(WASHINGTON) — One hundred three Marines have been discharged for refusing to take the COVID vaccine, the Marine Corps said Thursday, as the military services have begun to discharge a pool of possibly as many as 30,000 active duty service members who still refuse to be vaccinated — even after multiple opportunities to do so past vaccination deadlines.
In late August, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered mandatory COVID vaccines for all U.S. military personnel.
Shortly after Austin made the COVID vaccine mandatory, the military services quickly set up its own deadline dates and warned service members that they could face discharge unless they were vaccinated, which is in line with the Pentagon’s stance that choosing to remain unvaccinated is a violation of a lawful order from Austin.
While the percentage of vaccinated active duty personnel in each service is at 95% or higher, the number of unvaccinated personnel is close to 30,000.
Earlier this week, the Air Force became the first to make public that it had followed through on the warning, announcing that 27 airmen had received administrative discharges.
According to the latest numbers provided by the Air Force and the Navy, 7,365 airmen and 5,472 sailors are unvaccinated, either refusing the vaccine outright or awaiting the processing of requests for administrative, medical, or religious exemptions.
The Marine Corps said Thursday that 95% of its active-duty force of 182,500 Marines had received at least one COVID vaccine shot, the lowest percentage among the military services. The Marine Corps has approved 1,007 medical and administrative exemptions and is still processing 2,863 of the 3,144 requests made for a religious exemption.
Military personnel serving in the United States had already been required to receive 12 vaccines, including those for measles, polio, anthrax, chickenpox and flu, in order to serve. Service members assigned overseas were required to receive up to five others, like those for yellow fever or encephalitis, depending on which global region they are assigned to.
While the Army announced Thursday that nearly 98% of its 478,000 active-duty soldiers had been vaccinated, that means close to 10,000 soldiers are not.
The Army said 3,864 soldiers have refused the vaccine outright while an additional 6,263 are awaiting the processing of their requests for an exemption.
The majority of service members who remain unvaccinated have sought religious exemptions, but none of the services has yet to approve an exemption on religious grounds.
The defense authorization bill passed by Congress this week guarantees that service members who are kicked out of the military for refusing the vaccine will receive either an honorable discharge or a “general discharge under honorable conditions.”
Unlike the other services, the Army has decided that it will not discharge soldiers who refuse to be vaccinated. Instead, they will be “flagged,” cannot be promoted and will have to leave the Army when their enlistment contracts expire.
Flagged soldiers who have refused to get the vaccine will have to submit to regular COVID testing, Lt. Col. Terence Kelley, an Army spokesman told ABC News.
A soldier reporting daily to the same job location will be tested weekly, while those who are teleworking and have to visit their job location will be tested within 72 hours of the meeting or job activity, Kelley said.
(WASHINGTON) — When Sarah Hutchinson, mom of a 5-year-old son, saw her $300 child tax credit payment deposited into her bank account Wednesday, she said she felt a sense of both relief and fear.
Hutchinson said she was thankful for the payment, which, as a single mom, she uses to pay for her son’s child care, but she also knew it could be the last one she receives under the child tax credit expansion, which went into effect in July after Congress passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March.
The program is set to expire on Dec. 31, meaning the payments that Hutchinson and millions of other parents across the country received on Wednesday will be their last unless Congress votes to renew the program.
“I’m not looking forward to January,” said Hutchinson, 45, a librarian in Fredericksburg, Virginia, who is also facing more than $120,000 in student loans and thousands of dollars in medical bills accrued by her husband, who died in August. “I’m not sure how I’m going to work it out financially, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
Since July, around 35 million families each month have received the enhanced tax credit of up to $300 for each child under age 6 and up to $250 for each child ages 6 to 17, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
The families have primarily spent the money on kids’ school and child care expenses and essentials like food, rent, mortgage and utilities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Losing that extra financial aid would put nearly 10 million children at risk of falling back into poverty, according to a recent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute focused on reducing poverty.
That is the worry that keeps Torie Miesko, a single mom of two sons, up at night.
“I’m afraid,” said Miesko, 28, of Swissvale, Pennsylvania. “I’m trying to keep my sons out of poverty.”
Miesko works full time as an office administrator for a medical clinic while raising her two sons, ages 3 and 18 months. She said the $600 per month she has received since July helps her pay some of her rent and leftover bills and helps to cover her car insurance, which is necessary so that she can get to work.
“It has changed my life,” she said of the monthly child tax credit payments. “I have a little bit of a better job but still everything costs so much money and [the $600 monthly payment] is almost a whole other paycheck.”
Miesko shared her story with several U.S. senators this week in a Zoom call organized by MomsRising, an advocacy organization founded by moms.
The fate of extending the child tax credit expansion in 2022 lies with the Senate, which has yet to vote on the Build Back Better Act, legislation that passed the House of Representatives in November and includes a one-year extension of the monthly payments.
Miesko said she told senators she hopes the Senate stops “messing around” with the financial well-being of parents and passes the legislation.
“I really hope that they take it seriously and know that this really does impact everyday Americans greatly,” she said. “It’s sad how much regular Americans have to struggle and now they want to give [the monthly payments] for a couple of months and then take it back.”
Democratic leaders in Congress had hoped to pass the Build Back Better Act by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s self-imposed Christmas deadline, a timeline the White House said it supported. But that goal is slipping away, in large part due to the objections of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
The House-passed $1.75 trillion bill extends the monthly child tax credit for one year, through 2022, but Manchin has always said he objects to programs in the 10-year legislation that last for a shorter period of time, under the concern that those programs, like the enhanced child tax credit, could be made permanent and thereby more costly.
“Manchin has been clear that he wants the bill to stay at $1.75 trillion,” a source familiar with the matter told ABC News. “[Manchin] isn’t explicitly telling Biden to remove any specific policy, but he has made clear that expensive provisions are not going to fit to keep the bill at $1.75 trillion.”
A White House spokesperson said Wednesday they want the bill passed “as soon as possible.”
“It’s our longstanding rule not to discuss the specifics of private discussions with lawmakers, but the president and Sen. Manchin have had productive and friendly conversations,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told ABC News. “The president wants to pass Build Back Better as soon as possible so that it can cut the biggest costs families face, get more Americans into the workforce, reduce the deficit and fight inflation for the long haul.”
If lawmakers do not extend the program ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline, the advance child tax credit payment that parents have been receiving for the past six months would stop. At tax filing time, parents would still receive the remaining half of the credit they are eligible for that wasn’t paid out in advance, according to Erica York, an economist with Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy.
“If lawmakers don’t ever extend the expansion, the child tax credit for 2022 would revert to its current law levels, a maximum credit of $2,000 per child under age 17 that phases in with earned income for lower-income households and that is largely received at tax-filing time, rather than through advance payments from the IRS,” said York. “This could mean many parents would go from receiving a very large child tax credit, to a slimmed down version, or even zero.”
Family policy experts say the potential lost income would devastate many families at a time when inflation concerns are mounting and the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing.
Losing the monthly child tax credit payments would also impact the families that need it most, including families of color and households led by mothers, according to Amber Wallin, deputy director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a research and advocacy organization focused on improving the lives of children in New Mexico, which has one of the country’s highest child poverty rates.
“Data shows these types of programs disproportionately benefit families that are headed by mothers, and that’s really important right now because the data also shows that mothers have really disproportionately been harmed by the economic impacts of the pandemic,” said Wallin. “Mothers more than fathers have lost wages, have decreased work hours and have exited the labor force since the pandemic began, especially mothers of young children.”
Calling programs like the child tax credit “crucial,” Wallin added, “It’s about more than just providing relief to families. It’s about providing targeted relief that gets exactly to the families that need it, and that’s what the child tax credit does.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday is set to award the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military award for valor — to three U.S. soldiers for their service during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, the first Black service member to be honored for heroic actions during the war on terror launched after the 9/11 attacks.
Cashe suffered fatal injuries while serving in Iraq on Oct. 17, 2005, after rescuing fellow soldiers from a burning vehicle during Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Salah Ad Din Province, according to the White House. He will be honored posthumously.
Cashe died 16 years ago at the age of 35 and his widow, Tamara Cashe, is set to accept the award on his behalf during a ceremony at the White House.
Cashe’s sister Kasinal Cashe-White recalled her brother as “very rambunctious,” a “daredevil” and “a good kid all around.”
She told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday that receiving the Medal of Honor “means everything” to the family.
“We lost our brother. He can’t be replaced. But this award means that his name his legacy will go down in history,” she said.
Cashe grew up in Oviedo, Florida, and enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1989 after graduating from Oviedo High School. He was deployed in the 1991 Gulf War and served in Korea and Germany before being deployed to Iraq in 2005 while serving as a a platoon sergeant in the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Asked how she feels about Cashe being the first Black soldier to receive the highest award for valor for service during the war on terror, Cashe-White said her brother “earned” the honor through his actions.
Biden will also posthumously honor Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz, an Army Ranger who died at 32 years old during a 2018 firefight in Afghanistan, as well as Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee, a Special Forces soldier who fought off Taliban suicide bombers in Afghanistan in 2013 and is set to attend the ceremony, according to the White House.
Each of the service members demonstrated courage and gallantry by putting their own lives on the lines to aid their comrades and the actions that led them to receive the honor, a White House press release said.
When the vehicle that Cashe was commanding became engulfed in flames during an attack, his uniform caught fire and he sustained severe burns while extinguishing the flames and rescuing his fellow soldiers, according to the White House. Even after sufering injuries, he repeatedly approached the vehicle and helped four soldiers escape while being targeted by live fire.
“Despite the severe second and third degree burns covering the majority of his body, Sergeant First Class Cashe persevered through the pain to encourage his fellow Soldiers and ensure they received needed medical care,” the White House said. “When medical evacuation helicopters began to arrive, he selflessly refused evacuation until all of the other wounded Soldiers were first evacuated.”
Celiz, who died of wounds he received in combat on July 12, 2018, in Afghanistan’s Paktia Province, was attacked while leading an operation to disrupt attacks against the U.S. and allied forces and saved six live through his actions, the White House said.
His wife, Katie Celiz, told ABC News in an interview Wednesday that her husband was a “family man” who had an “amazing relationship” with their daughter.
“Chris believed in putting his men and his mission first,” she said. “Chris believed that we should always do good, whether it was the easy thing to do or not.”
During the operation he “voluntarily exposed himself to intense enemy machine gun and small arms fire” to help the U.S. and its allies reach safety and to administer aid to a wounded soldier, the White House said.
After he was hit himself, he signaled for the aircraft to depart without him.
“His selfless actions saved the life of the evacuated partnered force member and almost certainly prevented further casualties among other members of his team and the aircrew,” the White House said.
Plumlee, who spoke with ABC News on Wednesday, is also being honored for his heroic actions while serving in Afghanistan.
While responding to an explosion on the U.S. base, he fought off 10 Taliban suicide bombers dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms and came under fire several times, according to the White House. He placed himself in harms way by leaving cover to protect his base and helped render first aid to a wounded soldier, carrying him to safety.
“Without cover and with complete disregard for his own safety, he advanced on the superior enemy force engaging multiple insurgents with only his pistol,” the White House said.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(MAYFIELD, Ky.) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday surveyed damage in Kentucky he described as “beyond belief” and met with families in neighborhoods ravaged by deadly tornadoes last weekend.
After Biden surveyed the destruction in Mayfield by air and then on the ground, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear later choked up when thanking Biden publicly and introducing him in Dawson Springs, where Biden had stopped and talked to families whose homes were destroyed, including a 12-year-old girl carrying an American flag in a neighborhood where nearly every tree had been uprooted.
Biden opened his remarks by reminding people used to travel to Dawson Springs for the city’s healing waters, but, Biden said, “Now it’s our turn to help the entire town to heal.”
“I intend to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes to support your state and local leaders, and as you recover and rebuild because you will recover and you will rebuild,” Biden said, surrounded by storm damage. “The scope and scale of this destruction is almost beyond belief. When you look around here, it’s almost beyond belief. These tornadoes devoured everything in their path.”
He also offered condolences for those who lost someone and insisted “something good must happen” from the tragedy.
“I met one couple on the way up, said they’re still looking for four of their friends. They don’t know where they are. And those who have lost someone, there’s no words for the pain of losing someone. A lot of us know it.” Biden said.
“Keep the faith,” Biden added. “No one is walking away. We are in this for the long haul.”
Ahead of his remarks, Biden updated a presidential disaster declaration to boost federal disaster funds from 75% to 100% coverage for debris removal and emergency protective measures in Kentucky for a 30-day period.
Earlier, before receiving a briefing from state and local officials in Kentucky “on the impacts of the tornadoes and extreme weather,” according to the White House, Biden vowed all the federal support he can provide to the area, both now and in the months to come.
“Immediately after a disaster is a time when people are really, really moving, and trying to help each other and trying to get things done. But after a month, after six weeks, after two months, people can get themselves to a point where they get fairly depressed about what’s going on, particularly young kids, particularly people who’ve lost somebody. And so I just want you to know, the help that we’re able to offer at the federal level, is not just now,” Biden said.
“I’ve instructed my team to make you all aware of everything that is available from a federal level,” Biden added later on. “And some of it has to do outside of FEMA, outside of Homeland Security, there’s other programs, including education, there’s a whole range of things, but I’m here to listen.”
The president seemed struck by the scale of the damage he saw on his aerial tour.
“As you fly over here, as I’ve done in the past, I’ve not seen this tornado, this much damage from a tornado. You know, you think, but for the grace of God, why was I not 100 yards outside that line? Which makes it so different,” he noted.
Biden was joined for the visit by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who were on the ground there on Sunday.
At least 88 people have been confirmed dead across five states, 74 in western Kentucky alone, and the death toll could rise “significantly,” Beshear said on Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — Major U.S. airline CEOs were in the hot seat on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, questioned by lawmakers on whether they appropriately spent billions in taxpayer dollars.
The airline industry received a bailout of $54 billion at the height of the pandemic when air travel came to a screeching halt. The goal was to preserve airline jobs, and in return airlines agreed to place limits on executive compensation, eliminate stock buybacks and dividends and not involuntary furlough employees.
Even with the aid, however, airlines said they had no choice but to shrink. They incentivized thousands of employees to accept early retirement offers, buyouts and take unpaid leave.
The moves left them with few resources when air travel came roaring back. During the summer and fall, taxpayers bore the brunt of the cuts — facing daylong cancellations, delays, lines and hold times.
“The return of demand for air travel has been intense,” American CEO Doug Parker wrote in his opening statement. “Like other airlines, we have experienced some operational challenges in recent months, which we have worked to manage as deftly as possible.”
Lawmakers questioned the CEOs on whether airlines have held up their end of the bargain since the goal of the aid was to preserve staff for the eventual travel rebound.
“We end[ed] up with airplanes in the wrong place, people in the wrong place,” Parker said regarding the airline’s mass flight cancellations in October. “So that was the driver of the vast majority of cancellations, but … it gets unfortunately mischaracterized as we don’t have enough people.”
Parker explained they actually have more pilots and flight attendants for shifts than they’ve had in the past, but that employees pre-pandemic were more willing to pick up extra trips, which fueled some of their operational challenges.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly admitted to some scheduling mistakes over the past year.
“We just need to make sure that we don’t overschedule the airline relative to the people resources that we have,” he said, “and we’ve made a number of adjustments in that regard.”
And United revealed they are struggling with a regional pilot shortage.
“All of us, particularly our regional partners, simply don’t have enough airplanes to fly,” United CEO Scott Kirby told lawmakers. “We have almost 100 airplanes effectively grounded right now, regional aircraft, because there’s not enough pilots flying, which means we just can’t at the moment fly to all the small communities that we would like to.”
But the executives were in agreement that the road to recovery would have been worse if it weren’t for the payroll support program. PSP saved nearly 400,000 direct passenger airline jobs, according to data from the airlines.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say the program saved the airline industry,” Parker added.
Executives addressed worker shortage concerns by detailing their aggressive hiring initiatives. In all, the major U.S. airlines plan to hire around 30,000 new workers in 2022.
U.S. airlines handled the recent Thanksgiving travel rush without a major hiccup, but they fear the emerging variant could pose another potential setback.
“The omicron variant has created further uncertainty,” Delta COO John Laughter told lawmakers, “and there is no clear consensus on when business and international travel will return.”
(WASHINGTON) — It’s been hard for Americans to avoid headlines and statements about “tapering” in recent months, as economists and policymakers debate how to best support the economy while the pandemic ebbs in the U.S.
The Federal Reserve said in a policy statement Wednesday that it was greatly reducing its massive bond-buying program, a pandemic-era initiative that flushed cash into financial markets and aimed to buoy the economy during the health crisis.
In the context of current economic policies, this ongoing process of slowing down asset purchases by the Fed is referred to as “tapering.” Simplistically, it refers to the gradual slowdown of the economic stimulus policy that was initiated at the height of the pandemic, when businesses shuttered and unemployment skyrocketed.
“The Fed has been buying up bonds since March of 2020 — bonds and mortgage-backed securities — at a certain rate, and they’re going to slow the rate at which they’re buying up these assets until they’re not buying them anymore,” Megan Greene, global chief economist at the advisory firm Kroll Institute and a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, told ABC News.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during his post Fed-meeting news conference, “We’re basically two meetings away now from from finishing the taper.”
The move to speed up tapering comes as inflation has thrown a new wrench in the Fed’s ability to use its tools to support the economy. Economists have attributed the rising inflation to pandemic-related imbalances as global supply chain snags and labor shortages hobble the ability of supply to keep up with surging demand, pushing up prices.
The Fed’s pandemic policies helped stimulate the economy and consumer demand during the height of the crisis, but the U.S. central bank does not have monetary tools to ease the supply constraints.
“We are phasing out our purchases more rapidly because with elevated inflation pressures and a rapidly strengthening labor market, the economy no longer needs increasing amounts of policy support,” Powell said Wednesday. “In addition, a quicker conclusion of our asset purchases will better position policy to address the full range of plausible economic outcomes.”
In addition to doubling the pace of its tapering, the Fed also signaled that it could hike interest rates up to three times in 2022.
(MAYFIELD, Ky.) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday surveyed storm damage and met with families in neighborhoods ravaged by the deadly tornadoes .
Biden viewed damage in Mayfield before heading to Dawson Springs and also make remarks on the federal response and “extreme weather,” according to the White House.
Shortly before noon, Marine One landed in Mayfield, and Biden was greeted on the tarmac in Fort Campbell by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, stopping for a five-minute conversation.
Deputy principal press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s message on Wednesday “is that he and the federal government intend to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, by providing any support that is needed to aid recovery efforts and support the people of Kentucky — and of other impacted states as they rebuild.”
“It is going to be a very long, long road ahead. And so that’s the president’s focus right now is to talk, specifically to hear from the elected officials on the ground,” she told reporters earlier on Air Force One.
Before receiving a briefing from state and local officials in Kentucky, Biden vowed all the federal support he can provide to the area, both now and in the months to come.
“Immediately after a disaster is a time when people are really, really moving, and trying to help each other and trying to get things done. But after a month, after six weeks, after two months, people can get themselves to a point where they get fairly depressed about what’s going on, particularly young kids, particularly people who’ve lost somebody. And so I just want you to know, the help that we’re able to offer at the federal level, is not just now,” Biden said.
“I’ve instructed my team to make you all aware of everything that is available from a federal level,” Biden added later on. “And some of it has to do outside of FEMA, outside of Homeland Security, there’s other programs, including education, there’s a whole range of things, but I’m here to listen.”
The president seemed struck by the scale of the damage he saw on his aerial tour.
“As you fly over here, as I’ve done in the past, I’ve not seen this tornado, this much damage from a tornado. You know, you think, but for the grace of God, why was I not 100 yards outside that line? Which makes it so different,” he noted.
After a briefing in Mayfield by local leaders “on the impacts of the tornadoes and extreme weather,” according to the White House, Biden will then continue on to Dawson Springs and that tour will culminate in remarks at 4 p.m. EST.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this week said Biden will not be delivering a “major speech” there but rather will be “trying to be a source of comfort to people who have gone through a devastating couple of days in their communities.”
“I would expect while he’s there, he will receive an update from local authorities on what their needs are, see local elected officials and discuss in person with them and make sure they’re getting what they need from the federal government,” Psaki said.
“He also wants to hear directly from people, and he wants to offer his support directly to them,” Psaki added. “People who have gone through over the last couple of days, really incredible challenges losing their homes, losing loved ones, losing parts of their community that they’ve grown up with and I think he wants to offer his support directly to them as well.”
Biden was joined for the visit by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who were on the ground there on Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — Five Federal Bureau of Investigation officials “solicited” prostitutes while on an overseas trip, the Department of Justice inspector general said in a two-page report.
Four of the officials “solicited, procured, and accepted commercial sex overseas.”
“The OIG investigation also found that four of those officials lacked candor about their interactions with prostitutes and other misconduct during OIG compelled interviews and compelled polygraph examinations, in violation of FBI policies, and that one of those officials made false statements in an OIG compelled interview and compelled polygraph examination in violation of federal law, when the official denied having engaged in sex acts with a prostitute,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote.
Soliciting a prostitute overseas while working for the FBI is a violation of FBI and DOJ policy.
One FBI official “lacked candor” to the Inspector General “when the official denied observing or placing pills in a package to be delivered to a foreign law enforcement officer and that another of the officials failed to report having been provided such a package.”
The inspector general says there were about 100 white pills that were seen being given to a foreign official.
A sixth FBI official did not report the misconduct in violation of DOJ policy.
The inspector general said of the five who solicited prostitutes two resigned, two retired, and one was removed. The report said three of the individuals also failed to report their interactions with foreign nationals.
There are no details in the report about where the prostitution solicitation occurred or the names of the officials involved.
(WASHINGTON) — Late Tuesday night, the House voted to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion — a move that should stave off the first-ever default.
All Democrats in both the Senate and House voted to raise the debt limit. One Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, from Illinois, joined them.
The Senate cleared the vote earlier Tuesday with zero GOP support.
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
Once signed by the president, the legislation will have prevented a U.S. default that could have halted Social Security and veterans’ payments, hiked interest on mortgages and loans and disrupted the global economy.
The Treasury Department predicted that the U.S. would be unable to pay its bills come Wednesday.
Congressional action was the last step in a months-long process aimed at raising the federal borrowing limit.
In October, Republican and Democratic leadership locked horns over the spending cap. Though both parties acknowledged the necessity of raising the debt limit, Republicans argued that Democrats ought to raise the limit on their own — wrongly claiming they needed to offset the cost of Biden’s yet-to-be passed $1.75 trillion social spending bill.
Democrats, who helped raise the debt limit multiple times under the Trump administration, insisted it be a bipartisan effort since the debt limit had to be raised to cover past spending.
The October dispute ended in the GOP blinking, with Republicans giving Democrats the votes necessary for a short-term raise to the debt limit, but vowing they’d be less cooperative in the winter.
Last week, however, party leaders announced an agreement on a two-step process to raise the debt limit. Republicans ultimately provided 10 votes to permit a one-time rule change altering the number of votes necessary to pass the debt-limit hike and clearing a path for Democrats to pass the legislation without a single GOP backer.
The reached agreement required Democrats to name a specific amount they want to raise the debt limit by. They settled on $2.5 trillion — enough to prevent the government from defaulting through early 2023, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — The House voted Tuesday night to hold former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to appear for a deposition.
The vote was 222-208, with GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voting with all Democrats.
Meadows is now the first former lawmaker ever held in criminal contempt by Congress — and the first held in contempt since 1832 — when former Rep. Sam Houston was held in contempt for beating a colleague with a cane.
The vote sends the matter to the Justice Department, which will determine whether to bring any charges against Meadows, after previously doing so against Trump ally Steve Bannon.
During debate on the floor Tuesday evening, and earlier in the day, in the House Rules Committee, members of the Jan. 6 select committee released new text messages from the tranche of records Meadows had turned over to the committee.
“I heard Jeff Clark is getting put in on Monday. That’s amazing. It will make a lot of patriots happy, and I’m personally so proud that you are at the tip of the spear, and I could call you a friend,” a text to Meadows from an unknown number read, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
The new messages further underscored Meadows’s importance to the congressional investigation, as a key figure in Trump’s orbit who personally participated in discussions about challenging the election results and advocated for voter fraud investigations from his perch in the West Wing.
“Mr. Meadows’s testimony will bear on another key question before this committee: Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes?” Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, said Tuesday.
On Jan. 3, Meadows told an unnamed member of Congress that Trump “thinks the legislatures have the power but that the Vp has power too,” according to Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., who read the message about the counting of the electoral votes on the House floor.
On Nov. 4th, an unnamed member of Congress texted Meadows that Republican-led legislatures should “just send their own electors to Congress” to challenge the official results in key states, and allow the Supreme Court to determine how to award the votes and the winner of the election.
Lawmakers on the panel argued that Meadows, despite his deference to Trump’s alleged claims of executive privilege, was improperly refusing to appear under subpoena to discuss topics referenced in the materials he already shared with Congress or mentioned in his new memoir.
Meadows turned over some 9,000 documents from personal email accounts and a cell phone to the committee, including urgent text messages from Republican lawmakers imploring him to get Trump to something to stop the violence.
But he then reversed course and refused to appear under subpoena to answer questions about the records he provided.
During Monday’s committee meeting, before members voted unanimously to recommend Meadows be held in contempt, Cheney quoted extensively from text messages sent to Meadows during the riot from Fox News hosts, GOP lawmakers and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.
Cheney said the messages left “no doubt” the White House “knew exactly what was happening” at the Capitol during the riot.
“He’s got to condemn [the riot] ASAP,” Trump Jr. told Meadows in a text message, according to Cheney, saying that Trump’s tweet about Capitol Police “is not enough.”
“I’m pushing it hard,” Meadows replied. “I agree.”
“We need an Oval Office address,” Trump Jr. said in a follow up message. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
“Please get him on tv,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade wrote to Meadows. “Destroying everything you have accomplished.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read aloud from text messages Meadows received from unnamed GOP lawmakers before and after the riot.
“Yesterday was a terrible day,” one wrote. “We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”
Cheney quoted again from text messages Tuesday morning.
“It is really bad up here on the Hill,” one message read.
In another, an unnamed lawmaker texted Meadows: “Fix this now.”
“We need to question him about emails and texts he has given us without any claims of privilege,” Cheney said.
Commitee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday that “only three people” of “over 300” have not cooperated with the committee. He shared that Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is among those scheduled to cooperate and speak to investigators.
“I have no great desire to be here seeking consideration of this contempt referral. Mr. Meadows was a colleague for more than seven years. But that doesn’t excuse his behavior. If anything, his time as a member of the House should make him more aware of the potential consequences of defying a congressional subpoena,” Thompson said.
Republicans for the most part defended Meadows and suggested the committee’s push to hold Meadows in contempt would squander any chance they had to secure his cooperation.
“Today they are destroying executive privilege,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said on the House floor. “It is a vote to put a good man in prison.”
In a statement Tuesday, Meadows attorney George Terwilliger said his client “never stopped cooperating” with the panel. “What message does that duplicity send to him as well as to others who might be inclined to consider cooperating in good faith to the extent possible?”
Democrats and Republicans aligned with the committee blasted Meadows’ argument, pointing to the fact that he published a memoir detailing conversations with Trump around Jan. 6.
“This is a witness who is refusing to comply with the law,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said. “But look at his book and you get more information than our committee did.”
Trump ally Steve Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress for rebuffing the committee’s subpoenas and has pleaded not guilty. That trial is scheduled to begin in July 2022.
