Trump picks Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, as national security adviser: Sources
US Representative (R-FL) Mike Waltz. Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump has asked Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz to be his national security adviser, multiple sources told ABC News.
Waltz is a China hawk and is the first Green Beret elected to Congress. He emerged as a key surrogate for Trump, criticizing the Biden-Harris foreign policy record during the presidential campaign.
Waltz, who was elected to the House in 2018, sits on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. He also serves on the House China Task Force with 13 other Republicans.
He has supported aid to Ukraine in the past, but has demanded “conditions,” including increased spending from European allies, additional oversight of funds, and pairing the aid with border security measures.
Waltz, a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s policy towards Ukraine who has visited the country, criticized the White House and allies for not providing Ukraine with more lethal aid — such as MiG fighter planes from Poland — earlier in the conflict.
Before running for elected office, Waltz served in various national security policy roles in the George W. Bush administration in the Pentagon and White House. He retired as a colonel after serving 27 years in the Army and the National Guard.
(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination as the first Black and Asian woman nominee for U.S. president “gives a lot of people hope” that greater equality of opportunity is possible.
“I know a little bit about being a first,” said Jackson, the nation’s first Black woman justice on the high court who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. “I think a lot of people were very happy about my appointment, in part, because they saw it as progress for the country.”
“Whenever we see someone moving into a position where no one has ever been, it gives a lot of people hope,” she said during an appearance on ABC’s “The View.”
The comments were Jackson’s first public acknowledgement on the historic Democratic ticket — Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“I’m a first, not because I’m the first person who could ever do this job, right? But because our times have changed. Our society has changed,” she said.
Jackson, 53, has been on a media blitz in conjunction with the release of her memoir “Lovely One,” which recounts personal stories from her childhood, education, family life and early career before arriving at the nation’s highest court.
Jackson has been careful to avoid speaking publicly on politics or policy issues, stressing her need to preserve the appearance of impartiality.
Asked whether she is confident the courts would uphold the will of voters if results of the 2024 election are challenged, she said: “I am confident that the courts will faithfully uphold the law, because that is our duty.”
Jackson also weighed in on the Supreme Court’s new, non-binding ethics code, saying she supports public debate over enforcement mechanisms and possible changes to the court’s structure.
“The question is, [how] is that going to play out? We’re still pretty early in the process,” she said, “but I guess I think about all of this as democracy at work, public engagement, these ideas of reforms, are the kinds of things that have been around since the beginning of our Republic.”
(WASHINGTON) — As Sen. JD Vance prepares to face Gov. Tim Walz in next week’s vice-presidential debate, the Ohio senator is turning to Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer to help him in debate rehearsals by playing Walz, sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
One of the sources said Emmer was invited to stand in for Walz so that Vance could prepare to take on the governor’s folksy personality.
Vance’s debate preparations have included sessions at his Cincinnati home and online sessions with his team and with Jason Miller, a senior advisor on former President Donald Trump’s campaign, a source told ABC News.
Vance is expected to paint Walz as too liberal, focusing on the policies he has passed while governor of Minnesota, one of the sources said.
Emmer is the third-ranking Republican in the House and serves as the majority whip. Emmer also previously served as the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Emmer backed Trump for president earlier this year — despite the fact that the former president called Emmer a “Globalist RINO” who is “totally out-of-touch” with Republican voters, effectively tanking Emmer’s speakership bid in October 2023.
Walz and Emmer overlapped in the House from 2015 through 2019 before Walz ran for governor of Minnesota.
Walz’s debate preparations are also underway with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acting as a Vance stand-in during the Walz team’s debate rehearsals. Walz has also held policy sessions with his own longtime aides, Biden White House alumni and members of the Harris-Walz campaign team.
The vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News is set to be in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 1, the network has announced, with both Walz and Vance agreeing to participate. The debate will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — In a debate that often turned heated over key issues, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump were at odds over abortion, a top concern for voters heading into the election.
Harris tried to label Trump’s position as extreme, pointing to his role in ending Roe v. Wade and accusing him of supporting a national ban and surveillance of pregnant women — claims he denied.
Trump, who appointed three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned federal protections for abortion rights under Roe v. Wade, has at times softened his stance on abortion and said the six-week ban in Florida is “too short,” in an interview with NBC News in August.
“I think the six weeks is too short, there has to be more time,” Trump said on Aug. 29. The next day, he reversed his position, saying he would vote to keep the six-week ban
In the debate, Trump reiterated that he returned the regulation of abortion care to state governments and said it should be up to the states to decide, but he would not commit to vetoing a federal abortion ban if it came to his desk as president. Instead, he said that situation would not arise.
He also said Tuesday he supports exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
During the debate, Harris accused Trump of supporting a national ban on abortion and said he plans to monitor pregnant women under the conservative plan known as Project 2025.
Harris said during the debate the plan “would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages,” adding, “I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, in particular the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, should not be made by the government.”
Trump has denied any association with Project 2025, which he reiterated at Tuesday’s debate. Project 2025 is a 900-page policy blueprint published by conservative allies and former advisers to Trump looking to help a new Republican administration transition to power. Several former cabinet secretaries under Trump are among the notable authors.
Project 2025 was organized by the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank.
The document proposes the next conservative president act with Congress to protect life starting at conception and work to ban federal funding of abortion.
Among its proposals, the project recommends the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “eliminate” programs and projects that are not anti-abortion and ensure that it is not promoting abortion as health care.
The project doesn’t use the term “monitoring,” but it does state that CDC’s collection of abortion data is “woefully inadequate,” pointing to some states reporting data on a voluntary basis. It also says the Department of Health and Human Services should mandate states report how many abortions are provided, the stage of pregnancy, the pregnant woman’s state of residence and the method of termination.
Project 2025 also calls for the ending of federal funding for Planned Parenthood and all other abortion providers. Planned Parenthood provides a range of services, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, cancer screenings, prevention services and contraception services. However, federal funding is already withheld for abortion services at Planned Parenthood, with limited exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother, due to the Hyde Amendment.
After Democrats began attacking Trump over the document, he publicly denounced its substance as “seriously extreme” and developed by the “severe right.”
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump posted on social media.
At least 22 states currently have bans or restrictions in place on abortion care. Of those states, 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and four states prohibit abortions after six-weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant.
Trump has said it’s “irrelevant” whether he supports prosecuting women who have abortions.
“It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not,” Trump said in April. “It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”
