Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Roughly 8 million student loan borrowers will see their interest charges restart next month, the Department of Education announced Wednesday.

Borrowers on the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education Plan — about 7.7 million people — will have interest charges return on Aug. 1 after a yearlong pause on payments. The return to interest charges was first reported by Bloomberg.

“For years, the Biden Administration used so-called ‘loan forgiveness’ promises to win votes, but federal courts repeatedly ruled that those actions were unlawful,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in a statement released by the department Wednesday. “Since day one of the Trump Administration, we’ve focused on strengthening the student loan portfolio and simplifying repayment to better serve borrowers.”

The education department said it’s complying with a federal court injunction that blocked implementation of the SAVE Plan earlier this year. But education advocates told ABC News that this move is expected to severely impact those millions of borrowers on SAVE who could potentially enter into more debt as interest accrues in the coming weeks.

Student Borrower Protection Center Executive Director Mike Pierce called the move by the Trump administration a “betrayal” and blasted Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

“Instead of fixing the broken student loan system, Secretary McMahon is choosing to drown millions of people in unnecessary interest charges and blaming unrelated court cases for her own mismanagement,” Pierce wrote in a statement to ABC News.

SBPC, which focuses on eliminating the burden of debt for Americans, estimates borrowers will pay $3,500 in interest a year on average, which amounts to $27 billion in total, according to an analysis obtained by ABC News.

“Every day we hear from borrowers waiting on hold with their servicer for hours, begging the government to let them out of this forbearance and help them get back on track — instead McMahon is choosing to jack up the cost of their student debt without giving them a way out. These are teachers, nurses and retail workers who trusted the government’s word, only to get sucker-punched by bills that will now cost them hundreds more every month. McMahon is turning a lifeline into a trap, and fueling one of the biggest wealth grabs from working families in modern history,” Pierce said.

The Trump administration said it will support borrowers in selecting a “new, legal repayment plan” that best fits their needs and will begin direct outreach to borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan, with “instructions on how to move to a legal repayment plan,” the release said.

For now, SAVE borrowers are still on a forbearance period, which postpones their payments. The SAVE Plan, dubbed the most affordable payment plan ever by the Biden administration, started after the Supreme Court struck down then-President Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness plan in 2023.

SAVE is an Income Driven Repayment (IDR) program aimed at easing the return to repayment for millions of Americans that calculates payment size based on income and family size.

The interest restart comes as President Donald Trump recently signed into law his signature domestic policy agenda, which included a provision to terminate all current student loan repayment plans — such as SAVE and other IDRs — for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026. They will be replaced with two separate repayment plans: a standard repayment plan and a new income-based repayment plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan, according to the text of the megabill. The repayment plans are affected by legal challenges as well, according to the Department of Education release.

The department is urging SAVE borrowers to consider enrolling in the income-based repayment plan authorized under the Higher Education Act until it can launch the Repayment Assistance Plan.

In May, some 5 million Americans with defaulted student loan payments — which means they hadn’t paid their debts for around nine months or 270 days — had their loans sent for collections for the first time since student loan payments were paused due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this year, McMahon said she has worked to simplify the “overly complex” repayment process and said taxpayers will no longer be responsible for the “irresponsible student loan policies” of the previous administration.

“The Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear,” McMahon wrote in a department release this spring.

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(WASHINGTON) — 
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former President Joe Biden’s physician, didn’t answer questions when he briefly appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday for a closed-door, transcribed interview.

O’Connor was subpoenaed by Committee Chairman James Comer as part of a Republican-led investigation into Biden’s mental fitness and use of a presidential autopen while in office.

O’Connor’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that the doctor “asserted the physician-patient privilege, as well as his right under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in declining to answer questions from the staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding his service as Physician to the President during the Biden Administration.”

Comer also said the doctor continuously pleaded the Fifth Amendment — a right to refuse to answer questions where someone might incriminate themself.

“This is unprecedented. And I think this adds more fuel to the fire that there was a cover up,” the congressman said.

O’Connor didn’t take any questions from reporters when he arrived and left the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday morning.

Doctors have a legal obligation to not talk about things like patient interactions, diagnosis, and treatments. Sharing this information can lead to civil and criminal penalties, according to the Department of Health & Human Services.

The House Oversight Committee has requested interviews with several of Biden’s former White House aides in light of a reports questioning his mental fitness in his final year in office and alleged efforts by those around him to conceal it — allegations Biden has vehemently denied.

Neera Tanden, who served as the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Biden, sat for testimony in late June. When asked after by reporters if there was an effort to disguise Biden’s condition, Tanden replied: “Absolutely not.”

Comer said on Wednesday the GOP probe will continue.

“We have several other witnesses that are going to come in for transcribed interviews,” he said.

The White House waived executive privilege for O’Connor ahead of his appearance. The House Oversight Committee previously requested O’Connor and aides sit for interviews while Biden was president, but Biden blocked the request.

Months after leaving the White House, Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Biden rejected reports of cognitive decline during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” in early May, before his office announced his cancer diagnosis.

“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” Biden said at the time.

Former first lady Jill Biden, in the same interview, pushed back forcefully to accusations she shielded Biden from allies and the public.

“I did not create a cocoon around him. I mean, you saw him in the Oval Office. You saw him making speeches. He wasn’t hiding somewhere,” she said.

Since then, former president Biden has spoken at some events, including at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in San Diego last week, where he reflected on his leadership and career.

ABC News’ Eric Strauss contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former President Joe Biden’s physician, appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday for a closed-door, transcribed interview.

O’Connor was subpoenaed by Committee Chairman James Comer as part of a Republican-led investigation into Biden’s mental fitness and use of a presidential autopen while in office.

O’Connor didn’t take any questions from reporters when he arrived and left the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday morning.

Ahead of the meeting, Comer said the committee has “a lot of questions” for the doctor.

“Dr. O’Connor’s reports were glowing with how healthy the president was. I think the president — the state of the president’s health is the transparency that we all expect. The president of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. The American people have a right to know the health condition of the president, both fiscal and mental,” Comer said.

The House Oversight Committee has requested interviews with several of Biden’s former White House aides in light of a reports questioning his mental fitness in his final year in office and alleged efforts by those around him to cover it up.

Neera Tanden, who served as the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Biden, sat for testimony in late June. When asked after by reporters if there was an effort to disguise Biden’s condition, Tanden replied: “Absolutely not.”

The committee intended to get answers from O’Connor about his medical assessments of Biden.

“The Committee continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding your assessment in February 2024 that former President Biden was ‘a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,'” Comer wrote in his letter to O’Connor in May.

The White House waived executive privilege for O’Connor ahead of his appearance. The House Oversight Committee previously requested O’Connor and aides sit for interviews while Biden was president, but Biden blocked the request.

Months after leaving the White House, Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Biden rejected reports of cognitive decline during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” in early May, before his office announced his cancer diagnosis.

“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” Biden said at the time.

Former first lady Jill Biden, in the same interview, pushed back forcefully to accusations she shielded Biden from allies and the public.

“I did not create a cocoon around him. I mean, you saw him in the Oval Office. You saw him making speeches. He wasn’t hiding somewhere,” she said.

Since then, former president Biden has spoken at some events, including at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in San Diego last week, where he reflected on his leadership and career.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to move forward with an executive order mandating a restructure of federal agencies and mass layoffs of federal workers.

In a two paragraph unsigned order, the court explained that it was lifting a preliminary injunction issued by a district court in California because “the government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and [OMB] memorandum are lawful.”

The court noted, however, that the justices “express no view on the legality of any Agency RIF [reduction in force] and Reorganization Plan produces or approved” by the administration under Trump’s direction. “Those plans are not before this Court,” it said.

The decision, another victory for Trump at the Supreme Court, allows the government to begin taking steps to dramatically overhaul 21 agencies and departments, including the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, Energy, Treasury and State.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a brief statement concurring with the court’s decision, emphasized that the legality of the administration’s plans themselves has not yet been answered.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissent in the matter. In a 15-page opinion, the junior justice called the decision “not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”

 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested a federal takeover of New York City and Washington.

The comments came when Trump, during a meeting of his Cabinet at the White House, was asked about New York City’s upcoming mayoral election.

Trump attacked Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, and ticked through the other contenders, including Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, though he declined to endorse anyone.

“We’re not going to have — if a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to,” Trump said.

Trump didn’t elaborate on what authority that would be as he then turned his focus to the nation’s capital.

“We could run D.C. We’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well,” he said. He said his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was working with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Trump has long called for the federal government to takeover Washington, complaining that local leaders weren’t effective and arguing the city has become riddled with crime.

According to preliminary data from the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime is down 25% from this time last year and all crime is down 8%.

“We would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we’d get the best person to run it,” Trump said about Washington on Tuesday. “And we know the crime would be down to a minimum, would be much less. And, you know, we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you.”

“We want a capital that’s run flawlessly, and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it. And we’ve had a good relationship with the mayor and we’re testing it to see if it works,” he said.

The district has some autonomy under the 1973 Home Rule Act, which grants residents the ability to manage affairs by electing a mayor and city council members. But final oversight of the district’s laws and budget are left to Congress. In 2023, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives blocked two local bills from going into effect, including one that would have updated the district’s criminal code.

Trump circled back to talking about New York City, railing against the city’s ranked-choice voting and describing his relationship with Mayor Adams as a “test.”

“New York City will run properly,” he said. “We’re going to bring New York back.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s MAGA base has erupted in outrage over the Justice Department and FBI’s memo stating they found no evidence that notorious deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein kept a “client list,” with many of the president’s most loyal allies blasting the administration’s leadership.

Some of Trump’s most die-hard supporters have spent the past day blasting FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both one-time MAGA-world darlings themselves, over the Epstein memo. However, the harshest backlash seems to be focused on Attorney General Pam Bondi, with many pro-Trump voices criticizing her over her mixed messaging regarding the Epstein files and multiple supporters calling for her to resign.

Bondi had previously promised the public release of scores of records associated with federal probes into Epstein, though in recent interviews she has claimed the delay was attributed to “tens of thousands” of videos within FBI’s possession showing potential pornography of minors.

During a Fox News interview in February, Bondi suggested an alleged Epstein “client list” was sitting on her desk — though no “client list” has been disclosed, and multiple sources have told ABC News that no such list has ever surfaced.

Asked about Bondi’s comments about the list, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed Bondi wasn’t referring to any “client list.”

“She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. That’s what the attorney general was referring to,” Leavitt said during the White House press briefing Monday.

On Tuesday, Bondi said she was referring to a file on Epstein.

“In February, I did an interview on Fox, and it’s been getting a lot of attention because I said I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, it’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed, meaning the file along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That’s what I meant by that,” Bondi said during a Cabinet meeting.

In late February, Bondi handed out binders with Epstein case files to pro-Trump social media influencers at the White House — files that ultimately contained little new information. As ABC News reported at the time, the move caught White House officials off guard and outraged some supporters of the president, who had been promised that more details would be made public.

Now, Trump supporters are voicing their frustrations with Bondi — and others saying the Trump administration is involved in a cover-up.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer has called for Bondi to resign. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon spoke at length about the memo on his popular “War Room” show on Monday, even questioning if the administration is as transparent as it claims it would be. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has accused the Trump administration of being part of a “cover-up” and at one point posted a video from his car where he broke down in tears talking about it.

Loomer isn’t the only MAGA world voice calling for Bondi to resign. Pro-Trump influencers the Hodgetwins also called on Trump to fire Bondi — and so did American conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler. Mike Cernovich, a past Pizzagate conspiracy pusher, posted that “No one is believing the Epstein coverup, @realDonaldTrump. This will be part of your legacy. There’s still time to change it!”

Michael Flynn, who served in Trump’s first administration and was pardoned by the president, called the Trump administration’s memo “another brutal and stark example of the two different standards we appear to adhere to in the United States” in a social media post on Monday — adding, “This has to change and quickly.”

The response from MAGA influencers who feel betrayed by the Justice Department memo marks some of the most vocal backlash Trump’s administration has faced from his own loyal supporters during his second term.

The Epstein files for years have been the subject of widespread speculation and conspiracy theories that the government was covering up information and a supposed “client list” to protect powerful businessmen and politicians.

Now, Trump’s administration — being led by some of the same MAGA voices such as Patel, who once pushed the idea of a cover-up — is trying to explain that no such evidence exists.

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(WASHINGTON) — Some Trump supporters living in rural areas say they have concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tax and policy megabill, which he signed into law on Friday. The bill’s potential health care impacts, both personally and on their communities, were top of mind for some, while others anticipated a positive impact on business but were wary of the bill’s price tag.

ABC News spoke with these people after the Senate passed the bill on July 1 but before the House did two days later.

Provisions in the bill enacting stricter eligibility requirements for Medicaid could impact finances for rural hospitals, which tend to rely more on Medicaid funding than urban hospitals and often already operate on tight margins.

The American Hospital Association called the potential impact on rural hospitals and patients “devastating.” In the leadup to the bill’s passage, Democratic senators working with researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill compiled a list of 338 rural hospitals that could be at risk of “financial distress,” “service reductions” or closure.

Some Republican senators, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, had expressed concerns about the bill impacting health care providers in their states.

In response to these worries, Senate Republicans included a measure setting aside $50 billion over five years in the bill to support these rural hospitals, but advocates and experts say it may not be enough to prevent hospital shutdowns and loss of care. The National Rural Health Association said in a statement that the fund would “fall short of” offsetting the impact of other provisions.

James, a 62-year-old man who lives in a semi-rural area in North Carolina, is on Medicaid and gets Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. He said the bill would cut around $300 worth of those benefits for him per month.

“It’s going to be hard to pay the rent and everything else,” he said. He added that he didn’t have family that could help support him, now that his brother has died and his mother was in a nursing home.

Identifying as an independent, James said he did not vote in 2024 but had liked Trump as a candidate more than Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

“I thought Trump was the lesser of two evils,” he said. “But I was wrong … If you want to make the poor people poorer, he’s doing real good.”

Insurance agent Bryan Shaver, who lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, voted for Trump in 2024.

Shaver, 62, said he was not worried about the Medicaid provisions in the bill affecting his clients. “Because they’re elderly and they make very little money,” he was confident they would meet the new criteria.

However, Shaver said he was “absolutely worried” that the Medicaid cuts could affect rural hospitals in Mississippi, some of which he had worked with in the past.

“It was extremely difficult for them to take care of who they needed to take care of … it’s very difficult for them to survive in Mississippi,” Shaver said.

He said hospitals’ financial struggles sometimes reduced access to care for the people living around them.

“A lot of the hospitals here can’t afford [to provide care for] maternity,” Shaver said. “For example, a hospital up in Batesville, Mississippi. [Patients] have to drive to Memphis to deliver a baby, and that’s kind of ridiculous.”

Shaver said he would wait to see how the provisions in the bill would affect voters. If there was a negative impact, he said he hoped Republican lawmakers would “correct it” or otherwise “get booted out.”

Stephen Caraway, who also voted for Trump, lives in a rural area around 70 miles east of Cincinnati. He said he anticipated a positive effect for himself and his community from the bill. Caraway was appointed to the state’s Elections Commission by Ohio Governor Mike Dewine in 2023 and will serve until 2027.

“There are service jobs, a lot of restaurant positions in my part of Ohio, and I absolutely think that no tax on tips or overtime would be great for the middle class and for those employees,” Caraway said. He said he would personally benefit from some of the tax cuts the bill extended.

To Caraway, the tightened eligibility requirements for Medicaid seemed reasonable, and he did not buy into worries that the bill would take millions of people off the benefits and potentially hurt rural hospitals like the one he lives near.

Caraway’s one concern is the effect the bill would have on U.S. debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would add $3.4 trillion to the deficit over a decade.

“Regardless of what party was in control, I would tell you that the federal government needs an overhaul, and has needed it for a long time. The only thing that would give me pause is some of those CBO projections,” Caraway said. “But I believe that those projections can just as easily be incorrect as they can be correct. And I’m going to trust my national leaders to do what is right and be fiscally responsible.”

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(NEW ORLEANS) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her first public appearance since the Supreme Court sharply limited the ability of federal judges to check presidential power, said Saturday she believes recent rulings by the court’s conservative majority pose an “existential threat to the rule of law.”

“Sometimes we have cases that have those kinds of implications, and, you know, are there cases in which there are issues that have that kind of significance? Absolutely,” Jackson told ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis during a wide-ranging conversation at the Global Black Economic Forum.

The court’s newest justice and member of the liberal minority first leveled the charge last month in a remarkable solo dissent in the case Trump v Casa, which partially lifted nationwide injunctions against President Donald Trump’s executive order to effectively end birthright citizenship.

Jackson also wrote in her dissent that she has “no doubt that executive lawlessness will flourish because of the decision” and that she predicts “executive power will become completely uncontainable.” The unusually blunt and sobering assessment drew sharp criticism, including from her colleagues.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett accused Jackson of a “startling line of attack that is tethered neither to [precedent and the Constitution] nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever.”

While Jackson did not directly address the case or specific criticism, she defended her right to express her views on the law and suggested that public scrutiny of the debate is welcomed.

“I am actually heartened that people are focused on the court and the work that we’re doing on the state of the government,” she told Davis. “As a democracy, the people are supposed to be the rulers. The people are supposed to be leading in terms of the policies and the way in which our government operates. And so, the more that people are engaged with our institutions the better.”

Jackson’s appearance came at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was part of a promotional tour for her new memoir, “Lovely One,” which chronicles her journey from south Florida to the Ivy League and on to the high court.

President Joe Biden appointed Jackson in 2022 to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. She is the first former public defender, for Florida-raised judge, and first Black woman to serve as a justice.

“I’m aware that people are watching,” Jackson told Davis. “They want to know how I’m going to perform in this job and in this environment, and so I’m doing my best work as well as I can do, because I want people to see and know that I can do anything just like anyone else.”

In her recently-concluded third term on the court, Jackson wrote more than 24 opinions — second only to Justice Clarence Thomas — and was the justice most often in dissent.

“We have very different opinions,” Jackson said, “and it’s a tradition of the Court that justices get to voice their opinions in the context of their opinions and writings.”

During oral arguments, Jackson was also among the most vocal on the bench — by one count uttering 79,000 words, more than any other colleague.

“It’s funny to me how much people focus on how much I talk in oral argument,” Jackson said. “It’s been a bit of an adjustment because as a trial court judge, you have your own courtroom so you can go on as long as you want. So, trying to make sure that my colleagues get to ask some questions has been a challenge for me, but I’ve enjoyed it.”

Jackson said she believes the justices are “good at separating out the work” and maintaining cordial personal relationships with each other despite their disagreements.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz defended the National Weather Service and accused some Democrats of playing politics in the wake of devastating floods in Texas.

“I think this is not a time for partisan finger-pointing and attacks,” Cruz said at a news conference with local officials in Kerr County on Monday morning.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later began her briefing on the offensive, calling out those who’ve questioned whether federal cuts to the NWS impacted staffing levels or forecasting abilities as the tragedy unfolded.

“Unfortunately, in the wake of this once in a generation natural disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and some members of the media,” Leavitt said. “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning.”

Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, on Monday called for an investigation into whether cuts made to NWS in the administration had any correlation to the level of devastation.

“Following the disastrous and deeply devastating flash flooding in Texas this weekend, I write to urge you to immediately to open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding,” Schumer wrote in a letter sent to Commerce Department Acting Inspector General Roderick Anderson.

At least 94 people, including more than two dozen children, are dead after heavy rain led to flash flooding in Texas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told ABC News that NWS planned for extra staffing at the NWS Austin/San Antonio local office ahead of the event. The local office had five NWS employees working compared to the two that would normally be scheduled.

In a statement to ABC News, the NWS highlighted that they gave briefings to emergency management the day before the tragic event and mentioned some alert lead times.

“The National Weather Service is heartbroken by the tragic loss of life in Kerr County. On July 3, the NWS office in Austin/San Antonio, TX conducted forecast briefings for emergency management in the morning and issued a Flood Watch in the early afternoon. Flash Flood Warnings were issued on the night of July 3 and in the early morning of July 4, giving preliminary lead times of more than three hours before warning criteria were met. The National Weather Service remains committed to our mission to serve the American public through our forecasts and decision support services,” the NWS said.

Leavitt, from the podium on Monday, ran through the specific timeline of alerts sent by the NWS and emphasized the extra staff in place at the NWS Austin/San Antonio office.

She noted the office issued a flood watch at 1:18 p.m. on Thursday, July 3. Then, a flash flood warning was issued for Bandera and Kerr counties at 1:14 a.m. on Friday, July 4 that was upgraded with more serious warnings at 3:35 a.m..

“So, to any person who has deliberately lied about these facts surrounding this catastrophic event, you should be deeply ashamed,” she said.

Leavitt was asked on Monday why the warnings were sent at a time when people were likely asleep and what, if anything, the administration is doing to ensure that these alerts come out sooner in the future.

“This was an act of God, it is not the administration’s fault that the flood hit when it did but there were early and consistent warnings,” Leavitt said. “And again, the National Weather Service did its job.”

Cruz, at the local news conference in Texas, pushed back on NWS claims but said there would be a “period of retrospection” after the immediate recovery efforts to analyze what happened and what went wrong.

“In the wake of every tragedy, there are things that are predictable,” Cruz said. “One of the things that’s predictable is to see some people engaging in, I think, partisan games, and trying to blame their political opponents for a natural disaster. And you see that with a hurricane, with a tornado, with a wildfire, with this flooding, where people immediately say, ‘Well, the hurricane is Donald Trump’s fault.’ I think most normal Americans know that’s ridiculous, and I think this is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks.”

“Now, after we come through search and rescue, after we come through the process of rebuilding, there will naturally be a period of retrospection where you look back and say, ‘Okay, what exactly transpired, what was the timeline, and what could have been done differently to prevent this loss of life?’ And that’s a natural process,” Cruz added. “I think it should not happen in a bitter and partisan sense, but it should happen in a reasonable sense of saying, what lessons can we learn?”

President Trump is still planning on visiting Texas on Friday, the White House said, though plans are not yet finalized.

Trump was asked about NWS on Sunday if he was going to investigate whether cuts at NWS left key positions vacant.

“No, no. They didn’t,” Trump said.

Trump then tried to pin blame on former President Joe Biden, his Oval Office predecessor, before walking the comment back.

“I’ll tell you: If you look at that — what a situation that all is. That was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup. But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either. I would just say this is a hundred-year catastrophe, and it’s just so horrible to watch,” Trump said.

ABC News’ Mariam Khan and Matthew Glasser contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES, Calif. ) — A large immigration enforcement operation is underway in Los Angeles with U.S. troops on the ground.

According to a post on X by the Defense Department, U.S. military personnel were on the ground to ensure the safety of federal agents.

“We will protect federal law enforcement and assist by establishing a security perimeter,” DOD wrote.

Defense officials said that 90 armed troops were involved in the operation in support of immigration authorities.

 It was not immediately clear who or what was targeted, as the local Fox News Channel affiliate aired video of agents in a mostly empty park.

Defense officials had said the troops were deployed to set up a security perimeter to protect federal law enforcement officials against potentially hostile crowds.

All of the troops involved in the operation were activated members of the California National Guard.

The operation included some 17 Humvees, four military cargo trucks and two military ambulances, officials said.

The armed troops were told in advance of the raid that they could defend themselves and federal employees if needed. If  a person was a threat, the troops could detain the individual briefly before handing them off to law enforcement, officials said.

Earlier this summer, Trump deployed some 4,700 troops to California under a law known as Title 10, which allows the use of military forces to protect federal personnel and federal property.

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