Politics

(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration auctioned off large swaths of federally owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from oil and gas companies eager to begin drilling — while stoking the ire of environmental groups.

The auction was held less than two weeks after President Joe Biden pushed countries around the world to make collective sacrifices for the sake of the planet at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

The timing was not lost on environmental groups, who called for a halt to Wednesday’s auction — and are now slamming the Biden administration for allowing it to happen.

“Today I woke up enraged, but not surprised, that Biden would choose to cater to fossil fuel corporations over our futures,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, an environment-focused political group. “It speaks volumes that days after COP26 … he is approving major lease sales in the Gulf rather than doing everything in his power to stop extracting more fossil fuels.”

Wednesday’s auction yielded hundreds of bids from more than 30 oil and gas companies — including ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron — who collectively dished out nearly $200 million for drilling rights in 1.7 million acres of the oil-rich Gulf.

Fossil fuel extraction of this type contributes to toxic gas emissions that are responsible for climate change — a reality at odds with Biden’s pledge to halve U.S. emissions by 2030.

The situation has put Biden administration officials on the defensive. Earlier this week, Interior Department Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau spoke at a panel discussion sponsored by the University of Chicago and tried to deflect criticism of the auction, describing it as a legal requirement engineered by the Trump administration.

“The fact is, the upcoming oil lease sale … is part of the legacy system that we’re here to reform,” he said Monday.

Beaudreau did not directly address a question about why the administration had not done more to prevent the auction from taking place, but instead sought to cast blame on the Trump administration, which initially scheduled the lease sale.

“The administrative process for that lease sale had been completed during the previous administration,” Beaudreau said. “It is not the way that we would prefer to do business.”

Biden promised to end new drilling on federal lands during his presidential campaign, and in his first week in office he issued an executive order pausing the lease sales, pending a review of their environmental impact.

In June, however, a federal judge ordered the resumption of the lease sales, siding with 13 states that sued the administration for overstepping its authority.

The administration appealed the judge’s ruling, but environmental groups say the appeal came too late to impact this lease sale.

Beaudreau said the judge’s ruling left the administration “in a situation of, while we are fully committed to reforming the oil and gas program … we have to deal with the litigation, and we have to deal with the terms that we inherited from the previous administration.”

“It’s beyond frustrating that the administration is forced choose between two awful options: a massive court-mandated and climate-damaging lease sale or violating a court order and having a cabinet Secretary held in contempt of court,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “We absolutely must accelerate reform of the leasing program.”

Other environmental groups were not so satisfied with the administration’s explanation.

On Monday, protesters in New Orleans gathered to voice their discontent with the sale. In Washington, D.C., activists projected messages onto the Interior Department building, including “The Gulf is Not For Sale” and “Biden: Keep Your Promise.”

Environmental organizations also collected more than 100,000 signatures on a petition calling on Biden to uphold his commitment to ending new leasing for offshore oil and gas, which it planned to share with the administration.

A coalition of environmental groups is suing the administration to prevent the oil leases from taking effect, which the government said will occur on Jan. 1.

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(PHOENIX) — Republican governors are anything but “tired of winning,” and in Phoenix at the annual Republican Governors Association conference, it became clear that may not be the only point on which the party and the former president diverge.

Fresh off a national upset win in Virginia and a near-miss in New Jersey, the group of high-profile Republican governors and their strategists are now tasked with replicating their momentum across the map in some of the most highly competitive midterm races in decades — a goal actively complicated by former President Donald Trump’s continued endorsement of primary challengers to incumbent governors who have fallen out of his personal favor. And plans on how they navigate the minefield of remaining undistracted by Trump while not alienating him or his supporters remain fuzzy.

Rather than embracing or denouncing the former president, the over a dozen governors present who spoke publicly at the conference stressed that their path to winning lies in drilling down on issues-based campaigning — focusing on things like increasing police funding, combatting higher taxes, curbing immigration, ensuring election security, allowing parents a bigger role in public schools and other cultural issues like so-called “critical race theory.”

And to the highly confident Republican Governors Association, there is no more perfect blueprint than freshly-elected Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, who pulled off a gubernatorial win in a reliable blue state in part by nationalizing local issues while keeping the former president, and his continued gripes surrounding the 2020 election, at arm’s length.

“Before Glen Youngkin, there were 27 sitting republican governors. Today there are 28. We are the only majority Republican caucus in the country. Now, we certainly believe that the United States Senate at the House of Representatives can become majority institutions in 2022,” said RGA chairman Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona. “We saw a road map in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And whatever happens after 2022 will be decided after 2022.”

Ducey side-stepped questions of whether the association was concerned that incumbent candidates might lose their seats due to Trump’s involvement.

“We believe that our incumbents across the country deserve reelection,” he said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “Now ultimately, we may believe they deserve reelection, but that will be left to the people of fill in the blank, whatever state they are participating in.”

Ducey himself has been a high-profile target of Trump’s ire, despite being term limited. Trump has previously called Ducey an “unelectable RINO” and endorsed vocal Ducey-critic Kari Lake for Arizona governor. Ducey has not definitively shut the door on a run for Senate — a move Trump would no doubt condemn — though he previously said he had no intention of running. Trump has also endorsed GOP challengers in Idaho, Massachusetts and openly mocked sitting GOP Govs. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Brian Kemp of Georgia.

Still, Ducey declined to paint Trump’s involvement as problematic to the RGA.

“We make decisions state by state, race by race,” he said. “We don’t fund landslides. We don’t fund losers…I will also say the RGA follows the eleventh commandment: we do not speak ill of another Republican.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said it’s a matter of contrasting with Democrats.

“The reasons why Republicans will win even more governorships in this next election cycle is because we will continue to show the contrast of where Republican governors stand versus the leftist progressive agenda that is espoused and promoted by President Biden himself,” he said.

RGA executive director Dave Rexrode sees vulnerability among Biden’s coalition, particularly among the blue collar electorate Biden championed during the campaign.

“More working-class democratic voters are souring on Biden and Democrats at a faster pace. We certainly saw that in Virginia — that working-class Democratic group is working quickly against the president,” Rexrode said.

Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting last week, former RGA chair Chris Christie stressed that turning away from Trump, and other 2020 baggage, is the only way the party can see massive gains.

“We can no longer talk about the past and the past elections. No matter where you stand on that issue, no matter where you stand, it is over. And every minute that we spend talking about 2020, while we’re wasting time doing that, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are laying ruin to this country. We better focus on that and take our eyes off the rearview mirror and start looking through the windshield again,” he said.

During a press conference Wednesday evening, a slew of Republican governors did not address whether Christie’s stance is the right one.

Only Youngkin, the party’s winning template, chimed in.

“I fundamentally campaigned on looking forward and not looking backward,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday said that his administration is “considering” a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

When a reporter asked Biden during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether he’d support such a diplomatic boycott, Biden replied, “Something we’re considering.”

Members of Congress who have been pressing the issue legislatively say they understand the administration supports the idea, which would keep U.S. government officials, but not American athletes, from attending.

It’s part of an ongoing effort by activists and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to boycott the games over alleged human rights violations by China’s government.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed a diplomatic boycott in May and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Todd Young, R-Ind., are working together on an amendment to a massive national defense bill that would institute the boycott.

“That is my understanding,” Kaine said when asked if his proposal had the administration’s backing. “We’ve been urging it on the White House and they might actually take some steps before we even pass it.”

It’s not yet clear if the proposed amendment will get a vote on the floor. Similar language is included in a Senate-passed bill aimed at shoring up U.S. innovation and increasing competitiveness with China, but that bill is currently being reconciled with the House version and it’s unclear whether all provisions will remain.

Reporters on Thursday pressed White House press secretary Jen Psaki on whether Biden would end up supporting a diplomatic boycott, but she wouldn’t make a firm commitment on where he stands, although she did confirm the administration has been in conversations with lawmakers.

“Of course, we’re in regular ​​touch at a range of levels with members of Congress about a range of issues including our relationship with China and including an issue like this, that there’s been a lot of reporting and interest in,” Psaki said. “But beyond that, I don’t have an update given he just answered the question himself.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has backed his predecessor’s determination that the Chinese government is carrying out a genocide of the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority based for centuries in what is now China’s western province of Xinjiang.

The State Department has restricted exports from the region and sanctioned Chinese officials it has said are leading the campaign of repression, forced sterilization, displacement, and mass internment. Over one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are said to be in “re-education camps,” according to the U.S. government — facilities that at first China denied existed and has now cast as part of a broader counter-terrorism campaign in the region.

Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, but the Olympics were not discussed, according to a White House readout of the call.

While a a diplomatic boycott would mean that Biden and other U.S. officials would not attend the games — but athletes would — some lawmakers want to go further.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called for a total boycott Thursday, citing human rights issues and concerns about surveillance of athletes and their safety. Such a total boycott would sideline over 200 athletes set to compete in February. Cotton also wants corporate sponsorships for the games to be pulled.

Cotton said he supports a diplomatic boycott but called it “the least, the absolute bare minimum that any civilized nation would do.”

“It is probably going to be too little, too late,” Cotton said. “And now it’s not enough, either.”

Such a boycott is not unprecedented. President Jimmy Carter ordered a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

The Beijing Olympics are set to open on Feb. 4, 2022.

Psaki said she’ll leave it to Biden to formalize the U.S. official stance.

“I certainly understand the interest,” she said. “But I want to leave the president the space to make decisions.”

ABC News’ Conor Finnegan and MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report

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(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats on Thursday appeared to clear one of the final hurdles to passing their $1.75 trillion social policy package, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its cost estimate of the full proposal.

The analysis could pave the way for Democrats to pass the sprawling Build Back Better plan in the House as early as Thursday night, sending it to the Senate and moving it one step closer to President Joe Biden’s desk. House Speaker Pelosi announced the plan would be taken up this evening after an hour of debate on the House floor.

House Democrats scrambled Thursday evening to make last-minute technical changes to the proposal for it to be compliant with the Senate’s strict budget rules — and the mechanism that will allow Democrats to approve the full package with their slim 50-seat majority. A number of moderate House Democrats had demanded to see the CBO’s full analysis before voting.

According to the CBO’s latest projections, the proposal in the package to beef up IRS enforcement of tax-dodging would yield an additional $207 billion in revenue. That’s less than the Biden administration’s own projections that the provision would raise $400 billion to help pay for the larger package, but in line with what lawmakers have expected.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Thursday argued to reporters that Democrats have coalesced around a transformative proposal that would lower prescription drug, health care and childcare costs.

But a proposal for four weeks of paid family leave faces an uphill climb in the Senate among some Democrats, as do some provisions to shield some undocumented immigrants from deportation, and another to raise the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes — a controversial change to the 2017 GOP tax law supported by Democrats in California, New York and New Jersey but decried by others as a change that will benefit high earners.

Republicans have hammered Democrats for the total price tag of the proposal in the House and argued that it will do little to combat inflation ahead of the Thanksgiving holidays. No Republicans are expected to support the package in either chamber.

The social spending bill contains $555 billion for climate and clean energy investments. It would reduce the cost of some prescription drugs, extend the child tax credit, expand universal preschool and includes electric-vehicle tax credits, paid leave, housing assistance and dozens more progressive priorities.

“As soon as we get the scrub information we can proceed with our manager’s amendment to proceed to a vote on the new rules, the manager’s amendment, reflecting the scrub, not any policy changes, but just some technicalities about committee jurisdiction, etc.,” Pelosi said earlier in the day. “And then we will vote on the rule and then on the bill. Those votes hopefully will take place later this afternoon.”

The House vote would then send the package to the Senate, which is expected to amend the proposal in the coming weeks after the Thanksgiving recess as Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have not committed to the package in its current form.

Since Democrats plan to pass the measure through reconciliation, a lengthy budget process that would not require them to have any Republican support since Democrats have a narrow majority in both chambers, the legislation — months in the making — still has a long way to go, including back to the House, before it would even hit Biden’s desk.

Pelosi expressed confidence that with control of Congress hanging in the balance ahead of the midterm elections less than a year away, Democrats will be able to successfully sell their work to the American people — and do so more effectively than they did in 2010 after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, due, in part, to Biden using the “bully pulpit.”

“Joe Biden is very committed to messaging this. As you’ve seen he’s already on the road,” she said. “There’s no substitute for the bully pulpit of the president of the United States reinforced by the events we will have across the United States.”

Democratic members of Congress are also planning to hold 1,000 events before the end of the year to make clear to Americans “what we’re doing in this package,” according to the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, speaking to part one of Biden’s policy agenda on infrastructure signed into law on Monday.

“The messaging on it will be immediate, and it will be intense, and it will be eloquent, and it will make a difference,” Pelosi said.

Giving remarks in Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, Biden also endorsed Pelosi’s timeline to pass part two of his infrastructure agenda this week.

“I’m confident that the House is going to pass this bill. And when it passes, it will go to the Senate,” Biden said. “I think we’ll get it passed within a week.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in his quest to become the House speaker, blasted Pelosi at his press conference and said the reconciliation bill will “be the end of their Democratic majority.”

While the already-passed bipartisan infrastructure law itself and its individual components — rebuilding and repairing bridges, ports and roads, expanding broadband internet, and more — are widely popular, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Americans aren’t giving Biden credit for championing the law and getting it through Congress. The president’s approval rating is at an all-time low at 41%.

Democratic leaders and the White House continue to insist both pieces of legislation will be fully paid for, in part by imposing a 15% minimum tax on corporate profits that large corporations report to shareholders.

Pelosi on Thursday also tried to defend Democrats’ “Build Back Better” proposal from criticism over a key tax provision that has angered some in the caucus. Some moderates and leading progressives have criticized plans to undo a cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deductions — a reversal of Republicans’ 2017 tax law — popular in California, New York and New Jersey, given that the change would benefit wealthy suburban property owners.

The change would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $80,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax returns after Republicans imposed a $10,000 cap on federal deductions four years ago.

A recent analysis from the Toxic Policy Center found the SALT cap increase would primarily benefit the top 10% of income-earning Americans. About 70% of the tax benefit would go to the top 5% of earners, who make $366,000 a year or more, the analysis said.

“That’s not about tax cuts for wealthy people. It’s about services for the American people,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t about who gets a tax cut, it’s about which states get the revenue they need to help the American people.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her briefing Thursday that the White House was “comfortable” with the SALT cap increase being included in the version of the “Build Back Better” bill on which the House is expected to vote — but she wouldn’t say the president’s excited it.

“It is a component that wasn’t initially proposed,” Psaki said. “This is a part of compromise. It’s not something that would add to the deficit…as it is included in the package, and certainly we’re comfortable with it moving forward.”

Pressed on that response, Psaki repeated the provision was the result of a compromise.

“This is a part of the bill that the president — that has been proposed, that is important to key members, as you all know,” Psaki said. “That’s why it’s in the package. The president’s excitement about this is not about the SALT deduction. It’s about the other key components of the package. And that’s why we’re continuing to press for it to move forward.”

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will issue the first pardons of his presidency Friday to some lucky turkeys named Peanut Butter and Jelly.

In a ceremony at the White House, Biden will spare the poultry pair from becoming Thanksgiving dinner this year.

With the National Turkey Federation pledging that there are plenty of turkeys to gobble up during this year’s celebration — when more Americans will gather than in 2020 — Biden stuck to tradition, sparing two turkeys from the dinner table this year.

The White House selected the names Peanut Butter and Jelly from a list of options submitted by students in Indiana.

Peanut Butter, and his alternate, Jelly, traveled to the White House from Jasper, Indiana, early Wednesday, driven in a minivan outfitted as a “mini-barn” to the nation’s capital.

The responsibility of deciding which farm will supply the birds each year falls to the chairman of the National Turkey Federation — a process that Phil Seager, this year’s chair, began in July, when he asked turkey grower Andrea Welp if she would accept the challenge.

“That turkey needs to kind of learn to sit, stay, and in a perfect world, kind of strut a little bit and look good for the cameras,” Segar said.

Welp worked with a small flock to try to prep them for this process in the last six weeks, with Peanut Butter and Jelly last week being deemed the turkeys with the best temperament to handle the big moment, according to Segar.

Welp, a third-generation farmer from Indiana, said raising the presidential flock has been a lot of fun for her and her family and a highlight of her career.

“With another year of uncertainties with the pandemic, this project has really been something to look forward to, and has been a joy to be able to participate in. I know the kids have really had a lot of fun raising the birds, especially dancing to loud music to get them ready for all the media attention on the big day,” Welp said at a news conference Thursday, where the turkeys were first trotted out before the public.

After arriving in D.C., the two turkeys spent the day ahead of the pardoning having their feathers fluffed at the nearby five-star Willard Hotel.

“We do some extra prep to the room to make sure it’s comfortable for them, putting down shavings and making sure their food and water is accessible,” Beth Breeding, the spokesperson for the National Turkey Federation, told ABC News.

“We do our best to make sure that we leave the room cleaner than we even found it. We clean up afterwards and then we also work with the hotel to make sure the room is cleaned,” she added.

History of Poultry Pardons

The origin of the presidential turkey pardons is a bit fuzzy. Unofficially, reports point all the way back to President Abraham Lincoln, who spared a bird from its fowl demise at the urging of his son, Tad. However, White House Historical Association Historian Lina Mann warns the story may be more folklore than fact.

Following Lincoln’s time in office, the White House was often gifted a bird for the holidays from Horace Vose, the “turkey king” of Rhode Island, sending his top turkey to 11 presidents over four decades — though these turkeys were already slaughtered and dressed for the president’s table, Mann says.

The true start of what has evolved into the current tradition has its roots in politics and dates back to the Truman presidency in 1947.

“There had been this government-led initiative called “poultry-less Thursdays” to try and conserve various foods in the aftermath of World War II,” Mann said.

“But the poultry industry balked because Thursday was the day of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s and those were the big turkey holidays. So they were outraged,” she added.

After the White House was inundated with live birds sent as part of a “Hens for Harry” counterinitiative, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board presented Truman with a turkey to smooth the ruffled feathers and highlight the turkey industry — although the turkey was not saved from the holiday fest.

Instead, President John F. Kennedy began the trend of publicly sparing a turkey given to the White House in November 1963, just days before his assassination. In the years following, Mann says the event became a bit more sporadic, with even some first ladies like Pat Nixon and Rosalynn Carter stepping in to accept the guests of honor on their husband’s behalf.

The tradition of the public sparing returned in earnest under the Reagan administration, but the official tradition of the poultry pardoning at the White House started in 1989, when President George H.W. Bush offered the first official presidential pardon.

“Let me assure you and this fine Tom Turkey that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table — not this guy,” Bush said on Nov. 17, 1989.

“He’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now and … allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here,” he added.

In the 32 years since, at least one lucky bird has gotten some extra gobbles each year.

After they receive the first pardons of Biden’s presidency, Peanut Butter and Jelly will head back to Indiana to live out the rest of their lives at the Animal Sciences Research and Education Farm at Purdue University.

“Those folks who are going to be the next generation of leaders in our industry, so we’re really excited to partner with Purdue on that and to make sure that the turkeys have a home where they’re going to receive the highest quality of care,” Breeding said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House could vote as soon as Thursday evening on the second piece of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure improvement agenda — the largest expansion of the nation’s social safety net in 50 years — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

As Democrats barrel ahead towards a vote, with the chamber already starting debate on the “Build Back Better Act” Thursday morning, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it would release its final estimate on the cost of the total package in the afternoon.

Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference that the outstanding information would “hopefully” be released by 5 p.m., clearing the way for a vote on final passage later in the evening. Democratic moderates had promised progressives they would commit to voting for the social spending bill the week of Nov. 15 if the CBO provided more “fiscal information” to satisfy their cost concerns.

The social spending bill contains $555 billion for climate and clean energy investments. It would reduce the cost of some prescription drugs, extend the child tax credit, expand universal preschool and includes electric-vehicle tax credits, paid leave, housing assistance and dozens more progressive priorities.

The vote on the package could be pushed to Friday so to give lawmakers more time to review the cost estimates, but Pelosi presented a timeline that could send House lawmakers home to their Thanksgiving recess as scheduled.

“As soon as we get the scrub information we can proceed with our manager’s amendment to proceed to a vote on the new rules, the manager’s amendment, reflecting the scrub, not any policy changes, but just some technicalities about committee jurisdiction, etc.,” she said. “And then we will vote on the rule and then on the bill. Those votes hopefully will take place later this afternoon.”

The House vote would then send the package to the Senate, which is expected to amend the proposal in the coming weeks after the Thanksgiving recess as Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have not committed to the package in its current form.

Since Democrats plan to pass the measure through reconciliation, a lengthy budget process that would not require them to have any Republican support since Democrats have a narrow majority in both chambers, the legislation — months in the making — still has a long way to go, including back to the House, before it would even hit Biden’s desk.

Pelosi expressed confidence that with control of Congress hanging in the balance ahead of the midterm elections less than a year away, Democrats will be able to successfully sell their work to the American people — and do so more effectively than they did in 2010 after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, due, in part, to Biden using the “bully pulpit.”

“Joe Biden is very committed to messaging this. As you’ve seen he’s already on the road,” she said. “There’s no substitute for the bully pulpit of the president of the United States reinforced by the events we will have across the United States.”

Democratic members of Congress are also planning to hold 1,000 events before the end of the year to make clear to Americans “what we’re doing in this package,” according to the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, speaking to part one of Biden’s policy agenda on infrastructure signed into law on Monday.

“The messaging on it will be immediate, and it will be intense, and it will be eloquent, and it will make a difference,” Pelosi said.

Giving remarks in Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, Biden also endorsed Pelosi’s timeline to pass part two of his infrastructure agenda this week.

“I’m confident that the House is going to pass this bill. And when it passes, it will go to the Senate,” Biden said. “I think we’ll get it passed within a week.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in his quest to become the House speaker, blasted Pelosi at his press conference and said the reconciliation bill will “be the end of their Democratic majority.”

While the already-passed bipartisan infrastructure law itself and its individual components — rebuilding and repairing bridges, ports and roads, expanding broadband internet, and more — are widely popular, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Americans aren’t giving Biden credit for championing the law and getting it through Congress. The president’s approval rating is at an all-time low at 41%.

Democratic leaders and the White House continue to insist both pieces of legislation will be fully paid for, in part by imposing a 15% minimum tax on corporate profits that large corporations report to shareholders.

Pelosi on Thursday also tried to defend Democrats’ “Build Back Better” proposal from criticism over a key tax provision that has angered some in the caucus. Some moderates and leading progressives have criticized plans to undo a cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deductions — a reversal of Republicans’ 2017 tax law — popular in California, New York and New Jersey, given that the change would benefit wealthy suburban property owners.

The change would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $80,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax returns after Republicans imposed a $10,000 cap on federal deductions four years ago.

A recent analysis from the Toxic Policy Center found the SALT cap increase would primarily benefit the top 10% of income-earning Americans. About 70% of the tax benefit would go to the top 5% of earners, who make $366,000 a year or more, the analysis said.

“That’s not about tax cuts for wealthy people. It’s about services for the American people,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t about who gets a tax cut, it’s about which states get the revenue they need to help the American people.”

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Two Iranian nationals have been charged in a disinformation campaign meant to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including by threatening physical violence if registered Democrats failed to switch their affiliation and vote for then-President Donald Trump.

Seyyed Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian obtained confidential information about American voters from at least one state election website, sent those people threatening emails and gained access to a news network’s computer system that would have allowed them to disseminate false claims about the election, according to the indictment.

ABC News reported in October 2020 Iran and Russia had obtained voter information.

 

“As alleged, Kazemi and Kashian were part of a coordinated conspiracy in which Iranian hackers sought to undermine faith and confidence in the U.S. Presidential elections,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams.

The indictment did not name the state infiltrated, but Florida law enforcement and the FBI previously had said they were investigating the threatening emails sent to registered voters.

The Iranians, both of whom are believed to be in Iran and out of reach of U.S. law enforcement, claimed to be a group of Proud Boys volunteers, according to the indictment. They allegedly sent Facebook messages and emails to Republican officials that claimed Democrats were going to exploit vulnerabilities in voter registration websites. They also allegedly sent registered Democrats messages that threatened physical injury if they did not change their affiliation and vote for President Trump, the indictment said.

“We are in possession of all your information (email, address, telephone … everything). You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for,” the indictment quoted the emails as saying.

There was no evidence the campaign successfully convinced any voter to actually change their registration, according to a Justice Department official.

“State-sponsored actors, including Iranian groups, have engaged in covert and deceptive activities to disseminate disinformation through websites and social media designed to undermine Americans’ faith in U.S. elections,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Thursday. The U.S. government took decisive and disruptive action against those seeking to interfere with the sanctity of our elections, including the FBI warning the public of the attempts ahead of the 2020 elections.”

The day after the election, the Iranians tried to use stolen credentials to hack their way into an unnamed American media company’s computer networks, the indictment said. The company alerted the FBI, which stopped them from altering any content or disseminating false claims, according to a Justice Department official.

Prosecutors described Kazemi and Kashian as experienced computer hackers who worked as contractors for an Iran-based company formerly known as Eeleyanet Gostar, which the U.S. believes is linked to the Iranian government.

In conjunction with the Dept. of Justice, the U.S. Treasury has also sanctioned the Iranian company and six of its employees, who it said were involved in this disinformation campaign to influence the 2020 U.S. elections.

The firm, now known as Emennet Pasargad, was previously sanctioned under its former name by the Trump administration for supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its electronic warfare wing.

Kazemi and Kashian were employees at Emennet and actually “executed cyber-enabled operations,” according to the Treasury. Four other Iranians serve on Emennet’s board of directors and are being sanctioned for their role at the firm.

“This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen said.

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(WASHINGTON) — In an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” Co-Anchor George Stephanopoulos, Vice President Kamala Harris defended her job performance, insisting she and President Joe Biden have been able to deliver for the American people.

“Vice presidents always face chatter about their role and their relevance. You’re no exception to that. Even your close friends and allies like the lieutenant governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis, have expressed some frustration because they think you can be more helpful than you’ve been asked to be. Do you share that frustration? What do you say to your friends who are frustrated?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“This was a good week, and this week, when we got this Bipartisan Infrastructure Act passed and signed by the president, makes a statement about all of the hard work that has gone into it, month after month after month. I’ve traveled around the country, as has the president,” Harris answered. “We have convened members of Congress, we have convened people around our nation, asking, ‘what do you want?’ And this is a response to what they want. And it’s actually going to hit the ground in a way that is going to have direct impact on the American people. We’re getting things done, and we’re doing it together.”

“So, you don’t feel misused or underused?” Stephanopoulos followed up.

“No,” Harris said. “I don’t. I’m very, very excited about the work that we have accomplished. But I am also absolutely, absolutely clear-eyed that there is a lot more to do, and we’re gonna get it done.”

Harris’ defense comes in the wake of a CNN report that alleges the West Wing has grown frustrated with Harris and her staff, describing dysfunction within her office and frustration with her lack of visibility with the American people.

Her chief spokesperson, Symone Sanders, pushed back on the depiction of Harris in the report, saying in a statement, “It is unfortunate that … some in the media are focused on gossip — not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered.” Harris’s team members echoed solidarity with their boss, saying they were “honored” and “proud” to work for her.

The negative report comes as the White House is eager to tout passage of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending package. Harris was front and center at Biden’s signing ceremony for the bill Monday, introducing the president and standing over his shoulder as he signed the bill into law.

But even as the White House celebrates that victory, Americans continue to feel the effects of the steepest rise in inflation in 30 years.

“It’s real. And it’s, it’s rough. Groceries — the cost of groceries — has gone up, the cost of gas has gone up. And, as this is all happening, in the context of two years of a pandemic. Over 700,000 lives lost much less the loss of livelihoods and, and a sense of normalcy. So, it’s a lot. And it’s one of the highest priorities actually, for the president and for me,” Harris said of the challenge inflation poses.

“Essentially what we need to do is, we need to bring down the cost of living and so we’re dealing with this issue in a number of ways,” she said. “The short-term issue, and the long-term issue.”

“We passed this week, the infrastructure bill, bipartisan infrastructure bill, and that’s going to be about repairing roads and bridges and bringing internet and high speed internet to all families. But also we need to deal with the cost of child care, the cost of prescription drugs, the cost of housing, and that’s what we intend to do when we get the Build Back Better agenda passed,” Harris said, referring to Biden’s next major priority — the $1.75 trillion social spending package.

“I know you hope to get that passed, but as you know, several people including Senator Manchin, who could be the key vote on Build Back Better, believe that the bill is actually going to make inflation worse,” Stephanopoulos said. “That’s why they’re holding back.”

Harris responded, “So, here’s the thing, talk tot 17 Nobel laureates who are economists, who actually have studied the issue and have indicated that we’re not looking at a contribution to inflation, but actually we’re going to bring prices down. In fact, today Moody’s and a number of others have said, listen, when you look at the numbers, the whole point about inflation and why it hurts us is because prices go up. With the Build Back Better agenda, it’s gonna bring the cost down, again, cost of child care, elder care, housing. These are very critical issues for American families, who have to make very difficult choices about whether they can afford to pay for child care, or prescription drugs, or, or pay the rent. So, that’s what we’re going to actually accomplish, accomplish with this, is to bring the prices down.”

While Harris has been involved in negotiations on the spending packages, making phone calls to lawmakers and hosting groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, she has also lately been bolstering her credentials on the world stage, traveling last week to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron and participate in multiple international conferences. The trip abroad was her third as vice president, after a trip to Asia overshadowed by the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and a thorny trip to Guatemala and Mexico to discuss the root causes of migration.

Addressing historic levels of illegal border crossings, Harris told Stephanopoulos it will not be a quick fix.

“It’s not going to be overnight. We can’t just flip a switch and make it better,” she said. “The reality is that we inherited a system, an immigration system that was deeply broken, and it’s requiring us to actually put it back together in terms of creating a fair, um, process that is effective and efficient.”

Stephanopoulos asked Harris about reports the Department of Justice was weighing making payments of as much as $450,000 to migrant families forcibly separated at the southern border under a Trump administration policy. Biden has indicated the payments won’t be that large, but that he does support payments to the families in general.

“Is there going to be compensation? How much is it going to be?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Well, as you know, there’s, there’s apparently some litigation around that, and that will be resolved in court,” Harris said.

“So, but, but the White House is open to it?” Stephanopoulos pressed.

“Well, the, usually courts rule on that kind of thing,” Harris demurred.

Stephanopoulos asked Harris whether Biden has told her whether he’s going to seek reelection in 2024. Harris maintained that she and Biden are focused on infrastructure, national security and other priorities.

“So, you’re not discussing 2024 yet?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Absolutely not,” Harris insisted.

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(WASHINGTON) — Reeling from Republican wins in elections earlier this month, Democrats are pounding the pavement ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

But President Joe Biden’s success passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill is bumping up against the facts that the country’s inflation rate has reached a 30-year high and Americans increasingly feel the economy is in trouble.

A new ABC News / Washington Post poll found that 70% say the economy is in bad shape, a 12-point increase since last spring. More than half of those polled — 55% — disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy while 39% say they approve. But that approval number has plummeted six points since September and 13 points since the spring.

 

While only 50% blame Biden directly for inflation — which has now reached a 6.2% increase compared with the same period last year, 3% of Democrats say the economy is excellent, 47% say it’s good, 35% say it’s not so good and 14% say it’s poor.

In a series of ABC News follow-up interviews with poll respondents who were Biden voters but expressed disappointment with the state of the economy, people expressed a range of views about what they think went wrong and who is to blame.

Judith Steele, a registered Democrat from California, told ABC News she feels the Biden administration did a bad job in preparing for economic woes faced by certain Americans.

“His administration has been behind the curve in anticipating how bad this was going to get for lower- and middle-class families — that they tend to take a ‘wait and see approach,’ or, ‘this is going to pass,’ and then it’s too late,” Steele, who plans to switch her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, said in an interview.

Steele assigns some of the blame for the poorly-performing economy to legislative squabbles in Congress.

“They should have gotten the infrastructure bill done months ago. They had the votes to do it. But they had to push. I do like the second bill, but they should have gotten the first one passed and signed, and started putting people back to work at decent union jobs,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re ever going to get done with this. And they’re always consumed with investigations and committee work and not getting anything done.”

Although Biden’s overall approval rating reached a new low (41%) in a new ABC/ Washington Post poll, his legislative plans have majority approval among respondents, with 63% support for the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress and 58% support for the now nearly $2 trillion social spending bill still under debate.

The White House is set to launch a nationwide tour to continue pitching Biden’s plans to voters and Democrats are rolling out 1,000 events before the end of the year to promote the Biden agenda.

Still, disapproval of Biden on the economy is six points higher than former President Donald Trump’s highest disapproval rating on the same issue, which came in September 2017, nearly the same amount of time into his presidency as Biden is now. In November 2018, Republicans relinquished control of the House, with 68% of the country overall saying in exit polls they felt the economy was in good shape.

Steele isn’t the only Democrat who supported Biden but doesn’t feel good about the economy. Norman Hall, an 82-year-old Pennsylvania voter who has been a Democrat since he was 21, is trying to stretch his social security checks and doesn’t think Biden is doing enough to address the issue.

“All them prices went up, my check disappeared real quick, my social security check. It’s usually around hundred-and-some dollars a month when I buy groceries. It was $217 for almost the same thing I buy all the time,” said Hall, who voted for Biden last year. “I have to cut down. I have to quit spending.”

“I don’t know who’s to blame for it, but he’s not doing anything to help it,” he added of Biden.

Hall said he plans to vote for Republicans on his midterm ballot unless he sees Democrats “do things differently.”

The ABC News / Washington Post poll found that if the midterm elections were held today, 51% of registered voters say they’d support the Republican candidate in their congressional district, 41% say the Democrat. That’s the biggest lead for Republicans in the 110 ABC/Post polls that have asked this question since November 1981.

Tiffany Woods, a community health care worker from St. Louis, told ABC News she typically votes for Democrats and was excited to cast her ballot for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Since then, though, Cross said she hasn’t been impressed with Biden’s accomplishments in Congress and is seeing the economic effects of the pandemic continue to take a toll in her community.

Woods pointed to heightened utilization of her local food banks as her friends and family struggle to make ends meet with inflation and unchanged qualifications for government assistance programs.

“While these qualifications are not changing, the price of products are going up, and people can’t afford it,” she said. “People are depending a lot more on our food banks now. Now they need it for themselves.”

Woods lives in progressive Democrat Rep. Cori Bush’s Missouri district. She said if Biden and Harris are on the ticket again in 2024, she doesn’t think she’ll cast a ballot for them, but she does plan to vote next year for Bush, who fought into the summer to extend eviction moratoriums put in place due to the pandemic.

“I really do think that I will continue to vote Democrat because of people like her, who I do think are doing a wonderful job. I just don’t think that I would just vote for Biden, Kamala,” she said.

Margaret Johnson, a retiree in Georgia, was a lifelong Republican before Trump entered the party. She broke her dedication to the GOP in 2020 — casting ballots for Biden and both Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — but she regrets her decision.

“I went against my Republican instincts and voted for Biden, which I’m very sorry with. If I had to do it over again. I wouldn’t vote for either one of them. I would have just stayed out of it,” she said. “Everybody I know is having to pinch pennies. To me, more and more people are using less and less … But it’s not just groceries. It’s everything.”

Johnson said that despite her discontent with the GOP, she doesn’t think she’ll cast a ballot for a Democrat again, including for Warnock when he is up for reelection next year.

“I don’t think I would ever vote Democrat again. I really don’t think I would,” Johnson said.

ABC News’ Danielle DuClos contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House voted for a resolution on Wednesday that both censures Republican Rep. Paul Gosar and removes him from his committee assignments after the Arizona congressman tweeted an edited Japanese anime cartoon last week showing him stabbing President Joe Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., before he deleted it.

The vote was 223-207, largely along party lines. GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voted with all Democrats to censure Gosar. Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, voted “present.”

Gosar, flanked by nearly two dozen colleagues in the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, stood in the well of the House as the censure resolution was read aloud.

Democrats spent hours on the House floor Wednesday excoriating GOP leaders for not publicly condemning the Twitter post from Gosar, an ardent Trump supporter who has espoused conspiracy theories and associated with white nationalist groups in the past.

“This is not about me,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an impassioned floor speech. “This is not about representative Gosar. This is about what we’re willing to accept. “

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the first to kick off debate on Gosar’s actions which, she said, “demand a response.”

“We cannot have members joking about murdering each other or threatening the president of the United States. This is both an indictment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution of the House of Representatives. It’s not just about us as members of Congress. It is a danger that it represents to everyone in the country,” Pelosi said.

“When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically, people listen to those words,” Pelosi added, before condemning House GOP leadership for, in her view, not holding their colleague accountable. “It is sad that this entire House must take this step because of the refusal of the leadership of the other party.”

She said it took nine days for Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to speak out publicly about the incident and that when he did, he “merely” said there was no harm intended.

Sources confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday that Gosar apologized for the tweet behind closed doors during a GOP conference meeting. McCarthy said he had also spoken privately with Gosar about the tweet, but he did not appear to take further action against him.

McCarthy opposes the Democratic move to censure Gosar and remove him from his committee assignments, but instead of defending Gosar’s actions ahead of the vote, he blasted Democrats for what he deemed was an overreach of power.

“The speaker is burning down the House on her way out the door,” McCarthy said. “Let me be clear. I do not condone violence, and representative Gosar has echoed that sentiment.”

Gosar, speaking publicly about the video for the first time, which he said in an earlier statement was an attempt by his staff to reach a younger audience, said he doesn’t condone violence but appeared to accept his fate as Democrats barrel towards the vote.

“I do not espouse violence or harm towards any member of Congress or Mr. Biden,” Gosar said, notably not calling Biden “president.”

“If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censored by this House, so be it. It is done,” he added.

Ocasio-Cortez urged her colleagues to vote “yes” and said the depictions are part of a larger trend of misogyny and racism in America.

“Can you find anyone in the chamber that finds this behavior acceptable?” she asked her colleagues. “Would you allow that in your home? Do you think this should happen on a school board…a church?”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said to reporters during a press call on Tuesday, “I have never in 40 years seen such a vile, hateful, outrageous, dangerous, and inciting to violence against a colleague, ever.”

“The fact that they would not take some action themselves or make some comments themselves, which I have not seen, is a testament that perhaps they are rationalizing, as they rationalize other items of criminal behavior, this particular action,” Hoyer said of Republicans.

The resolution would boot Gosar from the Oversight and Reform Committee, which he serves on alongside Ocasio-Cortez. It would also remove him from the Committee on Natural Resources.

Late Monday night, Pelosi told reporters it was up to McCarthy to rein in and reprimand his conference members — but Democrats, outraged over Gosar’s behavior, insisted on a floor vote. On Tuesday, she deemed the resolution as an appropriate measure.

“Why go after [Gosar]? Because he made threats, suggestions about harming a member of Congress…We cannot have members joking about murdering each other as well as threatening the president of the United States,” Pelosi said.

A censure resolution requires a simple majority of lawmakers present and voting. If it is approved, Gosar could be forced to stand in the center of the House chamber as the resolution condemning his actions is read aloud.

Later on, Gosar tweeted out a meme that says, “God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers.”

Twenty-three members of Congress have been censured for misconduct, according to a 2016 Congressional Research Service Report.

Former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., was the last member of Congress to be censured — in December 2010 — accused of nearly a dozen ethics violations.

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