(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court could decide as soon as Tuesday evening whether Texas can move forward with a controversial ban on most abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy that’s set to take effect on Sept. 1.
The law, Senate Bill 8, which would be among the strictest in the nation, also authorizes private citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain abortion services and in turn receive at least $10,000 in damages per instance.
Abortion providers on Monday appealed to the court for an immediate emergency injunction blocking the law while legal challenges continue. They claim the Texas restrictions would “immediately and catastrophically” limit abortion access for 85% of patients and force many clinics to close across the state.
Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees matters coming out of federal courts for the 5th Circuit, which includes Texas, gave the state until 5 p.m. Tuesday to lay out its argument for rejecting the request. He could decide on his own or refer the matter to the full court for a vote.
“In less than two days, Texas politicians will have effectively overturned Roe v. Wade,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is leading the challenges to Texas’ law.
“Patients will have to travel out of state – in the middle of a pandemic – to receive constitutionally guaranteed healthcare. And many will not have the means to do so. It’s cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful,” she said.
Attorneys for Texas have said the abortion providers lack legal standing to preemptively challenge the law since it has not yet taken effect or had any impact on their patients or services.
Texas is one of 13 states that have passed laws banning abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy; legal challenges have so far prevented all from taking effect.
S.B. 8 runs plainly counter to the Supreme Court’s precedent in 1973’s Roe v. Wade and affirmed in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which established that state restrictions on abortion before a fetus can be viable outside the womb are unconstitutional.
“SCOTUS really might be on the verge of functionally ending legal abortion in TX and hoping no one notices,” said ABC News legal analyst and Cardozo law professor Kate Shaw in a post on Twitter.
The court is set to reconsider its precedents later this fall in the biggest abortion rights case to come before the justices in years. The case, which is out of Mississippi, will determine whether all pre-viability abortion bans are unconstitutional or whether a new standard should be applied.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — When it came to announcing that all U.S. troops had left Afghanistan, concluding America’s military ground presence there — and after 20 years the end to America’s longest war — word came not from President Joe Biden, who set the deadline, but from the top general overseeing the rushed and dangerous evacuation.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, spoke to reporters from his headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida.
“I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals and vulnerable Afghans,” he said, appearing on a television screen in the Pentagon Briefing Room.
To mark the moment for history, McKenzie noted the exact time the last U.S. military plane had cleared the skies over the land where the U.S. had spent so much time, money, and most of all, American blood.
“The last C-17 lifted off from Kabul airport this afternoon at 3:29 p.m. East Coast Time and the last manned aircraft is now clearing airspace above Afghanistan,” he said, which would have one minute before midnight in Kabul.
“Tonight’s withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after Sept. 11 2001. It’s a mission that brought Osama Bin Laden to justice, along with many was Al Qaeda co-conspirators, and it was not — it was not a cheap mission,” he said.
The cost, in American lives, he said, was 2,461 U.S. service members killed and more than 20,000 wounded, including the 13 service members killed and at least 20 wounded in Thursday’s ISIS-K suicide bomber attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
“No words from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and accomplishments of those who served, nor the emotions they’re feeling at this moment. But I will say that I’m proud that both my son and I have been a part of it,” McKenzie said.
And while the military prides itself on leaving no one behind, McKenzie said Americans in “the very low hundreds,” who had wanted to leave, couldn’t get to the airport.
“There is a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure,” McKenzie said. “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. But I think if we stayed another ten days, we would not get everybody out that wanted to get out. It’s a tough situation,” McKenzie said.
He said that in the five final flights that took off, no Americans made it on board. The U.S. had continued to reach out to Americans still there, he said, and the military was “prepared to bring them on,” but none made it.
“While the military evacuation is complete, the diplomatic mission to ensure additional U.S. citizens and Afghans who want to leave continues,” he said.
It’s unclear what the evacuation picture will look like now that the U.S. military is gone. McKenzie repeated the U.S. is working with international partners to pressure the Taliban to ensure safe passage for those who want to leave, but the Taliban have also said at recent press conferences that they do not want Afghans to take their talents out of the country.
Biden, who has long opposed the war in Afghanistan, stuck to his decision to withdraw troops by the end of the month as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, despite pressure from lawmakers and other allied nations to extend the mission.
The president did not speak on Monday, instead releasing a written statement following McKenzie’s remarks thanking commanders and service members for completing the withdrawal on schedule and “with no further loss of American lives” and praising the evacuation effort as “the largest airlift in US history.”
He said he would address the American people on Tuesday on his decision not to extend the U.S. military’s presence.
“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” he said in the statement, although military leaders had lobbied Biden earlier this year to leave a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan to support the Afghan army and government.
He closed by listing the names of the 13 service members in last week’s attack “who lost their lives last week to save tens of thousands.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in remarks Monday following a virtual meeting with allied nations on Afghanistan, announced the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was moved to Doha, Qatar.
“A new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun — one in which we’ll lead with diplomacy. The military mission has ended, new diplomatic mission has begun,” he said.
Blinken said that the exit of U.S. diplomats was the “prudent” step to take because of the security threat.
Ambassador John Bass — the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan who returned to Kabul to oversee the evacuation operation — will lead an ongoing effort to get Americans, Afghans and other foreigners out of Afghanistan in the weeks to come, Blinken announced.
“We will continue our relentless efforts to help Americans, foreign nationals and Afghans leave Afghanistan if they choose,” Blinken said.
Overall, Blinken said he believes there is still a “small number of Americans — under 200, and likely closer to 100 — who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave.”
Even for those who have said they want to stay, Blinken said, the U.S. would still work to get them out if they changed their minds.
He also pledged to the Afghans who worked alongside the U.S., who wanted to leave but were unable to get out, the U.S. would continue to try to help them.
“Our commitment to them has no deadline,” he said.
He did temper expectations.
“We have no illusion that any of this will be easy,” Blinken said. “Or rapid. This will be an entirely different phase from the evacuation that just concluded. It will take time to work through a new set of challenges.”
Following the Pentagon’s announcement, GOP lawmakers blasted Biden for withdrawing troops despite not having all Americans evacuated with Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., calling the evacuation a “national disgrace” and a “direct result of President Biden’s cowardice and incompetence.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also said in a statement that Biden “will forever be remembered for leaving American citizens and U.S. legal permanent residents behind and in harm’s way in Afghanistan.”
The end of the war
In the final days, as the U.S. was set to withdraw forces, the Taliban seized and overtook the presidential palace in Kabul on Aug. 15 after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled his home country for the United Arab Emirates, leading to the collapse of the Afghan government.
The Pentagon sent in 6,000 troops, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was evacuated and chaos has since enveloped the capital city, bringing the 20-year war to a grim end.
Since Aug. 14, U.S. military aircraft have evacuated more than 79,000 civilians from Hamid Karzai International Airport, including 6,000 Americans and more than 73,500 third-country nationals and Afghan civilians, including Special Immigrant Visa holders, consular staff, at-risk Afghans and their families, McKenzie said on Monday.
In total, U.S. and coalition aircraft combined to evacuate more than 123,000 civilians.
ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan and a sworn enemy of both the U.S. and the Taliban, claimed responsibility for attacks on American forces amid heightened fears fighters will force Afghanistan to break out into another civil war.
Over the weekend, the U.S. struck two ISIS-K targets in Afghanistan, including a person it said was involved in planning future attacks.
An Afghan health official reported that in one of those strikes, just hours before the U.S. would end its longest war, at least six Afghan civilians were also killed, including four children.
(WASHINGTON) — The Education Department on Monday launched civil rights investigations into five states that have barred indoor masking mandates, alleging that the governors are creating an unsafe learning environment for students with disabilities at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
It’s an aggressive new legal tack from the Biden administration to challenge Republican governors who insist indoor mask mandates don’t work.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that schools are generally safe if students and staff universally wear masks. School districts who struggled with COVID-19 outbreaks this year – oftentimes sending thousands of kids home – typically did not require masks.
The investigations focus on Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. The Education Department says it is not including Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona at this time “because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not currently being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions.”
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Jill Biden, a mom of three, has been an educator for over 30 years. Dr. Biden is the First Lady of the United States and she continues to teach as a professor of writing at Northern Virginia Community College
Parenthood is experiencing conflicting emotions at the same time—loving your children more than life itself, never wanting to let them go, while also understanding they will one day walk out the door without looking back, ready to conquer the world on their own.
It’s the tangled joy and fear of watching your child take their first step onto a school bus alone.
It’s wrestling with complicated problems and weighing risks—losing sleep, worrying about what path to take, wondering if you’re making the right choices.
As children return to in-person learning at schools across the country, however, it’s not the routine risks of childhood that are keeping parents awake at night. It’s the complicated realities of this pandemic.
Experience has already shown that virtual learning can leave kids feeling isolated and alone: The kindergartener who is exhausted by constantly focusing on her computer screen—but doesn’t have the language to express her discomfort. The middle-schooler who can’t get the hands-on guidance he needs and starts to believe that he is a failure—that he’s falling behind because he just isn’t smart enough. The talented high-schooler, hoping for an athletic scholarship in a sport she’s unable to play because sports have been canceled.
As this school year begins, families across the country thought we could exhale after so many difficult months and now we’re holding our breath once again.
So many are asking: How can I be sure that my child is safe? What do I do if our family is exposed to the virus? What will we do if we have to return to virtual learning?
Parents, I want you to know that your child, your school, and your family are at the heart of all that my husband, Joe, is doing to help our country defeat and ultimately recover from this pandemic.
As a teacher for over 30 years, and a mom even longer, I know that classrooms are so much more than places where our children learn math and reading.
We’ve all seen it: when our kids make friends that last for years, when they learn to settle disagreements or find confidence trying out for sports teams.
Parents rely on schools, too, heading to our jobs or pursuing our own education, knowing that our kids are in a safe and trustworthy environment.
This Administration is doing all we can to keep schools open and at the same time safeguard our children.
Public health officials have laid out clear guidelines on how schools can bring kids back to the classroom safely and the American Rescue Plan has provided the support schools need to hire additional staff, including nurses.
As we’ve seen this year, so many children are dealing with grief, loss, and trauma. In order to truly serve our kids, schools must support mental health with the social and emotional resources that students need to recover, learn and grow. That’s why we are helping schools hire more counselors and social workers.
I have so much faith in the community of educators who serve our students—from teachers to bus drivers to cafeteria workers. Their job is more than just a paycheck. They come to work because they care about students almost as much as parents do.
With classes beginning again, the uncertainty of COVID-19 remains.
Still, we do know that vaccines and wearing masks provide the best protection available against this virus.
To keep our schools open and safe this year, it will take all of us coming together—being honest about the risks we face, listening to science, and working as one.
(WASHINGTON) — With fewer than 4 in 10 Americans approving of President Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan, there is overwhelming bipartisan support for keeping U.S. troops in the country until all Americans and Afghans who aided the United States during the 20-year war have been evacuated, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.
Although President Joe Biden has held firm that all U.S. troops must be out of the country by Tuesday, regardless of whether the evacuation mission at hand is complete, Americans broadly disagree, according to the poll.
The poll was conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel and all interviews were completed after the terrorist attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport that left at least 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans dead. Hundreds more were wounded in the attack, which an affiliate of the Islamic State, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for.
More than 8 in 10 (84%) Americans think U.S. troops should remain in the country until all Americans are evacuated, and just over 7 in 10 (71%) think they should stay until all Afghans who helped the United States are evacuated as well.
Breaking from the typical polarization that characterizes public attitudes, support for U.S. troops staying is strikingly consistent across party lines. Among Republicans, Democrats and independents, overwhelming majorities — 87%, 86% and 86%, respectively — believe U.S. troops should not leave until all Americans are out of Afghanistan. The partisan gap is also negligible for keeping troops in Afghanistan until all Afghans who aided the United States are evacuated, with 77% of Republicans, 72% of Democrats and 70% of independents saying troops should stay until that happens.
Speaking about the attack Thursday, Biden said the mission’s danger is why he’s “been so determined to limit the duration” of it.
“The sooner we can finish the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops,” the president said Tuesday, two days before the suicide bombing. “Every day we’re on the ground, is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians.”
In a statement Saturday afternoon following a meeting with his national security team, Biden said U.S. troops are continuing to evacuate civilians amid “extremely dangerous conditions,” warning that another attack is “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.” Earlier Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued an alert similar to the one issued roughly 14 hours before Thursday’s terrorist attack warning of security threats at the airport, telling all U.S. citizens to avoid the area or “leave immediately” if at the gates. In the evening, the U.S. embassy issued an updated warning of a “specific, credible threat” at the airport.
Fewer than 4 in 10 (38%) Americans approve of the president’s handling of Afghanistan — 17 points lower than the share who said they approved of Biden’s handling of the U.S. troop withdrawal in a July 23-24 ABC News/Ipsos poll.
While Sunday’s ABC News/Ipsos did not measure Biden’s overall approval, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker averaging presidential approval polls showed his approve-disapprove ratings were even for the first time during his term, converging at 47%-47% as of Friday.
But the public’s disapproval of his handling of Afghanistan has not influenced their views on other issues, according to the new ABC News/Ipsos poll. A strong majority (64%) approve of how Biden is responding to the coronavirus pandemic, which is virtually identical to the findings in July’s ABC News/Ipsos poll. Biden also enjoys high approval (62%) for his handling of rebuilding U.S. infrastructure.
A majority (55%) of the American public also approves of his handling of the economic recovery; 53% approved in July’s poll. About 4 in 10 (41%) approve of his handling of immigration and the situation at the southern border, compared to 37% last month.
On his handling of gun violence and crime, issues that track closely with one another, about half of Americans disapprove — 52% and 50%, respectively. But this actually represents an improvement since July, when 61% of Americans disapproved of Biden’s handling of gun violence and 58% disapproved of his handling of crime, according to the July ABC News/Ipsos poll.
For each issue, at least two-thirds of Democrats approve of how Biden is handling them. His highest approval ratings among his own party are for his handling of COVID-19 (91%), infrastructure (91%) and the economic recovery (89%), and his lowest approval ratings — each at 67% — are for his handling of the border, gun violence and Afghanistan.
Among the key group of independents, approval ratings track closely with the results among the public overall for each issue.
Fewer than a third of Republicans approve of Biden’s handling of each issue, but he gets the highest marks for his handling of the pandemic response (32%). On his handling of Afghanistan, only 1 in 10 (11%) Republicans approve, his lowest mark of the issues polled.
While two-thirds (67%) of Americans are at least somewhat worried about a major terrorist attack in the United States, Republicans are more likely to be concerned than Democrats and independents, 80% compared to 59% and 65%, respectively.
But even after the deadly terrorist attack in Kabul, the public has a lower level of concern for a major terrorist attack at home than during other times in recent years when it was measured by ABC News/Washington Post polls. In October 2014, about 7 in 10 (71%) of Americans were worried about an attack in the United States; in January 2015, about three-quarters were worried; and in September 2016, the last time this question was asked in ABC News polling, nearly 8 in 10 (78%) were worried.
A majority (56%) of Americans also feel that the end of the United States’ military presence in Afghanistan makes no difference in how safe the nation is from terrorism. Over a third (36%) feel this makes the United States less safe from terrorism, but again, Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to think it makes America less safe, 59% compared to 21% and 36%.
METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® Aug. 27-28, 2021, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 513 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.9 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 and Ken Goldstein contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., accused President Joe Biden and his administration for painting a rosier picture of the Afghanistan evacuations as the Aug. 31 U.S. troop withdrawal looms.
“There is clearly no plan. There has been no plan. Their plan has basically been happy talk,” Sasse told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
In an earlier interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Raddatz pressed the secretary about the United States’ ability to get the remaining U.S. citizens and Afghan allies out of the country once all U.S. troops where out of Afghanistan.
Blinken pointed to private and public assurances from Taliban leadership to allow free travel after America’s departure to anyone who wishes to leave the country. Sasse called the interview “disgusting” and he said the thinking that the U.S. should trust the Taliban is “stupid” and “insane.”
“And their plan still seems to be, ‘let’s rely on the Taliban’ because the Taliban cares a lot about what world opinion thinks of them — it was a disgusting revelation of yet again no plan,” Sasse added.
The senator, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been critical of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan since the final months of the Trump administration.
“I fear this weak retreat is not grounded in reality and will make the world a more dangerous place,” Sasse said in a statement in November 2020.
In the last few days, Sasse has repeatedly urged Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan past Tuesday’s deadline to ensure that every U.S citizen and ally who wants to leave the country is safely evacuated.
Raddatz asked the senator Sunday what he thinks should be done to continue evacuations.
“There are some small ways to try to do things around the margins. But what we need is a commander in chief that actually has a big plan and a big way to solve this problem,” Sasse responded, accusing Biden of being “disconnected from reality.”
Sasse continued to hammer the “happy talk” he claimed is being used by Biden and that he said won’t resolve the growing terror threat in Afghanistan.
“The consequences are going to be a return of the Taliban that has been willing to provide safe haven to terrorists in the past,” Sasse added. “We have so many different groups who want to turn Afghanistan into the global capital city of jihad, and the administration doesn’t have a plan.”
Raddatz asked Sasse whether his plea to keep more U.S. forces in Afghanistan past the Tuesday deadline would put them at risk.
“Given that the Taliban said this date was a red line, given that ISIS is now carrying out these horrendous bombings and threatening more violence, wouldn’t staying have put our forces more at risk?” Raddatz asked.
“Joe Biden put our forces at risk by having no plan for how to evacuate. We are absolutely at risk,” Sasse responded.
“Abandoning Bagram base will be read about in military textbooks for decades as one of the stupidest military blunders ever,” Sasse continued, adding that the rapid reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has left a “ridiculously untenable position” for evacuations.
“Thirteen servicemen and women died this week, and our families across this country are in prayer for those families and for the ultimate sacrifice they have made, but they were doing something to make sure that no one was left behind,” Sasse said.
(WASHINGTON) — Hours after President Joe Biden issued a dire warning that it was “highly likely” the Kabul airport could see another attack in the 24 to 36 hours leading up to the final U.S. troop withdrawal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the warning in an interview for ABC’s “This Week.”
“This is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission, these last couple of days. And so, we will do everything possible to keep people safe. But the risk is very high,” Blinken told ‘This Week’ Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz.
The Pentagon confirmed Saturday that the final drawdown of troops had begun, intensifying pressure on the United States to evacuate the remaining Americans looking to leave the country as the terror threat is ratcheted to new heights.
Blinken, who met with the president and top commanders at the White House Saturday morning, said the U.S. was doing “everything possible” to get the remaining Americans safely out of the country.
“We have about 300 American citizens left who have indicated to us that they want to leave. We are very actively working to help them get to the airport, get on a plane and get out of Afghanistan,” Biden’s top diplomat said.
The new warnings of possible attacks come as the country is still reeling from the bombing at Kabul’s airport Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members, and more than 170 Afghans, even after the U.S. Embassy issued a warning of the urgent threat at the airport.
“The hard reality of this mission is that at a certain point, direct contact was necessary between our people, our men and women in uniform, and those coming into the airport,” Blinken said, when pressed by Raddatz why more steps weren’t taken to ensure troop security after the warning went out.
“Whenever you have something as horrific as this, anytime we have a loss of life, we’re going to go back and look very hard at what was done, and whether anything could have been done better,” Blinken said, again stressing the dangerous mission at hand.
But with a ticking clock, and the administration committed to keeping their Aug. 31 deadline for all troops to leave Afghanistan, real questions remain about the United States’ ability to get any remaining Americans and Afghan allies out of a country under Taliban control once U.S. troops are gone.
Blinken pointed to private and public assurances from Taliban leadership to allow free travel after America’s departure as a reassurance that there would be ways out of Kabul — a suggestion many fearing retribution for helping the United States take little comfort in.
“They’re not reassured — those Afghan interpreters who aren’t getting out, they’re not reassured by a statement like that. So what more can you tell them (about) how to get out?” Raddatz asked.
“One hundred and fourteen countries have made very clear that it’s their expectation that the Taliban will permit people to travel, going past Aug. 31. So, that is a clear expectation, across the entire world, across the entire international community,” Blinken argued.
“We have very significant leverage to work with over the weeks and months ahead to incentivize the Taliban to make good on its commitments,” he added, noting the U.S. has been “actively planning” to keep Kabul’s airport functioning, or reopening it quickly if needed, in conjunction with other countries in the region.
“If the Taliban is serious about the commitments that it’s repeatedly made in public, including nationally, across the country, as well as in private — commitments that the international community intends to hold the Taliban to — then we’ll find ways to do it,” Blinken said.
(WASHINGTON) — House progressives on Friday urgently called on Democratic congressional leaders to pass legislation to extend the federal eviction moratorium after the Supreme Court ended an extension late Thursday night.
“As your fellow colleagues, we implore you to act with the highest levels of urgency to advance a permanent legislative solution in a must pass legislative vehicle in order to extend the life-saving federal eviction moratorium for the duration of the deadly global health crisis. We must continue to curb the spread of the Delta variant using every legislative tool at our disposal in Congress,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, exclusively obtained by ABC News.
The letter was led by Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jimmy Gomez, and Cori Bush. More than 60 lawmakers have signed on to the letter, ABC News is told.
In an eight-page ruling, the Supreme Court determined that Congress must extend the federal eviction moratorium unilaterally.
“Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” the court wrote in an unsigned, eight-page opinion.
“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court said.
“It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the COVID–19 Delta variant. But our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends,” the court writes. “It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.”
The move will likely mean hundreds of thousands of tenants are lose their homes because they are unable to pay rent, and it comes as the Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to run rampant across the country.
Bush, who was formerly homeless, posted up on the Capitol steps to protest the moratorium ending earlier in August.
The moratorium, essentially a nationwide ban on evictions, was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last September. In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July but signaled in its ruling that it would block any further extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
Amid public outcry, House Democratic leadership was looking to possibly take legislative action before its summer recess, but those efforts did not take place.
The CDC ended up passing another extension in early August, largely due to the public outcry and protests led by Bush.
In a statement Friday, Pelosi did not indicate that the House would return from its recess to pass legislation. She called on state and local governments to disperse rental assistance immediately. Only about $5.1 billion of the $46.5 billion in aid had been disbursed by the end of July, according to figures released earlier in the week.
“Earlier this month, thanks to the leadership of President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the imminent fear of eviction and being put out on the street was lifted for countless families across America with the issuing of a new CDC eviction moratorium. Last night, the Supreme Court immorally ripped away that relief in a ruling that is arbitrary and cruel,” she said in a statement.
“Congressional Democrats have not and will not ever accept a situation of mass evictions. We will continue our work to ensure that families suffering hardship during the pandemic can have the safety of home, as we also work with communities to ensure the immediate disbursement by states and localities of the over $45 billion allocated by Congress for rental assistance,” she added.
Following the release of the progressives’ letter, Pelosi also sent her own letter to the Democratic caucus, again reiterating that the chamber will assess “possible legislative remedies.”
“Preventing mass evictions is a priority that unites Democrats, and I remain proud of the work that our House Democratic Caucus has done to provide relief for families and landlords, including working with the Biden Administration to secure the new moratorium and allocating the $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance initiated by Chairwoman Maxine Waters. We will continue to work with the Biden Administration and with our communities to urge a halt to evictions and to ensure the immediate disbursement by states and localities of the rental assistance,” she said in her letter.
“At the same time, the House is assessing possible legislative remedies. House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters is examining the most effective way to expedite the flow of funding of rental assistance by states and localities. Families must be protected during the pandemic, and we will explore every possible solution,” she said.
“As we all agree, eviction is a horror that no family should ever have to experience: cribs and personal belongings on the street, children in fear and distress and parents struggling to find basic shelter. As we work to prevent this crisis, I again salute our House Democratic Caucus for the relentless and values-based leadership that Members continue to bring to this fight,” she said, in a nod to progressives.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also released a statement late Thursday lamenting the Supreme Court’s decision.
“The Biden Administration is disappointed that the Supreme Court has blocked the most recent CDC eviction moratorium while confirmed cases of the Delta variant are significant across the country. As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19,” Psaki said.
“In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continued risk of COVID-19 transmission, President Biden is once again calling on all entities that can prevent evictions – from cities and states to local courts, landlords, Cabinet Agencies – to urgently act to prevent evictions,” she said.
Psaki said Friday that President Biden supported extension efforts in Congress but also called for action at the state level.
ABC News has reached out to Pelosi’s and Schumer’s offices for comment.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden had a clear and directed message for the assailants responsible for the deadly terror attack outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday, and for anyone else who might be planning an attack.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said.
“These ISIS terrorists will not win,” he added. “We will rescue the Americans in there. We will get our Afghan allies out. And our mission will go on. America will not be intimidated.”
Biden addressed the nation after 12 American service members were killed and 15 wounded, among scores of Afghan casualties in the attack outside the airport. The Pentagon has said security threats remain.
“A tough day,” Biden began. “This evening in Kabul, as you all know, a terrorist attack — that we’ve been talking about and worried about, that the intelligence community has assessed, has undertaken — an attack by a group known as ISIS-K took the lives of American service members standing guard at the airport and wounded several others seriously.”
“I’ve been engaged all day, in constant contact with the military commanders here in Washington and the Pentagon, as well in Afghanistan and Doha. And my commanders in Washington, in the field, have been on this with great detail, and you’ve had a chance to speak to some so far,” he said. “The situation on the ground is still evolving, and I’m constantly being updated.”
Pentagon officials confirmed earlier that two ISIS suicide bombers detonated in the vicinity of the Abbey Gate at the airport in Kabul, where U.S. Marines were conducting security checks of potential evacuees, and in the vicinity of the nearby Baron Hotel, a short distance from the Abbey Gate.
A U.S. official confirmed later that the 12 U.S. military service members killed in Thursday’s attack included 11 Marines and one Navy hospital corpsman, or medic. It appears that the 15 other service members who were injured in the attack were also Marines.
“These American service members who gave their lives, that’s an overused word, but it’s appropriate here, were heroes,” Biden said from the White House. “Heroes who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.”
Before taking questions from reporters, Biden asked to be joined in a moment of silence “for all those in uniform and out of uniform, military and civilian, who have given the last full measure of devotion.”
By Thursday afternoon, ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, claimed credit for the attack. It comes days after Biden warned from the White House of on-the-ground security threats from the terrorist group known as the “sworn enemy of the Taliban.”
“Every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians,” he said at the time.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden had a clear and directed message for the assailants responsible for the deadly terror attack outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday, and for anyone else who might be planning an attack.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said.
Biden underscored that he has repeatedly warned that the evacuation mission in Afghanistan was a dangerous one — but that it will continue until the end of the month, even as threats persist.
“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission,” he added. “These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans in there. We will get our Afghan allies out. And our mission will go on. America will not be intimidated.”
Thirteen American service members were killed and 18 wounded, among scores of Afghan casualties in the attack outside the airport. Biden addressed the nation Thursday afternoon.
“A tough day,” Biden began. “This evening in Kabul, as you all know, a terrorist attack — that we’ve been talking about and worried about, that the intelligence community has assessed, has undertaken — an attack by a group known as ISIS-K took the lives of American service members standing guard at the airport and wounded several others seriously.”
“I’ve been engaged all day, in constant contact with the military commanders here in Washington and the Pentagon, as well in Afghanistan and Doha. And my commanders in Washington, in the field, have been on this with great detail, and you’ve had a chance to speak to some so far,” he said to reporters. “The situation on the ground is still evolving, and I’m constantly being updated.”
Pentagon officials confirmed earlier that two ISIS suicide bombers detonated in the vicinity of the Abbey Gate at the airport in Kabul, where U.S. Marines were conducting security checks of potential evacuees, and in the vicinity of the nearby Baron Hotel, a short distance from the Abbey Gate.
U.S. officials confirmed later that the 13 U.S. military service members killed included Marines and at least one Navy hospital corpsman, or medic.
“These American service members who gave their lives, that’s an overused word, but it’s appropriate here, were heroes,” Biden said from the White House. “Heroes who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.”
“They were part of the bravest, most capable, the most selfless military on the face of the Earth. And they were part of, simply what I call the backbone of America. They are the spine of America. The best the country has to offer,” he added.
The president said that he and first lady Jill Biden are “outraged as well as heartbroken” for Afghan families who lost loved ones, including small children, in what he called a “vicious attack” that will be met with “force and precision.”
“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation. I’ve also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities,” he said.
Biden asked to be joined in a moment of silence “for all those in uniform and out of uniform — military and civilian — who have given the last full measure of devotion.”
He then took six questions from reporters in the East Room.
Asked whether he would send additional troops to Afghanistan, Biden said he did not anticipate needing more boots on-the-ground but that the U.S. can conduct retaliatory strikes against ISIS-K without large military operations.
“I’ve instructed the military, whatever they need, if they need additional force, I will grant it,” Biden said.
While saying that he bears “responsibility for fundamentally all that’s happened of late,” the president also defended his decision to withdraw troops by the end of the month.
“I have never been of the view that we should be sacrificing American lives to try to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan, a country that has never once in its entire history been a united country,” Biden said just before leaving the East Room. “Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war.”
ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, claimed credit for the attack Thursday afternoon. It comes days after Biden warned from the White House of on-the-ground security threats from the terrorist group known as the “sworn enemy of the Taliban.”
“Every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians,” he said at the time.
Thursday marks the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan in more than a decade and the first U.S. military death in Afghanistan since Feb. 2020.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
