, according to AAA — with gas prices also 56 cents higher than one year ago, though down from their summer high of more than $5 per gallon.

The administration officials claimed some success in lowering prices over the summer and continued to blame Putin’s invasion and “other actors in the market” for the rising prices this fall.

The cost of gas, paired with overall high inflation, have led to months of withering criticism by Republicans as polls show voters are sour on Biden’s handling of economic issues.

“The president’s actions have ensured that prices — even if they temporarily go up for a few days — have stayed on a trajectory of coming down,” a second senior official argued on Tuesday. “He’s just not satisfied that they’re done enough and is taking these additional steps to make sure that we can continue the trend of declining prices.”

While the officials didn’t address the decision by the oil-producing alliance OPEC+ to slow production starting in November — even when asked — they did dig at oil companies, arguing they’ve increased their profit margins on each gallon of gas.

Biden “is calling on the companies to take advantage of what he’s doing and to make sure that they don’t take those profits and just give them back to shareholders [but] rather pass them on to consumers at the pump. We are not in line with where the price at the pump should be based on the prices,” the second official said.

“Outsized profit margins are inappropriate, especially at a time of war,” the first official said.

The oil companies and some energy analysts have repeatedly pushed back, saying that increasing production is not so simple or easy and that other factors are at play.

The companies have also denied price gouging, arguing that it’s market volatility that has helped drive prices up.

While Biden’s 180 million-barrel release from the domestic reserve was supposed to be completed by this month, the administration had extended it after prices dropped over the summer, a third senior official said on Tuesday.

“We’ve very consciously extended the bridge and made those 180 million barrels last longer because that’s what made the most sense in terms of the supply disruptions and the market challenges,” this official said.

Though the midterm elections loom, and while the 15 million more barrels of oil won’t be released until December, the administration officials said Biden is making an announcement now because of standard Department of Energy policy that requires a notification of the release a month-and-a-half in advance.

Still, administration officials were quick to tout Biden’s actions as an all-out campaign to ease Americans’ pain at the pump, with the third official saying, “We’re trying to do whatever we can using the tools we have to be helpful.”

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(NEW  YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to sit for a deposition Wednesday as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by a former magazine columnist who claims he raped her in the 1990s.

Trump was ordered to appear under oath and answer questions from attorneys for E. Jean Carroll, who Trump described as “not my type” when he denied her allegation that he had attacked her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman nearly three decades ago.

Trump had tried for years to delay the defamation case and avoid the deposition, most recently when Carroll said she intended to sue him in November for the alleged rape itself using a new law in New York that will allow sexual assault victims to sue regardless of how old their allegations are. The new law is scheduled to take effect on Nov. 24.

In a ruling earlier this month, Judge Lewis Kaplan said it “would make no sense” to put off Trump’s deposition in the defamation case just because its contents could be used in Carroll’s future lawsuit.

“The discovery that would occur here would go directly to the claim in this case,” Kaplan said.

The decision also noted that Trump and Carroll “already are of advanced age” and said Trump “should not be permitted to run the clock out” on Carroll’s lawsuit.

Yet the defamation lawsuit may go away on its own. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump was an employee of the federal government when he denied Carroll’s rape claim, and Trump has sought to have the government substitute for him as the defendant.

The government cannot be sued for defamation.

The appellate court left open the question of whether Trump was acting within the scope of his employment when he allegedly defamed Carroll while denying her claim.

The 2nd Circuit asked the D.C. Court of Appeals, whose law governs the scope of conduct by government employees, to weigh in.

“How the question ultimately will be resolved remains unknown,” Judge Kaplan said. “In the meantime, substitution would be premature.”

An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, said, “We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit.”

Carroll sat for her deposition in the case last week.

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