(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice has sent letters to six former Trump DOJ officials telling them that they can participate in Congress’ investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to sources and communications reviewed by ABC News.
The move is likely to remove a significant barrier that Democrats faced during Trump’s presidency, when the Justice Department backed the White House’s efforts to prevent any DOJ officials from testifying before their Democratic congressional committees.
At this time, no Trump-era DOJ official has indicated that they have agreed to testify in the congressional probe.
The first hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, featuring law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, got underway Tuesday.
Earlier, those attorneys who had been asked to testify had said they would need authorization from the Justice Department, sources told ABC News.
“Department attorneys, including those who have left the Department, are obligated to protect non-public information they learned in the course of their work,” reads the DOJ’s letter, which was sent Monday and reviewed by ABC News. “For decades and across administrations, however, the Department has sought to balance the Executive Branch’s confidentiality interests with Congress’s legitimate need to gather information. The extraordinary events in this matter constitute exceptional circumstances warranting an accommodation to Congress in this case.”
The letter was sent to former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia B.J. Pak, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine and former Associate Deputy Attorney General Patrick Hovakimian, all of whom were requested as witnesses by House Oversight Committee.
“The extraordinary events in this matter constitute exceptional circumstances warranting an accommodation to Congress in this case,” the letter said. “Congress has articulated compelling legislative interests in the matters being investigated, and the information the Committees have requested from you bears directly on Congress’s interest in understanding these extraordinary events: namely, the question whether former President Trump sought to cause the Department to use its law enforcement and litigation authorities to advance his personal political interests with respect to the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
(NEW YORK) — Two key senators announced a bipartisan deal on a $2.1 billion emergency security supplemental bill to send much-needed funding to Capitol Police and the National Guard, as law enforcement officers were recounting to members of the House their gripping, harrowing tales of confrontations with former President Donald Trump’s supporters rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The deal includes $70.7 million for Capitol Police training, equipment, overtime, more officers, hazard pay and retention bonuses; more than $521 million to the National Guard to reimburse the department for the long hours guardsmen put in guarding the Capitol in the wake of the attack; and additional funding will be allotted for making repairs to the building after rioters damaged the centuries-old historic building. There’s also $35.4 million for the Capitol Police mutual aid agreements with local, state and federal law enforcement for securing the Capitol and funds to secure the Capitol complex and respond to COVID on the complex.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told reporters that “We’re going to take care of the Capitol Police, fix all the problems that need to be done here (in the building), certainly take care of the National Guard, which is critical, because they have real problems.”
The Guard has been desperate for the reimbursement, threatening to cancel training events, drills in August and September and potentially furloughing civilians.
The embattled Capitol Police, still clawing back from the Jan. 6 attacks — enacting changes in leadership, grappling with retirements and officers walking away from the job after that harrowing day — have said they would be out of funding by mid-August if Congress did not act.
The emergency supplemental also has $1.125 billion to cover the Afghanistan Special Immigrant Visa program — a little less than what the White House requested — to provide asylum to allies there who aided the U.S. mission and now face retribution from a resurgent Taliban.
Leahy has said before that the money is also designed to address the backlog of applications for the program and shortening the work requirement to one year from two, but it unclear what will be in the final deal.
The chairman said the bill could be on the floor as early as Tuesday night, but lawmakers could have a Sen. Rand Paul problem. The Kentucky Republican is opposed to awarding funds to provide asylum to Afghan interpreters and others who helped the United States in that long-fought war.
The State Department announced last week the “first tranche” of Afghans being evacuated from Afghanistan consists of 700 who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan and an estimated number of their family members — bringing the total to a “ballpark” of 2,500 Afghans set to be sent to Fort Lee base in Virginia, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
Thousands more are being moved to other cooperating countries, as well as overseas U.S. bases.
ABC News’ Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite heavy opposition from Republican leadership, the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is holding its first hearing on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
The panel will hear from law enforcement officers who defended the building, including Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone. They both lobbied lawmakers in May, alongside the family of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, to form a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the attack — an effort Republicans blocked in the Senate.
The House voted to form a select committee to which Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appointed eight members — six Democrats and two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. They were the only House Republicans who broke from the GOP to vote in favor of creating the committee.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his appointments after Pelosi vetoed two of them over statements they had made which she said would damage the credibility of the probe. McCarthy has attempted to dismiss the investigation as a “sham” and threatened punitive action on the Republicans who’ve agreed to serve with Democrats.
Jul 27, 8:37 am
Rep. Liz Cheney on ABC’s Good Morning America says subpoenas possible for McCarthy, Trump
With hours until the first hearing kicks off, Rep. Liz Cheney — one of two Republicans serving on the select committee — shot back at fellow Republicans criticizing her role in the probe, saying, “This is absolutely not a game. This is deadly serious.”
”There are some in my party, including Leader McCarthy, who continue to act as though this is about partisan politics, I think it’s really sad. I think it’s a disgrace,” she told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
She also said subpoenas for House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and even former President Donald Trump are possible.
“The committee will go wherever we need to go to get to the facts,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite Republican opposition, the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol holds its first hearing.
The panel will hear from law enforcement officers who defended the building, including Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone. They both lobbied lawmakers in May, alongside the family of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, to form a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the attack — an effort Republicans blocked in the Senate.
The House voted to form the select committee to which Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appointed eight members — six Democrats and two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who broke from the GOP to vote in favor of creating the panel.
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 27, 9:53 am
Chairman: ‘This threat hasn’t gone away’
At the end of a video with never-before-seen footage of the attack, one rioter said they’ll be back, which Thompson said was a warning that “this threat hasn’t gone away” but “looms over our democracy like a dark cloud.”
Thompson closed his opening statement by saying while the attack was fueled by a “vile, vile lie,” his committee will be a beacon for uncovering the truth of that day.
“The rioters who tried to rob us of our democracy were propelled here by a lie. As Chairman of this Committee, I will not give that lie any fertile ground,” he said.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be undone by liars and cheaters. This is the United States of America,” he added.
Jul 27, 9:50 am
Chairman opens hearing with praise for officers, new video
Opening the hearing, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said there’s “no place for politics or partisanship” in their investigation and praised the police officers for testifying for the panel.
“For appearing here, and more importantly, for your heroism on Jan. 6, you have the gratitude of this committee and this country. You held the line that day, and I can’t overstate what was on the line: our democracy. You held the line,” he said.
“We’re going to revisit some of those moments today, and it won’t be easy,” Thompson added. “But history will remember your names and your actions.”
Thompson proceeded to play video from Jan. 6 showing the officers defending the Capitol from a violent, pro-Trump mob, intermixed with their pleas to each other over their radios.
“Just describing that attack doesn’t come close to capturing what actually took place that day, so we’re going to see some of what our witnesses saw on Jan. 6,” he said.
Jul 27, 9:37 am
Hearing gets underway
The House select committee’s first hearing is underway.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., will each deliver opening statements ahead of testimony from four police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Cheney will speak in place of Republicans, whose ranking member would typically be given an opportunity to make opening remarks after the committee chair — but House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled his members from the panel, leaving only Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who took appointments from Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Tuesday’s hearing is expected to go two to three hours and will feature new video elements from the attack.
Jul 27, 9:35 am
Chairman: Subpoenas for Trump, Ivanka, McCarthy possible
Ahead of the hearing, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left the door open to subpoenas for the former president and those close to him on Jan. 6.
“Wherever the investigation leads us,” Thompson told ABC News Correspondent Kyra Phillips, when asked also about subpoenas for the House GOP leader and Ivanka Trump. “We will look at who made phone calls to the White House that day, we’ll look at whether or not there were any text messages, where there any emails — all of that is part of the investigation.”
Thompson said the August recess for the committee will include a lot of work and include conversations with Attorney General Merrick Garland and the White House.
“We are looking for a cooperative investigation, so whatever it takes to get that cooperation we plan to do,” he said.
Jul 27, 9:26 am
Why did the committee start with police officers?
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the panel and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who briefed reporters on a call ahead of the hearing, said it was important to have the officers explain the brutality of what they confronted, with the help of video footage from that day.
Schiff said the officers can “put to rest some of the revisionist history, the effort to whitewash what took place and understand keenly the importance of getting to the truth about what led up to that insurrection and what happened thereafter.”
He added, “We didn’t want to compel anyone to testify that didn’t want to or didn’t feel that they could. A lot of those who were the most severely injured continue to struggle with the after-effects of that day, so we want to be sensitive to those concerns.”
Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was seen on video getting brutally attacked by rioters, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott he plans to testify in uniform and won’t let politics surrounding the committee hinder the truth in his testimony.
Jul 27, 9:21 am
What to expect Tuesday
At Tuesday’s hearing, titled “The Law Enforcement Experience on January 6th,” the panel will hear from police officers who protected lawmakers from rioters during the assault on the Capitol and have them explain new video footage showing what they experienced that day.
Harrowing testimonies are expected from Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., will each deliver opening statements ahead of testimony from the officers. The opening statements from police officers will each be roughly five minutes, though the committee won’t be enforcing the “5-minute rule” on members and witnesses as it typically does in major hearings. There will only be one round of questions.
The hearing is expected to go two to three hours and will feature new video elements from the attack, according to a congressional aide.
Jul 27, 8:53 am
Republicans blame Pelosi for alleged security lapse ahead of hearing
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, joined by other Republican leaders and the five GOP members he appointed to the committee, held a news conference at the Capitol about an hour before the first hearing was set to began to air grievances about Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan being rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The group attempted to place blame for Jan. 6 on Pelosi.
“The American people deserve to know the truth that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility as speaker of the House for the tragedy that occurred on Jan. 6,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in her No. 3 GOP leadership role earlier this year.
One reporter noted that Pelosi didn’t say the election was stolen or call her supporters to the Capitol, asking McCarthy, “So are you trying to cover up what the former president’s role was on Jan. 6?”
“Nothing, we’re not pre-determining any questions. We’d like to be on the committee to ask them,” he replied, before resuming his attacks on Pelosi and the Democratic-led committee.
Jul 27, 8:30 am
Rep. Liz Cheney on ABC’s Good Morning America says subpoenas possible for McCarthy, Trump
With hours until the first hearing kicks off, Rep. Liz Cheney — one of two Republicans serving on the select committee — shot back at fellow Republicans criticizing her role in the probe, saying, “This is absolutely not a game. This is deadly serious.”
”There are some in my party, including Leader McCarthy, who continue to act as though this is about partisan politics, I think it’s really sad. I think it’s a disgrace,” she told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
She also said subpoenas for House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and even former President Donald Trump are possible.
“The committee will go wherever we need to go to get to the facts,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly three months after the crowded race in Texas’ 6th Congressional District advanced into a runoff between two Republicans — Susan Wright and state Rep. Jake Ellzey — the major theme of the contest remains the same: will former President Donald Trump’s influence translate into victory on the campaign trail?
In April, Trump endorsed Susan Wright — the widow of the late Congressman Ron Wright who died in February after suffering from COVID-19 and complications from cancer — before the special election even took place. In the leadup to Tuesday’s contest, Trump publicly reiterated his support for Wright in a statement, saying she “supports America First policies” which earned her his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
The former president also recorded a robo-call that was circulated online that touted Wright as “a great Republican (and) a great woman” who would carry on her husband’s politically conservative legacy in Congress. Although Wright’s inheritance of her late husband’s congressional track record is not an unusual phenomenon in the history of campaign politics, the widow-turned-congressional-hopeful is not yet guaranteed to win outright given Ellzey’s fundraising prowess.
Despite not having Trump’s endorsement, Ellzey has been able to raise more than double that of Wright. As of July 7, the state congressman raised more than $1.2 million compared to Wright’s $454,000, which could have helped him streamline his campaign’s voter mobilization efforts ahead of Tuesday’s contest.
Going into the matchup, Ellzey also has the backing of several high-profile Texas Republicans — including former Gov. Rick Perry, who also served as energy secretary in the Trump administration, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw who represents the district bordering Houston. The pair defended Ellzey on the campaign trail after he faced weeks of attacks from the conservative, anti-tax group, the Club for Growth, through mailers and advertisements.
“Nothing irritates me more than the junk that I have seen in the mailboxes talking about him. If you want to win an election that bad, I don’t want you to be my congressman,” Perry said at a campaign rally for Ellzey in mid-July.
Following that rally, Club for Growth President David McIntosh issued a statement in which he praised Wright as a “principled conservative” while calling Ellzey a “serial opportunist with a record of missing votes and supporting higher taxes.”
But the political back-and-forth could take a backseat to voter engagement given that special elections historically draw far fewer voters to the polls than midterm or general election cycles.
“Susan Wright is still probably the favorite based on the early judgments people made and the Trump endorsement in particular, but I think what makes it unpredictable is that Ellzey is probably a better campaigner than Susan Wright is, and in a very low turnout race — which this is expected to be — it’s very hard to tell (who will win),” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University who specializes in Texas politics.
Jillson predicts it will be unlikely that Independent and Democratic voters turn out in large enough numbers on what is expected to be a scorching hot day to cast their ballots in opposition to the Trump-backed candidate. Still, the uncertainty of how many voters plan to participate in an off-cycle runoff election looms over the contest.
“You don’t know how many people are going to turn out. You don’t know who they’re going to be, (or) where they’re going to be — the northern part of the district leans toward Wright, the southern part of the district leans toward Ellzey,” he said in an interview with ABC News Monday.
Regardless of who comes out on top, the outcome of Tuesday’s election signals an inherent victory for congressional Republicans and will further narrow Democrats’ majority in the House. The lack of an opposing party member in the running allows Republicans to focus their spending in more competitive contests in the future.
“I look forward to welcoming a new Republican colleague to Congress,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer said in May following Wright and Ellzey’s runoff advancements.
(WASHINGTON) — On the day before a House committee was set to open its investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy kept up his effort to dismiss the probe and attack the Republicans who’ve agreed to serve with Democrats.
When asked on Monday if he’ll punish the two Republican members — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — McCarthy said “we’ll see,” amid speculation their fellow Republicans might try to remove them from House committee assignments for accepting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation.
Speaking with reporters after a bipartisan White House even celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act, McCarthy called them “Pelosi Republicans.”
“Couldn’t tell you,” he said, when asked the last time he spoke to Cheney and Kinzinger.
When asked for his take on the first witnesses — law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol against the pro-Trump mob — McCarthy replied, “I don’t know.”
Back on Capitol Hill, Cheney shot back at McCarthy.
“We’ve got very serious business here. We have important work to do. And I think that’s pretty childish,” she told reporters.
Kinzinger on Monday slammed other Republicans in response to McCarthy’s dig.
“If the conference decides, or if Kevin decides they want to punish Liz Cheney and I for getting into the bottom and telling the truth, I think that probably says more about them than it does for us,” he said.
Kinzinger added his preference was the independent commission negotiated and then blocked by GOP leaders.
“It’s become obvious that there are some that just simply don’t want answers, and that to me is unacceptable,” he told reporters.
Earlier Monday, committee members checked out the Cannon Office Building hearing room ahead of Tuesday’s start at 9:30 a.m.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney will each deliver opening statements in Tuesday’s hearing before the police officers testify, according to a congressional aide. The committee will hear from Capitol Police Officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Normally, the ranking member — or top Republican — would be given an opportunity to make opening remarks after the committee chair speaks. But Republican leaders have pulled their members from the panel, leaving only Cheney and Kinzinger as the only GOP members.
Cheney and Kinzinger are the only two House Republicans who voted to form a select committee after Senate Republicans killed a proposal for a bipartisan, independent commission. Like Cheney, Kinzinger is among the 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”
Tuesday’s hearing is expected to go two to three hours and will feature video elements, according to an aide.
McCarthy has vowed that his GOP appointments won’t participate after Pelosi rejected two of them — Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio — citing statements made and actions taken, she said, would threaten the credibility of the committee.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing Monday that President Joe Biden will be “kept abreast” of Tuesday’s committee hearing.
“In his view, in our view, tomorrow’s hearing will be an opportunity to hear firsthand from the men and women in the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department who bravely protected our Capitol on that day. His goal is the same goal that Speaker Pelosi has, which is to get to the bottom of what happened and prevent it from happening in the future, and he trusts her leadership to do exactly that,” she said.
Dunn, one of the police officers who is scheduled to testify Tuesday, tweeted out Monday asking for “good vibes.”
Mark Zaid, the whistleblower attorney who is also representing Dunn, late last week posted this Twitter thread flagging that after Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Dunn on his show as an “angry left-wing political activist” he received “numerous vile/racist” messages, with some citing Carlson’s comments.
Fanone, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department who was brutally attacked by rioters on Jan. 6, video shows, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that he plans to testify in uniform Tuesday and said he won’t let politics hinder his appearance.
“I don’t get care what the vehicle is — as long as the truth comes out,” he said, when asked about Republicans who are throwing cold water on the committee. Fanone was at the Capitol Monday to prepare for the hearing.
He added, he supports any investigation that is looking for a “factual account” of what happened that day.
Back in May, Fanone and Dunn escorted the family of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick door-to-door on Capitol Hill pleading with Republicans for an independent commission.
ABC News’s Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The chair of former President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, Tom Barrack, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he used his connection to Trump to illegally lobby for the United Arab Emirates.
Barrack flew across the country from California, where he was arrested last week, for his arraignment in Brooklyn federal court.
Barrack was released on a $250 million bond, secured by $5 million in cash. The judge ordered that his travel be limited to New York, California and Colorado, where he will live pending trial.
He was also ordered to take only commercial flights, with no private jets, and is prohibited from making any foreign financial transactions or from making domestic transactions above $50 thousand.
The bail package was requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Reilly, who asked for a bail package “substantially similar” to what was imposed on Barrack in California.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is confident in the bipartisan select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, despite House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulling his recommendations for the panel.
“Maybe the Republicans can’t handle the truth, but we have a responsibility to seek it, to find it and in a way that maintains the confidence of the American people,” she told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Despite McCarthy, R-Calif., slamming Pelosi last week for conducting “a sham process” after she rejected two of the five Republican members he recommended for the select committee, Pelosi said she plans to appoint more Republicans to the panel.
McCarthy had threatened that Republicans “will not participate” if Pelosi did not accept all five of his recommendations, but Sunday afternoon Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois announced he’d accepted Pelosi’s invitation to participate in the commission.
Only one Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — who was named to the committee by Pelosi and not on McCarthy’s list — had initially accepted an invitation to join the committee. Cheney, a strong critic of McCarthy and former President Donald Trump, was described by Pelosi on Sunday as a “very courageous member of Congress.”
Like Cheney, Kinzinger is among the few Republicans to vote to impeach Trump over the insurrection.
“This moment requires a serious, clear-eyed, non-partisan approach.,” Kinzinger said in a statement. “We are duty-bound to conduct a full investigation on the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814 and to make sure it can never happen again.”
Asked on “This Week” about the possibility that she will name Kinzinger to the committee, Pelosi said, “That would be my plan.”
Pressed by Stephanopoulos on when she might announce Kinzinger’s appointment, Pelosi said, “perhaps after I speak to Adam Kinzinger.”
“But I’m not going to announce it right this minute,” Pelosi said. “But you could say that that is the direction that I would be going.”
Pelosi and House Democrats were also considering asking a former GOP congressman to serve on committee staff amid the standoff with House GOP leaders over their picks for the panel, sources familiar with the deliberations told ABC News.
“He and other Republicans have expressed an interest to serve on the select committee and I wanted to appoint three of the members that Leader McCarthy suggested but he withdrew their names,” she continued.
The select committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is scheduled to hold hearings this week.
McCarthy withdrew his list after Pelosi rejected Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio — two prominent conservative leaders and allies of the former president.
Pelosi said she rejected Banks and Jordan, who both voted to overturn the presidential election, over the negative comments they have made about the select committee.
“Are you confident that the committee’s work can be seen as credible if most Republicans won’t participate?” Stephanopoulos pressed Pelosi on the subject.
Pelosi responded, “My confidence is high. I do believe that the work of this committee, in order to retain the confidence of the American people, must act in a way that has no partisanship. It’s all about patriotism, not partisanship.”
“We have to again ignore the antics of those who do not want to find the truth,” Pelosi told Stephanopoulos.
Pelosi also scoffed at a letter the conservative House Freedom Caucus, for which Jordan is a member, sent to McCarthy on Friday asking him to try to remove Pelosi from her powerful position, writing, “Speaker Pelosi’s tenure is destroying the House of Representatives and our ability to faithfully represent the people we are here to serve.”
Pelosi responded on Sunday, “I’m not concerned about any threat from the Freedom Caucus. I get those every day of the week.”
Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi if she is worried that her rejection of two of McCarthy’s picks for the select committee would prompt Republicans to take similar action if they take back control of the House, she said, “no.”
“Look, we have had an unprecedented action, an assault, an insurrection against our government, an assault on the Capitol Building, which is an assault on the Congress, on a day that the Constitution required us, by the Constitution, to validate the work of the Electoral College,” Pelosi said. “So, this was not just any day of the week. This was a constitutionally required day of action for Congress. The Republicans will say what they will say. Our select committee will seek the truth. It’s our patriotic duty to do so.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds off voting on the bipartisan infrastructure bill until a larger bill is passed through reconciliation by the Senate, the Democrats could end up with nothing, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Sunday.
Pelosi, in a separate interview earlier on ABC’s “This Week,” said that she plans to stick with her decision to hold any vote on the bipartisan deal until after the Senate passes a larger infrastructure package through reconciliation.
“I won’t put it on the floor until we have the rest of the initiative,” Pelosi said.
“I’m not happy with what she said,” Portman told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “It’s inconsistent with the agreement that we have on a bipartisan basis.”
Portman’s optimism on Sunday indicated that negotiations have improved since late last week.
Democrats were making a behind-the-scenes push to move some funding away from highways to increase federal funding for transit. The senator was so frustrated with the state of negotiations on Thursday that he told reporters they might just drop highway funding from the bill entirely.
“We have one issue outstanding and we’re not getting much response from the Democrats on it — it’s about mass transit,” Portman said Sunday.
Negotiators told ABC News the bipartisan infrastructure package could be ready to vote on again as early as Monday. Portman emphasized the popularity of the bill.
“Eighty-seven percent of the American people think we should do a bipartisan infrastructure package. It’s the right thing to do. Every president in modern times has talked about it,” Portman said.
Portman also rejected criticism that the negotiations on the bill are not truly bipartisan.
“The Wall Street Journal weighed in against the deal yesterday on their editorial page — It says, taking the “bi” out of bipartisan. And they write: What’s striking about the deal so far, however, is that by all appearances, this will be the most one-sided bipartisan deal in decades,” Stephanopoulos said.
“Every single one of the issues has been bipartisan in the sense there have been Republican views and Democrat views and we found a way to find common ground, which is exactly what ought to happen,” Portman responded.
Stephanopoulos also pressed Portman on why the Republicans have yet to vote on raising the debt ceiling when they did so three times under former President Donald Trump.
“Under every president there is a discussion of how you actually — if you’re going to raise the debt ceiling, how — how to use something to affect the debt, particularly the long-term debt of this country,” Portman responded. “And I think we ought to have that discussion.”
(SALT LAKE CITY) — As President Joe Biden completed 100 days in office, the country was optimistic about the coming year, but now, just after hitting the six-month mark, Americans’ optimism about the direction of the country has plummeted nearly 20 points, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.
A majority — 55% — of the public say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country, a marked change from the roughly one-third (36%) that said the same in an ABC News/Ipsos poll published May 2. In the early May survey, Americans were more optimistic than pessimistic by a 28-percentage point margin. Optimism is now under water by 10 points. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, fewer than half — 45% — now report feeling optimistic about the way things are going, a significant drop from about two-thirds (64%) in the May poll.
The decline in optimism has occurred across the board among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Optimism is down about 20 points among Democrats and Republicans and down 26 points among independents. Among Democrats, about 7 in 10 (71%) now say they are optimistic about the direction of the country over the next 12 months. That’s much lower than the near universal (93%) approval from Democrats on Biden’s handling of the pandemic. In politics today, partisans usually are more unified in their support or opposition to particular issues or people.
The optimism-pessimism flip comes as Americans give Biden his lowest approval rating for his handling of the pandemic yet in ABC News/Ipsos polling. A little over 6 in 10 (63%) approve of the president’s response to the coronavirus, according to the poll, which was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
Although still a majority, it’s a nine-point drop from late March — the high for Biden. It likely reflects the growing concern that lockdowns could be reinstated and already vaccinated Americans could need a booster shot as the highly contagious delta variant now is estimated to account for 83% of all new coronavirus cases in the United States. As of Friday, according to Health and Human Services data obtained by ABC News, the United States’ daily case average was up 47% compared to the prior week, and on Wednesday, the nation recorded its highest single-day new case total since April.
Worry about a resurgence of the virus is also apparent when looking at how concerned the public is about contracting the virus.
According to this ABC News/Ipsos poll, about 6 in 10 Americans are concerned — 20% very and 42% somewhat — that they or someone they know will become infected with the coronavirus; about 4 in 10 (39%) are not concerned about this.
That’s the lowest level of concern in polling by ABC News/Ipsos going back to March 2020, but there is a significant gap since this question was last asked in early March of this year, when less than 20% of the U.S. population was at least partially vaccinated. Since then, every American 12 years and older has become eligible to receive a vaccine. In this ABC News/Ipsos poll, about three-quarters (74%) of U.S. adults say they have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, which, similar to other recent surveys, slightly overstates the number of Americans who have been vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent CDC report, which could lag actual vaccinations by a few days, shows that 68.8% of the adult population had received at least one dose.
Concern about infection, according to this poll, is higher among those who are at least partially vaccinated than those who are not, 67% compared to 46%. But while a majority of unvaccinated U.S. adults say they are not concerned that they or someone they know will be infected with the virus, public health experts, including the CDC director, have warned that this is becoming a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
While ABC News/Ipsos did not poll on the level of concern for contracting the virus over the last four to five months, other polls have, and the public’s concern appears to be rising again.
In a Monmouth University poll conducted in mid-June, about a quarter (23%) of Americans said they were very concerned they or someone in their family would become seriously ill from COVID, and about 2 in 10 (19%) said they were somewhat concerned about this — both record lows in Monmouth’s polling. About a quarter (24%) said they were not so concerned about this, and over 3 in 10 (32%) said they were not at all concerned — both record highs in Monmouth’s polling.
Additionally, the level of approval for the president’s handling of the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic has also dropped by seven points since late March, when 6 in 10 approved, according to ABC News/Ipsos polling. Although jobless claims were expected to hit a new pandemic-era low Thursday, instead, they increased to a level last seen in mid-June, though it’s too soon to know if that will become a trend.
The overwhelming majority (88%) of Democrats approve of the president’s handling of the economic recovery, but only about half (49%) of independents do and less than 2 in 10 (16%) Republicans do.
On other issues, Biden’s approval is underwater, and lackluster even among his own party.
Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans approve of the president’s handling of immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, crime and gun violence. Republicans have hounded Biden and Democrats over all three, as border crossings and violent crime rates, especially in Democrat-run U.S. cities nationwide, surge. That’s reflected in Republicans’ high level of disapproval — ranging between 86% and 92% — of the president’s handling of the three issues, according to this poll.
Among all Americans, the disapproval figures for crime and gun violence track closely with each other — both around 6 in 10 each — and disapproval of Biden’s handling of gun violence has ticked up slightly since late March among the public, from 57% to 61%.
An exception to these low ratings on issue- or policy-based performance is the president’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, for which a majority (55%) of Americans approve.
Asked how well Biden’s delivered on his campaign promises, Americans are divided: 52% say he has done an excellent or good job keeping those promises, while 47% say he’s done a not so good or poor job.
METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® July 23-24, 2021, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 527 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 5.0 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 31-24-36%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
ABC News’ Dan Merkle, Ken Goldstein and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
