Johnson says flags will be raised for Trump’s inauguration
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(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is going to order that the flags at the Capitol, which are at half-staff due to the death of former President Jimmy Carter, be raised for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration — defying a White House proclamation.
Leaving a GOP press conference Tuesday morning, Johnson nodded his head when asked if he would be raising the flags next week. He later confirmed his decision in a post on X.
“On January 20th, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald Trump. The flags will be lowered back to half-staff the following day to continue honoring President Jimmy Carter,” Johnson posted.
“We are less than a week away now from President Donald J. Trump taking the oath of office, and everyone is excited about that inauguration ceremony and all the events that go along with it,” Johnson said during his weekly presser. “There’s a lot going on, and we are continuing to work. Already, as you’ve heard, Congress has gotten a head start on implementing the ‘America First’ agenda.”
The U.S. Code, written by Congress, says that the American flag “shall be flown” at half-staff for 30 days upon the death of a president or former president.
Trump has publicly fumed about the flags possibly not being raised.
“Because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half-mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social earlier this month.
However, this would not be the first time the flags have flown at half-staff during a presidential inauguration. Former President Richard Nixon’s 1973 inauguration occurred within the 30-day mourning period that followed the death of President Harry Truman, leading the flags to be flown at half-staff.
Earlier this month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House would not be reevaluating the decision to keep the flags at half-staff during the inauguration. ABC News reached out to the White House for comment following Johnson’s statement.
Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, have already announced that the flags in their states will be raised on Inauguration Day.
(WASHINGTON) — All eyes will be on the key swing states as votes are counted in the match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Both candidates have crisscrossed the seven key swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and worked to appeal to undecided voters and connect with them over the issues that resonate most with them.
While voters in these battleground states share the same concerns as the rest of Americans, there are some issues that stand out as top concerns for their residents — with the economy reigning supreme as a key voter issue with just days left until Election Day.
It’s the economy
“The No. 1 issue is the same as it always is, which is, it’s the economy. And of course, the economy has multiple dimensions to it. We have the growth rate, we have unemployment, we have consumer confidence, and, of course, inflation,” said Todd Belt, director of George Washington University’s Political Management program.
When it comes to the economy, 44% percent of Americans say they’re not as well off now as they were when President Joe Biden took office, tying the most negative number on this question in data since 1986, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Further, while inflation has eased and employment is strong, those gains haven’t hit home for most people: 59% say the economy is getting worse, more than twice as many as say it’s getting better (23%). And among registered voters who say the economy’s worsening, Trump leads Harris by a sweeping 53 points, 74-21%.
A 538 analysis of polls found that virtually all of the swing states have ranked the economy as a top voter issue — some for varying reasons. Still, Belt said the economy is “the No. 1 issue everywhere you go.”
In Nevada, its economy, to a unique degree, depends on the hospitality industry — making the economy a top issue for voters in that state. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, makes up about 75% of the state’s population — and a significant number of hospitality workers. Likely because of these factors, Nevada voters ranked the economy as the most important issue facing their state, according to poll analysis from 538.
Home prices, fracking, immigration
Housing affordability is another top issue for voters in swing states such as Nevada and North Carolina, where home prices have surged.
The median home price in North Carolina grew from $193,200 in the 2017-19 survey to $280,600 in the 2020-22 survey, the seventh-largest increase in the nation in percentage terms, according to the American Community Survey. And in Nevada, the Home Value Index has grown 34 percent since the start of the Biden presidency, slightly faster than the rate of increase nationwide, according to Zillow.
The cost of groceries, gasoline and housing resonates with voters across several swing states, Belt added.
“The issue of the economy, of course, has to do with the affordability of living. This is what we call, you know, our kitchen table, pocketbook issue,” Belt said. “It has to do deal with groceries, with gasoline. And, of course, what’s been people commenting about most of all is housing costs as well.”
In battleground Pennsylvania, fracking is a big local issue and has ties to both the economy and the environment.
Immigration is another key issue for many swing-state voters — especially those in the Sun Belt. Arizona, a border state, has been a regular campaign stop for Trump and Harris, who have often discussed immigration while there. It’s also top of mind for voters in Nevada — a state where Hispanic and Latinos are the largest minority group with 28% of its population.
“People do have [immigration] on their minds because it has been pushed as a big issue in the media,” Belt said.
Trump has used immigration to hit Harris’ immigration policies, putting the blame squarely on her for the situation at the border as he latches on to his inaccurate reference to her as the “border czar.”
Immigration is often tied to other key issues such as crime, Belt noted — a tactic Trump has employed on the campaign trail.
Despite the fact that U.S. citizens commit crimes at higher rates than undocumented immigrants, Trump painted them as “criminals” who will “cut your throat” at a campaign stop in Wisconsin in September. Also, while in Tempe, Arizona, last week, Trump criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its handling of the border, calling the United States a “garbage can for the world.”
Abortion
Abortion is a key voter issue after the Supreme Court in 2022 overruled Roe vs. Wade, which secured the constitutional right to abortion. The Supreme Court decision, which Trump often brags about his role in, is an issue that Democrats have seized on this cycle.
“The Democrats believe that this is the kryptonite for the Republicans in the last couple of elections,” Belt said.
Abortion remains a rallying issue among Democrats who were able to stave off a “red wave” during the 2022 midterms by centering their messages around it. Harris’ campaign claims reproductive freedom is still one of the top issues among undecided voters.
Several states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Nevada, have ballot measures that would amend their state constitutions with specific language to protect or recognize the right to an abortion for all constituents.
Polls show abortion is a more important issue in Wisconsin than it is nationally, according to poll analysis by 538. The legal status of abortion was hotly contested in the state after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, leading to a 15-month period in which no legal abortions were performed in the state under an 1849 law that criminalized abortion.
Even with other issues on swing states’ radar, Belt noted that both Harris and Trump work to tie messaging back to the economy.
“You’ll see candidates like Donald Trump talk about how immigration is impacting the economy and jobs,” he said. “And so there are these auxiliary issues that they’re trying to push, but they also tie them to the economy, because they know that’s what voters care about the most.”
(PHOENIX) — President Joe Biden was in Arizona on Friday to apologize to Native Americans for the federal government forcing Indian children into boarding schools where the White House said they were abused and deprived of their cultural identity.
Departing the White House Thursday, Biden said he was going to Arizona “to do something that should have been done a long time ago.”
He said he would make “a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years.”
The White House called his trip to Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix — his first to Indian Country as president — “historic.”
Officials said he will discuss the Biden-Harris administration’s record of delivering for tribal communities, including keeping his promise to visit the swing state, which is happening close to Election Day.
“The president also believes that to usher in the next era of the Federal-Tribal relationships we need to fully acknowledge the harms of the past,” the White House said.
“For over 150 years, the federal government ran boarding schools that forcibly removed generations of Native children from their homes to boarding schools often far away. Native children at these schools endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and, as detailed in the Federal Indian Boarding School Investigative Report by the Department of the Interior (DOI), at least 973 children died in these schools,” the White House said.
“The federally-run Indian boarding school system was designed to assimilate Native Americans by destroying Native culture, language, and identity through harsh militaristic and assimilationist methods,” it said.
(NEW YORK) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the federal government is taking action to address the aerial drones that have prompted concern among New Jersey residents.
“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” he told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on Sunday. “I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
