Defense Secretary Austin tells Congress 6-month funding stopgap would be ‘devastating to our readiness’
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a weekend letter to Congressional appropriators urging them to pass government funding bills after the election in the “vulnerable time around transitions” to “uphold the bipartisan tradition of funding our nation’s defense prior to the inauguration of a new president,” a source in the department told ABC News.
In his letter to bipartisan committee chairs on government funding, Austin urged lawmakers to avoid a six-month stopgap funding measure, calling a regular funding bill for the Pentagon “the single most important thing that Congress can do to ensure U.S. national security.”
Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed the six-month continuing resolution to fund the government beyond the inauguration of a new president. The government funding deadline is September 30.
Austin’s letter does not signal opposition to a one-month stopgap – but he urges “action immediately after the election.”
“The repercussions of Congress failing to pass regular appropriations legislation for the first half of FY 2025 would be devastating to our readiness and ability to execute the National Defense Strategy,” Austin writes.
The defense secretary points out to Congressional leaders that a six-month continuing resolution “would represent the second year in a row, and the seventh time in the past 15 years” the Pentagon has been stalled until midyear in receiving its funding orders from the legislative branch.
“I am fully aware of the political pressures that will challenge the Congress from fulfilling its duty before our national elections conclude,” he writes. “No matter who wins this election, there will be a Presidential transition. I urge you and your colleagues to take up action immediately after the election to limit damage to our national security during this vulnerable period around transitions and uphold the bipartisan tradition of funding our nation’s defense prior to the inauguration of a new President.”
(WASHINGTON) — A group of prominent Black Democratic leaders on Thursday unveiled Project FREEDOM, a new plan aimed at countering Project 2025, a controversial 922-page plan to overhaul the federal government led by a conservative Washington think tank and other politically aligned organizations.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly warn in campaign speeches that Donald Trump, if he wins a second term, wants to use the conservative blueprint to exert unprecedented presidential power and to do away with, among other things, the Department of Education and federal housing assistance and to cut or restrict the use of food stamps and other social welfare programs.
Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, calling some of the proposals “seriously extreme,” but its architects helped shape his Republican Party platform.
Project FREEDOM is designed to engage Black voters in four key battleground areas, the organizers told ABC News.
In the plan, first shared with ABC News, the group says in addition to policy, it aims to mobilize voters of color through town halls, community events, digital campaigns, and phone banks in Michigan, North Carolina, Las Vegas, and the Pennsylvania/Tri-State area.
Project FREEDOM, the leaders say, aims to provide voters with a substantial policy agenda for Democrats ahead of the November election in a clear and precise contrast to Project 2025.
Organizers say Project FREEDOM is based on four pillars: Freedom to Live, Freedom to Learn, Freedom to Vote and Freedom to Thrive.
Freedom to Live is based on the idea that the Black community should be able to “live freely and without fear,” the group says. Organizers are calling for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which was stalled by Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom, an intersectional social justice organization, told ABC News, “I think that the way to really engage voters to go to the polls, is to make sure that they know, we’re not just going for a celebratory vote. Instead, we’re going to the polls with our bag of demands with us.”
Mallory, says “We can’t sell the message of identity politics as the sole message to people who are suffering with income inequality, people who are suffering with challenges in the education system, people who just watched a video of Sonya Massey being shot in her face by a Springfield, Illinois, police officer.”
Massey, was an unarmed 36-year-old Black woman and mother of two, who was shot by former deputy Sean Grayson in her Illinois home. “What happened to Sonya Massey is probably one of the worst that I have seen in my career for 30 years,” Mallory added.
Freedom to Thrive calls for expansion of the Child Tax Credit, federal minimum wage to raise to meet inflation, and a pilot program for Universal Basic Income in low-income communities nationwide.
Freedom to Learn is focused on education, including canceling student debt and protecting Black American history in public schools.
Freedom to Vote is focused on strengthening voting rights, calling for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and reshaping the U.S. Supreme Court.
Michael Blake, founder of Project FREEDOM and CEO of KAIROS DEMOCRACY PROJECT, a program created to mobilize and engage young voters and voters of color, Blake said in a statement to ABC News, “Our Democracy is under siege and by a man and political machine that put themselves above all those in whom they detect ‘otherness.”
Blake, a former vice chair of the Democratic Party, added, “We cannot afford to forget the pain inflicted on our people throughout Donald Trump’s administration, and we certainly cannot afford the destructiveness a second term would normalize.”
The Democratic leaders said in a joint statement, “Make no mistake: Communities of color are the frontline communities targeted by the poison that is Project 2025’s Christian Nationalist vision for the future, and Project FREEDOM is the antidote.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is claiming it was hacked by “foreign sources” with the intent to interfere in the upcoming election.
The Trump campaign statement cited a report published by Microsoft on Friday, which said, “In June 2024, Mint Sandstorm — a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit — sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor. The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain.”
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Microsoft does not identify the presidential campaign in its report. Microsoft has also not responded to ABC News’ request for more information.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson deferred to the Justice Department when asked for comment on the allegations.
“The Biden-Harris Administration strongly condemns any foreign government or entity who attempts to interfere in our electoral process or seeks to undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” the spokesperson said.
They added that they take any reports of “such activity extremely seriously.”
The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice declined to comment.
Outside of the Trump campaign statement, ABC News has not confirmed the campaign was hacked by foreign sources with the intent to interfere in the election.
The Secret Service referred ABC News to the Trump campaign and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks, Michelle Stoddart and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance on Monday magnified a false claim that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
In a post on X, Vance published a video of himself at a July Senate Banking Committee hearing, reading a letter from Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck about the city’s challenges in keeping up with housing for the growing Haitian immigrant population.
In the post, Vance pushed the false claim that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping and eating people’s pets in Springfield.
“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote on X. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he asked, a term that Republicans have attempted to tag Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with, although she has denied holding that role.
But Heck debunked those claims about Springfield in a statement to ABC News.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Heck said in his statement.
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” Heck said.
According to the Springfield News-Sun, the Springfield Police Department has not received any reports of pets being stolen and eaten.
The false claim that immigrants are targeting people’s pets stemmed from a social media posting originally from a Springfield Facebook group that went viral, where the poster wrote that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat. The poster went on to make an unsubstantiated claim of Haitians allegedly taking the cat for food.
The post was picked up by people on social media, including rightwing activist Turning Points’ Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk.
Springfield, Ohio, has been at the center of several rumors concerning Haitian immigrants. The city even created a webpage debunking some claims.
Migrants have been drawn to the region because of low cost of living and work opportunities, the city says on its site. The city estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county, and that the rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care, and school resources. But the city also says that the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status from the federal government.
On Monday, Ohio Attorney General David Yost said the population in Springfield has grown by more than a third. In a statement, he announced he’s directing his office to “research legal avenues to stop the federal government from sending an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities.”
“The problem is not migrants, it is way, way too many migrants in a short period of time,” Yost said in his statement. “The problem is a massive increase in the population without any communication or assistance from the federal government.”
A spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.