The Good Fight‘s upcoming sixth season will also be its last, Paramount+ announced on Friday. The season will find Christine Baranski‘s Diane Lockhart “feeling like she’s going crazy, struggling with an uneasy sense of déjà vu, with everything from Roe v. Wade, to voting rights, to Cold War aggressions returning,” according to the streaming service. “Meanwhile, the lawyers of Reddick & Associates wonder if the violence that they see all around them points to an impending civil war.” The cast also includes John Slattery, Sarah Steele, Michael Boatman, Nyambi Nyambi and Charmaine Bingwa, with Audra McDonald and Andre Braugher. Alan Cumming and Carrie Preston guest star. The Good Fight‘s sixth season premieres September 8…
Jurassic World: Dominion star Bryce Dallas Howard is directing an episode of season three of The Mandalorian, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It marks the fourth time she’s helmed a Star Wars series, having directed the season-one episode “Sanctuary” and the season-two episode “The Heiress.” She was also behind the camera for last year’s Mando-centric The Book of Boba Fett episode, “Return of the Mandalorian.” Season three of The Mandalorian began shooting last fall and is now in post production…
Deadline is reporting cast changes for several big series. Alycia Debnam-Carey is leaving AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead after seven seasons. Her exit follows news of her casting in the upcoming Hulu series Saint X, which was announced earlier this month. NBC’s drama The Blacklist is saying goodbye to two series regulars, including Amir Arison, who has played Aram Mojtabi for the past nine seasons. Also departing is Laura Sohn, who has portrayed FBI agent Alina Park for the past three seasons. Both characters’ exits were revealed at the end of Monday’s season nine finale. Finally, Alexis Bledel, who has played Emily/Ofglen on The Handmaid’s Tale since the Hulu series launched in 2017, is exiting ahead of the show’s upcoming fifth season. “After much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid’s Tale at this time,” Bledel said in a statement obtained by the outlet…
Bo Hopkins, the actor who has appeared in such movie classics as American Graffiti, The Wild Bunch, Midnight Express and The Getaway, died Friday, according to his official website. He was 80. In addition to his work in film, Hopkins’ acting credits in TV include guest-starring on The Rockford Files, Charlie’s Angels and The A-Team. He was also featured on Dynasty in 1981…
Thousands of Star Wars fans descended on the Anaheim Convention Center this past weekend for Star Wars Celebration, the annual expo of all things from that galaxy far, far away, with stars and producers offering tantalizing peeks at forthcoming projects.
Show creators Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were on hand to tease season three ofDisney+’s The Mandalorian, as were the stars of other upcoming small-screen adventures likeAndor, with Rogue One‘s Diego Luna,and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, starring Jude Law.
Another Mando alumna, Rosario Dawson, also appeared to promote her spin-off, Ahsoka, a character she played in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. A teaser-trailer for Ahsoka was also shown, but only for the panel’s audience. However, the audience was treated to a trailer was dropped for the second season of the animated Clone Wars spin-off, The Bad Batch.
Harrison Ford himself also dropped by the con to tease another Lucasfilm property, the fifth Indiana Jones film. Entering to Indy’s iconic theme by John Williams — who wielded the baton in person — Ford said it was a “great pleasure” to be on hand. He also wished Williams a happy 90th birthday, which the multiple Oscar winner celebrated in February.
Ford added, “I told John…that music follows me everywhere I go. And…I’m happy about it.”
Also showcased was a first photo from Indy’s fifth adventure: The intrepid archeologist was shown on a rickety bridge, a flashlight cutting through the darkness. That movie debuts in theaters June 30, 2023.
Lucasfilm is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who generated controversy by competing on the women’s swim team at University of Pennsylvania, said she plans to keep swimming, with an eye on the Olympics.
“I intend to keep swimming,” Thomas told ABC News’ Juju Chang in an interview that aired Tuesday on Good Morning America. “It’s been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time, and I would love to see that through.”
Thomas, of Austin, Texas, won gold in the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships in March, becoming the first female swimmer in Penn’s history to win an individual national title, according to the university.
After competing for three years on Penn’s men’s swimming team, Thomas also made history in that race as the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA division title in any sport.
“It was a goal of mine to be at that meet and do as well as I could,” said Thomas, who competed in three races at the championships. “So to be able to fulfill that personal goal and be at that meet as well as the sort of fulfillment of competing as my authentic self was just such an amazing experience, to have these things that I’ve been working towards for so long all come together.”
Assigned male at birth, Thomas said she fell in love with swimming at age 4, but as she grew older she said she felt increasingly disconnected to her body, explaining, “I didn’t feel like I was a boy.”
“When I was a young kid, my mom always would describe me as a very happy kid,” said Thomas. “And then sort of in middle school and high school, as I, like, went through puberty, that shifted a little bit, with gender dysphoria from being trans, but I didn’t have, I didn’t yet know or have the language to describe that.”
After high school, Thomas earned a spot on the men’s swimming team at Penn, her dream school.
But by her sophomore year in college, Thomas said her gender dysphoria plunged her into a deep depression, and she struggled with suicidal thoughts.
“I was barely going to classes. I could really barely get out of bed,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I can’t live like this anymore. I want to live again. I want to be able to do things I enjoy.'”
Thomas said a fear of not being able to compete in the sport she loved kept her from transitioning initially.
By 2019 though, at the end of her sophomore year, Thomas said she began hormone replacement therapy, a “gender-affirming treatment [that] uses female hormones to create a more feminine appearance,” according to The Cleveland Clinic.
“The mental and emotional changes actually happened very quickly,” said Thomas. “I was feeling a lot better mentally. I was less depressed.”
She continued, “And I lost muscle mass and I became a lot weaker and a lot, a lot slower in the water.”
Thomas began swimming on Penn’s women’s swimming team at the start of her senior year, following NCAA guidelines that athletes must complete one year of hormone replacement therapy to change gender categories.
The scrutiny over Thomas grew the more she achieved success in the pool.
In response to critics who say Thomas transitioned in order to win more swimming medals, she reiterated that is not the case.
“Trans people don’t transition for athletics,” she said. “We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves. Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.”
In January, the NCAA updated its transgender athlete eligibility guidelines to say that each sport’s national governing body could make their own rules. Previously, the NCAA had a uniform hormone therapy requirement across all sports, according to ESPN. USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, has used a review panel to make individual determinations on a case-by-case basis since 2018.
The NCAA then announced it would wait until next season to enforce the new guidelines, which cleared the way for Thomas to compete as a female at the 2022 NCAA championships.
In February, just one month after the NCAA’s announcement, 16 of her Penn teammates and some of their parents signed an anonymous letter arguing she posed a threat to women’s sports. The letter stated that while the signers supported Thomas’ right to transition, they thought it was unfair that she compete against cisgender women.
“You can’t go halfway and be, like, ‘I support trans women and trans people, but only to a certain point,'” Thomas said in response to her teammates’ letters. “Where if you support trans women as women they’ve met all the NCAA requirements, then I don’t know if you can really say something like that.”
She continued, “Trans women are not a threat to women’s sports.”
While the science on transgender athletes is new and evolving, some medical experts say the effect of higher testosterone during male puberty may never be fully erased.
Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic told ABC News that with hormone therapy, there are physical aspects of men that may remain among trans women. For a swimmer like Lia Thomas, those physical aspects may be “activated” due to the sport.
“There is going to be some loss to skeletal muscle mass, there is going to be some increase in body fat — those would be the two most obvious things,” Joyner said. “But things like hand size, lung size, feet size — that’s not going to change much. And of course, because as you know, swimming, it’s such an intense sport and people train so hard, that she is going to continue to have a significant exercise stimulus to those skeletal muscles.”
Despite existing evidence of what happens to a trans person’s body after hormone therapy, Thomas said she views herself in the context of other female athletes, all of whom vary in size, strength and ability.
“I’m not a medical expert, but there’s a lot of variation among cis female athletes,” she said. “There are cis women who are very tall and very muscular and have more testosterone than another cis woman, and should that then also disqualify them?”
The controversy surrounding Thomas’ collegiate swimming career coincided with more than a dozen states, including Oklahoma, Arizona and Florida, instituting bans to prevent trans students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.
Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that trans youth often report feeling isolated and excluded in academic environments. That discrimination puts them at increased risk for poor mental health, suicide, substance abuse, violence and other health risks.
Thomas said she does not see it as an acceptable option to prevent transgender people from competing in sports, or to limit them to competing only against each other or themselves, like in a separate swimming lane, for example.
“In addition to not allowing the full athletic experience, that’s incredibly othering to trans people who already face immense discrimination in other parts of our lives,” she said. “To then again have this discrimination in sports and be, like, ‘Oh, OK, you can swim, but only over there, like in that lane.’ It’s very othering.”
Speaking of her own experience of waiting longer to transition because she wanted to compete in swimming, Thomas added, “I don’t think trans people should have to make that decision. It is something that caused me a lot of personal stress and I don’t want other trans people to have to face that choice.”
Thomas graduated from Penn in May and has said she plans to attend law school, in addition to continuing to compete in hopes of reaching the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
The highlight of her college graduation, according to Thomas, was hearing her name called as Lia Thomas.
“When I actually got to walk across the stage and hear them say my name and walk across, it was very cool,” she said, describing her emotion in that moment as “pure joy.”
(NEW YORK) — Top Gun: Maverick soared into history this Memorial Day weekend as more Americans headed back to theaters to watch the long-awaited sequel.
The film raked in $156 million over the holiday weekend, making it the biggest Memorial Day release ever. The previous record holder was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which took in $153 million.
The sequel to 1986’s Top Gun also marked the biggest opening weekend of Tom Cruise’s career.
On Sunday, the rapper, born Percy Robert Miller, announced the death of his 29-year-old daughter Tytyana Miller.
“Our family is dealing with an overwhelming grief for the loss of my daughter Tytyana,” he wrote in an Instagram post alongside a picture of an angel on Sunday.
“We respectfully request some privacy so that our family can grieve,” he added. “We appreciate all of the prayers love and support. Mental illness & substance abuse is a real issue that we can’t be afraid to talk about. With God, we will get through this. #MyAngel.”
On Monday, Master P shared a picture of he and Tytyana with a reminder that, “Life is too short. Give your loved ones their flowers while they are alive. #TYTY Love You #missyou #GodGotUs Family over everything.”
Tytyana’s brother Romeo Miller, 32, also took to social media, penning a touching post announcing the news.
“Our family is dealing with an overwhelming grief for the loss of my little sister Tytyana. We respectfully request some privacy so that our family can grieve. We appreciate all of the prayers, love, and support, and although this is sad times, I’m forever grateful for the memories I did have with my amazing sister,” he said. “Love on your loved ones, life is short. The silver lining, I know she’s in a way better place and finally at peace and free. God Bless. -RM”
In addition to Tytyana and Romeo, Master P and ex-wife Sonya C share sons Veno, 30, Vercy, 30, Hercy, 20, and Mercy, 20, and daughters Itali, 23, and Inty, 28. Master P is also the father of singer Cymphonique Miller, 25.
(WASHINGTON) — Bipartisan talks about passing a new federal gun law continued through Memorial Day weekend despite members of Congress being out of session in a weeklong recess that also set a deadline for a possible breakthrough, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said on Monday.
In a tweet, the lead Democrat on the negotiations wrote that he and others in his party have discussed with some Republican Senate colleagues throughout the holiday weekend details of possible bill intended to address gun violence.
The Senate left Washington on Thursday, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., indicating a short turnaround for the compromise legislation — members would vote upon a June 6 return to the chamber.
“In between parades, I’ve been on the phone today w Republican and Democratic Senators trying to find the common denominator on a gun violence bill,” Murphy wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Senator Schumer has given us just over a week to find a compromise. This time, failure cannot be an option.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has blessed the negotiations, tasking Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn to take the lead for the GOP in the talks. Murphy has said that in the wake of two high-profile mass shootings over the past few weeks, “many more” Republicans appear willing to discuss gun reform than in the past.
While the issue remains intensely divisive in Congress — where conservatives have opposed major legislative efforts regarding guns — Cornyn echoed Murphy on Monday in saying that, at the least, the talks were ongoing.
“We’re already having those discussions in person and on the phone. Look forward to meeting on Tuesday through a Zoom call to try to see if we can agree on a basic framework about how we go forward,” he said.
Murphy told ABC News’ This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday that the negotiations were “serious” and already circling some specifics, including so-called “red flag” laws that would allow the removal of firearms from people with a history of threatening or dangerous behavior.
“We have continued to work throughout the weekend. I was in touch with Sen. Cornyn and Sen. [Pat] Toomey, other Republicans and Democrats yesterday,” said Murphy, who represents the community that includes Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of a 2012 mass shooting.
“Inside this room we’re talking about ‘red flag’ laws, we’re talking about strengthening, expanding the background check system, if not universal background checks. We’re talking about safe storage,” Murphy said, noting that school safety measures and mental health resources were also discussed.
There has been talk about the “profile” of mass shooters, Murphy said — in particular the pattern of many of the perpetrators to be young men between 18 and 21 years old.
“Right now we’re having a discussion inside this room about the profile of the current mass shooter … That is a profile that does not allow you to buy a handgun but does allow you to buy an assault rifle. And so there are discussions happening in these rooms about how they recognize this profile and maybe make it a little bit harder for those individuals to quickly get their hands on weapons,” Murphy said.
“I don’t yet know exactly what’s possible, whether the votes are there to raise the age, but we’re having a discussion about what we do about that specific profile,” he said. “And it’s an encouraging conversation.”
Murphy, elected to the Senate in 2012, drew new attention in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting last week that left 19 students and two teachers dead. One of Congress’ most outspoken voices for gun control, Murphy again urged action including from Republicans, many of whom contend the laws are misplaced or violate the Second Amendment.
On This Week, Murphy reiterated his concern with the lack of federal legislation on the issue in the near-decade since Sandy Hook — a period that has also been stained by a slew of other high-profile mass shootings.
“And while, in the end, I may end up being heartbroken, I am at the table in a more significant way right now with Republicans and Democrats than ever before,” Murphy said. “Certainly, many more Republicans willing to talk right now than were willing to talk after Sandy Hook.”
Murphy pointed to his recent discussions with Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who now represents in Congress the site of another school shooting, in Parkland, where a gunman shot and killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Following that massacre, then-Gov. Scott signed into law a bill that tightened gun control measures, including raising the minimum age for owning guns from 18 to 21.
“I had a long conversation with Sen. Scott last week,” Murphy said, “and had him tell me the story of how they were able to pass that legislation and get Republicans to support it.”
(NEW YORK) — Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who represent the state where an 18-year-old gunman carried out one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings last week, are among Congress’ top recipients of contributions from pro-gun donors, campaign finance records show.
Cruz, in particular, has taken in the most money from pro-gun individuals and groups of anyone in the current Congress, amassing $442,000 over the course of his career, according to an analysis of disclosure reports by the nonpartisan campaign finance research group OpenSecrets.
Cornyn ranks third among current U.S. senators and representatives, receiving a total of $340,000 in contributions from pro-gun donors over his career, after Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who has amassed $396,000, according to the analysis.
Direct contributions from pro-gun individuals and political action committees are limited to a relatively small amount each election cycle, compared to the millions of dollars that super PACs and various other unlimited-spending outside groups are allowed to spend in support of candidates independent of coordination with their campaigns. The National Rifle Association’s various outside spending committees, for example, spent more than $6 million supporting North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr against unsuccessful Democratic challenger Deborah Ross during the 2016 election cycle.
Still, direct contributions — although smaller in size — are an effective illustration of a candidate’s level of support from gun-rights advocates.
“Throughout his career, Sen. Cruz has passionately fought to protect families from criminals and defend Texans’ constitutional rights,” Cruz spokesperson Steve Guest told ABC News.
At the state level, the NRA and NRA Victory Fund have spent a total of $575,000 in local Texas elections since 2015, in both direct contributions to campaigns and independent ad spending in support of candidates, according to an analysis of state campaign disclosure reports by nonpartisan nonprofit Transparency USA, which tracks state-level political disclosures.
Campaign disclosure reports also show that executives of Daniel Defense, the maker of the assault weapon that the accused gunman allegedly used in last week’s shooting, have been major Republican donors over the last few years.
Between 2016 and 2020, the company’s president and CEO, Marvin Daniel, and his wife and COO, Cindy Daniel, together gave a total of $300,000 to Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars more to numerous other Republican campaigns and committees over the years, according to disclosure filings.
The two are also regular donors to the National Shooting Sports Foundation PAC, together giving the group a total of $20,000 so far in the 2022 election cycle.
In addition, on Jan. 6, 2021, the company made a $100,000 donation to the Gun Owners Action Fund super PAC, which was launched shortly after the 2020 election to provide an 11th-hour boost to then-Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia Senate runoffs that month.
However, the super PAC’s treasurer, Nancy Watkins, told ABC News that the PAC refunded Daniel Defense’s $100,000 contribution “at the request of the donor” on May 10, 2022, and that the refund will be disclosed in July’s quarterly disclosure report to the Federal Election Commission, which covers April through June.
Watkins did not disclose why the donation was returned more than a year after it was made. Since the Georgia runoffs, the group has been largely dormant, according to its disclosure reports — not receiving significant donations or participating in political activities.
Representatives for Daniel Defense did not return ABC News’ request for comment.
In addition to Daniel Defense’s contribution, the Gun Owners Action Fund received donations from other gun manufacturers, including $100,000 from Sig Sauer in December 2020, and $10,000 from Luth-AR the following month. However the $100,000 donation from Sig Sauer was refunded in April, after the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint alleging the donation violated campaign finance law that prohibits federal contractors from making federal political contributions.
The super PAC was also heavily funded by ESAPAC, another super PAC that itself is funded by top GOP donors like the Ricketts family, Charles Schwab and Ken Griffith.
The emergence of new pro-gun PACs like the Gun Owners Action Fund comes as the National Rifle Association, the most high-profile gun rights group in the country, has been wracked by legal battles and threats of bankruptcy.
The NRA, which spent more than $56 million in super PAC and outside money during the 2016 election cycle — including spending more than $30 million to support Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton — has so far spent only $9,600 in outside spending for 2022 midterm candidates, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of FEC data — a notably low figure even at this early stage in the cycle.
NRA representatives did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The World Health Organization said Monday it doesn’t believe the monkeypox outbreak currently spreading around the world will turn into a pandemic.
Since May 13, at least 257 cases of the rare disease have been confirmed in 23 countries where the virus is not endemic — mostly in Europe and North America — and 120 are suspected.
Of those infections, 14 are confirmed or suspected across eight states in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So far, no deaths have been reported in non-endemic countries.
The disease is not typically found outside of countries in central and western Africa, which has raised fears of community transmission.
According to the WHO, at the present time, there is no clear link between the cases reported and travel from endemic countries.
When asked during a public session Monday if the recent outbreak could turn into a pandemic, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, replied, “The answer is we don’t know, but we don’t think so.”
“At the moment, we are not concerned about a global pandemic,” Lewis continued.
Other public health officials have said the risk for spread is generally low.
The WHO stated the majority of cases have been reported among men who identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men. Monkeypox can still be transmitted to anyone with exposure to it.
“We are concerned that individuals may acquire this infection through high-risk exposure if they don’t have the information they need to protect themselves,” Lewis said.
She offered recommendations for people to lower their risk of infection, including avoiding those with confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox and — if caring for someone with the disease — avoiding skin-to-skin contact, washing hands regularly, wearing a mask and cleaning contaminated surfaces.
“Collectively, the world has an opportunity to stop this outbreak,” Lewis said. “There’s a window of opportunity where this can be contained.”
When people are infected with monkeypox, it is generally a mild illness with the most common symptoms being fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, backache and swollen lymph nodes.
Patients can develop a rash and lesions that often begin on the face and extremities before spreading to the rest of the body. Symptoms usually last two to four weeks before dissipating.
Animals pass the disease to humans either through a bite or a scratch, and people can also catch monkeypox from preparing and consuming infected bush meat.
Human-to-human transmission occurs either through hugging, touching or prolonged face-to-face contact as well as by touching an infected person’s clothing or bedsheets.
The WHO said there are many “unknowns” about the outbreak including if the virus is being sexually transmitted or via close contact when engaging in sex. It’s also unclear whether monkeypox can spread if a person is asymptomatic.
However, officials stressed the risk to the general public remains low and shouldn’t be compared to COVID-19.
“Monkeypox is very different from COVID-19,” Dr. Sylvie Briand, the director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention at WHO, said during the public session. “We don’t want people to panic or be afraid and maybe think that it’s like COVID but worse.”
She added, “This monkeypox disease is not COVID-19. It is a different virus; it’s a different disease.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday he spent more than three and a half hours with survivors and the families of victims of last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.
Returning to Washington, Biden said the pain he witnessed in Uvalde was “palpable” and “unnecessary” and that he was — and always had been — committed to gun control efforts intended to reduce more violence.
But there was only so much he could do as a president, he said. Major changes would need to be authorized by Congress, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers are again in negotiations over a possible bill despite how divided they remain over guns.
When a reporter asked Biden outside the White House if he felt more motivated to act on legislation now, in the wake of recent shootings such as Uvalde, he said he has been “motivated all along.”
“I’m going to continue to push and we’ll see how this works,” he said.
“I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change the background checks,” he said.
This is where the legislature should act, he said.
For example, he said, “It makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds.”
He told reporters how as a senator he once spoke with trauma doctors who showed him an X-Ray of the damage a high-caliber weapon can inflict on the body — how “a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in a lung and we could probably get it out, may be able to get it and save the life, [but] a 9 mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.”
“The idea of these high-caliber weapon, there’s simply no rational basis for it, in terms of whether this be about self-protection, hunting,” he said.
“The Constitution, the Second Amendment, was never absolute,” Biden said. “You couldn’t buy a canon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons.”
The president spoke with reporters moments after stepping off Marine One one day after his visit to Uvalde, where he told a crowd of demonstrators “we will” as they chanted for him to “do something” about gun violence.
The massacre in Texas was preceded less than two weeks earlier by another mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. Ten Black people were killed in a grocery store in what authorities suspect was a racially motivated attack.
Those back-to-back killings have prompted a group of bipartisan senators — four Republicans and five Democrats — to engage in initial conversations about new gun laws. Democrats need at least some GOP support, though conservatives largely oppose legislating the issue, instead focusing on the so-called “hardening” of school security and other measures.
The group of lawmakers intended to meet via video over the recess to continue hashing out where they stand and where a possible compromise could be brokered.
“We’re getting started to try to figure out if there’s a path to getting to a consensus, and we’ll see where it takes us,” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said last week.
The White House, which took a more direct role in previous legislative priorities, has said the president will observe the process as it proceeds. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked repeatedly what the administration saw as its role in pushing for a new law.
“We really, truly leave the mechanics up to Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi,” Jean-Pierre said last week, referring to the Senate majority leader and House speaker. “We are confident that Sen. Schumer will bring this forward. And again, it is time for Congress to act. This is what the president has been calling for since the beginning of his administration.”
Biden, who based his 2020 campaign in part on his record of working across the aisle as a senator, was asked on Monday if he thought Republicans would approach the issue differently this time. He said that he hadn’t spoken to any of them, “but my guess is yes, I think they’re going to take a hard look.”
When he landed in Uvalde on Sunday, he and first lady Jill Biden were greeted by state officials including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch opponent of the president’s agenda and a proponent of pro-gun laws.
The Bidens’ visit to the Uvalde was focused on meeting with the victims, their families and the first responders to the shooting — not promoting a legislative agenda. The president said Monday at the White House that he “deliberately did not engage in a debate about that with any Republican” during his trip.
He said he would continue to take executive actions regarding firearms and sounded a note of cautious optimism about where the congressional talks may lead.
“I consider Sen. [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell a rational Republican, and [Sen. John] Cornyn is as well,” he said. “I think there’s a recognition on their part … that we can’t continue like this.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — Video obtained by ABC News, taken outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, as last week’s massacre was unfolding inside, appears to capture a 911 dispatcher alerting officers on scene that they were receiving calls from children who were alive inside the classroom that the gunman had entered — as law enforcement continued to wait nearly an hour and a half to enter the room.
“Child is advising he is in the room, full of victims,” the dispatcher can be heard saying in the video. “Full of victims at this moment.”
“Is anybody inside of the building at this…?” the dispatcher asked.
Minutes later, the dispatcher says again: “Eight to nine children.”
The video, obtained by ABC News, also shows police rescuing children from inside the school by breaking through a window and pulling them out, and also leading them out the back door to safety.
Early on, an officer can be heard warning bystanders to stay back because there is a man with a rifle.
Minutes later, what appear to be gunshots are heard ringing out.
The video, which appears to show some of what took place outside the school, raises new questions about law enforcement’s response to one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The gunman was left inside the classroom for 77 minutes as 19 officers waited in the hallway — and many more waited outside the building — after the incident commander wrongly believed the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, law enforcement has said.
Federal officers ultimately decided to enter the building and killed the gunman, according to law enforcement sources.
At a news conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McGraw said children inside the classroom had called 911 a number of times begging for them to “please send police now.” It appeared that information may not have been relayed to officers on the ground, he said.
“That question will be answered,” McGraw said when asked directly if the incident commander on the ground received the 911 information. “I’m not going to share the information we have right now. Because I don’t have — I don’t have the detailed interview right now.”
But the video obtained by ABC News, taken just outside the premises, appears to show that 911 dispatchers were relaying the information — including information that the room was “full of victims.” It is not clear who on scene, if anyone, heard the calls coming in from the dispatchers.
“Advise we do have a child on the line,” an apparent dispatcher can be heard saying in the video.
The dispatcher’s information heard on the video appears to match the readout of the 911 calls provided last week by law enforcement officials. McGraw said a child had called 911 saying she was in room 112 and had “advised there were multiple dead.”
Later, McGraw said, “she called back and said there’s eight to nine students alive.”
More than one of the children who dialed 911 from inside the classroom survived, McGraw said on Friday.
The Department of Justice on Sunday announced it would be conducting a “fair, transparent, and independent” review of the law enforcement response to the shooting. The findings of the review, the department said, would be published in a report and made available to the public.
“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events,” DOJ said in its release.
