Biden says he could have won 2024 election, undecided on issuing preemptive pardons
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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden believes he could have won the 2024 election if he had decided to stay in the race, he told USA Today in a wide-ranging interview.
“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” he told the newspaper during a nearly hourlong interview on Sunday. He said his view was based on polling he’d seen.
The president’s comments come as he prepares to hand over the Oval Office to President-elect Donald Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
Biden, the oldest sitting president at 82, withdrew from the race in July, as questions about his age and fitness for office surged following a disastrous CNN debate performance in June.
Biden also told USA Today on Sunday that he was unsure if he would have had the vigor to serve another four years in office.
“I don’t know. Who the hell knows?” Biden said, though he also added that when he first decided to run, he “also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old.”
Biden, who pardoned his son, Hunter, in December, said he has not decided whether to issue more preemptive pardons for potential Trump targets before leaving office in less than two weeks. When Biden and Trump met in the Oval Office after the election, Biden urged Trump not to follow through on his threats to target his opponents.
“I tried to make clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,” Biden said, adding that Trump “listened” but did not say what he planned to do.
If there were to be more preemptive pardons, Biden said the decision would be based “a little bit” on whom Trump taps for top administration roles.
Possible names being considered for pardons included current and former officials such as retired Gen. Mark Milley, former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen. Adam Schiff and Dr. Anthony Fauci, ABC News previously reported.
Trump frequently attacks Biden’s handling of the economy, including on Tuesday when he was asked about grocery prices during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But, in private, Biden said Trump was complimentary of his some of his actions.
“He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done,” Biden said. “And he talked about — he thought I was leaving with a good record.”
Biden also reflected on his relationship with former President Jimmy Carter and his visit with Carter in Georgia in 2021 as he prepares to deliver the eulogy at Carter’s state funeral in Washington on Thursday.
“We talked,” Biden said. “He was not a big fan of my predecessor and successor. Well, he was never pointedly mean about it. But he was just very encouraging.”
Looking beyond his time in office, Biden said he doesn’t know yet where his presidential library will be, but ruled out his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He expressed his hope that it will end up in Delaware, but didn’t rule out the University of Pennsylvania either.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, said on Wednesday he would not “back down” as new misconduct allegations cause growing concern among Republican senators tasked with whether to confirm him.
Going public in his own defense, Hegseth also directly addressed several of the accusations for the first time in an interview with Megyn Kelly. He denied many of the claims he mistreated women and pushed back on reports he was forced out from two veterans’ nonprofit groups.
He’s also promised senators he’s stopped drinking and won’t drink if confirmed, according to Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt. Some of the misconduct accusations included claims he has been drunk in public.
“He offered up to me, and I know he has with other senators too, that he’s not drinking, and that’s not something he’s going to do when confirmed here,” Schmitt said a day after meeting with Hegseth.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would vote to send Hegseth’s nomination to the full Senate, affirmed that Hegseth committed to not drinking if he was confirmed.
“The allegation was made about him being intoxicated at several times and so the questions that every member will be asking him led to his statement,” Wicker said.
Pressed to confirm Hegseth told him he would stop drinking altogether, Wicker replied, “That’s right, that’s exactly right.”
North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer said he was encouraged by Hegseth’s pledge in their private meeting Wednesday to abstain from alcohol as defense secretary.
“He said, ‘My commitment is to not touch alcohol while I have this position,'” said Cramer, who lost a son to alcohol addiction in 2018.
“I said, ‘It’s really important that we have a clear-eyed secretary of defense if the phone rings at 3 in the morning.'” Cramer said. He said Hegseth replied that he would be clear-eyed at “3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, and every hour in between.”
Cramer said Hegseth told him there were times when he “drank too much, but never times that I drank too much and anything improper happened.”
Hegseth said he spoke with Trump earlier on Wednesday, and said the president-elect told him: “Keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.”
The comments come as a number of senators — at least six — have privately signaled they are not inclined to vote for him, leading Trump’s advisers to begin discussing who may be a viable replacement, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Multiple sources also told ABC News that Trump and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the job Tuesday and DeSantis expressed interest in it. Other possible candidates include Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Tennessee Gov. Bill Hagerty, said sources familiar with private discussions.
As he walked with his wife through the Capitol for a third day of sit-downs with GOP lawmakers, Hegseth was peppered with questions from reporters asking if he’s committed to remaining in the running. He replied, “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter. I’m here for the war fighters. This is personal and passionate for me.”
Hegseth met with Ernst on Wednesday afternoon. Ernst briefly spoke with reporters after, calling it a “throughout conversation.”
Asked by ABC’s Jay O’Brien if Hegseth alleviated any of her concerns, Ernst did not respond.
When pressed if there’s any chance she was being considered to replace Hegseth, Ernst responded: “Mr. Hegseth is the nominee.”
Shortly after he was tapped by Trump to lead the Pentagon, it was reported that Hegseth had paid a settlement agreement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.
Over the weekend, the New Yorker, citing what it called a detailed seven-page whistleblower report, said Hegseth was forced to step down from two veterans’ nonprofit groups amid accusations of financial mismanagement, sexist behavior and other disqualifying conduct. ABC News has not independently confirmed the magazine’s account.
Hegseth denied most of the allegations against him as Kelly went through them.
He flatly denied the 2017 sexual assault allegation, saying he paid a settlement to protect his wife and career.
He pushed back on reports he was forced out of the veterans’ groups, though he didn’t dispute mismanaging funds at Veterans for Freedom, blaming it on being an “amateur.”
“Am I a perfect man? No, was I a perfect man? Absolutely not,” Hegseth said. “Do I regret those things? Yes. But is it who I am today? No, and I’m just grateful for the grace of God that gives me a new chapter.”
Hegseth’s lawyer Tim Parlatore told CNN on Wednesday his client was looking forward to doing an FBI background check.
“He knows, as I know, that FBI investigators are professionals. They’re going to go through this. They’re going to not just take a few anonymous complaints and put that in the report. They’re going to try and corroborate it,” Parlatore said. “The FBI background check is going to exonerate him of the vast majority of these claims, and so he’s very much looking forward to that.”
Parlatore claimed that while Hegseth isn’t an “angel” and that he has partied “a bit,” the onslaught of allegations coming out against him are because people are “threatened” by changes he would bring to the Pentagon.
His mother, Penelope Hegseth, also offered a defense of her son on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning.
She sent an email to her son in 2018 amid his divorce in which she wrote that he was an “abuser of women.” The email was reported by the New York Times. ABC News has not independently obtained the email.
Penelope Hegseth on Wednesday said her son was a “changed” man and that the email was written in “haste” during a “very emotional time.” She said that she “retracted it with an apology email” just hours after she sent it, and that she and her son are “very close today.”
Penelope Hegseth, imploring senators to listen to his account, also said she believed her son was “the man for the job.”
Hegseth told Kelly he was still confident he’ll be confirmed but said if he isn’t, he’ll know “I did everything I could in this process.”
“So, we don’t know precisely how this is all going to play out. I’m going to go up on Capitol Hill, meet with all these senators, keep working hard, try to earn votes, respect the process,” he said.
ABC News’ Rick Klein, Rachel Scott, Ivan Pereira and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for the release of the committee’s report, telling ABC News that one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor.
“My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor,” Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News.
“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?”
“Democracy demands transparency. Release the Gaetz Ethics report,” said Leppard, who represents two women who sat for closed-door testimony with the committee over the summer.
Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump selected this week to serve as his attorney general, has long denied any wrongdoing, including have an inappropriate relationship with a minor. The Justice department declined to charge Gaetz last year after a yearslong investigation into the allegations.
Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding Leppard’s claims.
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the congressman. 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 the woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage.
According to Greenberg’s plea deal, the woman, who ABC News is not identifying, met Greenberg online in 2017 and began meeting him in hotels and houses in the Middle District of Florida, where he “introduced the Minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with the Minor in the Middle District of Florida,” court documents said.
At the time, the minor “represented that she was an adult” on the website where she met Greenberg — and according to his plea agreement, he acknowledges that he “acted in reckless disregard of the fact that the Minor was less than 18 years old when he engaged in commercial sex acts” and had a “reasonable opportunity to observe” that she was underage.
Leppard’s statement comes after 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, 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.
In a statement responding to that reporting, Gaetz said, “These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.”
The Justice Department spent years investigating the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges.
Gaetz has long vehemently denied any wrongdoing related to the Justice Department probe. In September, he released a detailed response to questions sent to him by the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating allegations of alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
“Your correspondence of September 4 asks whether I have engaged in sexual activity with any individual under 18. The answer to this question is unequivocally NO. You can apply this response to every version of this question, in every forum,” Gaetz said in a statement posted to his social media account.
Gaetz resigned from office this week after being selected to lead Trump’s Justice Department, which ended the House Ethics Committee’s probe that sources tell ABC News had been entering its final stages. Prior to Gaetz’s resignation, the committee had planned to meet this week to discuss whether to release their report on the investigation — leaving it unclear if the report will ever see the light of day.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he does not think the House Ethics Committee should release the findings of its investigation into Gaetz, now that the Florida Republican is no longer a member of Congress.
“I believe it is very important to maintain the House’s tradition of not issuing ethics reports on people who are no longer members of Congress. I think it would open a Pandora’s box,” he said.
Leppard told ABC News he supports the release of the report.
“What if sworn testimony detailed conduct that would disqualify anyone from serving as our nation’s chief law enforcement officer?” the attorney said in his statement to ABC News.
A screengrab from a video which purports to show Haitian migrants voting in Georgia. The intelligence community assessed on Friday that the video was part of a Russian influence operation to sow discord in the Election. Obtained by ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The origins of the video that falsely showed individuals from Haiti voting in Georgia is the work of Russian influence actors, the intelligence community assessed on Friday.
“The IC assesses that Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia,” according to a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA).
“This judgment is based on information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. The Georgia Secretary of State has already refuted the video’s claims as false.”
CISA is the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The intelligence community also found that Russian actors falsely shared a video of an individual associated with a democratic campaign falsely taking a bribe from an entertainer.
“In the lead up to Election Day and in the weeks and months after, the IC expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans,” the joint statement said.
This is the second time in two weeks the intelligence community has alerted Americans of a Russian influence operation.
Last Friday, intelligence officials assessed that a video purporting to show ripped ballots in Pennsylvania was also part of a Russian influence operation.
Russia, along with Iran and China are seeking to sow discord and undermine confidence in the 2024 presidential election, according to the CISA director.
“We have to understand what these adversaries want,” CISA Director Jen Easterly told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas on Thursday. “They all want just two things. They want to undermine American confidence in our elections and trust in democracy, and they want to stoke partisan discord. They want to pit Americans against each other, and they are looking for any opportunities to create rage, and we know that enragement equals engagement.”
Easterly said the government will be “leaning forward” in debunking foreign influence operations.
Since the summer, the intelligence community has warned that foreign adversaries will try and influence the election.
Just hours prior to the notification was made by the intelligence community on Friday, a senior CISA official was briefing reporters: election security is national security, and said CISA is monitoring both the physical and cyber threats ahead of the 2024 election.
The official did not single out any one individual, but did say that anyone who knowingly puts out disinformation is “putting election officials at harm.”
When someone puts out misinformation they are “doing the work of our foreign adversaries, and it’s an important reminder to know that these are the tactics that they’re out there leveraging,” and added that there are real-world sometimes violent consequences to the disinformation.
