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(WASHINGTON) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday found 73 migrants — including 13 children — in multiple Washington, D.C., homes believed to be operated by human smugglers, according to an ICE official.
The “stash houses,” as they are known to investigators, were found in the largely affluent area of Northwest Washington, the official confirmed. The development was first reported by NBC.
An ICE spokesperson declined to comment on specifics, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.
The health and condition of the migrants was unclear on Thursday. Authorities are investigating how they arrived in the district and the full extent of the potential smuggling ring, one official said.
“HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] has dedicated groups assigned to combat human smuggling,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement. “Our goal is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle significant Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO) involved in human smuggling through the aggressive, and smart, application of the full range of our authorities.”
The discovery comes amid what Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called a broader “humanitarian crisis.” Separate from the case of the 73 people, Bowser said on Wednesday she had requested assistance from the D.C. National Guard to aid in managing migrants who have been bussed north by authorities at the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“I’ve asked for the deployment of the guard as long as we need the guard to deal with the humanitarian crisis that we expect to escalate,” Bowser said. “The number of people crossing the border [into the U.S.] seeking asylum we expect to only go up.”
Abbott has said his bussing policy is in response to President Joe Biden and Congress’ border policies and the “chaos they have caused … they refuse to come down and see firsthand.”
Local nonprofits have reportedly strained to accommodate the busses with migrants as they have arrived.
Human smuggling networks are typically found much closer to the southwest border. These sort of illegal operations have received intense scrutiny from immigration authorities in recent months as Homeland Security officials move to crack down on transnational criminal smuggling organizations.
Last month, the largest mass-casualty incident in the U.S. believed to be smuggling related left more than 50 people dead after they were discovered inside an overheated tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas.
Since April, the Department of Homeland Security has directed more than $50 million and 1,300 personnel with a renewed focus on human smuggling. More than 3,500 arrests have been made in recent months, according to DHS.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
AMC has tapped Jessica Jones vet Krysten Ritter to produce and star in the spin-off to the Emmy-winning drama Orphan Black called Orphan Black: Echoes.
For Ritter, the 10-episode series is a return to the network, for which she starred on Breaking Bad.
AMC teases, “Set in the near future, Orphan Black: Echoes takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence.”
“It follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unraveling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal. Ritter will play Lucy, a woman with an unimaginable origin story, trying to find her place in the world.”
The original show started on BBC America in 2013 and ran for five seasons, earning an Emmy for lead Tatiana Maslany in 2016.
(WASHINGTON) — As former President Donald Trump continues to push false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, his political action committee has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations and candidates that are pushing to tighten voting laws or spread unproven claims of election fraud, new FEC filings show.
Among the donations is a $150,000 payment to a little-known organization, Secure MI Vote, that’s spearheading a petition to clamp down on voting requirements in the state of Michigan, which Trump lost in 2020 after winning the state in 2016.
The group’s director says the donation from Trump’s Save America PAC has been a big help.
“It definitely helped us get the word out and then cover some of the expenses,” executive director Jeff Litten told ABC News. “It’s not cheap.”
The payment comes amid a flurry of big-dollar donations from Trump’s PAC to like-minded groups working to lay the groundwork for voting reform before the 2024 election.
“America needs safe and secure elections,” Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told ABC News. “That’s why Save America is investing in organizations, causes, and candidates committed to election integrity.”
Earlier this year, before the Michigan donation, ABC News reported that Trump’s PAC gave $1 million to a right-wing nonprofit organization run by some of his close allies that has been hosting “Election Integrity Summits” around the country. At one of those summits, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was involved with Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, urged attendees to recruit and create election “task forces” in their communities ahead of the upcoming midterms, to avoid a repeat of the last election.
“Imagine if we had had local task forces in these counties? What if we had citizens like you in 2020, overseeing this?” Mitchell said at the private summit, which ABC News attended by purchasing a ticket.
“We could have stopped it,” Mitchell told the crowd. “That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing here tonight.”
In Michigan, the Secure MI Vote petition looks to tighten restrictions on voter ID laws, registration requirements, and mail-in ballot procedures in a way that experts say would make it more difficult to vote. Michigan law already requires an ID to vote in elections, but the petition would eliminate a provision that allows those without IDs to vote through a sworn affidavit.
“It’s a proposal that would curtail voting access for Michiganders and is part of a larger effort to slice away voting rights from every angle,” said Jasleen Singh, the counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit bipartisan public policy institute.
For months, Trump himself has zeroed in on voter ID laws as a rallying cry to spread baseless accusations of fraud in the 2020 election, despite no evidence of malfeasance.
“They want no voter ID,” Trump said to a group of students during a student summit in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday. “Could it be because they want to cheat in elections?”
According to a study from the Brennan Center, “overly burdensome” ID requirements make it more difficult to vote, especially for minority and low-income populations. The group found that as many as 11% of eligible voters “do not have the kind of ID that is required by states with strict ID requirements.”
But Jamie Roe, the spokesperson for Secure MI Vote, said the Michigan group’s petition would require state-funded IDs to be provided to “applicants with hardships.” Suggestions that the petition was going to take away voting rights were “absolutely nonsense,” Roe told ABC News.
“What right are we taking away?” Roe asked. “If you don’t have an ID or can’t afford one, we’re going to get you one.”
According to a copy of the document available on the group’s website, the petition also seeks to prohibit election officials from sending out unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots — a step officials took ahead of the 2020 presidential election that helped contribute to the highest voter turnout the state has ever seen.
“There’s a reason why there are so many different kinds of restrictions, and that’s to affect all different kinds of voters,” said Nancy Wang, executive director of the pro-voter group Voters Not Politicians. “In Michigan, the margins are so close, so if you even affect 2,000 votes, then you can turn the tide on an entire election.”
Litten says the Secure MI Vote petition has over 500,000 signatures — far beyond the 340,000 required for certification. After the group missed the June 1 deadline to get on the November ballot, Litten says they’re now ready to submit the petition to the state this Friday.
If the petition is approved, the group hopes that by next year they’ll get it before the GOP-controlled legislature, which by law has the power to adopt the petition and pass it into law without approval from the state’s Democratic governor, who has previously vetoed similar legislation.
“We think it would find a favorable response from the Michigan legislature,” Roe said during a June 1 press conference.
Beyond the $150,000 donation from Trump’s Save America PAC, Secure MI Vote’s operation is largely funded by other conservative groups that do not disclose their donors.
Virginia-based advocacy group Liberty Initiative Fund has given Secure MI Vote more than $2.4 million worth of in-kind donations for services including “petitioning,” “auditing petitions,” and “media consulting,” while the newly launched Michigan-based dark money group Michigan Guardians of Democracy has given more than $2.1 million in both monetary contributions and in-kind contributions for services like “signature contact,” according to filings.
Elsewhere, Trump’s PAC has been pouring money into supporting other organizations that spread unproven election fraud claims and support like-minded candidates.
In Pennsylvania, Save America donated $1 million apiece to two super PACs, Our American Century and American Leadership Action, that helped secure a win in the GOP Senate primary for Trump-endorsed candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who supported Trump’s claims of a stolen election.
In an upcoming GOP House primary in Wyoming, Save America PAC gave half a million dollars to the Wyoming Values super PAC supporting Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman against Rep. Liz Cheney, who has become a target of Trump and his allies over her role leading the House investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Throughout her campaign, Hageman has continued to spread unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election, including during a GOP primary debate earlier this month.
Trump’s PAC has also homed in on Georgia over the last few months, funneling millions of dollars into super PACs attempting to unseat Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who testified this week in the Fulton County grand jury investigation into Trump’s actions after the 2020 election.
Get Georgia Right, a super PAC that received a $1.5 million donation from Save America back in November, has been airing political ads opposing Kemp that claim without evidence that “widespread illegal ballot harvesting continued” during the 2020 election, even though the incumbent Georgia governor “dismissed concerns about voter fraud.”
Another group, Take Back Georgia, which received more than $2.8 million from Save America PAC over the last few months, supported former Georgia Sen. David Perdue and his false claims about “rigged elections” in Perdue’s unsuccessful primary challenge against Kemp.
And even after Perdue lost the GOP primary in May, Save America contributed another $146,000 to Take Back Georgia so the group could continue its Trump-aligned efforts in the state through the general election season.
Representatives for Get Georgia Right, American Leadership Action, Our American Century, and Wyoming Values did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment. Officials with Take Back Georgia were not reachable.
Tory Lanez‘s lawyer is looking to push back the rapper’s upcoming trial date in the ongoing case with Megan Thee Stallion.
During a hearing on Thursday — at which Tory was a no-show — his lawyer requested that the start of the trial, set for September 14, be postponed, citing “potential conflicts” with another case in which Megan is involved.
Rolling Stone reporter Nancy Dillon provided the update on Twitter, adding the judge set another hearing to avoid making a “premature” decision. All parties are due back in court on August 12, when the judge will determine whether the conflicts have cleared up and the trial should be delayed.
Tory and Megan have been embroiled in a case regarding the shooting that injured her left foot. Megan claims Tory pulled the trigger, but he has maintained his innocence.
(NEW YORK) — Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who served nearly three years in a Russian prison before he was freed in a prison swap this spring, said he is “cautiously optimistic” that a similar deal can be worked out in the high-profile cases of two other Americans currently detained in Russia.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this week that the U.S. has offered Russia a proposal to bring WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan home.
The White House wouldn’t confirm details of the proposal, but three sources familiar with the offer confirmed to ABC News that the U.S. had proposed exchanging convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in order to secure Griner and Whelan’s release from Russia.
In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, a day after news of the possible deal broke, Reed said he was “extremely excited” when he heard the latest development.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that that trade is going to work out, and I hope it does,” he said. “I’m watching along with the rest of America to see if that happens.”
Reed, 30, was arrested in Moscow in the summer of 2019 while visiting his Russian girlfriend. Russian authorities accused him of assaulting officers while being driven to a police station after a night of heavy drinking. He was convicted by a Russian court in 2020 and sentenced to nine years in a prison camp.
As his family grew increasingly worried about his health in the dire prison conditions, Reed was released in April as part of a prisoner exchange between the Biden administration and the Kremlin. Reed was freed in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot from Russia who was sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.
Reed told ABC News he did not want to hear any news of a possible release while he was in prison.
“I didn’t hope for anything, I didn’t expect anything,” he said. “I asked my parents not to tell me about any news that was positive regarding my situation there because I didn’t want to have that hope. And I didn’t want to have the possibility of me losing that hope. That was my strategy.”
For Griner and Whelan, though, he said he would want them to have hope and “hang on to that.”
The experience of finally coming home was “surreal,” he said.
“In these situations, you never know if that’s going to work out until your feet are on U.S. soil,” he said.
He said he was surprised by the announcement of the proposal, but sees it as a good sign for Griner and Whelan.
“They may be doing that to show the Russians that they’re serious about this exchange, that they want to get this done, that they’re willing to get that done,” he said.
“It may represent a change in policy with the administration,” he continued. “Maybe the administration now is going to be more open to prisoner swaps for all Americans who are wrongfully detained.”
Reed sees a swap with Bout as a “win-win” for the U.S. and Russia.
“If the Russians are not idiots, then I think that they will accept that deal,” he said.
Since coming home, Reed has been vocal about the plight of Griner and Whelan and has called on the U.S. government to negotiate a prisoner swap like the one that freed him.
He previously has argued that the U.S. should trade Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2012 on federal narco-terrorism charges, for the two Americans’ release. Bout has repeatedly been suggested by Russian state media as a possible trade as well.
Blinken said Wednesday that he will hold a call with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “in the coming days” to discuss securing the freedom of Griner and Whelan. He revealed the U.S. government had already “put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release” and remains hopeful for a breakthrough in their cases.
At a press conference in Moscow on Thursday, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova confirmed that “the issue of mutual exchange of Russian and American citizens, staying in places of detention on the territory of the two countries, was discussed at one time by the presidents of Russia and the United States,” but “a concrete result has not yet been achieved.”
Griner, 31, has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 and is currently on trial for drug charges. She was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Khimki after she was accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in the country.
Griner, a Phoenix Mercury player who had been returning to Russia to play during the WNBA’s offseason, testified this week that she did not mean to violate Russian law when bringing vape cartridges into the country and that she was in a hurry and stressed after recovering from COVID-19 that month.
Griner has reached out to President Joe Biden, urging him in a letter earlier this month to help get her out of Russia.
“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner wrote to the president in the handwritten letter, portions of which were made public by her representatives.
A verdict in the case is expected early next month. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison. She does have the right to an appeal.
Whelan, 52, a Michigan-based corporate security executive, was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. In June 2020, he was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years of “hard labor” in a Russian prison. Both he and the U.S. government have said the claims are false.
“We do worry about his condition,” his twin brother, David Whelan, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview Thursday on “Good Morning America.” “He’s in a labor colony in Russia — the food’s not great, the environment’s not great. He’s lost about 20% of his weight since he was arrested. We know that he is not being given proper nutrition because that’s the normal diet in a Russian prison and we have to supplement that with quarterly packages of dried fruits, nuts, things like that to make sure he stays healthy.”
David Whelan expressed optimism following news of the U.S. government’s proposal.
“The offer that the U.S. government has made — and extraordinarily made public — is super. Hopefully, the Russian government will take the concessions that have been made and allow Paul to come home,” he said.
Calls to free both Americans have escalated in the months since Reed’s release, and the State Department has said their cases are an “absolute priority.”
“We’re still hoping that this proposal will be accepted by the Russians and that we can move forward and bring Brittney and Paul home to their families where they belong,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos during an interview Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
ABC News has learned that the proposed swap does not include American Marc Fogel, a 60-year-old teacher who was recently sentenced to 14 years in a Russian penal colony on drug charges.
His attorney, Thomas Firestone, told ABC News on Thursday that he hopes the U.S. government will designate Fogel as wrongfully detained and “use all of its efforts to try to get him out.”
Imagine Dragons has announced a 10th anniversary reissue of the band’s hit 2012 debut album, Night Visions.
The collection will arrive on September 9 in various formats, the most expansive of which being the five-disc Super Deluxe edition. That includes the original album, 11 studio bonus tracks, two previously unreleased demos, live recordings, remixes and a behind-the-scenes DVD.
You can preorder the reissue in the format of your choice now.
Night Visions was first released September 4, 2012, and made stars out of Dan Reynolds and company with the singles “Radioactive,” “Demons” and “It’s Time.” The album has been certified seven-times Platinum by the RIAA, while “Radioactive” and “Demons” have both been certified Diamond.
The reissue announcement comes after ID launched an Instagram account earlier this week dedicated to Night Visions’ 10th anniversary.
(NEW YORK) — As the number of cases of monkeypox continue to rise in the United States, pregnant women are now among those affected.
The first case of monkeypox in a pregnant woman in the U.S. has been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC’s Dr. John Brooks confirmed the case over the weekend, adding that the mother safely delivered the baby and both mother and baby are “doing well.”
Pregnant people are already among those whom the CDC considers at “increased risk” for severe monkeypox, along with children under the age of 8, people who are immunocompromised and those who have a history of atopic dermatitis or eczema.
The U.S. has reported a total of over 4,600 known monkeypox cases as of July 27, federal and global data shows, surpassing Spain’s 3,738. Health experts have said that the number of monkeypox cases is likely much higher than the total that is officially reported, and U.S. health officials have been warning for weeks that the number of monkeypox cases would likely increase across the country, as the government increases testing capacity and surveillance.
Monkeypox, a cousin of the smallpox virus, has been known to cause adverse outcomes in pregnancy, according to Dr. Joanne L. Stone, chair of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Health System.
“There’s a lot of unknown but there have been reported adverse outcomes,” said Stone. “So this is why it’s on people’s radar and why it’s important to get the relevant information that we have to pregnant individuals.”
Stone stressed that pregnant women should not panic because, so far, the number of infected individuals remains low, but added, “Because we know there are potentially adverse outcomes, avoiding as much as you can anyone who shows signs of symptoms of infections is really important.”
Here are five things for pregnant women to know about monkeypox.
1. Avoiding contact with people with monkeypox is critical.
Monkeypox can spread through direct contact with an infectious rash, scab or bodily fluids or via respiratory secretions during prolonged face-to-face contact or intimate physical contact, according to the CDC.
The agency recommends avoiding close, skin-to-skin contact — including touching, having sex with, kissing, hugging or cuddling — with people who have a rash that looks like monkeypox.
In addition, people are advised to not touch the bedding, towels or clothing of a person with monkeypox, and to wash hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Dr. Amy Arrington, medical director of the Special Isolation Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital, stressed that close contact is required to spread the disease.
“You cannot get this virus from touching an elevator button, from walking past someone in the mall casually,” she told ABC News this week. “It is spread by close contact — contact with lesions — so touching infectious lesions or infectious scabs.”
2. Monkeypox can be transferred to the fetus.
Monkeypox can be transmitted to the fetus both during birth and by close contact during and after birth, according to the CDC.
Stone noted that if a pregnant woman gives birth with monkeypox, her newborn will need to be isolated to avoid further close contact with the mother.
There are only five laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox in pregnancy currently published in medical literature, according to research summarized by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, of which Stone is president.
Three of those five cases resulted in pregnancy loss, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
In addition to miscarriage and stillbirth, monkeypox also brings an increased risk of preterm delivery, according to Stone.
3. Symptoms should be taken seriously.
Because monkeypox is so contagious and potentially dangerous for pregnant women, the first signs of it should be taken seriously, according to Stone.
“You need to be evaluated by a doctor to see if [a symptom] is due to monkeypox or to some other kind of infection,” she said. “And if you know that you are exposed, consulting with an infectious disease specialist or the CDC as well as your obstetrician is really important.”
Typically, the disease begins with a fever, headache, fatigue, chills and muscle aches. Unlike smallpox, however, monkeypox also causes swollen lymph nodes.
Within one to three days, those infected will typically develop a rash either on their face or other parts of the body.
Lesions start out as dark spots on the skin before progressing to bumps that fill with fluid.
The CDC said that with pregnant people, a “broad approach to testing” for monkeypox is recommended since so many of the symptoms, like fever and rash, may be common in pregnancy.
4. Why exactly pregnant people are more at risk is not known.
Health experts are not 100% sure why conditions like monkeypox are more severe in pregnancy, according to Stone.
One hypothesis, she noted, is that it could be due to a change in immunity that happens during pregnancy.
Smallpox is also associated with “more severe illness” during pregnancy, according to research published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
5. It’s important to get medical care.
Although monkeypox is typically mild and does not require treatment in non-pregnant people, pregnant people with monkeypox need to be closely monitored, according to the CDC.
“Treatment for monkeypox virus should be offered, when indicated, to people who are pregnant, recently pregnant, or breastfeeding,” the agency says on its website.
There are several antiviral medications that have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of monkeypox, including in pregnant people.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Arielle Mitropoulos, Sony Salzman and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Just 10 days into his congressional career, Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer broke with his party and voted with nine other Republicans and every Democrat in the House to impeach President Donald Trump over the Capitol riot.
Now, just days before his primary, Meijer is under pressure from a major Democratic group, which is spending $500,000 to spotlight John Gibbs, his pro-Trump, election-denying opponent.
Airing in Western Michigan this week, the 30-second ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), House Democrats’ campaign wing, describes Gibbs, who worked in the Trump administration, as “too conservative” for the region and Trump’s “hand-picked” candidate.
While the DCCC’s messaging is negative, the ad pulls focus from Meijer and underscores Gibbs’ conservative credentials shortly before voters have their say.
At a time when Democrats are warning voters that election-denying Republicans pose an existential threat to democracy, the party’s role in a messy GOP primary has left multiple Democratic lawmakers angry and frustrated.
“There’s always a danger of unintended consequences, and I certainly would have taken a different approach,” Colorado Rep. Jason Crow told ABC News on Wednesday. “We should play our game on our terms, and I don’t think approaches like that are usually productive.”
“I thought it was a strange choice, and I called [the DCCC] and let them know,” Michigan Rep. Elisa Slotkin told ABC News.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., a retiring moderate who also voted to impeach Trump, called the Democratic strategy “outrageous” and pointed to Meijer’s votes across party lines on impeachment and to protect same-sex marriage rights.
“Peter’s been a strong independent voice, and he’s put the country first on a number of issues,” Upton told ABC News. “He’s not a rubber stamp.”
New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the DCCC, defended the party’s efforts on Wednesday. He argued that the ad was “telling the truth about John Gibbs being a dangerous extremist” and that Democratic candidate Hillary Scholten — who will face either Gibbs or Meijer — would “put people over politics” if elected to serve in the House.
In a brief interview in Washington on Wednesday, Meijer accused Democrats of putting “party interest” first.
“Everything they’re saying in the Jan. 6 committee, everything about how my party is a threat to democracy — and they are investing a half-million dollars to elevate and boost exactly the same thing that they’re railing against?” he said.
“It’s pretty galling in the hypocrisy of it all. And just shameless given their high-minded rhetoric about how they are the party of democracy. Spare me that bull—,” Meijer said.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a retiring member of the House Jan. 6 committee, called the strategy “disgusting” in an interview with CNN, warning that it would help “election deniers win.”
Gibbs, who served in the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Trump, was unsuccessfully nominated to lead the Office of Personnel Management but faced criticism in the Senate over past comments and tweets, including speaking dismissively of Islam and promoting a conspiracy theory involving Democrats. (Gibbs said at the time that “I don’t really see anything to apologize for. I was a commentator.” At his confirmation hearing, he insisted, “In my service in the government … I’ve always treated people fairly.”)
Democrats aren’t just focusing on the right-wing candidate in Meijer’s race. The party has tried to influence GOP primaries across the country — where nominating more conservative options could create more favorable matchups in November and maintain their slim House and Senate majorities.
In California, an outside political group affiliated with House Democratic leaders tried spotlighting a pro-Trump Republican running against Rep. David Valadao, another one of the 10 GOP members who voted to impeach Trump. (Valadao survived his primary two weeks ago and advanced to the general election through California’s top-two system.)
In Colorado, the Democratic leadership-aligned Senate Majority PAC spent millions ahead of the primary last month to portray Joe O’Dea, a Republican seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, as a moderate compared to the more conservative Ron Hanks — which was ultimately unsuccessful. O’Dea said Democrats were “propping up Ron Hanks in a desperate attempt to save” Bennet in November.
And Democrats in Pennsylvania, ahead of the state’s GOP primary in early June, elevated Doug Mastriano, who was linked to Trump’s effort to challenge the 2020 election and the Capitol attack. (Mastriano was at the Capitol that day but insists he left because of the violence.) He will face Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro in November.
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., tweeted this week that he was “disgusted” that the DCCC has been using its funds — including membership dues paid by lawmakers — to “boost Trump-endorsed candidates, particularly the far-right opponent of one of the most honorable Republicans in Congress.”
Helen Kalla, a spokesperson for the DCCC, told ABC News the group was “laser focused on holding the House majority, which we will accomplish by fighting for every competitive seat.”
“[Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy is an anti-choice insurrectionist coddler and conspiracy enabler, and we will do what it takes to keep the speaker’s gavel out of his hands,” Kalla said.
Three people were injured at Dua Lipa‘s Wednesday night concert in Toronto when someone in the crowd set off fireworks.
Peoplereports the incident happened at Scotiabank Arena, where someone set off illegal firecrackers in the arena. The outlet spoke with a concertgoer, who described what happened.
“It was at the end, during her final song, and confetti was already out, so we thought it was part of the finale,” they recalled. “No one was fazed by it other than the people in the pit, [but it was] hella scary.”
The incident was also recorded by a fan filming from the pit. Dua sees the fireworks going off at the end of the walkway and seemingly looks at her backup dancers in confusion.
Three people were injured by the sparks and suffered “very minor injuries.” All were treated at the venue and did not require hospitalization, police say. In addition, the fireworks did not damage the venue.
The incident is under investigation. People must cross through a metal detector to get into the venue, which explicitly prohibits fireworks. It is unclear how the fireworks made it into the building.
Actor Bob Odenkirk is reflecting on the past year after having a heart attack on the set of his hit show Better Call Saul in 2021.
Odenkirk tweeted Thursday, saying he is appreciative of the support that has come his way.
“A Thank You to you, whoever you are,” Odenkirk tweeted. “A year ago today I briefly flirted with ‘quietus’ and this elicited a wave of goodwill and warmth towards me. I will forever feel unworthy of it. I will also always be appreciative and look to pass it on. Thank you. No reply necessary.”
In July 2021, the 59-year-old Emmy-nominated star was rushed to the hospital when he collapsed while shooting the sixth and final season of the AMC series in New Mexico.
A few days after the incident, the actor revealed he suffered “a small heart attack” and thanked fans for the “outpouring of love.”
“I’m going to be ok,” Odenkirk wrote at the time, mentioning the doctors who fixed a clogged artery without surgery. He said of the support, “It’s overwhelming. But I feel the love and it means so much.”
In March, the actor recalled on Sirus XM’s The Howard Stern Show thatit was the on-site medical expert, Rosa, who started CPR on him right away.
“After 12 minutes, she had someone take over while she ran to her car to get her own defibrillator, as the set didn’t have one,” he said.
“When the defibrillator doesn’t work once, that’s not good,” the actor explained. “When it doesn’t work the second time, that is kind of like — forget it. But then they jacked it up a third time, and it got me back to a rhythm.”
“Take CPR classes,” he told Stern. “Because you can save lives.”
