Explosive exchange about 9/11 happens at Secret Service hearing
Ronald Rowe, acting director of the United States Secret Service; Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and Republican Texas Congressman Pat Fallon got into a screaming match Thursday at a House panel investigating the assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump.
Fallon yelled about Rowe’s attendance at the 9/11 memorial. He accused Rowe of putting the President’s Secret Service detail out of position so he could sit behind him during the 9/11 remembrance ceremony.
“Congressman, what you’re not seeing is the [lack] of the detail off out of the picture’s view. And that is the day where we remember more than 3000 people that have died on 911,” Rowe said Thursday. “I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center. I was there at Fresh Kills..”
Fallon yelled at Rowe, asking if he was the special agent in charge.
“I was there to show respect for members that died on 9/11,” Rowe yelled back his finger pointing at Fallon. “Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes,” Rowe shouted.
“Oh I am not,” Fallon responded.
“You are sir,” Rowe yelled back. “And you are out of line!”
“I am an elected member of Congress, and I’m asking you a serious question,” Fallon said.
“I am a public servant who has served,” Rowe yelled back.
Fallon accused the acting director of putting the life of the vice president in jeopardy to audition for the job.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. Air Force Gen. James Hecker, U.S. Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa commander, awards Capt. Lacie Hester, 494th Fighter Squadron F-15E weapon systems officer, with the Silver Star during a ceremony at RAF Lakenheath, Nov. 12, 2024. Senior Airman Seleena Muhammad-a/48th Fighter Wing
(WASHINGTON) — The Air Force has awarded the Silver Star to a female airman for the first time following her role in the shootdown of more than 80 Iranian drones that were part of Iran’s large missile and drone attack on Israel in mid-April.
The historic award of the nation’s third-highest award for valor to a female airman comes at a time when the role of women in ground combat units has been front and center because of critical comments made by Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next defense secretary.
Capt. Lacie “Sonic” Hester, an F-15E instructor weapons systems officer, is the first Air Force woman to receive the Silver Star and only the 10th female service member ever to receive the award. Also receiving the Silver Star on Tuesday was her pilot, Maj. Benjamin “Irish” Coffey, for his role in coordinating the shootdowns from their two-seat fighter and then using all of their missiles and their fighter’s Gatling guns to bring down some of the drones.
Tuesday’s award ceremony at their home base of Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom honored the men and women of the 494th Fighter Squadron and the 494th Fighter Generation Squadron with two Silver Stars, six Distinguished Flying Crosses with the valor device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses with the combat device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, seven Air and Space Commendation Medals and seven Air and Space Achievement Medals.
On the night of April 13, Iran launched more than 300 ballistic missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli missile strike in Damascus, Syria, that killed a top Iranian commander. U.S. military aircraft and naval ships helped Israel in bringing down 99% of the weapons Iran fired at Israel in the attack.
The actions by the U.S. Air Force units involved in the shootdown of about 80 Iranian drones have been described as the largest air-to-air enemy engagement by the United States in over 50 years. Soon after the attack, President Joe Biden reached out to the commanders of the two units involved, the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and 335th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, to praise their units’ actions.
One of those commanders was Lt. Col. Timothy “Diesel” Causey, the commander of the 494th Fighter Squadron.
“We all fell into an execution rhythm: Call, shoot, and confirm the target was destroyed before we moved on to the next task we had to accomplish to keep everyone safe,” Causey said in a U.S. Air Force story about this week’s ceremony.
On the night of April 13, the F-15E’s from his squadron flew 14 sorties from an undisclosed base in the Middle East to shoot down the incoming drones. Patriot air defense missiles at the base were also fired to intercept the drones. Some of those fighters had to return and refuel before going back up to engage more of the drones, some of which occurred so close to that base that some of the falling debris landed on that base.
“Although intelligence provided the numbers of how many [one-way attack] drones we could expect to see, it was still surprising to see them all,” Hester said in an Air Force interview.
That night, Coffey and Hester were the airborne mission commanders directing the fighters toward the drones and were also actively engaged in shooting down drones, resorting to bringing the drones down with their fighter’s Gatling guns after they had used up all of their air-to-air missiles.
“It takes a high-performing team with high-performing individuals to be able to find these things to begin with and then to engage it,” Coffey said.
Among those receiving awards this week were many members of the squadrons’ airmen on the ground who helped keep the fighters flying in and out, especially as some of the fighters experienced in-flight emergencies.
Hester’s receipt of the Silver Star occurred the same week that Hegseth drew scrutiny for recent comments on a podcast in which he criticized the decision to allow women to serve in ground combat units.
“I’m straight up just saying, we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said last week on the “The Shawn Ryan Show.”
The process of integrating women into combat units was a gradual one that began in 1993, when Defense Secretary Les Aspin issued an order that allowed women to fly fighter jets and bomber aircraft in combat.
But women were not allowed to serve in ground combat units until 2013, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rescinded the ban, which was subsequently enhanced in 2015 by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who cleared the path for women to serve in jobs that were still limited to men, including some in special operations.
On the podcast, Hegseth drew a distinction between women serving as pilots and those serving in ground combat units.
“I’m not talking about pilots,” Hegseth said. “I’m talking about physical labor type, labor intensive type job. … I’m talking about something where strength is a differentiator. Pilots? Give me a female pilot all day long. I got no issues with that.”
(WASHINGTON) Former President Donald Trump has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for an escalation of rhetoric threatening political opponents with retribution if he’s elected to a second term. The comments have triggered alarm from some officials who served with him the first time around, such as former Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Earlier this month, Trump described Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi each as “an enemy from within.”
“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within,” Trump told Fox News on Oct. 20.
While Trump’s comments prompted a renewed focus on the issue of democracy, a Gallup poll earlier this month showed that the economy still ranks as the top issue of concern for voters.
However, a strong separation between issues of democracy and the economy is misguided, some academics who study the tie between political systems and economic performance told ABC News.
“People interested in making a large investment will be less likely to do it unless they can curry favor with the president himself,” Thomas Pepinsky, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, told ABC News. “There will be some who stand to benefit but the average American will lose.”
If Trump makes good on his threats to crack down on political adversaries, media outlets and some government agencies, he risks spooking investors, saddling businesses with uncertainty and driving away workers, experts said. That in turn could diminish economic growth, increase the likelihood of an economic downturn and harm the finances of everyday people, they added.
The impact may prove to be minimal in the short term but could grow substantially over time, some experts said, while also acknowledging the difficulty of predicting to what extent existing checks and balances might constrain Trump.
“If Trump suddenly threatens the rule of law, you won’t have an immediate recession,” Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the book “Why Nations Fail,” told ABC News.
“But you get a huge amount of uncertainty and that has economic implications,” Acemoglu added. “If companies favored by Trump can expect to get a special deal and others can’t compete, that’s a slippery slope.”
Stephen Moore, an economic advisor to Trump, rebuked the notion that democracy would weaken during a second Trump term. Instead, he added, the economy would perform well, just as it did over Trump’s first term.
“I’d be much more prone to look at his track record in office than speculation about how he might undermine democracy,” Moore told ABC News. “We had a booming economy.”
“If Trump wins, I think the markets will react in a very, very positive way,” Moore added.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump campaign shared a statement from a representative of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
“Kamala is a continuation of Biden’s failed economic policies, and they’ve left our economy in shambles. Kamala Harris broke America’s economy, our national security, and world peace, but President Trump will fix it through his America first policies,” RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly told ABC News.
Trump has threatened to use the Department of Justice to prosecute political opponents, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month. He also has suggested rescinding the licenses of media outlets that he dislikes.
Trump continues to make false claims in denying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and has repeatedly attempted to sow doubt regarding the validity of the impending one, should he lose.
The potential erosion of government and civic institutions under a Trump presidency could cause investors to second-guess whether they want to do business in the U.S., the experts said. Trump has hinted at taking away some of the independence of the Federal Reserve, which could introduce further uncertainty surrounding the nation’s interest rates. Meanwhile, the experts added, Trump may treat more favorably companies that stay in good standing with his administration, putting other entities at a disadvantage even if they’re more competitive.
“It would simply create a huge amount of uncertainty about which rules apply and who they apply to,” Steven Hahn, a professor of history at New York University and author of “Illiberal America: A History,” told ABC News. “It would just have enormous consequences for the economic life of the country.”
Uncertain U.S. politics have already negatively affected the nation’s financial foundation, according to some financial measures. Last year, the rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded U.S. credit for the second time in the nation’s history, citing the ballooning U.S. debt load and a weakening of governance, as well as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as factors in their decision.
After studying more than 50 populist leaders going back to 1900, German researchers Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch found that after a populist leader took office, a nation’s economy grew at a 10% slower pace over the ensuing 15 years than it would have otherwise, according to an article published in the American Economic Review in December.
A separate study in 2019 found that democratization boosted a nation’s gross domestic product by about 20% over the long run, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, among others.
“The evidence is pretty clear,” Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow in governance studies at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, told ABC News. “Democracy is pretty good for an economy, and authoritarian regimes do worse than they otherwise would.”
There are exceptions, however. India, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has seen its ranking in the global Democracy Index fall since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. The Chinese economy grew rapidly over the past three decades under authoritarian rule, though that economic expansion has slowed in recent years.
“Sometimes undemocratic countries have had amazing growth, but those examples are rare,” Williamson said.
What’s unknown, of course, is whether Trump, if elected, would implement his proposed agenda. Also unknown is to what extent such actions could or would be resisted by others, including Congress, the courts and other institutions.
“Even if Republicans win Congress, they won’t have 60 votes in the Senate,” Moore, the economic advisor to Trump, said, pointing to the threshold of support necessary to overcome a Senate filibuster.
Some experts also acknowledged that the economy performed fairly well under Trump during his first term, despite his administration taking steps that those experts perceived as testing democratic norms.
“Trump’s first term was chaotic, disorganized and bad for some institutions, but I fear his second term would be worse,” Acemoglu said.
In theory, the market itself could act as a check on Trump’s plans, experts said. A negative market response helped unseat then-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss In 2022.
Fiscal plans put forward by Truss caused the nation’s currency to plummet in value while bond yields spiked. Within weeks of her taking office, and amid heated criticism from both her opponents and members of her own party, Truss resigned.
A dramatic market reaction could limit Trump’s plans, but he could instead prioritize the consolidation of power, in turn diminishing the impact of a financial response, Pepinsky said.
“For most politicians, they change course if the market signals to them that something won’t work,” Pepinsky added. “Trump isn’t a normal politician.”
(WASHINGTON, D.C) — Some gun violence prevention groups said Wednesday that they plan to double down in their fight for stronger firearm-control laws in the wake of former President Donald Trump recapturing the White House and promising to roll back President Joe Biden’s efforts to curb the national plague.
During his victorious campaign, Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, voiced opposition to most of Biden’s executive orders to combat the scourge that the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found to be the leading cause of death in the United States for adolescents under the age of 19 for three straight years.
“The election of Donald Trump is deeply troubling for our safety and freedom from gun violence,” Kris Brown, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement Wednesday. “And that’s why we are doubling down on our work and fighting harder than ever.”
Gun violence was a big issue during the campaign. In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released in August, gun violence was ranked eighth in importance among voters after the economy, inflation, health care, protecting democracy, crime and safety, immigration and the Supreme Court.
In preliminary national exit polls analyzed by ABC News, voters said they trusted Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, 50% to 48%, in handling the issue of crime and safety.
In his campaign, Trump often railed against what he described as a “surge” in migrant crime, including several high-profile homicides allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants. A 2020 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely than migrants to be arrested for violent crimes.
Brown said it won’t be the first pro-gun rights administration that has occupied the White House, adding that Trump’s previous four years in the Oval Office were marked by a “deadly period for Americans.” Among the mass shootings that occurred during Trump’s first term was the 2017 massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival music concert in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and more than 850 people wounded; the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff; and the 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that claimed 23 lives and injured nearly two dozen other people.
“So even though we won’t have a friend in the White House, Brady isn’t giving up an inch,” Brown said of her organization named after White House press secretary James “Jim” Brady, who was shot and permanently disabled in the 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan and later died in 2014 as a result of his wounds.
Brown added, “The movement to prevent gun violence has always been larger than one office, and we’ll continue to work with activists, survivors, community leaders and elected officials in states across the country to fight for progress that makes the whole country safer from gun violence.”
Trump and Vance, who have said they oppose a national ban on assault weapons, were endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
In February, Trump told NRA members at a forum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, “No one will lay a finger on your firearms” during his second term in office.
“During my four years, nothing happened and there was a lot of pressure on me having to do with guns,” Trump said at the time. “We did nothing, we didn’t yield. And once you yield a little bit that’s just the beginning, that’s [when] the avalanche begins.”
In May, Trump spoke at the NRA convention in Dallas and outlined some of the actions he’ll take in his second term.
“In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment — the attacks are fast and furious — starting the minute that Crooked Joe shuffles his way out of the White House,” Trump said in the speech.
Trump also vowed during the speech to fire Steven Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). House Republicans have also said they want to abolish or drastically cut funding for the ATF.
“At noon on Inauguration Day, we will sack the anti-gun fanatic Steve Dettelbach,” Trump told NRA conventioneers. “Have you ever heard of him? He’s a disaster.”
Gun control advocates said they expect Trump to try to water down the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the first major gun safety law enacted in 30 years that Biden signed in June 2022, about a month after a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The BSCA enhances background checks for gun buyers under 21, closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent people convicted of domestic abuse from purchasing guns, and allocates $750 million to help states implement “red flag laws” to remove firearms from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.
Advocates also expect Trump to abolish the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention established under the Biden administration and overseen by Harris.
Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action released a statement on social media Wednesday, saying her gun violence prevention group also plans to continue to fight for laws that protect Americans from gun violence.
“If this work has taught me anything, it’s that no matter what, we always can and will secure victories to protect our communities from gun violence. This obstacle is no different. Today, we are crushed by this result,” Ferrell-Zabala said of Trump’s victory. “Tomorrow, we’re going to continue to organize like our lives depend on it — because they do.”
