Democratic Sen. John Fetterman will meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Alex Wong/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has accepted President-elect Donald Trump’s invitation to visit him at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the senator said in a statement provided to ABC News.
“President Trump invited me to meet, and I accepted. I’m the Senator for all Pennsylvanians — not just Democrats in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said in the statement. “I’ve been clear that no one is my gatekeeper. I will meet with an have conversations with anyone if it helps me deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation.”
Fetterman, once branded as a progressive, has increasingly signaled he’s willing to act more independently.
He was one of the first Democrats in the Senate to meet with Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, and he’s expressed willingness to back some of Trump’s other Cabinet nominees.
He also broke away from the progressive wing of his party last year by becoming an outspoken advocate for Israel, at one point traveling there to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As Senate Majority Leader John Thune has made clear he won’t back changes to the Senate rules requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation, Trump will need Democratic allies in the Senate.
This could mark an early effort by Trump to court Fetterman.
In an interview last month with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Fetterman said he hopes Trump is successful in his second term and that he’s not “rooting against him.”
“If you’re rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation,” Fetterman said. “So country first. I know that’s become maybe like a cliche, but it happens to be true.”
Fetterman told Karl his Democratic colleagues need to “chill out” over everything Trump does.
“I’ve been warning people, like, ‘You got to chill out,’ you know? Like the constant, you know, freakout, it’s not helpful,” Fetterman said. “Pack a lunch, pace yourself, because he hasn’t even taken office yet.”
Fetterman was elected to the Senate in 2022, beating Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump has picked to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
He suffered a stroke during the campaign and was treated for depression the following year.
(PENNSYLVANIA) — From the moment he arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after being named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, it was clear that one of Sen. JD Vance’s primary roles was to help deliver battleground Pennsylvania for the former president.
The day Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick in July, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl that he was “going to leave [Vance] in Pennsylvania.”
Pennsylvania’s importance in this election can’t be overstated — it’s a crucial swing state with 19 coveted electoral votes where Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Whoever wins the state is very likely win the presidential election. During the 2020 election, Pennsylvania was the state that sealed the presidency for President Joe Biden.
It is essentially a dead heat between Harris and Trump, with the former president barely leading Harris 47.9% to 47.8%, according 538’s latest polling average in the state.
The importance of Pennsylvania and other critical Rust Belt battleground states was reiterated in Vance’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in July.
“I promise you one more thing, to the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” Vance, and Ohio native, said at the RNC.
Vance’s background is similar to those who live in Pennsylvania, which he shared in his book, “Hillbilly Elegy” and talks about often on the campaign trail.
Over the past few months, Vance has worked hard to court voters in Pennsylvania. When visiting the state, he often emphasizes his background growing up in the Rust Belt state of Ohio, which borders Pennsylvania, and touches on the top issues important voters in the state. That Rust Belt connection is something the Trump campaign is banking on to help the former president win in the state.
“JD Vance is more than just an eloquent voice on the campaign trail to break down how Kamala broke everything from our economy to our southern border, and how President Trump will fix it and get our country back on track,” Kush Desai, the Trump campaign’s Pennsylvania spokesperson, told ABC News in a statement.
“His upbringing and life story are an inspiration to countless working-class Americans left behind in Kamala’s America who want a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities — Sen. Vance is personal testament to the future that a Trump-Vance administration has in store for our country.”
In the final two days before Election Day, Vance will have visited Pennsylvania twice. It will also be the state where he will hold his final campaign event before Election Day.
Similarly, Harris will also be holding her final campaign event in the state, signifying the critical role the state plays in securing the presidency.
“Harris will spend the day crisscrossing Pennsylvania, making her final pitch to Pennsylvania voters and mobilizing them to return their ballots and get to the polls on Tuesday. The final swing marks the Vice President’s 18th trip to Pennsylvania since launching her candidacy in July,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
Since joining the Republican ticket, Pennsylvania is the state Vance has visited the most, making 16 visits to the state and taking part in a total of 19 campaign events, according to ABC’s tracker of the senator’s campaign schedule. (Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has visited the state nine times, according to ABC’s tracker of his events.)
While campaigning in Pennsylvania, one of the issues Vance often hits on is fracking, an important industry in the state. During her 2020 presidential run, Harris supported a ban on fracking, but has backed away from that stance since becoming the Democratic nominee. Vance has also emphasized the loss of manufacturing jobs, bringing them back from overseas, often arguing that unleashing American energy would drive down the cost of manufacturing.
Will Martin, a spokesperson for Vance, told ABC News in a statement that American working families have been hit hard by the policies of the Biden-Harris administration and has worked to bring Trump’s message to voters in Pennsylvania.
“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we are going to unleash a new golden age of American prosperity and Pennsylvania will be at the center of it all,” Martin told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said on Wednesday there is “no justification” for what he called the “horrific” attack early on New Year’s Day in New Orleans , noting that the FBI was investigating it as an act of terrorism.
“I have been continually briefed since early this morning by federal law enforcement leadership and my homeland security team, including Secretary of Homeland Security Ali Mayorkas, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, and the Mayor of New Orleans regarding the horrific incident that occurred there overnight,” Biden said in a statement.
At least 10 people were killed and 35 injured when a vehicle rammed into a crowd gathered on Bourbon Street, authorities said.
Police say the driver was “hellbent” on causing damage as they drove on the street at a very fast pace in the early morning hours Wednesday. The driver then exited the vehicle with an assault weapon, and was shot and killed by law enforcement.
“I am grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury,” Biden said. “I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind.”
“I will continue to receive updates throughout the day, and I will have more to say as we have further information to share. In the meantime, my heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” the president added. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
Biden briefly spoke about the attack as he departed Delaware to travel to Camp David, though he declined to comment on specific questions from reporters regarding the suspect’s identity.
“I’ve contacted every agency in the federal government, as well as the state. They’re all coordinating to get — get to the bare facts,” he said.
The president said his first reaction to learning about the violence was “one of anger and frustration” and that he would have “more to say in the next hour or so.”
President-elect Donald Trump also weighed in on the tragedy, calling it “pure evil.”
“Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!” Trump wrote in a statement on his conservative social media platform.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana native, also called the violence “pure evil.”
“The vicious attack on innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans early this morning was an act of pure evil, and justice must be swift for anyone who was involved,” Johnson wrote on X. “Please join us in praying for the victims, their families, and the first responders and investigators on the scene.”
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, also a Republican, called the incident “tragic” but said he believed the Sugar Bowl — an annual college football game played in New Orleans on New Year’s Day — should go on.
“The terrorists win if we don’t live our lives. We must live our lives. Otherwise, one more time, they win and they can’t win. We’ve got to track them down, we’ve got to hunt them down, we’ve got to find out their supporting network, and we’ve got to bring them to justice,” Cassidy said on Fox News.
Democratic Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana, whose congressional district includes New Orleans, said he’s spoken to the White House and to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the attack. Carter said his heart was with the victims and their families.
“As we continue to learn more about this tragedy, including the motive behind such senseless violence, I am committed to working with local and federal authorities to ensure justice for the victims and to strengthen measures that safeguard our communities against acts of terror,” Carter said in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Yulia Navalnaya speaks about her late husband, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navaly, on The View. Via ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, says she wants Americans to cherish their democracy as they prepare to vote in the 2024 presidential election.
“I would say to American voters, don’t take everything like granted,” Navalnaya told ABC’s The View in an interview airing Thursday. “You are still living in democratic country and I still believe in American institutions and just make the right choice.”
Navalnaya spoke to The View for the launch of a memoir written by her late husband, Russia’s most famous pro-democracy campaigner and President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest opponent. He died in prison in February and the book, titled “Patriot,” was mostly written while he was detained.
You can watch The View interview with Yulia Navalnaya on ABC at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 24.
Navalnaya did not express a preference for Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump to win the election. However, her husband expressed alarm about the possibility of a second Trump presidency in a letter written from prison.
“Trump’s agenda and plans look truly scary. What a nightmare,” Navalny wrote to his friend, the photographer Yevgeny Feldman, who shared the letter from December 2023.
Navalny died suddenly in a prison camp in the Russian Arctic in February. Russian authorities claimed the 47-year-old died from natural causes, but his family and supporters accused the Kremlin of murdering him.
In September, independent Russian investigative news outlet The Insider said it obtained the police report into Navalny’s death. It reportedly stated that, in the minutes before he died, Navalny had suffered a “sharp pain” in his stomach, vomiting and convulsing on the floor.
In the final version of the police report, the description of Navalny’s symptoms as described in the initial report — all strongly suggestive of a possible poisoning — had been left out, according to The Insider.
Navalny was imprisoned in January 2021 after deciding to return to Russia, despite his near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent months earlier. He was arrested on arrival at the airport in Moscow and sentenced to 19 years, on charges widely condemned as politically motivated.
Married to Navaly for 24 years, Navalnaya worked closely with him before his death but largely remained out of sight. Since his death, she has stepped forward to fill his place as an opposition leader. She leads his organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and campaigns internationally for greater efforts to punish Putin’s regime.
“When he was killed, it was very important for me to show that even they are ready to kill the person, to kill our opposition leader. He wasn’t just my husband, he was very close friend,” she told The View. “He was leader whom I supported and it was very important for me to show that we’ll continue our fight. And to remind the world about him.”
Navalnaya also told the panelists that she’s certain the full story of how her husband died will be revealed, noting that the Anti-Corruption Foundation was working to make it happen.
She was unable to attend her husband’s funeral in March — which was held under intense restrictions in Moscow — because she faced possible detention. A Russian court in July ordered her arrest on extremism charges.
Navalnaya is undeterred by possible threats to her well-being , she told The View panelists.
“I hope it never happens, but if something will happen with me, there will be other people, and there will be people who [will be] fighting with Putin’s regime for many years,” she said.
Despite the dangers to him, Navalnaya said they both wanted Navalny to return to Russia, hoping to encourage people in their country to “not be afraid.”
“There are a lot of people in Russia against Putin’s regime,” she said. “Of course, it was an option to stay somewhere abroad in exile. But when I think about it, I’m thinking that he would be unhappy.”
In his book, Navalny expressed his belief that he would never be released while Putin’s regime remained and that authorities would likely poison him.
He also wrote about the harsh conditions in prison and his conviction that returning to Russia was worthwhile despite his imprisonment. He also recounted one of Navalnaya’s visits in the early days of his time in prison, during which they accepted that he would likely die in detention.
“It was one of those moments when you realize you found the right person. Or perhaps she found you. Where else could I ever have found someone who could discuss the most difficult matters with me without a lot of drama and hand-wringing?” he wrote. “She entirely got it and, like me, would hope for the best, but expect and prepare for the worst. I kissed her on the nose and felt much better.”
Navalnaya told The View that the thing she misses most in the wake of her husband’s death is coming home and spending evenings talking with him.
“I probably miss evenings. When you come back home,” she said. “I’m sitting here speaking with you and I want to come back home and to share this with him and to discuss it. And all these, you know, very ordinary things, of course I miss a lot.”
