Politics

(WASHINGTON) — In his quest to keep Republicans united and become House speaker, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has supported and given money to many of the Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump last year — with one exception.

In an interview with The Federalist, McCarthy officially endorsed Rep. Liz Cheney’s primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, in her upcoming August primary after hard-right House GOP members pushed him to expel her from the GOP conference.

“After spending time with Harriet, it is readily apparent she will always listen and prioritize the needs of her local communities and is focused on tackling our nation’s biggest problems,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told The Federalist. “I look forward to serving with Harriet for years to come.”

Hageman welcomed McCarthy’s endorsement, releasing a statement saying that she’s “very grateful for Leader McCarthy’s strong support,” and pledges that when she’s Wyoming’s member of Congress, she’ll stand up for the state and do the job she was sent to do.

Hageman continued saying that Cheney, R-Wyo., “has completely lost the ability to do her job of representing Wyoming as [their] only member of the House of Representatives.”

Following McCarthy’s endorsement of Hageman, a Cheney’s spokesperson said in a statement, “Wow. She must really be desperate.”

Party leaders rarely get involved in primaries, especially when it’s an incumbent from their own party seeking reelection.

The endorsement from McCarthy comes as one of the latest attacks on Cheney as she faces a tough reelection year. It was only a few weeks ago the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for their roles on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Before that, Cheney was censured by her own state party and voted out of her role as the number three Republican in the House.

“There’s a reason why Liz Cheney is no longer in leadership and has very low poll rating in Wyoming,” McCarthy recently told reporters.

On Friday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney on the House Republican’s leadership team, announced her endorsement of Hageman.

Stefanik said Cheney has “abandoned her constituents to become a Far-Left Pelosi puppet” and “sadly belongs in an MSNBC or CNN news chair, not in Congress representing Wyoming—a state that voted for President Trump by over forty points.”

Last September, Hageman has also received support from Trump, who is part of the larger effort to get Cheney elected out of office.

Even though Hageman has received endorsements from major players in the Republican party, she still lags behind Cheney in fundraising. Cheney raised a total of $7.2 million in 2021, breaking her own fundraising record. Moreover, as the 2022 election year ramps up, Hageman’s cash on hand is just $381,000 compared to Cheney’s $4.7 million war chest, according to filings.

The effort to get Cheney out of federal office is at the national and state levels. There’s a push from state lawmakers in Wyoming to pass SF0097 which would end same-day party affiliation change on a primary day.

This could make it more difficult for Democrats and independents who might want to vote for Cheney in the primary. If enacted, voters would need to change their party affiliation three months before the Wyoming primary, scheduled for Aug. 16.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim and Alisa Wiersema contributed to this report

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(WASHINGTON) — Following weeks of speculation about what President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address on March 1 would look like — amid pandemic safety concerns — all members of Congress have been invited to attend the speech this year, signaling a softening of restrictions.

The House sergeant-at-arms announced in a memo on Thursday that all 535 members of the House and Senate could safely gather in the House chamber on March 1 as pandemic restrictions continue to ease across the country.

The decision to extend the invitation to all members of Congress was made in consultation with the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician, according to the memo.

Per the memo, anyone attending the address in person will be required to present a negative PCR test, wear a K/N95 mask, and fill out a health attestation form. Social distancing will still be required. Boosters are “strongly recommended.” Members will also not be permitted to bring guests, as is usually customary in the pre-COVID era.

The memo also noted: “failure to follow guidelines or removal of the mask in the House Chamber will result in the attendee’s removal from the event and/or fines.”

Biden made a speech to a limited audience due to Covid concerns in April 2021. At the time, the chamber was filled to approximately only 20% capacity, and Republicans largely skipped the event altogether.

Typically, there are more than 1,600 people attending presidential speeches. Last year, there were roughly only 200 people in the chamber.

It’s unclear how many, if any, Republicans will attend the address in person this year.

Republicans have loudly complained about the ongoing mask mandate that still exists for anyone entering the House chamber.

Several Republican lawmakers including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Thomas Massie of Kentucky have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for refusing to wear masks on the House floor but have characterized the rebukes as badges of honor.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month expressed her desire to see a more traditional State of the Union this year.

“There’s a great interest on the part of members to have more full — fuller participation in the State of the Union,” she said.

“With vaccinations and so much happening since last year, I think the people are ready to pivot in a way that shows to the American people we largely have been vaccinated here,” she said. “We think that many more people can participate.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden was set to speak to the nation Friday afternoon on what the White House said are U.S. efforts to ease tensions over Ukraine, amid increased shelling and possible false-flag attacks Russia could use to falsely justify an invasion.

Biden will make remarks after he holds a call with translatlantic leaders to discuss continued efforts at deterrence and diplomacy and what the White House called “Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will participate in the call, along with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO, according to Trudeau’s office.

On Friday, the leader of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine called for his supporters to begin a mass evacuation to Russia, claiming Ukraine was readying for an invasion of the region. Ukraine immediately denied the claim.

The Biden administration has repeatedly warned Moscow will likely manufacture Ukrainian provocations to justify an invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned the situation is “escalating,” appearing to place blame on Ukraine.

“All Kyiv needs to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict,” Putin said Friday during a news conference alongside the leader of Belarus.

But Putin continues to demand assurances from the west that Ukraine will never join NATO, a concession U.S. officials are unwilling to make.

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(WASHINGTON) — A Washington, D.C., judge on Thursday set a September trial date for a case brought by the D.C. attorney general against former President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams scheduled the trial to begin on Sept. 26 — a date that will fall a few weeks ahead of the pivotal 2022 midterm elections in November.

The move comes three days after Williams reversed another judge’s earlier decision removing Trump’s family business from the suit.

The D.C. Attorney General’s Office alleges that Trump’s 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee misused nonprofit funds to pay for event space at the Trump Hotel and other expenditures. The case rests, in part, on the claim of “private inurement” — the question of whether the inaugural committee used its funds for private benefit rather than nonprofit purposes.

A superior court judge dismissed a portion of a lawsuit in November 2020, saying the AG’s office had not met the standard of proof that would allow that part of the suit to proceed. The ruling removed the Trump Organization as a named defendant in the case, yet kept the former president’s Washington hotel as a named defendant, as well as the inaugural committee itself — before Williams reinstated the Trump Organization as a defendant on Monday.

Also during Thursday’s hearing, Trump’s legal team asked the judge to not allow the D.C. attorney general to depose former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in the inaugural committee case, claiming it would be a “broader fishing expedition.”

Judge Williams ultimately said she would “allow a limited deposition of Mr. Weisselberg.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Senators narrowly avoided a government shutdown Thursday evening, passing a short-term funding bill one day before funds were set to lapse.

The bill, which continues funding at current levels, will keep the federal government operating until March 11. Congressional leaders are hopeful that by that time, negotiators will have ironed out an agreement on a yearlong package of funding bills.

Leaders on both sides of the aisle have assured the public for several days that the government would not shut down on Friday, but negotiations came down to the wire as GOP lawmakers looked to use the budget bill as an opportunity to challenge Democrats’ COVID-19 mandates.

Challenges to pandemic mandates are becoming increasingly popular among Republican lawmakers, who are looking to capitalize on growing fatigue over COVID-19 across the country.

But blocking such amendments proved challenging for Democrats, who stalled consideration of the short-term funding bill because several of their members are not currently in Washington. Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Mark Kelly of Arizona are out of town managing family emergencies. And Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico is recovering from a stroke. Ultimately some Republicans — Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mitt Romney of Utah and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma — were also missing from the chamber, evening out the numbers and allowing Democrats to move the vote forward.

If any amendment had been successful, the funding bill would have had to be returned to the House, which is currently on recess and would not have been able to return to pass a modified version of the legislation before government funding expired Friday evening.

Neither of the two COVID-19 mandate amendments ultimately passed, but they did receive support from nearly every Republican in the chamber.

One amendment, offered by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would have revoked federal funds for schools that left mask mandates in place for children. The other, led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, would have ended the federal vaccine mandate.

Another amendment, which would have required the United States to balance its budget, also failed.

Lawmakers have already passed multiple short-term funding extensions to buy key negotiators in both chambers additional time to agree on a massive bill to keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year.

Leaders say they’re narrowing in on a deal, but no formal agreement has been announced.

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(NEW YORK) — A judge has ruled that former President Donald Trump and his two eldest children must testify in the investigation by the New York state attorney general into the family’s business practices.

The argument that Trump, his eldest son Donald Jr. and his eldest daughter Ivanka put forth to try and quash subpoenas for testimony and evidence “completely misses the mark,” Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The judge gave the Trumps 21 days to sit for depositions.

The Trumps had argued that it was improper for the attorney general’s office to issue subpoenas for its civil investigation while the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is still conducting its separate criminal probe.

“This argument completely misses the mark. Neither OAG nor the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has subpoenaed the New Trump Respondents to appear before a grand jury,” Judge Engoron’s decision said. “The New Trump Respondents’ argument overlooks the salient fact that they have an absolute right to refuse to answer questions that they claim may incriminate them.”

The judge noted that when Trump’s son Eric sat for a deposition two years ago as part of the same investigation, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 500 times.

“Today, justice prevailed,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James of the decision. “Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”

Trump, in a statement, blasted the probe following the judge’s ruling.

“She is doing everything within their corrupt discretion to interfere with my business relationships, and with the political process,” he said of James. “It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history — and remember, I can’t get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!”

Alan Futerfas, an attorney for the Trump family, told ABC News that the Trumps intend to appeal the decision.

Trump argued the investigation into his business practices is overtly political and cited statements James made during and after her campaign for attorney general about her intentions to investigate the former president and his family’s real estate firm.

The judge found those statements had no bearing on the legitimacy of the subpoenas.

“Attorney General James, just like respondent Donald J. Trump, was not deprived of her First Amendment rights to free speech when she was a politician running for a public office with investigatory powers,” the decision said.

“The abhorrent statements made by Letitia leave no doubt that this is yet another politically motivated witch-hunt,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in response to the ruling. “The court clearly had its mind made up and had no interest in engaging in impartial discourse on this critically important issue.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Republican lawmakers, capitalizing on the growing national pushback on COVID-19 precautions, are amping up their efforts to implement a return to “normalcy,” proposing a flurry of legislative activity aimed at rolling back several Biden administration precautions.

The Biden administration’s pandemic exit strategy has been tested in recent weeks as Democratic governors in multiple states preempted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and rolled back masking requirements. While the CDC said Wednesday it would deliver updated guidance “soon,” Republicans are stepping on the gas and hoping to demonstrate that their party is delivering “normalcy” by rolling back restrictions leading up to midterms the GOP says will serve as a referendum on President Joe Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans are increasingly turning their attention toward slashing government-mandated pandemic precautions. GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has been at the forefront of the charge, giving multiple speeches this month declaring the pandemic “endemic” and noting that many Americans are eager to return to their lives unencumbered by pandemic-related restrictions.

“American families deserve normalcy,” McConnell said during remarks on the Senate floor Monday. “They deserve it now.”

Because of the way these GOP legislative challenges are being brought, several are guaranteed a vote on the Senate floor.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., filed a challenge to existing vaccine mandates imposed by the Biden administration using a procedural tool called the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn rules created by federal agencies and only requires 51 votes to pass the Senate. Challenges to federal rules made with this tool must be brought to a vote.

Marshall’s effort would repeal Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, many of whom are required to be vaccinated under current rules for Medicare and Medicaid workers.

It won’t be the first time that Republicans have used this tool to force a vote on vaccine mandates onto the floor. In December, the Senate voted 52-48 to repeal Biden’s vaccine mandate on private business owners with over 100 employees, after Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., led a separate Congressional Review Act effort.

The Supreme Court ultimately overturned that vaccine mandate. And though the Senate-backed bill was never brought up for a vote in the House, the Senate vote demonstrated some bipartisan desire to curb federal pandemic restrictions. Two Democrats joined with Republicans to pass that vaccine mandate repeal, and it’s possible Marshall’s effort, or a separate pandemic restriction challenge spearheaded by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and John Boozman, R-Ark., using the same procedural tool, could enjoy similar across-the-aisle support.

Thune and Boozman are challenging a rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that requires young children in Head Start programs, which are funded by the federal government, to always wear masks, even during outdoor play.

“Not only is this decision to police schoolyard activities yet another affront to parents’ rights by the Biden administration, even worse is nothing about this nationwide policy is based on science or common sense,” Thune said in a statement.

This challenge comes just days after Pfizer announced that the Food and Drug Administration postponed its review of the Pfizer vaccine for children 5 and under. While COVID-19 has not had as severe an impact on young children as adults, the latest omicron surge hit children harder than previous variants largely because of their unvaccinated status. The CDC still recommends indoor masking for unvaccinated people, including children over 2.

Still, the effort has support from McConnell and a large swath of the Republican conference.

“Parents and kids need a swift end to pandemic disruptions that ignore the incredibly low risk to children,” McConnell said Wednesday.

GOP-led pushback on pandemic restrictions will likely consume Senate floor time as early as Thursday.

Several Republican lawmakers are demanding votes on amendments to a government funding bill that must pass by Friday to prevent a government shutdown. Two of the amendments they’re insisting on are aimed at rolling back pandemic precautions.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s amendment, which seeks to pull federal funding for schools if mask mandates remain in place for children, is expected to be one of the amendments voted on.

“It ought to be a choice of the parents whether a child should be vaccinated, and it shouldn’t be a government bureaucrat forcing kids to be vaccinated,” Cruz told ABC News Wednesday.

A Lee amendment that bans federal funds from being used to implement any remaining federal mask mandates is also expected to receive a vote.

Separately, Republicans are pushing to end the national state of emergency declaration on COVID-19, led by a resolution introduced by Marshall.

The administration renewed the state of emergency declaration for the eighth time late last month. Doing so allows federal funding for pandemic relief to continue.

But Marshall, echoing the sentiments of many of his GOP colleagues, said an end to the declaration could help the nation transition to a world where COVID-19 is a reality of life.

“It’s clear we need a new approach to COVID as we learn to live with it,” Marshall said in a statement. “That new approach starts with putting an end to the COVID national state of emergency.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Legislators on Wednesday introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting children from the potentially harmful impacts of social media.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., came as Congress held five hearings on the dangers of social media for children and teens aged 16 or younger in recent months, including one at which a whistleblower who testified against Facebook — now Meta — about internalized documents that showed the tech giant prioritized profits over the mental well-being of children.

While the senators would not comment on the likelihood of the bill passing, they emphasized during a press conference on Wednesday that there is bipartisan support for it in the House and the Senate.

“What we’re doing in this bill is empowering those children and their parents to take back control,” Blumenthal said.

The Kids Online Safety Act of 2022 includes five major elements:

• Social media companies would be required to provide privacy options, the ability to disable addictive features and allow users to opt-out of recommendations like pages or other videos to “like.” It would also make the strongest privacy protections the default.
• The bill would give parents tools to track time spent in the app, limit purchases and help to address addictive usage.
• It would require social media companies to prevent and mitigate harm to minors, including self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and unlawful products for minors, like alcohol.
• Social media companies would be required to use a third party to perform independent reviews to quantify the risk to minors, compliance with the law and whether the company is “taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms.”
• Social media companies would be required to give kids’ data to academic and private researchers. The scientists would use that data to do more research on what harms children on social media and how to prevent that harm.

“The social media platforms have proven they are not going to regulate themselves. Because of that, we have put the effort into how do we make certain that this is a safer environment,” Blackburn said Wednesday.

Dr. Dave Anderson, clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, said the bill marks the sensible intersection of tech and public policy.

“I think politicians are taking what we know from the science and saying, ‘How do we build in these safeguards?'” Anderson said.

He said social media algorithms have evolved to show children only more of what they are interested in rather than a variety of viewpoints and that marks a dangerous change for children with mental health issues.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, had no comment on the legislation, but a spokesperson pointed to the company’s announcement in December that it is taking a stricter approach to recommendations for teens, including nudging them toward different topics if they have been dwelling.

A Snap Inc. spokesperson said the company spends a tremendous amount of time and resources to protect teenagers and has tools that allow kids to report concerning behavior and turn off location services, as well as resources for parents.

TikTok updated its policies on Tuesday to “promote safety, security, and well-being on TikTok,” according to a press release written by TikTok Head of Trust and Safety Cormac Keenan.

TikTok and Twitter did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(RICHMOND, Va.) — Virginia’s newly elected Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a law Wednesday that ends mask mandates in public schools throughout Virginia and lets parents opt out of their children from wearing masks, despite conflicting local mandates, without providing a reason or getting an exemption.

The law prevents school districts from adapting policies using the infection and hospitalization data of a particular area and prevents school boards from enacting policies that Youngkin’s critics say could be safest for their community.

Youngkin, who signed an executive ordering barring mask mandates on the day he was inaugurated in mid-January — but that several school districts challenged in court — rushed to deliver on his campaign promises to end the mandates and affirm what he said are the rights of parents in education.

At his request that it be treated as an emergency, Republican lawmakers quickly passed an amendment to a just-passed measure requiring school board compliance no later than March 1, instead of the bill’s original effective date of July 1, when students would already be out of school.

The law also bars online learning options, preventing schools from enacting hybrid systems, and requires schools be open for in-person learning five days a week.

Youngkin’s signature comes as school board meetings have increasingly become political battlegrounds over COVID mandates and as an increasing number of states controlled by Democrats have let indoor mask mandates expire this month, including California, New York, Delaware and Nevada.

“In the last week, we have seen Democrat-led states…move away from universal mask mandates in schools,” Youngkin said in a statement last week. “I am pleased that there is bipartisan support for doing the same in Virginia. This shows that when we work across the aisle, we put Virginians first. I look forward to signing this bill when it comes to my desk.”

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and Oregon will stop requiring masks in the next few weeks, leaving it up to individual school districts to decide if students should wear them or not. While Texas, Utah, Florida, and Oklahoma are banning requirements altogether at a state level.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that all children ages 2 and older wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.

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(NEW YORK) — Ken Kurson, the former editor of the New York Observer who was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump before he left office, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two state-level misdemeanors for allegedly spying on his former wife’s computer.

Kurson, a friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner who also helped manage Rudy Giuliani’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2008, was arrested in 2020 on federal charges that alleged a “pattern of stalking and harassment against three victims,” including one he blamed for the dissolution of his marriage, according to prosecutors.

He was pardoned by Trump in January 2021 but re-arrested on state charges in August.

On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors — including attempted computer trespass — that accused him of surreptitiously installing spyware on his ex-wife’s computer from his work computer at the Observer in 2015.

“I believe we have a disposition today,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alona Katz said during an appearance in Manhattan criminal court.

If Kurson leads a “law-abiding life” for a year and performs 100 hours of community service, he can withdraw his plea and have the charges reduced to lesser violations, Katz said.

“It is acceptable to him, your honor,” defense attorney Marc Mukasey told the court.

Authorities learned of Kurson’s alleged stalking in 2018 during a background check he underwent after Trump nominated him for a spot on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

He was pardoned by Trump after his 2020 arrest, but seven months later then-Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance indicted him on state charges.

“We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York,” Vance said in a statement at the time the charges were announced in August.

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