Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday will deliver a rare address on the Justice Department’s sweeping investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection, in remarks one official said will outline DOJ’s “efforts to hold accountable those responsible” attack on the Capitol.

One year after the assault, more than 700 people across nearly every state in the U.S. have faced federal charges for joining the riot — and the FBI continues to seek tips on hundreds more still-unidentified individuals, including more than 350 who committed violent acts while on Capitol grounds.

More than 70 people have been sentenced for their criminal conduct on Jan. 6, including 32 who were ordered to time behind bars. A New Jersey man seen hurling a fire extinguisher at police during the siege received the harshest sentence handed down by a judge thus far of more than five years in prison, an ominous sign for the more than 200 individuals currently facing charges of assaulting law enforcement.

According to the Justice Department, more than 270 face charges like conspiracy or obstruction that carry potential maximum sentences of 20 years in prison, and prosecutors have said in hearings for several alleged rioters that they’re weighing potential terrorism enhancements for those DOJ can prove were driven by political motivation in their crimes.

But even as the federal investigation into those who carried out the attack on the Capitol charges forward, DOJ and specifically, Garland himself, have increasingly found themselves the subject of public scrutiny over what critics have argued is a seeming hesitance to hold accountable those like former President Donald Trump or his allies who urged the rioters to march toward Congress or otherwise worked to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The criticism has been levied by numerous legal experts, former prosecutors and lawmakers in editorial pages and cable news appearances — and has even extended to at least one of the federal judges overseeing the prosecutions of the Jan. 6 rioters.

On Jan. 6, ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of events marking one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the continuing fallout for American democracy.

In a November sentencing hearing for Jan. 6 rioter John Lolos, for instance, District Judge Amit Mehta described Lolos as a “pawn” being punished even as those who “created the conditions” for the insurrection “in no meaningful sense of the word have been held to account.”

Garland has acknowledged the commentary as recently as October in an appearance at the New Yorker Festival, where he said he’s aware “there are people who are criticizing us for not prosecuting sufficiently and others who are complaining that we are prosecuting too harshly.”

Specifically asked at the event about Trump’s alleged role in inciting the riot, Garland declined to answer directly noting Justice Department policy against commenting on potential investigations.

“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the perpetrators of Jan. 6 are brought to justice,” Garland said. “We will follow the facts and the law where they land.”

A DOJ official said that Garland’s remarks Wednesday will similarly “not speak to specific individuals or charges,” but rather will “discuss the department’s solemn duty to uphold the Constitution, follow the facts and the law, and pursue equal justice under law without fear or favor.”

The speech comes as a parallel investigation by the Jan. 6 House select committee investigating the Capitol siege continues to trickle out details of Trump’s actions before, during and after the attack as well as the activities of his inner circle who were seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory.

The co-chairs of the bipartisan committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., have said in recent weeks that potential criminal referrals to DOJ for specific individuals could be on the table if they find what they believe amounts to evidence of unlawful conduct.

The committee has already made two referrals to DOJ for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows over their defiance of congressional subpoenas. DOJ indicted Bannon in November on two counts of contempt of Congress and his trial is currently set for July.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. has yet to take action against Meadows after receiving his contempt referral in mid-December.

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats are using the impending one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to put a fine point on their efforts to shore up the nation’s election system.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in floor remarks Tuesday, said the same misinformation and malice that led a mob seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election to storm the Capitol is fueling voter suppression laws in GOP-controlled statehouses.

“As we remember January 6 this week and as we confront state level voter suppression, we must be clear they are not isolated developments. They are all directly linked to the same anti-Democratic poison of the big lie,” Schumer said, referencing misinformation about the election results espoused by former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters.

Democrats have for months been trying to push some sort of voting reform through the chamber, citing research from the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan independent organization that analyzes election rules, that found that 19 states have enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote.

But those legislative efforts have faced an unrelenting blockade from Republicans, who oppose federal election reform because they say it is unnecessary and takes power away from the states to control their own elections.

“There’s been a lot of talk about big lies, the big lie on the other side is that state legislators controlled by Republicans are trying to make it difficult for people to vote,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said at a press conference Tuesday. “If you actually read the legislation that has been passed that’s clearly not the case.”

On Jan. 6, ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of events marking one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the continuing fallout for American democracy.

Multiple attempts at passing legislation have fizzled because of the Senate filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to begin debate on a piece legislation. Continued Republican blocks have prompted Democrats to up the ante and many, including Schumer, are calling for a revision to the rules to allow voting reform to pass with a simple majority.

This is far from the first call for a change to the filibuster rules made by Democrats in the evenly divided Senate, but a rule change would require unanimous support from all Senate Democrats, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have been clear they won’t support a carve out, even for voting rights.

But on Tuesday, Manchin moved slightly off his hardline stance, refusing to rule out a Democratic-only solution on voting rights if Republicans refused to negotiate. Manchin called passing a change to the Senate rules a “heavy lift” while speaking to reporters and emphasized that his “preference” would be Republican buy-in, but he stopped short of calling Republican support a “red line”

“That’s my preference,” Manchin said when asked if GOP support was necessary. “I would have to exhaust everything in my ability to talk and negotiate with people before I start doing things that other people might think need to be done.”

It was enough to give some Democrats a sliver of hope that the West Virginia moderate might be softening his position after months of talks.

But later in the day, after a one-hour, closed-door meeting with Schumer and a handful of key Democrats on voting rights and rules changes, Manchin insisted, “The filibuster needs to stay in place in any way, shape or form that we can do it.”

The senator did, however, express support for making it easier to begin debate on a bill.

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(WASHINGTON) — The family of Guy Reffitt, who has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, says it is not the same family as a year ago.

Extremism has torn the Reffits apart, they say, stirring up feelings of fear, loss and anger among family members.

Authorities say Reffitt attended former President Donald Trump’s rally and protest at the Capitol on that fateful day, and is now awaiting trial among the more than 700 who have been indicted in connection with the insurrection.

He has pleaded not guilty. Reffitt’s attorney, William L. Welch, III, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Watch the full story airing on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7 and 9 p.m. EST.

On Jan. 6, ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of events marking one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the continuing fallout for American democracy.

Reffitt is accused of obstructing an official proceeding, aiding and abetting; obstructing justice by hindering communication through physical force or threat of physical force; entering and remaining in a restricted building; and civil disorder, according to court documents.

“There were clearly signs he was getting involved with a lot of different people and a lot of bad people,” said Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, in an interview with ABC News’ Mireya Villareal.

“Hearing my father was there — it was absolutely disgusting. And pretty much demoralizing. And I really lost all respect for him in that moment,” Jackson added.

Reffitt’s wife, Nicole, said that her husband is a member of the Three Percenters, a group the Anti-Defamation League calls “anti-government extremists who are part of the militia movement.”

Jackson said he went to the FBI with concerns about his father in the days leading up to the insurrection. “If something is to really happen, then I do not want this on my shoulders as the only one that actually sees what he’s doing right now,” Jackson said he felt at the time.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, professor and director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, told ABC News she’s seen an increase in polarization among families in recent years.

“What we’re facing here in this country — both related to a lot of the things that happened on Jan. 6, but more broadly — whenever you have rising political violence or extremism or hateful acts or other kinds of violent crimes, families are shattered,” Miller-Idriss said. “The family that’s left behind needs a lot of support and therapeutic intervention.”

Shortly after Reffitt returned from the Capitol, he allegedly threatened his son and daughter over his involvement in the attack, according to court documents. Around Jan. 11, Reffitt told his children that the FBI was watching and ordered them to “erase everything.”

“My father brought up that, ‘if anyone turns me in, like, you know what happens to traitors, traitors get shot,'” Jackson said. “And that spooked me and my sister.”

According to court documents, Reffitt allegedly told Jackson that if he “crossed the line and reported Reffitt to the police, putting the family in jeopardy, Reffitt would have no option but to do Reffitt’s duty for Reffitt’s country, and ‘do what he had to do.'”

Reffitt’s daughter and wife have both denied that he meant anything threatening by that language and the daughter said she did not feel threatened, according to the documents.

Reffitt was arrested on Jan. 16 at the family’s home, as his wife, daughter and son watched. Soon after, Jackson said that he finally decided to leave home.

“I don’t really feel like he’ll forgive me or really take into consideration what he’s been a part of,” Jackson said.

For the rest of the family, they say the insurrection and Reffitt’s arrest has continued to affect their daily lives.

“It has been so difficult,” Nicole said. “The void that’s been left by Jackson and Guy, the girls and I have a very hard time.”

Peyton, Reffitt’s youngest daughter, says she’s “ready to move on” and heal from the situation.

“I have anger, but I love him,” she said of her father.

Reffitt spoke to ABC News from jail in December, saying, “This has been disastrous for me and my family, especially for my girls, my son — actually, all of my family.”

He added: “I never expected anything like this to happen.”

Reffitt says he believes he’ll be exonerated.

“It’s not that hard to prove that I didn’t do anything,” Reffitt said. “It should be pretty easy.”

He said he hopes to have a relationship with his son, someday.

But a full family reunion will take place in federal court when Reffitt’s trial begins in February.

“The whole situation is just going to be so nerve-wracking,” Jackson said. “Once it’s all set in stone, we can go back and really start, I guess, hanging out and getting back together and catching up.”

ABC News’ Seiji Yamashita contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is expected to ask Fox News host Sean Hannity to cooperate with its investigation, a development first reported by Axios.

A conservative media star and close ally of former President Donald Trump, Hannity was one of the many prominent Trump associates who texted Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, during the Capitol riot last year.

“Can he make a statement?” Hannity asked Meadows of Trump, according to text messages Meadows voluntarily turned over to congressional investigators. “Ask people to leave the Capitol.”

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., revealed the exchanges in a Dec. 14 committee meeting, reading them and others aloud.

Hannity later defended the messages on his nightly Fox News program — where he frequently criticizes the select committee investigation and accuses the panel’s lawmakers of trying to politically damage Trump.

“Surprise, surprise, surprise: I said to Mark Meadows the exact same thing I was saying live on the radio at that time and on TV that night on Jan. 6 and well beyond Jan. 6,” Hannity said.

Jay Sekulow, Hannity’s attorney, tells ABC News they have not been contacted by the panel.

“If true, any such request would raise serious constitutional issues including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press,” Sekulow told ABC News.

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., confirmed the committee’s plans in an afternoon MSNBC appearance, suggesting the missive to Hannity could be released as early as Tuesday evening.

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(ROCKY MOUNT, Va.) — A year after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol 260 miles away, a quiet community in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is still reckoning with the fallout and ties to its Confederate past and conservative politics.

Rocky Mount, which is predominantly white and staunchly Republican, was thrust into the national spotlight on Jan. 6 after two of its active police officers were spotted among the crowd rampaging through the halls of Congress.

Jacob Fracker and Thomas Robertson, both military veterans, are among the 17 current or former law enforcement officers charged by federal authorities for alleged participation in the riot, according to an ABC News tally.

“They needed to be exposed, because it is not only just them. They’re just the body of the evil here,” said Rocky Mount native Bridgette Craighead, a small business owner, Black Lives Matter activist and former candidate for state delegate.

While the passions poured out at the Capitol surprised few – and have long since subsided, many residents say– the high-profile alleged involvement of two of their neighbors continues to roil the close-knit town.

“Everyone I’ve talked to was totally shocked that those two men would do that,” said Carol Yopp, a local artist and informal Rocky Mount historian. “In fact, I’ve never heard anyone say that they applaud them whether they agreed with what was happening or not.”

It was seven months before the riot that Fracker and Robertson were celebrated by local African American residents for standing in solidarity with demonstrators at the town’s first protest for Black Lives Matter. Cellphone video even shows the cops holding signs for racial justice and dancing the Electric Slide with organizers.

“I really felt we were the example of what a community needed to do to get through this type of trauma,” said Craighead who was encouraged by positive relationships forged that day.

On Jan. 6, however, that shining example of unity and budding personal friendships were shattered, she said. Circulation of Fracker and Robertson social media posts ripped open a deep and longstanding racial and political divide.

“I don’t see how you can support Black Lives Matter but then support the insurrection of the Capitol,” Craighead said, citing elements of racism and white power in the events that day. “It’s also hypocritical: You want us to be peaceful protesting but then you go be a part of a riot that was not so peaceful.”

Robertson wrote on Instagram that the men “attacked the government” to “stand up for their rights,” according to federal court documents. Fracker posted to Facebook: “I can protest for what I believe in.”

Craighead led calls to get the officers fired, which in turn made her a target of their supporters.

Both now-former officers have pleaded not guilty to federal charges of disorderly and disruptive conduct and obstruction of Congress. In local media interviews the men have insisted they didn’t participate in violence and that their message is not incompatible with support for black lives. Trial dates have not yet been set.

“They were both very polite gentlemen, and they were both town police officers. However, it is unfortunate that they are no longer employees of the town,” said J. Tyler Lee, a town councilman and friend of the former officers.

Lee, who at 29 is the youngest person ever elected to Rocky Mount government, has been urging his neighbors for the past year to turn the page.

“I think we have to leave the stuff a year ago, a year ago,” Lee said. “Because if we keep bringing up what happened a year ago, it’s still gonna keep punching us in the mouth. If we can just teach compassion, communication and how to balance a checkbook, those three things, I think you’re golden.”

By many accounts, healing has been slow going, and beneath the surface in Rocky Mount, emotions are still raw.

“People like to fantasize, I call it, saying you know it’s a good old Southern town and all the families get along, and everybody’s happy, etc. And I call that ‘the fantasy,’” said Franklin County school board member and Rocky Mount native Penny Blue.

Blue, who has led a campaign against the town’s Confederate monuments and symbols, considers the riot an extension of painful divisions over race, history and politics that date to the Civil War.

“It was an insurrection, and that’s what [the Confederates] did. It was an insurrection,” Blue said in an interview beside the town’s monument to Confederate dead, newly erected in 2010 after an older version was damaged.

“Trump did not radicalize these people,” she added of the rioters, “he took advantage of what was already here in Franklin County and America.”

The influence of Donald Trump is already shaping Rocky Mount’s next chapter.

Town voters last fall broke heavily for pro-Trump Republican Glen Youngkin for Virginia governor in a campaign dominated by debate over Critical Race Theory.

The town also tapped a new, more conservative representative to the state House of Delegates: a former member of Trump’s 2020 legal team who fought the election results, Wren Williams.

“Church and God is a big thing for us. History – we’re steeped in history and we feel as though people who don’t understand our way of life or they don’t resonate or connect with us,” Williams said of his landslide victory against Craighead in November.

Williams said he condemns the events of Jan. 6 as “riot” but that his constituents are not fixated on what he considers a small group of lawbreakers. “Go out into these small towns and actually see if anybody is talking about Jan six anymore because they’re not. They’re not discussing it,” he said.

While Williams is convinced Trump will run for president again in 2024, others in the community wait anxiously for word of the former president’s intentions. The omnipresence of Trump is complicating a path forward, some residents said.

“If you have any hope of healing, you’ve got to talk about what’s hurting,” said Rocky Mount United Methodist Church Pastor Will Waller. “I tend to believe honesty is the best policy. So, ripping off the band aid is the best way to move forward. So we talk about it. We’re unafraid here.”

A willingness to keep talking to each other was one of the few areas of common ground expressed by Rocky Mount residents on both sides of the political divide.

“We bringing up all these hurtful topics and subjects not to rub it in your face and bring up the past,” said Craighead, “but we have to bring up the past to learn from it, to move on and to heal.”

Lee agreed that respectful dialogue is essential. “At the end of the day, we all may disagree, but you still have to be able to stick your hand out and face it as a champ,” he said.

Waller said faith also has a role to play. “To grow some flowers, you got to disturb the dirt. This has been a disturbing year just like 2020 was, but I believe in growth, and it comes through sometimes seeing things messed up for a bit,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — COVID treatments that work against the new omicron variant are in short supply, and Republican governors are accusing President Joe Biden of preventing their distribution by purchasing them in such bulk amounts that it prevents states from making their own purchases.

The alternative, though, could be a serious bidding war among states for treatments like antiviral pills and sotrovimab, the only monoclonal antibody believed to be effective against omicron. That’s what happened in the early days of the pandemic when governors fought over the purchase of ventilators, tests and masks and drove up prices.

Still, after an almost singular focus on buying vaccine doses, Biden is now under pressure to find new ways to boost production of treatments for people who become seriously ill from COVID, most of whom are unvaccinated.

“The federal government has cornered the entire market,” declared Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference Monday.

Likewise, in Texas, the health department there said several of its regional infusion centers had exhausted its supply of sotrovimab. Texas tied the shortage directly to Biden, noting in a statement “the federal government controls the distribution of monoclonal antibodies” and that the state ran out “due to the national shortage from the federal government.”

The Biden administration has acknowledged that life-saving treatments are in short supply because production has been unable to keep pace with omicron, which has rendered some treatments less effective and caused a sudden spike in cases.

“The low supply is something we need to worry about,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told governors in a private call last month about sotrovimab, according to a readout obtained by ABC News.

Another promising treatment — the new antiviral pill Paxlovid — is expected to begin rolling out this month, but probably won’t be widely available for several more months.

President Biden announced on Tuesday that he planned to double the federal purchase of pills from 10 million courses of treatment to 20 million with the first half available by June, rather than September. The pill is found to be 89% effective at reducing the risk of severe illness and death.

The practice of buying treatments and vaccines in bulk as a way to manage shortages and prevent bidding wars was initiated by the Trump administration. After then-President Donald Trump declared the federal government wasn’t a “shipping clerk” in early 2020, Republican and Democratic governors complained of inflated prices because they were directly competing with one another online.

Then, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo compared it to “being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.”

The Trump administration then slowly began amassing a stockpile of supplies that could be distributed around the country based on need. Trump’s Health and Human Services Department initiated bulk purchases of vaccines and therapeutics like Regeneron – a monoclonal antibody taken by Trump when he became ill with COVID.

Biden continued the practice, negotiating with companies to purchase additional vaccine shots and therapeutics and distributing to states for free based on population and risk factors.

But the spike in omicron cases has reignited a political debate on whether that’s the right approach.

Compounding the problem is that two monoclonal antibody treatments are believed not to work as well against omicron, at one point prompting the government to stop distributing them. The federal government has since resumed shipments upon finding it overestimated the number of omicron cases.

The Biden administration now says it will not distribute these types of monoclonal antibodies to regions where omicron comprises more than 80% of cases. The omicron variant is now estimated to account for 95% of new cases in the U.S., as of Jan. 1, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.

Not every Republican governor is blaming Biden for treatments being in short supply.

In a statement Monday, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said monoclonal antibody teams expected to arrive on Monday were delayed due to overwhelming demand.

“While we were surprised by the delay in their arrival, we are appreciative of the federal government’s assistance,” said Sununu in a statement. “Since making our initial request a month ago, their assistance has become even more critical now as we manage the peak of the winter surge.”

ABC’s Karen Travers, Will McDuffie and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Biden administration officials further outlined a plan for the implementation of the “MPP” or “Remain in Mexico” policy on a conference call with reporters Monday while underscoring a commitment to ending the program and describing safeguards designed to improve conditions for asylum seeking enrollees.

A central criticism of the MPP program — which bars asylum seekers from entering the U.S. while immigration courts review their claims — was the lack of access to U.S. legal services for enrollees forced into makeshift Mexican border camps. Now, the Biden administration is working with legal service providers and promising 24-hour consultation windows to assist with screening interviews and immigration court cases.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review is working to increase legal representation rates for asylum seekers while distributing “self-help materials” for immigrant applicants who need information on the process.

Improving conditions south of the border was another component in securing the Mexican government’s cooperation. U.S. humanitarian workers have built up WiFi access at shelters, and Mexican authorities have stepped up security including at transportation hubs.

Now, migrants enrolled in MPP will have access to transportation services at the port of entry, something Biden administration officials said is a necessary security measure given the level of crime taking place at border crossings.

Over the holidays, the Biden administration submitted a request to the Supreme Court for expedited briefings on the case to end MPP. The administration previously lost lower court appeals against efforts to reinstate the protocols.

Under the latest iteration of MPP, migrants who receive an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be judged on whether there’s a “reasonable possibility” they have a fear of returning to Mexico rather than the previously used and more restrictive “more likely than not” standard.

The new standards are accessible to those like the group of 36 migrants brought to El Paso Monday for court hearings, making them the first to be processed under the new rules.

Officials did not provide information on the number of asylum seekers subjected to MPP under the Biden administration’s latest implementation efforts, but they did confirm enrollments have started in the El Paso and San Diego regions.

One senior Biden administration official estimated on Monday that the program was costing the U.S. government in excess of “tens of millions of dollars.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Manhattan District Attorney’s office will not file criminal charges in connection with the handling of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes during the tenure of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his representative said Monday.

“I was contacted today by the head of the Elder Care Unit from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes,” said Elkan Abromowitz, an attorney who represented the governor’s office. “I was told that after a thorough investigation – as we have said all along – there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken.”

The DA’s office had no comment.

Cuomo had come under fire for a policy early in the pandemic that returned nursing home residents to their facilities upon discharge from the hospital, even if they hadn’t tested negative.

He came under additional scrutiny when the New York attorney general found his office undercounted nursing home deaths.

Cuomo said last February that nearly all nursing homes that accepted recovering patients already had COVID cases.

And he said at that time that his handling of the fatality data created a “void” filled by misinformation and conspiracies.

“The void we created by not providing information was filled with skepticism and cynicism and conspiracy theories which fueled the confusion,” Cuomo said then. “The void we created disinformation and that caused more anxiety for loved ones.”

The state assembly considered whether it could be grounds for Cuomo’s impeachment before deciding to take no action.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., the top Republican on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, said former President Donald Trump is “clearly unfit for future office [and] clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”

“He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,” she said in an interview with “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “When a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”

The Wyoming Republican said her party has a “particular duty” to not only reject the events of Jan. 6, but “to make sure that Donald Trump is not our nominee, and that he’s never anywhere close to the reins of power ever again.”

As Trump publicly weighs whether to seek the White House again in 2024, Cheney said she agreed with Trump’s former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who said recently that a Trump victory in the next presidential election “could be the end of our democracy.”

“Do you share that fear?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“I do,” she said.

As the one-year anniversary of the Capitol siege nears, the House select committee’s sprawling probe is in full swing. In the past six months, the panel has interviewed more than 300 people, issued more than 50 subpoenas and obtained tens of thousands of records.

Cheney said the panel’s substantial efforts have already garnered important findings regarding Trump’s actions that day.

“The committee has firsthand testimony now that [Trump] was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television,” she said.

She went on to add, “We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”

“He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home – and he failed to do so,” Cheney continued. “It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.”

“Is his failure to make that statement criminal negligence?” Stephanopoulos asked.

Cheney replied that there are several “potential criminal statutes at issue here.”

“But I think that there’s absolutely no question that it was a dereliction of duty, and I think one of the things the committee needs to look at is we’re looking at a legislative purpose is whether we need enhanced penalties for that kind of dereliction of duty,” she said.

Cheney, one of two Republicans on the congressional panel probing Jan. 6, said Sunday that “the Republican Party has to make a choice. We can either be loyal to our Constitution or loyal to Donald Trump, but we cannot be both.”

Despite her pessimism about the state of her party, Cheney said she remains in high spirits about the work her committee has done.

“This committee gives me hope,” she said. “It is very much one that brings together a group of us who have very different policy views, but who come together when the issues have to do with the defense of the Constitution. So, that does give me hope.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — While the Biden administration has once again extended the pause on student loan repayments, some progressives said that unless more is done, it could cost Democrats in the midterms in 2022.

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is sounding the alarm over potentially losing voters and subsequent races due if the campaign promise from the Biden-Harris administration go unfulfilled.

Before the pause was extended, several prominent Democrats voiced their concerns about payments starting again and how it could cost them the midterms.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., tweeted, that “forcing millions to start paying student loans again” will cost Democrats the midterms.

The total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. currently stands at $1.75 trillion.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said it would be “delusional” to believe that Democrats can get reelected without taking action on student debt.

It is actually delusional to believe Dems can get re-elected without acting on filibuster or student debt, Biden breaking his BBB promise, letting CTC lapse, 0 path to citizenship, etc

Esp when they run from convos abt race+culture (which is what 1/6 was abt)

We need to act now

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 17, 2021

Natalia Abrams, president of the Student Debt Crisis Center, a nonprofit focused on ending the student debt crisis, told ABC News that “Democrats and lawmakers need to be careful because this is something the public has said they want.”

“If you can afford to pause student loan payments over and over again, you can afford to cancel it,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson tweeted after President Joe Biden announced his administration would extend the federal pause on student loan repayment for the third time in December.

Vice President Kamala Harris responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s comment in a recent interview with CBS News, saying that Secretary of Education Cardona is looking into what the Biden administration can do to alleviate the pressure that borrowers are enduring from student loan debt. However, Harris also acknowledged the impact student debt is having on individuals across the country.

“Graduates and former students across our country are literally making decisions about whether they can have a family, whether they can buy a home,” she said.

Harris was then asked if the Biden administration needs to deliver on its promise of forgiving student loan debt before the 2022 midterms in which Harris agreed.

“Well, I think that we have to continue to do what we’re doing and figure out how we can creatively relieve the pressure that students are feeling because of their student loan debt. Yes.”

During the 2020 election, Biden promised to forgive a minimum of $10,000 of federal student loans per borrower.

Additionally, we should forgive a minimum of $10,000/person of federal student loans, as proposed by Senator Warren and colleagues. Young people and other student debt holders bore the brunt of the last crisis. It shouldn’t happen again.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 22, 2020

There are two major issues standing in the way of Democrats tackling student debt. First, there’s no agreement within the Democratic Party on who has the power to cancel student debt.

Several Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Warren, have pushed the Biden admin to use executive authority to cancel federal student loans. Still, the Biden administration has pushed back, saying they do not know if Biden has the authority to do so.

When asked about Biden’s campaign promise to cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt in mid-December, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that if Congress sent Biden a bill to cancel student debt, he would be “happy to sign it.”

Back in July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference that President Biden does not have the legal authority to use executive action to cancel federal student loan debt.

“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness; he does not,” said Pelosi. “He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power, that has to be an act of Congress.”

Another issue that stands in the way of Democrats making any headway on student debt is that there seems to be no consensus on how much to cancel.

Several Democrats, including Schumer and Rep. Ayanna Pressley D-Mass., have urged canceling $50,000 of federal student loan debt, which Biden said he would “not make happen” when asked about it during a CNN town hall in February.

In that same town hall, Biden reiterated his support for canceling $10,000 dollars in student loan debt.

Democrats have about five months before the pause on federal student loans repayment expiries.

“I think one of the best things that Democrats can do to secure midterms would be to cancel student debt,” Abrams told ABC News. “At the very least keep loans on pause.”

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