(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to counting undated mail-in ballots in a contested Pennsylvania local election, a move with potentially broader implications for close races in November’s midterm elections.
Over the objection of three justices, the Court restored a federal appeals court ruling that said disqualifying ballots received on time but lacking a handwritten date on the return envelope would violate federal voting rights.
Pennsylvania state law requires that voters include a date next to the signature, even though mail ballots are typically postmarked and dated again by election officials when they are received. The appeals court concluded the absence of the handwritten date was an “immaterial” error.
The Supreme Court did not elaborate on its decision to allow counting to proceed, and it is not binding precedent. But it does suggest that a majority of justices support the view that discarding ballots over small administrative errors or omissions would harm the franchise.
Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissent joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, said he would have stayed the appeals court ruling in order to review the merits of the dispute, which he said “could well affect the outcome of the fall elections.”
Alito wrote that he believes the Third Circuit opinion is “very likely wrong.”
“When a mail-in ballot is not counted because it was not filled out correctly, the voter is not denied ‘the right to vote.’ Rather, that individual’s vote is not counted because he or she did not follow the rules for casting a ballot,” Alito wrote.
Pennsylvania has famously had a number of very close elections in recent years, in several cases decided by the counting of mail-in ballots with varying degrees of compliance with state voting regulations.
GOP Senate candidate David McCormick, who conceded to rival Dr. Mehmet Oz in his closely-watched Pennsylvania primary race last week, may have benefitted from the counting of undated mail-in ballots, which were ultimately discarded. He lost by 900 votes.
The court’s decision most immediately benefits the Democratic candidate in a 2021 race for a seat on the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas, Zachary Cohen. He trails David Ritter, a Republican, by 71 votes. State election officials say there are 257 undated mail-in ballots that will soon be counted to finalize results in the race.
The Supreme Court has been deeply divided over election disputes and voting rights in recent years, with today’s decision highlighting differences among the justices and the kinds of political fights the court will likely face during a high-stakes election year.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m.
The hearing will feature never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jun 09, 5:45 pm
Capitol Police officer, documentarian to testify
One of the first officers injured on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks, will deliver her firsthand account before the committee in a matter of hours.
Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, is also scheduled to testify live.
ABC News exclusively obtained some of Quested’s extraordinary material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol. Click here for more.
Jun 09, 5:22 pm
McCarthy dodges questions on legitimacy of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wouldn’t say Thursday if President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McCarthy on the matter four times during a news conference where House Republicans preemptively slammed tonight’s hearing, calling the Jan. 6 panel “the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.”
McCarthy said Biden is the president, but declined to address the legitimacy aspect and declined to say Trump was wrong when he baselessly claimed the election was fraudulent.
Watch the full exchange here:
Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s presentation alleging former Pres. Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy dodges when pressed four times by @jonkarl on whether he believes Pres. Biden was the legitimate winner. https://t.co/7x9xFOiAeUpic.twitter.com/xqqDpFGoFU
The select committee has promised never-before-seen videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest aides and family members after Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. all sat for interviews earlier this year.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who turned over thousands of text messages to the committee — has been described by congressional sources as an “MVP” of the hearings, as his messages have provided somewhat of a roadmap for investigators.
Jun 09, 4:35 pm
Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’
President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.
“One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th,” Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.
“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden continued. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there’s a lot of questions: who’s responsible, who’s involved?”
Jun 09, 4:11 pm
Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.
Thursday’s hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.
(WASHINGTON) — From legal action to name-calling, former President Donald Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime-time on Thursday.
Committee members say they will lay out to the American people how Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to descend on lawmakers as part of a monthslong attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election — as Trump, from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, coordinates counterattacks with GOP allies in the House, who have assumed the role of his public defenders against what he’s deemed is a “scam” investigation from the “unselect committee” of “political thugs.”
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts Thursday on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
While Trump has labeled the rioters as “a loving crowd” who were “hugging and kissing” police officers and posed “zero threat” in an interview, the committee is expected to emphasize the threat to then-Vice President Mike Pence as it seeks to capture the severity of the attack and make its case — despite Trump’s narrative.
Members of the select committee now have the challenge of making their case to the American public amid Trump’s relentless commentary riddled with false claims about the 2020 election — commentary that previously encouraged “patriots” to “fight” in Washington on Jan. 6.
Trump has maintained he carries no responsibility for the attack while deploying an arsenal of rhetoric to recast what happened and to undermine the investigation.
Here are some examples:
Branding the ‘Unselect committee’
After Senate Republicans blocked efforts last year to form an independent commission to investigate the Capitol attack, the House established a select committee last summer by a vote of 222-190. From the start, Trump used familiar attack language to mock the effort he called a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats.”
When the committee sent its first subpoenas to four of his administration officials last September, the former president released a lengthy statement labeling it the “Unselect Committee” of “highly partisan politicians.” He called the action “Harassment Subpoenas,” while continuing to push baseless claims that the election was stolen.
“Hopefully the Unselect Committee will be calling witnesses on the Rigged Presidential Election of 2020, which is the primary reason that hundreds of thousands of people went to Washington, D.C. in the first place,” Trump said.
And when announcing he was canceling a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, amid concerns from congressional Republicans over what he might say, Trump added in his statement, “This is the Democrats’ Great Cover-Up Committee and the Media is complicit.”
Trump continues to call the 2020 election “the Crime of the Century,” despite his own officials, dozens of recounts, and more than 40 failed lawsuits affirming President Joe Biden’s win.
GOP coordination in counterprogramming
Taking cues from the former president as still appears to carry massive influence with his base, Republican leaders have also dismissed the work of their colleagues to match Trump’s rhetoric.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — who first said that Trump carries responsibility for the attack before making a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago just weeks later — held a news conference with other House Republicans Thursday morning as a “prebuttal” to the Jan. 6 hearing. Though McCarthy was subpoenaed by the committee seeking information on his phone calls with Trump on the day of the attack, he did not comply.
Asked Thursday by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl whether the election was stolen, McCarthy repeatedly dodged.
“Joe Biden is the president. There’s a lot of problems still with the election process,” he said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has slammed the committee as a “scam” for months, called the upcoming hearing “garbage” that “Americans are not going to watch” in an interview Wednesday on Fox News, which is notably not carrying the hearing in prime time.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who was with Trump in Bedminster Wednesday, said in an interview with “Breitbart News Saturday” that it’s House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who should be investigated instead, alleging the speaker “refused” to turn over security documents.
“Why? Because she is covering up, because there were concerns about security that were raised with Speaker Pelosi’s office,” Stefanik claimed. “Where are the documents? Where are the communications, Nancy? Until she does that, we know that she bears responsibility.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told ABC News Wednesday, “We have no idea what Rep. Stefanik is talking about. We suspect neither does she.” He added: “Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination.”
While House Republican leaders have loudly backed Trump, one notable Republican — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent target of Trump’s attacks — signaled his personal interest in the House committee’s work. McConnell said in an interview with Spectrum News in December, “I think that what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.”
Trump taunts committee members
Trump has taken particular aim at the only two Republicans sitting on the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, whom he has taunted with his trademark nicknames, “polling warmonger Liz Cheney and Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger.”
The pair has faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for speaking out against Trump, with Cheney being removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year and both being formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate the attack.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement on the censure. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
Beyond calling Cheney a “smug fool” and throwing the full weight of his endorsement behind her primary challenger, Trump has also shared doctored images on his website of the lawmaker with former President George Bush’s face, teasing the images as a “must-see.”
Cheney has continued to counter the attacks with warnings for American democracy.
“We are not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened,” she told CBS News correspondent Robert Costa in a “Sunday Morning” interview. “We are, in fact, in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack. And so, people must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it.”
Attempts to block committee
As the select committee began to seek documents for its investigation last summer, Trump announced that he would assert “executive privilege” over what he called a “partisan exercise” in order to withhold documents the committee had requested.
Then, in October, Trump announced that he was suing the committee to block the disclosure of those documents, describing the panel’s demand in a lawsuit as a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition.”
“We will fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country, while we wait to find out whether or not Subpoenas will be sent out to Antifa and BLM for the death and destruction they have caused in tearing apart our Democrat-run cities throughout America,” he said in a statement.
A federal appeals court first rejected his effort before the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the select committee in January, allowing the National Archives to turn over Trump White House records to the committee. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented that he would have granted Trump’s request.
The National Archives and Record Administration also confirmed earlier this year that Trump White House documents sought by the committee recovered from Mar-a-Lago were marked classified.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has promised to reveal new information in prime time Thursday as it seeks to capture the public’s attention and lay out how it says American democracy came close to being subverted.
Summing up an 11-month-long investigation, Thursday’s hearing kicks off at 8 p.m. EDT and will be the first of six this month where the committee says it will explain a “multi-step, coordinated attempt” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and, for the time in U.S history, stop a peaceful transfer of power.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits that they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. EDT, and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage of each hearing in June.
“There’s a lot that’s unseen,” one committee aide said Wednesday in a briefing with reporters. “The select committee is also going to lay out a clear indication of ongoing threats to American democracy.”
What is the select committee and who sits on it?
A select committee is a congressional committee appointed to perform a special function beyond the capacity of an already standing committee. For example, Americans might remember a House select committee was previously formed to investigate the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.
After Senate Republicans killed a proposal for an independent, bipartisan commission that would have given Republicans equal representation to investigate the Capitol attack — similar to what Congress approved after the Sept. 11 attacks — the House voted to form a select committee last summer.
The panel was designed to consist of 13 members, with five appointed in consultation with the minority leader, but after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s committee nominees — Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks — over concerns false statements they made around the 2020 election — McCarthy pulled all five of his nominees. Echoing language used by Trump, he deemed the investigation a “sham process” before it began.
Pelosi ultimately appointed the only two Republicans who voted in favor of the committee — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — and seven Democrats — Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Zoe Lofgren of California, Adam Schiff of California, Pete Aguilar of California, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Elaine Luria, of Virginia — to probe the insurrection.
“It’s bipartisan, and we have a quorum. Staff is being hired to do the job,” Pelosi said at the time. “We’re there to get the truth, not to get Trump.”
Nearly a year later, Americans can expect different lawmakers of the nine-member committee to take the lead on various hearing days to guide the presentations.
What can viewers expect to see Thursday?
Aides described the first major public hearing in prime time as a “preview” of what to expect in subsequent hearings.
Witnesses planned for Thursday include documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who was embedded with the extremist far-right group the Proud Boys during the assault on the Capitol, and Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury during the attack when rioters pushed her to the ground.
“We’re going to learn about where they were at that time when these rioters initially breached the Capitol,” a committee aide told reporters.
The panel will also feature new excerpts of videotaped interviews with Trump administration and White House officials, Trump campaign officials and Trump’s family members. ABC has reported previously that daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. have all testified.
Unlike other congressional hearings, Thursday will be a mixture of live and taped testimony and blockbuster video production, designed to capture the public’s attention.
Former ABC News President James Goldston, a seasoned television executive, started working with the committee several weeks ago to help produce the hearing, a development first reported by Axios and confirmed to ABC News by congressional sources. The committee declined to comment on “personnel matters” when asked about the decision to enlist Goldston’s help.
While most major news networks are expected to carry Thursday’s hearing live in their prime-time slot, Fox News announced this week that their prime-time programs will only cover the hearings “as news warrants.” Instead, Fox Business will be covering the hearings live, stirring backlash. Fox News averaged 1.5 million viewers at any given time last month, while Fox Business averaged 136,000.
When are the next hearings?
The select committee’s next hearings are slated for Monday, June 13, and Wednesday, June 15. Both begin at 10 a.m.
The committee has not yet finalized witnesses for the next hearings, but they could include state election officials, ex-Trump Justice Department officials who pushed back on attempts to investigate voter fraud, and even White House lawyers familiar with Trump’s attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results.
With at least three other hearings planned for June, the committee has also not ruled out the possibility of adding more hearings in the future.
It also plans to release a full report on its findings, including legislative recommendations on reforms, at some point this fall — coinciding with the 2022 midterm elections.
Is this the first hearing?
Although Thursday marks the panel’s first hearing in prime time, it is not the first public hearing.
The select committee held its first hearing last July, when lawmakers heard dramatic, emotional accounts from law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and said they feared for their lives.
“I sat down on the bench in the Rotunda with a friend of mine, who is also a Black Capitol Police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, ‘How the blank could something like this happen? Is this America?'” recounted Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. “I began sobbing.”
In her opening statement that day, Cheney made the committee’s intentions clear.
“We cannot leave the violence of January 6th and its causes uninvestigated,” she said. “If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic.”
(WASHINGTON) — Cassidy Hutchinson, a member of Mark Meadows’ staff when Meadows was Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has hired Jody Hunt to represent her as the public Jan. 6 hearings begin, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
At the start of the Trump administration, Hunt served as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Hunt later became the head of Department of Justice’s Civil Division.
Members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack are actively negotiating with Hutchinson for her public testimony during the upcoming committee hearings, sources with knowledge of the matter told ABC News.
If Hutchinson agrees to appear publicly, she will put a voice to many of the interactions involving Jan. 6 that have been reported publicly, and offer significant insight into Meadows’ actions and interactions with the former president on Jan. 6 and in the days before and after, the sources said.
During earlier depositions with the committee, Hutchinson confirmed to committee investigators accounts that Meadows had burned documents in his office, according to sources.
It was not immediately clear the contents of what Meadows is alleged to have burned, or whether his actions as described by witnesses constitute anything illegal.
ABC News previously reported that the committee is negotiating with former White House counsel Pat Cipollone for his public testimony. Should either Hutchinson or Cipollone agree to testify, it would mark the first witness to publicly appear before the committee who was physically in the West Wing on Jan. 6.
(WASHINGTON) — Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley has been arrested and charged for participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
(WASHINGTON) — After more than 1,000 closed-door interviews and 11 months of secretive work, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will go public in a prime-time hearing Thursday night — with never-before-seen video of the riot and testimony of former President Donald Trump’s family members.
Led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel will lay out a roadmap for a series of hearings in June it says are designed to show how former President Donald Trump led allies in a comprehensive effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“We’re going to lay out for the American people in a way that they haven’t been asked before about this multi-step, coordinated attempt to overturn a presidential election and stop the transfer of power,” a committee aide said Wednesday. “What the select committee is also going to lay out is clear indication of ongoing threats to American democracy.”
Thursday’s hearing, set to begin at 8 p.m. EDT, is expected to include previously unseen videos and images of the Capitol attack, along with excerpts of videotaped testimony the committee obtained from ex-Trump aides and members of the former president’s family — including his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“We’re ready to tell the story of what led up to Jan. 6, and what happened after it,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said Wednesday.
The hearing will feature testimony from filmmaker Nick Quested, who was embedded with the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 and witnessed the role that some members of the far-right extremist group played in the Capitol attack.
The committee will utilize some of the graphic video Quested and his camera crew filmed of the Capitol riot from the front lines, which captured the first violent clashes on the West Front of the Capitol and rioters roaming the halls of the House looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury during the attack when rioters pushed her to the ground outside the Capitol, will also appear before the committee.
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who said that the hearings would “blow the roof off the House” at an event in May, said earlier this week that the committee “is in the business of trying to communicate to the American people the gravity and the immensity of these events.”
“We’re not looking for anything other than the transmission of truth,” he said.
A month of hearings
The series of hearings will explore different elements of the committee’s inquiry, which was divided up among roughly half-a-dozen color-coded investigative teams that focused on various themes of the effort — from Trump’s pressure campaign on local officials, to extremist groups, the “Stop the Steal” movement and fundraising efforts.
Different members of the committee are expected to take the lead in guiding and narrating the presentations on various hearing days.
Beyond reconstructing events for the historical record, Democrats — and the two Republican members of the committee — plan to argue that Trump and his GOP allies still pose a threat to democracy and future elections.
They’ve enlisted the help of former ABC News president James Goldston to help produce and compress the swaths of information gathered during the investigation into digestible, timed-out hearings. (A committee aide declined to comment on Goldston’s role with the panel.)
“The information presented needs to be truthful and accurate, but it needs to be sharp and gripping,” Norm Eisen, who served as a special counsel for House Democrats during the first Trump impeachment, told ABC News. “This will be the Watergate hearings for the streaming era.”
The committee has not yet finalized witnesses for the remainder of the hearings, though they could include state election officials, ex-Trump Justice Department officials who pushed back on attempts to investigate voter fraud, and even White House lawyers familiar with Trump’s attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results on Jan. 6.
Videotaped depositions of administration aides — such as Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short, and aides who worked closely with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows — could also feature into the presentations, along with emails obtained by the committee and the text messages Meadows shared with investigators before he withdrew his cooperation.
Republicans plan to push back
Trump and top House Republicans have dismissed the committee’s work, and accused the Democrat-led panel of targeting Trump and other top GOP figures at a time when they should be focused on economic issues like gas prices, baby formula shortages and inflation. The former president huddled with some lawmakers to plot a strategy for responding to the hearing earlier this week.
“House Republicans will be setting the record straight and telling the truth,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who will lead GOP rapid response efforts, said Wednesday. “Most importantly, we will continue to focus on the important issues that matter.”
Other Republicans, including some of Trump’s staunchest defenders in the House, told ABC News they would ignore the hearings entirely and not tune in for the primetime session Thursday.
Reframing the midterms
Months away from the midterms and facing historic headwinds in keeping their majorities, Democrats believe the hearings could provide the party with an opportunity to sharpen the contrast with Republicans who did not stop — and in some cases, participated in — Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked with President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and has surveyed swing voters, argued that the hearings could present Democrats with an opportunity to energize unmotivated voters in the midterms, and give others a reason not to support Republicans in the key House and Senate races that will decide control of Congress.
“The economy is the number one issue for people, but I don’t think it’s an issue that’s going to draw a clear contrast that will benefit Democrats,” she said. “This is a clear distinction. We’ve got to make this election a choice, not a referendum.”
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who represents a swing district won by Trump in 2016 and 2020, said it wasn’t clear how much of an impact the hearings would have on her constituents heading into the fall. But she said it was important for the committee to put forward a historical record of the riot.
“It depends on what they have and it depends on what kind of teeth the evidence really has,” she said. “I see really positive signs at least in my district and in my state that people are absolutely sick of extremes … and they want a government that just actually works.”
The committee plans to release a final report with its conclusions, and legislative recommendations, in the fall. That could include proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act that Republicans used to register objections to the counting of electoral votes in key states on Jan. 6.
“We’re just going to tell the truth as we know it, and see what happens,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and clashed with police officers.
His firsthand, searing account of the riot will be a central piece of the House Jan. 6 select committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday night, which will feature both his testimony and some of the never-before-seen footage of the Proud Boys and other rioters he turned over to investigators.
ABC News has exclusively obtained some of that material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“I am not allowed to say what’s going to happen today because everyone’s just gonna have to watch for themselves. But it’s gonna happen,” one woman in the crowd told Quested ominously. “Something’s gonna happen one way or another.”
Quested’s material shows some of the most infamous Capitol rioters in the hours before they appeared in the halls of Congress, including Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” later sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in the attack.
“Freedom!” Chansley shouts, with his horned fur hat and spear on the National Mall.
Quested captured the moment just before 1 p.m. when protesters overpowered Capitol Police officers at the outer perimeter of the complex, turning over a series of bicycle racks and rushing closer to the Capitol building.
Inside the swarming crowd at the base of the Capitol, he witnessed police officers frantically pushing rioters backwards as their perimeter crumpled, and Trump supporters swinging from scaffolding, using flags as weapons and crowd surfing closer to the violence at the Capitol’s west entrance.
A member of Quested’s film crew also followed the rioters into the halls of Congress, where some marched around the House chamber looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., chanting, “All we want is Pelosi!” and “Nancy!”
The speaker was evacuated by her Capitol Police detail minutes before rioters marched through her office. Some of her youngest staffers locked themselves in empty rooms and sheltered under tables.
Quested himself was assaulted during the riot, as a protestor tried to grab and smash his camera.
The committee on Thursday will also hear testimony from Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was one of the first officers injured during the riot when she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks forward and hit her head on the concrete stairs.
They also plan to feature clips of taped interviews with Trump administration officials and family members, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
The committee expects to use videos, social media posts and pictures throughout the public hearings planned for June and has retained former ABC News president James Goldston to help produce the upcoming sessions.
Along with Quested’s footage, the committee has also obtained 14,000 hours of security camera video from Capitol Police.
A spokesman for the committee declined to comment.
(WASHINGTON) — While some of their friends and loved ones are still being buried at home, both survivors and families of victims in recent mass shootings challenged lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to reach a deal on gun reform negotiations or risk continuing a 30-year trend of inaction in the wake of tragedies from Sandy Hook to Parkland.
As Senate negotiators continue talks, the House on Wednesday evening passed a sweeping package, largely along party lines — called the “Protect Our Kids Act” — which would raise the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, ban high-capacity magazines, create firearm safe storage requirements and tighten the regulation of bump stocks and “ghost guns.”
A handful of members broke ranks in the 223-204 vote, with five Republicans — Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Chris Jacobs of New York, and Fred Upton of Michigan — supporting the package, and two Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon — voting no.
Notably, each Republican who crossed party lines will not be returning to Congress next term, and Schrader recently lost his Democratic primary. One Republican did not vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveled in the vote Wednesday with a smile as her caucus cheered.
But House GOP leaders pushed back ahead of the vote, with Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., noting, “there wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes,” after the Sept. 11 attacks — and calling for the majority to hold bipartisan talks like their Senate counterparts. Though the legislation is doomed in the upper chamber, it’s intended to put pressure on Republicans who have been hesitant to enact — or outright blocked — reform at the federal level, despite growing calls for change.
The real opportunity to change policy lies in the Senate, where a small group of bipartisan negotiators is inching closer to reaching a gun reform deal in principle.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., leaving a meeting with the group of roughly 11 lawmakers on Wednesday, said they were discussing “a series of concrete proposals” that he’s “hopeful in the next day will all be reduced to a framework that includes a broad range of commitments, in terms of dollar amounts and purposes.”
But questions remain around what the final deal will include — and if it will go as far as many Americans are demanding.
“Somewhere out there, a mom is hearing our testimony and thinking to herself, ‘I can’t even imagine their pain,’ not knowing that our reality will one day be hers — unless we act now,” said Kimberly Rubio, mother of Lexi Rubio, a fourth-grade student among the 19 kids and two teachers killed in Uvalde, Texas. “So, today, we stand for Lexi. And as her voice, we demand action. We seek a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.”
“You expect us to continue to just forgive and forget over and over again. And what are you doing?” Garnell Whitfield Jr., the son of Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim of the Buffalo, New York shooting, which left 10 Black people dead, asked senators Tuesday. “My mother’s life mattered. Your actions here will tell us if, and how much, it mattered to you.”
Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, who said he learned responsible gun ownership growing up in Uvalde, also offered a passionate plea from the White House after lobbying lawmakers on both sides of the aisle this week, saying that Americans are more united on the issue of guns, but it’s Congress that’s divided.
“Enough of the invalidation of the other side. Let’s come to the common table that represents the American people. Find a middle ground, the place where most of us Americans live anyway, especially on this issue,” McConaughey said in an emotional and lengthy speech. “Because I promise you, America — you and me, who — we are not as divided as we’re being told we are.”
The bipartisan group of senators, led by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, is aiming to reach a compromise this week on a package that could garner enough support to pass Congress — but they’re considering measures much smaller in scope than what both victims and President Joe Biden have publicly called for.
Instead of universal background checks, supported by 89% of Americans according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, negotiators are looking to expand background checks to look at juvenile records. Regarding red-flag laws, supported by 86% of Americans according to the same poll, laws which temporarily remove guns from the hands of individuals who are considered a danger to themselves or others, the group is considering incentivizing states to implement their own, as opposed to enacting red-flag laws at a federal level.
Funding to states for mental health resources — a measure Republicans pushed for, along with increased funding for school safety — is about 80% complete, according to Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who is part of the talks.
Senate Democrats support the expanded versions of these measures as well as raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21 — but they don’t have enough Republican support to become law. Democrats need 10 Senate Republicans to join them on any legislation to meet the chamber’s 60-vote threshold, required by the filibuster rule, and allow a bill to advance for final passage.
So far, it’s not clear there is enough support even for a more modest deal.
Despite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky expressing a willingness in private to support raising the age to buy assault-style weapons, sources told ABC News’ Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, the measure is a nonstarter for most Republicans.
Asked by a CNN reporter why Americans would need an AR-15, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said people use them in his state “to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints.”
Less than 24 hours later, a Uvalde pediatrician, who treated the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, described to House lawmakers the damage the gunman’s AR-15 there had on the tiny bodies.
“Two children, whose bodies had been so pulverized by the bullets fired at them, over and over again, whose flesh had been so ripped apart, that the only clue as to their identities were the blood spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them,” said Pediatrician Dr. Roy Guerrero.
What’s next?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has given negotiators roughly until the end of the week to come up with a framework agreement, after which it would take more time to then develop legislative language and get the requisite budget analyses.
“I’m encouraging my Democratic colleagues to keep talking, to see if Republicans will work with us to come up with something that will make a meaningful change in the lives of the American people and stop gun violence,” he said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Making real progress is very important. Sen. Murphy has asked for space to have the talks continue, and I have given him the space.”
But not every negotiator appears on board with that swift timeline.
Lead Republican on the talks, Sen. Cornyn, told reporters on Wednesday that his “aspirational goal” would be to reach a deal “in the next couple of weeks, by the end of this work period” on June 27.
While negotiators appear to be closing in on a framework deal by Friday, one GOP aide familiar with the matter said that paper is still being exchanged by each side. It’s possible that members announce a deal in principle and then take a few more weeks to finalize language, as was seen with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Senate Democrats need 10 Republicans to join them in theory, but some think any agreement is going to need even broader Republican support to pass — under the thinking more in the GOP will be willing to support the measure if it has the backing of their larger conference.
If negotiators do not come to an agreement, Schumer has vowed to get every senator on the record by holding a vote on doomed-to-fail comprehensive gun reform legislation, ahead of the fall midterm elections.
(WASHINGTON) — As another slate of states held their primary elections, most Americans remain critical of President Joe Biden’s handling of the inflation-plagued economy. According to a new ABC News / IPSOS poll, more than 8 in 10 Americans say that the economy is either an extremely or very important issue in determining how they will vote, a motivator likely to be reflected in which candidates advance to the general in Tuesday night’s key races.
Here are the key takeaways from the races in New Jersey, Iowa and California, which featured some of the midterm cycle’s most endangered incumbents across the political spectrum:
San Francisco district attorney defeated in recall
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin lost his job after a nail-biter of a recall race. With 68% of the expected vote in, 60% supported his ousting. Now, the mayor will name a replacement who will serve in the role until November 2023, the end of the term.
Supporters of Boudin’s recall who pushed for this change as the rate of hate crimes against Asian-Americans spiked in 2021 raised over $7 million for their efforts. They painted Boudin as soft-on-crime — an accusation that clearly resonated.
Boudin’s recall is not only bad news for progressives — it’s also a referendum on liberal prosecutors across the country who face constituencies incised at rising levels of crime in their communities.
Iowa Democrats’ unsure future
The Iowa Democratic establishment is on the rocks. In one of the primary night’s stunning upsets, former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer decisively lost to retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Michael Franken.
Finkenauer was painted by Washington as a rising party star, despite her reflection loss in 2020, garnering high-profile endorsements from groups like EMILY’s List. While she out fundraised Franken by a little over $1 million, voters may have been shaken by attempts from Republicans to challenge her candidacy eligibility.
Franken continues on to attempt to unseat 88-year-old Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
“I am forever grateful, and I will never stop fighting for the Iowa that I love,” Finkenauer said in her concession statement.
Any attempt from the left to knock Grassley off his perch will be unwieldy at best, as Grassley has both major institutional support from Washington as well as from voters in a state that continues to trend Republican.
Democrats will leap another hurdle with the House race of Rep. Cindy Axne, who faces tough re-election odds thanks to newly redrawn boundaries of her 3rd congressional district. Thanks to redistricting, Axne’s district saw an influx of more than 5,000 Republican voters, mostly rural, that are likely to be disdainful of her voting record and relationship with Biden.
Axne is a top target of the National Republican Congressional Committee and is now forced to combat a million dollars in spending on opposition ads. The Cook Political Report has Axne’s race in the general as one of 23 Democratic toss-ups.
She’ll face off with Republican former Iowa state Sen. Zach Nunn in November.
A showdown in the suburbs
New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski wins his primary but will have a harder time in the general election after the latest redistricting left him in the one vulnerable district when state leaders opted to draw 11 safely partisan other seats. Here, Republicans get an attempt to recapture the suburbs that they lost in 2018, which evidently lost them control of the House.
Malinowski, who represents Jersey’s 7th congressional district, told ABC News he thought such redistricting — which has played out to varying degrees in new districts nationwide, with varying levels of scrutiny and controversy — was bad for democracy.
“We’re the only ones who actually, by our votes and by our work, get to decide, get to make a difference in terms of which way the wind is blowing in America one way or another. And that is a burden. It means we have to work much harder. It’s going to cost us a lot of money. But I think it’s also a privilege,” Malinowski said.
The may-be speaker makes it through
The potential next speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, expectedly survived his primary in California’s 23rd district, perhaps with small help from a Sunday endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
In his statement, Trump said McCarthy was instrumental in holding Biden and current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “accountable for their catastrophic failures and dereliction of duty.”
If the Red Wave the GOP is banking on holds, McCarthy is well positioned to campaign for the speakership, a gig he’s not publicly claimed but rumored to be pining for.
