(WASHINGTON) — In a new statement following the resignation of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden on Thursday stressed “the special relationship” between the U.S. and U.K. “remains strong and enduring.”
Biden did not mention Johnson by name or his resignation explicitly, but underscored that the U.S. will continue to work with the U.K. government on critical issues, including the war in Ukraine — an issue Biden and Johnson have worked closely on together.
“The United Kingdom and the United States are the closest of friends and Allies, and the special relationship between our people remains strong and enduring,” Biden said in the statement. “I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the government of the United Kingdom, as well as our Allies and partners around the world, on a range of important priorities. That includes maintaining a strong and united approach to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Putin’s brutal war on their democracy, and holding Russia accountable for its actions
Nevertheless, Johnson’s resignation could complicate Biden’s goal to strengthen the Western alliance in the face of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
The two spoke on the issue during a call in April, and “affirmed their commitment to continue providing security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the face of ongoing atrocities by Russia,” according to a White House readout of the conversation.
The two leaders then met in June at a summit of G-7 countries, where they both urged nations to remain united against Russia amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The conflict, entering its fifth month, has roiled global energy markets.
In his remarks Thursday announcing his resignation, Johnson cited Britain’s support of Ukraine as a top achievement.
“I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government, from getting Brexit done to settling our relations with the continent for over half a century … and, in the last few months, leading the West in standing up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression in Ukraine,” he said.
“And let me say now, to the people of Ukraine, that I know that we in the U.K. will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes,” he added.
The White House on Wednesday declined to comment on the political drama surrounding Johnson, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States’ “partnership with the United Kingdom continued to be strong.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — In his first network interview, the director of the United States Marshals Service told ABC News the U.S. Marshals Service is focusing on “trigger pullers” — repeat offenders who shoot and kill.
Director Ronald Davis told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that he is using his nearly 30 years in law enforcement to help push the effort.
The U.S. Marshals’ most recent operation, which spanned the entire month of June, dubbed “Operation North Star,” made more than 1,500 arrests in cities such as Washington, D.C., Memphis, New York and Philadelphia among others, and took hundreds of guns as well as narcotics off the street.
“I believe that if you are focusing on those who create the most violence that are responsible for the most violence, two things end up happening. One, you do remove trigger pullers off the street, those who are shooters, and it impacts crime and violence. You also bring justice to the families that have been terrorized by them,” he said in the interview, set to air Thursday evening on ABC News Live “Prime.”
Last year, the Marshals Service arrested nearly 6,000 murder suspects, Davis said.
Speaking in the wake of the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, he said violent crime is an “us problem,” meaning that it touches everyone, regardless of race, creed or background.
“It’s such a ‘we’ problem that you don’t have to be the victim of a violent crime to be impacted by violent crime,” Davis said. “If it is causing you not to go shopping, you’re a victim of violent crime. If it’s caused, you know, not to go to a parade, you’ve been influenced by violent crime.”
It spans political ideology, he continued.
“It’s not left or right,” he said. “There’s no leaning to this. We’re just trying to save lives. And I think that’s the key for the Marshals Service, we look at it as when we’re arresting a fugitives, that we’re bringing justice. But ultimately, we’re hoping that we’re saving lives.”
When there is not a crisis, Davis said that is when community engagement is best.
“It’s when there’s not a surge in violence that you have to engage the community so that when there is a crisis that you come together, you already have a relationship to respond,” he explained.
Davis said that it is now more important than ever for the police to have a relationship with the community, and that for him, policing and community relations is personal.
“It goes with trust and building trust one interaction at a time, one city at a time,” Davis said. “But it is really making sure that our strategies to reduce crime and violence don’t call the kind of collateral damage that we talked about that we are enforcing and protecting the Constitution of the United States, but being very effective and bringing justice to communities.
“As an African-American male, it’s not just communicating to my community, but quite frankly, communicating to my deputies. And with inside the agency, the experience of growing up as a black man in America is unique. And I would hope that that experience that I bring to the job helps me, helps guide me in the decisions that need to make in understanding and having empathy, why people may be hesitant, why there may be apprehension, why there could be a lack of trust,” he said.
Davis said he hopes his experience in law enforcement and as an African American man can help build trust amongst law enforcement, but that even in his own personal life, and as a high-ranking law enforcement official, he still has to sit his son down and have a conversation about how to interact with the police as an African American male.
“The fact that I have to have that conversation, the fact that it’s a mandatory course for families of color means we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “And so there’s this I’ve struggled with over the years, but I’ve come to a reconciliation that both of these truths can coexist. I can accept that the vast majority of men and women in law enforcement are outstanding, but also can accept that we have historical context and practices that still have disparate impacts. And so we need to address both use the outstanding men and women to do so.”
Davis said he is seeing an increase in law enforcement assaults, but does not know the root cause of the increase in violence.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase in assaults against law enforcement, against our deputies, within the Marshal Service, our task force officers that the agencies we’re working with,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday will award 17 individuals with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
The medal is given to those who made “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and actor Denzel Washington are among this year’s recipients.
The ceremony will be held at the White House.
Rapinoe, an advocate for gender equality and LGBTQ rights, said she received a call in between practices from the White House informing her she had received the honor.
“In that moment I spoke to the President, I was, and still am, totally overwhelmed,” Rapinoe said in a statement shared by U.S. Soccer. She also said that she is thinking of “all the people who I feel deserve a part of this medal.”
Late Sen. John McCain will be awarded the honor posthumously, as will Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and former AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.
McCain, a Purple Heart recipient and prisoner of war in Vietnam, has been lauded as a war hero and spent decades serving the people of Arizona in the Senate. The Republican died in 2018 after succumbing to glioblastoma in 2018.
“My family and I are extremely honored that my dad will posthumously be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a man who dedicated his life in service of his country, I know my dad would be humbled to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor,” Jack McCain, McCain’s son, said in a statement.
Other former lawmakers to receive the honor are Gabby Giffords, who became a leading voice for gun control after surviving a 2011 mass shooting, and Alan Simpson, who served in the Senate for nearly two decades.
The list of awardees also includes several social justice advocates, including: Sister Simone Campbell, a member of Sisters of Social Service; Fred Gray, a distinguished civil rights attorney whose clients included Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Diane Nash, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and Raúl Yzaguirre, who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for 30 years.
Other recipients include Wilma Vaught, one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history; Sandra Lindsay, a nurse who was the first American to receive the COVID-19 vaccine; Khizr Khan, the father of U.S. Army captain who was killed in Iraq; Father Alexander Karloutsos, a priest who advised several U.S. presidents; and Dr. Julieta García, who was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president.
Biden will be the first president to give out these medals after receiving one himself in 2017. Former President Barack Obama awarded Biden for his “lifetime of service that will endure through the generations.”
Earlier this week, Biden presented four U.S. Army veterans with the Medal of Honor for their “acts of gallantry and intrepidity” during the Vietnam War.
Specialist 5 Dwight W. Birdwell, Major John J. Duffy and Specialist 5 Dennis M. Fujii were awarded the honor at a White House ceremony on Tuesday. John Kaneshiro, the son of Staff Sergeant Edward N. Kaneshiro, accepted the award on his late father’s behalf.
“They went far above and beyond the call of duty. It’s a phrase always used but it just — it takes on life when you see these men,” Biden said during the event.
(WASHINGTON) — Speaking alongside his British counterpart in London on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China the “biggest long-term threat” to both the U.S. and the U.K.
“The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology — whatever it is that makes your industry tick — and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” Wray said while giving remarks to international business leaders. “And they’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it.”
Wray also warned of potential tactics by Chinese officials, saying they steal technology by using intelligence officers to “target” valuable pieces of information and companies.
“We’ve even caught people affiliated with Chinese companies out in the U.S. heartland, sneaking into fields to dig up proprietary, genetically modified seeds, which would have cost them nearly a decade and billions in research to develop themselves,” Wray said. “And those efforts pale in comparison to their lavishly-resourced hacking program that’s bigger than that of every other major country combined.”
The Chinese, Wray said, use cyber to “steal” volumes of information. He said U.S. officials are working with MI5, the British intelligence service, to identify other investments that the Chinese government makes in proxy relationships — a kind of third-party venue through which China steals information.
Wray said that U.S. companies should be wary of working with or in China, something about which he has warned before, and he urged business leaders to contact the FBI for further information on ways to mitigate the Chinese cyber threat.
His warning was the latest episode of the U.S. pushing back on what they describe as Chinese hostility. Relations between the U.S. and China have evolved since President Joe Biden took office — his predecessor Donald Trump embarked on a trade war with the country — and the U.S. and China remain deeply intertwined, though they are often opposed on various issues.
After one call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this year, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said, “The U.S.-China relationship has not yet emerged from the predicament created by the previous U.S. administration but has instead encountered more and more challenges. The U.S. side has made a misreading and misjudgment of China’s strategic intentions.”
On Wednesday, Wray warned that if China were to invade Taiwan, U.S. companies could see a repeat, on a much larger scale, of the economic disarray from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting international condemnation.
“Just as in Russia, Western investments built over years could become hostage capital stranded, supply chains and relationships disrupted,” he said. “Companies are caught between sanctions and Chinese law forbidding compliance with them. That’s not just geopolitics. It’s business forecasting.”
Wray concluded by saying the U.S. and U.K. were working together to combat this threat.
His remarks come as American law enforcement agencies and the Treasury Department cautioned the public of another overseas adversary, this one targeting hospital systems.
North Korean-backed cyber actors are targeting the health care and public health sector, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI and Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
These actors use Maui ransomware, a specific technology that has a North Korean hallmark, to infiltrate health care sectors and hold their systems ransom in exchange for a payment, American officials said in an advisory.
The officials said that since May 2021, the agencies have observed and reacted to “multiple” Maui ransomware incidents indicating that they came from North Korea.
“North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors used Maui ransomware in these incidents to encrypt servers responsible for healthcare services—including electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services,” the advisory states. “In some cases, these incidents disrupted the services provided by the targeted HPH Sector organizations for prolonged periods.”
The agencies believe that because health care organizations “provide services that are critical to human life and health,” they are likely to pay ransoms when attacked. Law enforcement advise not paying the ransom and to contact CISA or the FBI instead.
“Because of this assumption, the FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess North Korean state-sponsored actors are likely to continue targeting HPH Sector organizations,” the officials said.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order to strengthen access to reproductive health care in the state on Wednesday.
The order takes several steps to defend the existing services in North Carolina, including to state that patients who receive abortions or providers who perform abortions will not be penalized or criminalized for providing, receiving or inquiring about reproductive health care services.
The executive action comes almost two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the right to abortion for almost 50 years.
Cooper’s order establishes that all cabinet agencies, or those who are part of the governor’s office, “should coordinate with each other and pursue opportunities to protect people or entities who are providing, assisting, seeking or obtaining lawful reproductive health care services in North Carolina.”
It further states that cabinet agencies may not require any pregnant cabinet agency employee to travel to a state that has restrictions on access to reproductive health care that do not include exceptions favoring the health of the pregnant employee.
The order says it does not change North Carolina law, but rather ensures that North Carolina residents will continue to have a protected right to access and perform abortions, alongside other reproductive care.
As other states uphold bans on abortion, North Carolina increasingly becomes a “critical access point” for those seeking reproductive health services, according to the order.
“Research demonstrates that unnecessary restrictions and bans on reproductive health care rights have harmful consequences on people’s health, safety and economic stability…[and] disproportionately impact people of color, people with disabilities, people with low incomes and people who live in rural areas,” the order reads.
Cooper spoke at a press conference when he signed the order.
“The Supreme Court ripped away the constitutional right to reproductive freedom that women have relied on for five decades,” Cooper said Wednesday.
“For now, it’s up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can, thanks to my veto and enough legislative votes to sustain it. I am determined to keep it that way and people need to know that their votes in state legislative races this November will determine the fate of women’s health and freedom in our state,” Cooper continued.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, was alongside Cooper at the signing of the executive order.
“Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, North Carolina has become an increasingly critical access point for people traveling for abortion care, including from neighboring South Carolina and Tennessee, where lawmakers in both states have swiftly banned most abortions,” Johnson said at the signing.
“Now we must continue to do everything in our power to ensure abortion remains accessible in North Carolina, both for North Carolinians and those forced to flee their own state amid mounting restrictions and cruel bans,” she added.
In a statement on Wednesday, Cooper said that North Carolina has already seen an influx of patients coming from other states to seek abortion care.
Citing data from Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, Cooper said that one third of abortion patients scheduled in North Carolina this week are from different states.
“That means there are projected to be at least 10,000 people coming to North Carolina to access reproductive health care services, mostly from states with bans and tighter restrictions. These are just numbers from Planned Parenthood, and do not include estimates from the state’s other trusted providers,” Cooper said in his statement.
Dr. Katherine Farris, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, was quoted in the governor’s press release Wednesday.
Farris said that the highest priority of abortion providers in North Carolina is to get patients the care that they need.
“Abortion is a normal part of reproductive health care. Every person is the expert in their own life, and we must trust them to make their own decisions about their health, their family, and their future,” Farris said in the statement.
“Planned Parenthood South Atlantic health center doors remain open, and we aren’t going anywhere,” she added.
Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, said in the release that North Carolina voters need to continue to support candidates that will keep abortion legal in the state.
“For now, abortion is still legal in North Carolina. But our reproductive freedom is hanging by a thread. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has paved the way for state lawmakers to pass an all-out ban as soon as next year,” Black said.
“The future of abortion access not only for North Carolinians but potentially the entire Southeast region is on the line in 2022, and we thank Governor Cooper for his strong advocacy in support of reproductive freedom today,” Black added.
As states have continued to uphold abortion bans across the southeast, other eastern states have signed orders similar to Cooper’s in support of abortion access.
The Democratic governors of Maine and Rhode Island both signed executive orders on Tuesday in support of abortion rights, which ensure the protection of both patients and providers of abortion.
The Republican governor of Massachusetts signed an executive order last month to protect access to abortion in the state, ensuring its legality there.
In South Carolina, abortion has been banned past six weeks. In Tennessee, abortion has also become illegal after six weeks, with no exceptions for rape and incest.
Alabama has made abortion completely illegal, with no exceptions for rape and incest.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats have reached agreement on a key portion of a revised domestic policy bill, once known as Build Back Better, which would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Democrats have worked for years to give Medicare this power, always falling short in the face of GOP opposition, but this time they hope to move it forward as part of a broader, as-yet-unfinished economic package, anxious to provide relief to voters buffeted to tackle sky-high inflation and a possible recession.
Since centrist Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia abruptly scuttled President Joe Biden’s signature domestic agenda proposal last December over fears of rising inflation — surprising the White House and his party by announcing his decision on Fox News — he has been working intensely behind the scenes with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on a smaller bill that would still advance under special rules that require a mere simple majority — or in this case just Democratic votes — for final passage, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking an expected tie.
“Senator Manchin has long advocated for proposals that would lower prescription drug costs for seniors and his support for this proposal has never been in question. He’s glad that all 50 democrats agree,” Manchin spokeswoman Samantha Runyon told ABC News of the deal, first reported by the Washington Post.
Republicans have kept up a united front against the legislation, branding it Democratic socialism and claiming the broader legislation — originally carrying a $2.2 trillion price tag but is expected to be dramatically reduced in the revised version — would only exacerbate inflation.
The broader economic bill still has a long way to go and is not expected to be finalized for weeks, according to two Democratic aides, but this deal announced Wednesday was submitted to the Senate’s rules-keeper, the parliamentarian, for her to begin the lengthy and detailed process of ensuring the measure fits within the strictures of the expedited process Democrats intend to employ, called “reconciliation,” according to a source familiar with the matter.
The move by Sen. Schumer “demonstrates major progress and shows leadership’s commitment to trying to move forward with a bill on the floor as early as next month,” the source told ABC News.
The current deal, according to a summary of the provisions obtained by ABC News, would allow Medicare to begin negotiating the cost of certain prescription drugs next year; for the first time cap Medicare recipients’ out of pocket costs at $2,000 annually while offering premium assistance to more low income seniors; and penalize drug manufacturers that raise the cost of drugs higher than inflation by requiring companies pay a rebate back to seniors for those higher prices.
All vaccines would be available for free to seniors under the plan.
Also for the first time, Democrats — wary of a GOP administration not implementing this policy — plan to close what they call the “rogue HHS secretary loophole.” The aim of the provision, according to the summary, would be to require the secretary “to negotiate the maximum number of drugs each year, to the extent that number of drugs qualify for negotiation.”
Democrats also intend to pressure drug companies to bring more generics to market. “The new negotiation framework aggressively negotiates lower and lower prices if a drug company continues to block generic competition,” the summary states.
The Medicare drug negotiation deal was lambasted Wednesday by the drug industry’s powerful lobbying arm that holds tremendous sway in Washington.
“The prescription drug bill released today went from bad to worse for patients. Democrats weakened protections for patient costs included in previous versions, while doubling down on sweeping government price-setting policies that will threaten patient access and future innovations. In fact, they are proposing to repeal a policy that would have directly lowered costs at the pharmacy for millions of seniors in favor of a new price-setting scheme. The bill also ignores the role of middlemen and insurers in determining patient out-of-pocket costs,” said Debra DeShong, PhRMA’s Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, in a statement, adding, “Patients deserve better.”
The two major remaining items expected to be in the broader economic package — energy and climate provisions, along with tax reforms — are still being negotiated by Schumer and Manchin.
The original $1.75 trillion legislation passed the House in November, but Manchin – expressing fears of rising inflation, abruptly bowed out of negotiations with President Biden and administration officials, shocking all concerned.
The centrist Democrat took to “Fox News Sunday” in December to announce his opposition.
Just days later, Biden, in an exclusive interview with ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, said he still thought he could salvage his agenda.
“Well, look, I want to get as much as I can possibly get done, as much as we can possibly get done, and I still think we’ll be able to get a significant amount of what we need to get done, done,” Biden told Muir. “Particularly as the American people figure out what is in this legislation. It’s extremely consequential.”
Seven months later, Democrats have dramatically scaled back the original package which contained universal pre-kindergarten and significant funding for child care, paid family leave, education, health care and combating climate change.
The Medicare prescription drug negotiation component in that bill would have included up to 20 name-brand drugs by 2028. It is unclear if that would still be the case in the current deal.
Democrats involved in the matter dodged questions about timetables for passage of any final deal, cognizant of the fact that an intense focus on missed deadlines plagued the first iteration of the legislation.
But there is little doubt that the month-long August recess looms large with the focus afterward on funding the government by Oct. 1 and the crucial midterms that may very well alter the power structure in Congress. Democrats are also very wary of scaring off the mercurial Manchin with any pressure, despite knowing that a major economic package could potentially boost their political chances significantly.
Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — White House communications director Kate Bedingfield plans to depart in late July, according to administration officials.
Bedingfield is a longtime top aide to President Joe Biden: She was his communications director when he served as vice president under Barack Obama and became his deputy campaign manager for communications during his winning bid for president in 2020.
She has been one of Biden’s most trusted advisers and played a major role during his third campaign, both behind and in front of the camera.
She started as White House communications director when Biden took office in January 2021 and has been a regular presence on TV and in the press advocating for or defending the administration.
White House aides say Bedingfield, who has also worked in corporate public relations, is leaving to spend more time with her husband and two young children, but she is expected to continue to support the administration from the outside.
“Without Kate Bedingfield’s talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House, the Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Law might still be unrealized goals, and Ketanji Brown Jackson might not be sitting on the Supreme Court,” Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, said in a statement.
“She has played a huge role in everything the President has achieved – from his second term as Vice President, through the campaign, and since coming to the White House,” Klain said. “Her strategic acumen, intense devotion to the President’s agenda, and fierce work on his behalf are unmatched. She will continue to remain a critical player in moving the Biden agenda forward from the outside.”
Bedingfield’s departure comes as the administration is struggling with a slew of challenges — from the economy and inflation to gun violence, abortion access in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturning and poor polling for the president, whose approval ratings have continued to decline.
Her exit also comes in the lead up to the November midterm elections and she follows other senior members of the administration out the door, including former White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
(NEW YORK) — Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is being held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with subpoenas for information related to its business relationship with the Trump Organization, a judge in New York has ruled.
The subpoenas were issued by the New York Attorney General’s office as part of its civil investigation into how former President Donald Trump and his family business valued their holdings.
Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a $10,000 daily fine starting Thursday for every day that the real estate giant does not comply with the subpoenas.
“Cushman & Wakefield’s work for Donald Trump and the Trump Organization is clearly relevant to our investigation, and we’re pleased that the court has recognized that and taken action to force Cushman to comply with our subpoenas,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “No person or company, no matter how powerful, is above the law.”
A Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson said the company will appeal the decision.
“The ruling to hold Cushman & Wakefield in contempt demonstrates a failure to understand the extreme lengths Cushman has gone to comply with the Court’s order,” the company spokesperson said. “We have gone to great expense and effort to quickly identify, collect, review and produce the massive set of documents requested by the OAG, and we have now produced over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and over 650 appraisals since the last subpoena was issued in February 2022.”
“Cushman disagrees with any suggestion that the firm has not exercised diligence and good faith in complying with the Court’s order, and we will be appealing this decision,” the spokesperson said.
The attorney general’s office filed a motion to compel the company to comply with subpoenas in early April, and the motion was granted the same month.
Cushman & Wakefield provided real estate services for Trump Organization properties for many years, including appraisals and brokerage services for properties that have been subject of the AG’s probe.
The company has refused to comply with subpoenas for information related to its appraisals of three Trump-owned properties — 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, and the Seven Springs estate in Westchester, New York — as well as information about Cushman’s larger business relationship with the Trump Organization, according to court documents.
(WASHINGTON) — Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone has reached a deal with the Jan. 6 committee to testify in a transcribed interview Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The deal comes after the committee issued a subpoena to Cipollone last week after talks to have him testify publicly were not successful.
Cipollone was one of the few aides with former President Donald Trump the day of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and has significant insight into events before, leading up to and after that day.
The committee has frequently referenced Cipollone during public hearings, saying he was one of the advisers around Trump constantly telling the former president he was concerned that his actions could put him in legal jeopardy.
Cipollone was not expected to fight the subpoena, as discussions between he and the committee investigators was cordial.
Following the subpoena last week, a lawyer familiar with Cipollone’s deliberations told ABC News, “Of course a subpoena was necessary before the former White House counsel could even consider transcribed testimony before the committee. Pat Cipollone has previously provided an informal interview at the committee’s request. Now that a subpoena has been issued, it’ll be evaluated as to matters of privilege that might be appropriate.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — Vice President Kamala Harris made a previously unscheduled trip on Tuesday night to Highland Park, Illinois — the site of a deadly mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade the previous day.
There, she expressed her grief at what the community had just endured and reiterated the federal government’s support, not long after she again urged for more widespread government action to address gun violence.
Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff spent about 30 minutes in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park after she spoke earlier Tuesday at the National Education Association’s annual meeting.
Addressing teachers in Chicago, she elicited loud cheers when she said: “We need to end this horror. We need to stop this violence. And we must protect our communities from the terror of gun violence. You know I’ve said it before, enough is enough.”
Reflecting on the “19 babies and their two teachers” killed in an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, Harris told the NEA educators that the shooting was “the most recent reminder” of “the risks that our children and our educators face every day.”
“Teachers should not have to practice barricading a classroom,” she said. “Teachers should not have to know how to treat a gunshot wound. And teachers should not be told that lives would have been saved if only you had a gun.”
She called on federal lawmakers to ban assault-style rifles, saying, “Congress needs to have the courage to act and renew the assault weapons ban.”
“An assault weapon is designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly,” Harris said. “There is no reason that we have weapons of war on the streets of America.”
Nonetheless, there is little prospect of legislators taking up such restrictions: Congress just passed a modest, bipartisan package intended to reduce gun violence, and Republicans say more laws violate the Second Amendment.
In Highland Park later Tuesday, Harris met with local politicians and law enforcement near the scene of the shooting that killed seven and injured dozens more. (A suspect has since been taken into custody and charged with seven counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday.)
The vice president embraced Mayor Nancy Rotering and told her, “I’m sorry,” upon arriving in Highland Park. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Illinois, and state Sen. Julie Morrison joined Harris. Her office said she was invited to Highland Park on Tuesday during a morning call with Rotering.
Harris took some time to shake hands and meet with individual law enforcement members, including Highland Park police officers.
She visited the town near the scene of Monday’s mass shooting. According to the press pool, bikes, strollers, toys and lawn chairs were still visible in the area — detritus from those who fled the attack.
In brief remarks, Harris offered the country’s condolences and resources on behalf of the administration, saying, “We’ll continue to put all the resources that the mayor and the chief and others need in terms of the federal assistance, so the FBI, the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] are here.”
“From President Joe Biden and our country, we are so sorry for what you have all experienced … This should never have happened. We talked about it being ‘senseless.’ It is. It is absolutely senseless,” Harris said. “I want for you that you hold each other tight as a community, that you know that you have a whole nation who cares deeply about you and stands with you.”
As the vice president spoke, about 100 local residents had gathered nearby, according to the press pool.
“This is an incredibly tight community. I know that,” she said, “and this person will be brought to justice. But it’s not going to undo what happened.”
Harris also said the administration’s focus had not strayed from guns. The White House will “deal with what we need to deal with” in terms of who has access to assault weapons.
But her attention was on the local community.
“We’ve got to take this stuff seriously — as seriously as you are, because you have been forced to have to take it seriously,” she said. “The whole nation should understand and have a level of empathy, to understand that this can happen anywhere, in any peace-loving community. And we should stand together and speak out about why it’s got to stop.”
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
