Politics

(WASHINGTON) — With the primaries nearly all finished, it will soon be time for the general election debates — except there may not be all that many debates to tune into.

Across nine key battleground states, five debates for major offices have so far been confirmed for the fall, according to an ABC News count.

A bulk of the resistance is coming from Republican candidates who, they say, wish to debate on their own terms. While that’s not a stunning split from cycles past — for example, Trump’s team in 2020 tried to make demands of what the final presidential debate covered — it’s more than possible that in at least a handful of races pivotal to who holds the balance of power in Washington, such efforts will lead to no formal TV debates at all this fall.

Few swing states have confirmed events on the calendar. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke will debate at the end of September in the Rio Grande Valley.

In Florida, potential face-offs are anticipated, but not certain. The Sunshine State hosted two gubernatorial debates in 2018 and while there’s been no official word if the candidates have agreed to debate this year, host group “Before You Vote” has begun marketing events in the contests for both governor and senator.

From there, the logistics become more contentious.

Here’s the breakdown in major battlegrounds:

Arizona

Arizona Republicans Kari Lake and Blake Masters — gubernatorial and Senate hopefuls, respectively — have deployed a campaign strategy to paint their opponents, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Sen. Mark Kelly, as having something to hide in lieu of debate RSVPs, while the Democrats’ teams say they’re negotiating terms with the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the leading group in the state for the last 20 years. The commission has asked for RSVPs by the end of the week.

So far, only in the Arizona secretary of state race have both candidates, Republican Mark Finchem and Democrat Adrian Fontes, committed to debating.

Lake formally committed to debating Hobbs on Wed., Oct. 12, after taunting her in a viral Twitter video while Hobbs’ team told ABC they “would like to participate” but “are asking them for some format tweaks.” Masters has used a similar strategy to Lake, challenging Kelly over Twitter to four debates — but so far only committing himself to one, on Thursday, Oct. 6, which Kelly’s team says they’re also planning to attend “pending some final discussions with the hosts.”

The debate for Arizona attorney general is being rescheduled from Aug. 29 to Sept. 28. In response to questions from ABC News, Hamadeh’s team said they were working with the clean elections commission to secure a date that worked for both parties, which the commission confirmed. Democrat Kris Mayes committed to the original date weeks ago.

Pennsylvania

Another state rife with squabbles is Pennsylvania. This month, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Senate Republican nominee, released a list of five debates he has agreed to attend and called upon his opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, to disclose whether or not he will participate. Fetterman’s team has been mostly silent: The candidate, who has been recovering from a stroke he suffered in May, did not answer questions after a recent event in Pittsburgh but a spokesman, Joe Calvello, told reporters, “We are up for debating Oz.”

During the Democratic primary, Fetterman called debates “an important part of history” and that “voters deserve no fewer than three network televised debates.”

In late July, a local Pittsburgh station KDKA-TV invited the candidates to a debate it plans to host on Sep. 6 but has heard back from only the Oz campaign, an editor at the station told ABC News. By comparison, the candidates for Senate in the Keystone State debated twice in 2018.

Meanwhile, Doug Mastriano, the Republican state senator running for Pennsylvania governor, last week proposed rules that would ban news outlets from holding exclusive broadcast rights over debates with his opponent, Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and would let each candidate choose a moderator. A Shapiro spokesman called the proposal “a stunt” and an excuse to avoid questions by the far-right Mastriano, who has shunned nearly all traditional media while he pivots his campaign message away from the hardline stances he took during the primary — instead, for example, focusing on inflation and economic worries.

No debates have been announced publicly.

Ohio

Ohio Republican Senate nominee JD Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of his plans for general election debates. His Democratic challenger Rep. Tim Ryan’s campaign has agreed to three televised conversations.

“It’s well past time for JD Vance to venture out from his San Francisco mansion, pay Ohio a visit, and actually speak directly to the people he says he wants to represent. And once JD agrees to these three debates, Tim Ryan will debate JD any other time and place,” Ryan’s campaign director, Dave Chase, told ABC News.

Georgia

Another push-and-pull is in Georgia, where Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate candidate, has agreed to take part in a debate on Oct. 14. That agreement comes after pressure from his opponent, Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, who accused him of dodging debates in a campaign ad released last month.

However, the debate Walker is proposing to have is not one of the ones that Warnock had already agreed to: Warnock previously accepted invitations to debate in Savannah, Macon and Atlanta in October while Walker hasn’t committed to any of those invitations — another layer of discord.

Nevada

Both Nevada’s gubernatorial and Senate debates have been set — but the participation from candidates remains unclear. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak and his Republican challenger, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, are set to face-off on Oct. 2.

As for the Senate race, a spokesperson for Republican nominee Adam Laxalt tweeted that while he “looks forward” to debating Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto, Laxalt’s team has “not agreed to any debate invitations at this time and still reviewing all debate options.”

North Carolina

Democratic Senate candidate Cheri Beasley accepted the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters’ invitation to a debate in October — but there’s been no confirmation yet from her opponent.

Republican Senate candidate Ted Budd told ABC News he is open to debating but would not make decisions until after Labor Day. Budd did not debate any of his primary opponents and has made no indication that he would accept a general election debate invitation.

Michigan

Further disputes persist in the gubernatorial race in Michigan, where Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican nominee Tudor Dixon are locked in an argument over which dates are best, with Whitmer’s team confirming to ABC News that she has accepted two debates: on Oct. 13 in Grand Rapids and on Oct. 25 in Detroit.

Dixon’s team pushed back on the dates, however, writing on Twitter that “debates must start BEFORE voting begins, not after as Whitmer is demanding.” Dixon further argued that her opponent “wants to hide, but the people deserve answers.”

In response to Dixon’s comments, Whitmer’s campaign told ABC News that “for more than a decade, Michigan has held one to two statewide televised gubernatorial debates in October. Governor Whitmer looks forward to continuing that tradition with debates on October 13th and October 25th so Michiganders have an opportunity to see the clear contrast between the candidates as they make their decisions in this crucial election.”

Wisconsin

Neither Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes nor Republican incumbent Ron Johnson responded to requests for comments about their debate plans. Johnson previously debated his opponents in the 2016 and 2010 races.

The big picture

Last April, the national arm of the Republican Party walked away from the Commission on Presidential Debates, cutting ties with the general election debate process and dismantling a bipartisan process 30 years in the making.

The Republican National Committee voted unanimously at the time to leave the group, which they claimed was biased.

“We are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement at the time.

“The CPD’s plans for 2024 will be based on fairness, neutrality and a firm commitment to help the American public learn about the candidates and the issues,” the CPD responded at the time.

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(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden has recovered from a “rebound” case of COVID-19 and will return to Washington nearly a week after again testing positive for the virus, her office said.

Biden, who has been isolating in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, has now tested negative, her spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement. She plans to travel back to the capital on Tuesday.

The first lady — who first tested positive on Aug. 15 — then came out of her first isolation period from that infection in South Carolina on Aug. 21.

She subsequently tested positive for a rebound case last week after being treated with the antiviral Paxlovid.

President Biden tested separately negative for COVID-19 last Wednesday, according to the White House.

“The First Lady has experienced no reemergence of symptoms, and will remain in Delaware where she has reinitiated isolation procedures,” a spokeswoman said in a statement on Wednesday. “The White House Medical Unit has conducted contact tracing and close contacts have been notified.”

 

ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Arielle Mitropoulos and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — With COVID-19 funding drying up and no fresh cash infusion from Congress, the Biden administration says it will suspend its offer of free at-home rapid tests through COVID.gov.

The program will be put on pause later this week.

“Ordering through this program will be suspended on Friday, September 2, because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” a banner alert on the federal website said. The U.S. Postal Service’s free test page also noted the impending halt to the program.

A senior administration official told ABC that the move to pause the program is “to preserve our limited remaining supply” — particularly, to have a reserve in case a potential new wave of the virus sweeps the country in the coming months — “so that we can ensure we have a limited supply of tests available in the fall, when we might face a new rise in infections and more acute need.”

“The administration has been clear about our urgent COVID-19 response funding needs. We have warned that congressional inaction would force unacceptable trade-offs and harm our overall COVID-19 preparedness and response — and that the consequences would likely worsen over time,” the senior administration official said.

“We were also clear that failing to provide resources to be prepared would mean that if a surge were to come later, the cost to the American taxpayer would be even higher. Unfortunately, because of the limited funding we have to work with, we have had to make impossible choices about which tools and programs to invest in — and which ones we must downsize, pause or end altogether,” the official said.

Of the 1 billion free tests President Joe Biden pledged to secure at the beginning of this year, so far more than 600 million tests have been distributed through COVID.gov/tests, the senior administration official said, offering “every household” the “opportunity” to get a total of 16 tests in the three rounds of orders that the government opened up to the public.

The senior official added that the administration “will continue to work within its limited existing resources to secure as many additional tests as we can.”

“Congress hasn’t provided the COVID funding we need to replenish the nation’s stockpiles of tests, as simple as that,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. “This is an action we’ve been forced to take that will help preserve our limited remaining supply.”

Orders through the program will cease on Friday.

Meanwhile, tests will still be distributed at 15,000 federally supported, community-based sites such as local pharmacies and libraries. Americans with eligible insurance can also still be reimbursed for at-home tests through their private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, the administration official said.

“In addition, the administration continues to ensure equitable access to tests through a number of programs, including free tests distributed directly to long-term care facilities, schools, child care and early learning centers, community health centers and food banks,” the senior official said.

“If Congress provides funding, we will expeditiously resume distribution of free tests through [COVID.gov/tests],” the official said. “Until then, we believe reserving the remaining tests for distribution later this year is the best course.”

Over the course of the spring, lawmakers failed to secure an additional $10 billion in funding for the program.

Then-press secretary Jen Psaki said in April, “The program that reimbursed doctors, pharmacists and other providers for vaccinating the uninsured had to end today due to a lack of funds. America’s supply of monoclonal antibodies that are effective at keeping people out of the hospital will run out as soon as late May. Our test manufacturing capacity will begin ramping down at the end of June,” adding that the failed Senate vote to secure additional funding at the time was “a step backward for our ability to respond to this virus.”

Democrats have vowed to continue the fight for additional funding this fall. The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Pat Leahy of Vermont, introduced a $21 billion emergency funding bill in late July and has vowed — along with panel co-authors Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Chris Coons, D-Del. — to get it passed this year.

ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Trish Turner contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES) — After drone sightings and even reports of a man flying in a jetpack around Los Angeles International Airport, the federal government is rolling out new tech that could better detect objects entering restricted airspace.

The project, called the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Bed Program, is the second of its kind nationwide and will begin testing technology designed to detect, track and identify drones entering the airspace of LAX.

“If a drone was to enter the space as you see with the aircraft taking off and landing, and a pilot having to make a quick decision and divert from that flight path that he or she is on — that could be a huge issue for both the safety of the passengers, the safety of the folks on the ground, it just creates all types of challenges,” Keith Jefferies, the federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration at LAX, told ABC-owned station KABC.

Since 2021, TSA has reported 90 visual sightings of drones and 5,200 technical detections within three miles of the perimeter at LAX. This year alone there have been approximately 38 drones visually detected at the airport – including a drone that was reported within 700 feet of an aircraft just before Super Bowl LVI.

Moreover, several pilots landing at LAX have reported sightings of a man flying at high altitudes around aircraft at the airport. While law enforcement later said the sightings could have been a life-sized balloon, the agency believes the new tech would be able to detect such objects.

The agency noted that the data collected at LAX will help expand the program to other airports as well as raise awareness of the risks of encroaching on restricted airspace.

“One of the main objectives of the TSA UAS Test Bed Program is to continuously assess relevant technologies and keep pace with the ever-evolving capabilities within the UAS community,” TSA’s UAS Capability Manager Jim Bamberger said. “Working together with our federal, state and local partners and the intelligence community, we are leveraging our collective technical capabilities to prevent disruptions within the transportation sector.”

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(WASHINGTON) — One year after a deadly U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians, including seven children, 133 family members and co-workers of the Afghan aid worker mistakenly targeted remain outside of the United States despite an American commitment they would be brought to the U.S.

According to ACLU attorney Brett Max Kaufman who represents the family of Zemari Ahmadi, the aid worker whose vehicle was mistakenly targeted as being that of a potential car bomber, only 11 of the 144 people the U.S. promised to help are in the United States.

One hundred and one are in third countries awaiting security reviews and the processing of immigration visas while the remaining 32 face an uncertain future in Afghanistan where it remains unclear if the Taliban will allow them to leave the country following the recent airstrike in Kabul that killed al Qaeda’s top leader Ayman Al Zawahiri.

The arrival of the 11 Afghans to the United States is a recent development as they only arrived in May and July.

“It’s been a year since a U.S. drone strike in Kabul wrongly targeted Zemari and wrecked countless innocent lives, said Kaufman in a statement issued on Monday’s one year anniversary of the deadly drone strike. “Unfortunately, the government still hasn’t made good on its promises to evacuate our clients, let alone resettle them in the U.S. “

“We’re grateful for what the government has done to bring many of Zemari’s loved ones to safety, but for those who remain, the situation is getting more desperate by the day” he added. “After the strike, the U.S. government made a rare promise to make amends for the dire consequences of their ‘mistake’ and it would be a tremendous institutional failure if the government failed to follow through. The government needs to urgently act before it’s too late.”

“On the one-year anniversary of the strike, I’m hoping my government will finally keep its promise and quickly evacuate all the survivors and their families, ” said Dr. Steven Kwon, the founder and president of Nutrition and Education International, the aid agency for whom Ahamadi had worked.

On August 29, 2021 U.S. forces in Afghanistan were on edge following the August 27 suicide bomb attack at the gates of the airport in Kabul that killed 13 American service members and dozens of Afghan civilians who had hoped to gain entry into the airport to leave Afghanistan as part of the U.S. military evacuation after the Taliban took control of the capital city.

Intelligence indicated that the terror group known as ISIS-K was planning a car bomb attack targeting the airport.

When U.S. military overhead drones spotted a suspiciously circuitous route by a white Toyota that had left the vicinity of what was believed to be an ISIS-K safehouse U.S. military officials called a preemptive drone strike on what they had concluded was the vehicle to be used in the possible attack.

The U.S. military defended the validity of the the strike even after reporters in Kabul began to piece together that the strike may have mistakenly targeted Ahmadi and several civilians , including children, as his car pulled into the courtyard of his home.

But two weeks later, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, acknowledged that the drone strike had been “a tragic mistake” after a military investigation concluded that 10 civilians, including seven children, had been killed in the drone strike. Kwon identified the civilian casualties as Ahmadi, his three sons, and six nieces and nephews.

In December, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin agreed with military commanders that no one should be punished for the mistaken drone strike that was attributed to “a breakdown in process.”

In the wake of the drone strike, the Pentagon announced that it would be providing assistance for Ahmadi’s family to be taken out of Afghanistan and that they would also received condolence payments.

Ultimately 144 individuals, about two thirds of whom are Ahamadi’s immediate family and extended family were identified to leave Afghanistan according to Kaufman. The remainder were Ahmadi’s co-workers and their families.

“The Department of Defense, in coordination with other U.S. government departments and agencies, continues to take steps to respond to the Aug. 29, 2021, airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan,” according to Todd Breasseale, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement provided to ABC News. “To protect the privacy of the family members, as well as to help protect their safety and security, we are not able to provide more information regarding these efforts at this time.”

The status of the condolence payments to family members remains unclear though Kaufman told ABC News that the focus is on evacuating the individuals stuck in Afghanistan.

“Everyone involved has prioritized the safe evacuation of our full group before moving on to discuss any compensation or ex gratia payments,” said Kaufman.

“We’re all very disappointed that a year out from the strike we still have clients who are stuck in Afghanistan, and we think it is critical that the government follow through on its commitments to compensate the victims of the strike, but for the moment we’ll continue to focus the bulk of our resources on getting the remainder of our group out safely. “

Last week, the Pentagon announced new procedures intended to prevent civilian casualties in U.S. military operations under a plan ordered by Austin that was a direct result of last year’s Kabul drone strike and a high profile incident in Syria that resulted in significant casualties.

Over the next year the Pentagon will set up a new Civilian Protection Center of Excellence that it hopes will better education and training, and increased screening before strikes are launched.

The Kabul strike seemed to show that there was “confirmation bias” during the tracking of Ahmadi’s vehicle and the decision to carry out the drone strike.

The new Pentagon effort will try to prevent that in the future by sending teams to regional military commands, the services, and the DIA that will be tasked with challenging such assumptions to ensure that a drone strike is appropriate.

As part of the initiative military training, exercises will now include civilian casualty assessments so troops can practice procedures to avoid civilian casualties.

Also, a new reporting system will be put into place to more accurately report a civilian casualty and the DOD will formalize the process for acknowledging casualties and any subsequent condolence payments or assistance that will be provided afterward.

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(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.

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(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.”

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(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.”

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(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.

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(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.”

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