Trump endorses House Speaker Mike Johnson amid Republican infighting
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(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threw his support behind Speaker Mike Johnson amid a fight over the House gavel that will culminate in a vote at the end of the week.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” Trump wrote at the end of a lengthy social media post. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”
In the same post, Trump boasted about his successful 2024 White House run, praising Republicans for running a “legendary” campaign while railing against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
He urged Republicans to “not blow” an opportunity for a “relief” from the outgoing administration — calling for Republicans to support Johnson.
Johnson, who faced pushback from members of his own party over his leadership during the recent government shutdown fight, thanked Trump for his endorsement.
“I’m honored and humbled by your support, as always,” Johnson wrote on X. “Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America. The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON, DC) — Vice President Kamala Harris is doing a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday — the day before in-person voting begins in Wisconsin.
With roughly two weeks until Election Day, the effort is part of the Harris campaign’s effort to reach swing voters in the crucial battleground states. Harris is speaking with Cheney in the suburban areas of Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
The conversations will be moderated by Bulwark publisher and longtime Republican strategist Sarah Longwell and conservative radio host and writer Charlie Sykes.
Both Harris and former President Donald Trump have events scheduled for battleground states this week as they work to win over voters in what’s expected to be a close contest. On Monday, Trump is spending time in in the battleground state of North Carolina.
While in Pennsylvania, Harris and Cheney worked to pick off Republicans disaffected with their party’s nominee who may vote for the vice president and focus on the dangers Trump poses to the country and to democracy.
“There are months in the history of our country which challenge us, each of us, to really decide when we stand for those things that we talk about, including, in particular, country over party,” Harris said.
Cheney, a staunch Trump critic who endorsed Harris in September despite their party and policy differences, said “every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part” in her supporting Harris.
“In this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. We’re not always going to agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that’s why I’m honored to be in this place.”
Cheney voted to impeach Trump following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and was vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. She received backlash from Trump and other Republicans for her criticism of the former president and was censured by the Republican National Committee.
Since her endorsement of Harris, Cheney has campaigned for the vice president — including in battleground Wisconsin, where she called Trump petty, vindictive and cruel.
Cheney is among a handful of prominent Republicans, including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who have pledged to support Harris’ bid.
The number of actual votes these events could move, with just two weeks to go, is small — yet could be significant in states expected to be decided by slim margins, Joe Zepecki, a Milwaukee-based Democratic strategist, told ABC News.
Ideally, Zepecki said, the events would bring over “Republicans available to Harris who might need one last reminder, one last push in that direction.”
George Levy, a 66-year-old voter from Delaware County, outside Philadelphia, said he was an independent until Trump entered the political arena in 2015.
“[Cheney] did the right thing for our country, and I’m proud of her for doing that,” he said. “I know she doesn’t agree with many Democratic policies, but she believes in our country and loves our country, and I appreciate her speaking out.”
In a social media post on Monday, Trump attacked Harris for campaigning with Cheney, claiming that the former Wyoming Republican congresswoman is going to lead the United States to go to war with “every Muslim Country known to mankind” like her father and former Vice President Dick Cheney “pushed” former President Georgia W. Bush to the war in the Middle East.
Harris’ events this week will feature more interactivity where voters see the vice president taking questions — including during her town hall with CNN on Wednesday in Pennsylvania.
ABC News’ Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an exclusive interview former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adults clients for sex.
Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News’ Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman — who was then 17 years old — at a house party in Florida.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Representative Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.
“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to prison over these allegations were those lying about Matt Gaetz,” Alex Pfeiffer, Trump transition spokesman said.
Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.
“Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Representative Gaetz to have sex?” Chang asked.
“That’s correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,'” Leppard said.
Leppard’s interview with ABC News comes days after he publicly called for the House Ethics Committee to be released.
“As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers,” Leppard said. “What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?”
The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday and discuss its report of Rep. Matt Gaetz and potentially vote on its release despite the fact that the investigation ended when Gaetz resigned from the House, multiple sources tell ABC News.
The news comes after the attorney on Friday first told ABC News that one of his clients had witnessed Gaetz have sex with a minor amid mounting pressure on the House Ethics Committee to release its report on its probe into the Florida congressman.
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the congressman and testified in both the federal and House Ethics investigations.
Gaetz’s one-time friend Joel Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes including sex trafficking of a woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage
Attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, called for the release of the Ethics Committee’s report on Thursday.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” Clune said in a statement.
The woman, who is now in her 20s, according to sources, testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old and he was in Congress, ABC News previously reported.
Gaetz faces an increasingly uphill nomination process in the Senate, with at least five Republican senators signaling skepticism that he could get enough support to be confirmed. President-elect Trump has repeatedly urged GOP leadership to bypass the traditional confirmation process through recess appointments, where Trump could appoint his cabinet while Congress is out of session.
(WASHINGTON) — Ever since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he has been vocal about his plans to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy has vowed to crack down on dyes in the food industry and to reduce pesticides in the farm and agriculture industry.
He has called for restrictions on ultra-processed foods as part of an initiative to address the high rates of chronic disease in the United States, and he’s said more research needs to be conducted on vaccines.
Those plans could require him to override regulations set in place by the Food and Drug Administration or Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and/or perhaps see new regulations put in place.
Political science experts say this may put him at odds with members of his own party, because Republicans typically advocate for fewer regulations and limited government oversight.
“I think where you would see the challenges would be on allocation of money,” Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York, told ABC News.
“If all of a sudden HHS is now in the business of passing more regulations on the food industry, on agriculture, we might see that a Republican Senate majority and a Republican House is less interested in allocating a budget to HHS that then would be under a different leadership,” she continued.
Praise from other Republicans
Despite Republican criticism of previous Democratic initiatives to tackle disease and childhood obesity, Kennedy has received praise from some Republicans.
“RFK Jr. has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, said in a statement earlier this month. “I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.”
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called Kennedy a “brilliant, courageous truth-teller whose unwavering commitment to transparency will make America a healthier nation,” and Sen. Josh Hawley called Trump’s decision to name him to head the HHS a “Bad day for Big Pharma!”
However, Gadarian said the support from some Republicans in the Senate may not translate to support among Republican constituents.
“We may want to separate what average people think about and know about [what Kennedy wants] and what elites in the party might have a vested interest in,” Gadarian said.
For farmers and others whose bottom lines might be negatively impacted by some of Kennedy’s proposed top-down policies, she said, “Those ideas of, like, removing pesticides from agriculture may actually be quite unpopular.”
Republicans’ distaste for regulation
Historically, the Republican party has been ideologically associated with a smaller, limited federal government.
During his January 1981 inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan stated, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” espousing the belief that the government should not intervene in American lives.
If Kennedy is confirmed, there may be some culling of regulations, such as the CDC decision on vaccines health insurers are required to cover, according to Gadarian.
But his confirmation may also lead to new regulations; for example, he might weigh in on which food dyes companies are allowed to use or the use of pesticides on farms.
While it isn’t yet fully clear how Kennedy could make all of his proposed changes directly through his leadership at HHS, as opposed to the Environmental Protection Agency or Department of Agriculture, he has called for restrictions on food additives, dyes and ultra-processed foods — which he could have direct influence over through the FDA.
Gadarian said this is not in line with the typical conservative view on regulations, which is to generally loosen them.
“I do think that increasing regulation on businesses like agriculture and others who use pesticides — or on the food industry — is, in fact, against a kind of idea of limited government, of loosening regulation so businesses can do business and not be encumbered by the federal government,” she said.
Robert Ravens-Seager, a professor of history and political science at American International College in Massachusetts, said he thinks the idea of Republicans being for “small” or “limited government” is a myth.
He said both Republicans and Democrats want government regulation, but they have different views on how it should be implemented.
“Once you are in the government, your dislike for government tends to diminish somewhat,” he told ABC News. “I think that in a very short amount of time, you’ve seen a change in the Republican party. They’ve changed from being a party of small government [and] I think that the government that’s going to be coming will be very heavy-handed.”
He added that he believes Kennedy could have an impact on the messaging around food and/or agriculture by advocating for consumers to buy what he says is safe and healthy. However, Ravens-Seager is not sure to what degree the impact will be.
“I definitely believe that he will have an impact on things like food additives, food safety, and the like,” Ravens-Seager said. “The food side, especially, goes against Republican orthodoxy and could make for some interesting debates, but the degree to which, on this issue in particular, he will find much support within the party seems doubtful.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said last month he wanted to meet with Kennedy before a confirmation hearing and “educate” him about agriculture, indicating concerns about views Kennedy has expressed.
“I’m willing to have a discussion with him and find out where he’s coming from,” Grassley told reporters, according to Politico. “But I may have to spend a lot of time educating him about agriculture, and I’m willing to do that.”
Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said it’s important to remember that many steps need to occur before new regulations are put in place, including Kennedy being confirmed by the Senate, new regulations being proposed and approved, potential discussion in Congress and enforcement of those regulations.
“This is all maybes, but I think that the signaling happening with putting RFK in HHS is showing some sense of priorities, and I think those priorities are not favoring, necessarily, the interest of business and protecting them from regulation,” he told ABC News.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
