Biden celebrates freeing of Americans wrongfully detained in Russia: ‘Their agony is over’
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is celebrating a prisoner swap that freed several wrongfully detained American citizens held in Russia, including Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, saying Thursday “their agony is over.”
“Today, three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza,” Biden said in a statement.
“The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy,” he continued. “All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia — including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”
Biden will deliver remarks from the White House on the exchange, which officials said he was directly involved in helping negotiate.
The president was gathering the families of Whelan, Gershkovich, Kurmasheva and Kara-Murza at the White House on Thursday morning to inform the swap was underway, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“And let me be clear: I will not stop working until every American wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world is reunited with their family. My Administration has now brought home over 70 such Americans, many of whom were in captivity since before I took office,” Biden said in the written statement. “Still, too many families are suffering and separated from their loved ones, and I have no higher priority as President than bringing those Americans home.”
“Today, we celebrate the return of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir and rejoice with their families. We remember all those still wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world. And reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris forcibly panned the recent “harmful” attacks on Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian migrants during a National Association of Black Journalists panel in Philadelphia on Tuesday where she delivered her most extensive comments on those attacks and on race more largely, a topic she has shied away from focusing on — a stark contrast from her 2019 run for president.
“It’s a crying shame,” Harris said when asked about former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, spreading the unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating neighbors’ pets. “I mean, my heart breaks for this community.”
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
A rash of bomb threats have targeted schools, government buildings and elected officials’ homes in Springfield, forcing evacuations and closures. Harris noted that some children in Springfield had to evacuate their schools because of bomb threats on what was picture day for them.
“Children. Children. A whole community put in fear,” she said.
The vice president said those in power should understand the weight of their words and be measured in what they say. She argued that Trump’s comments about the migrants in Springfield have lost him the public’s trust.
“When you are bestowed with a microphone that is that big, there is a profound responsibility that comes with that, that is an extension of what should not be lost in this moment, this concept of the public trust to then understand what the public trust means,” she said. “It means that you have been invested with trust to be responsible in the way you use your words, much less how you conduct yourself, and especially when you have been and then seek to be again, president of the United States of America.”
She called on the rhetoric to stop and for Americans to “turn the page.”
“I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop,” Harris told the panel. “And we’ve got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country, is designed to have people pointing fingers at each other.”
Harris called the former president’s comments about migrants in Springfield “exhausting” and “harmful.”
“I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense and to say, ‘You know what, let’s turn the page on this,'” she said. “This is exhausting and it’s harmful and it’s hateful and grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for.”
Harris’ comments on Tuesday marked her harshest rebuke of the unfounded claims about Springfield’s Haitian migrants. Despite being asked multiple times by reporters about them, Harris had previously declined to comment.
The panel comes just days after an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club. The White House said Harris had a “cordial” call with the former president on Tuesday.
“I checked on to see if he was OK, and I told him what I have said publicly, ‘there is no place for political violence in our country,'” Harris said of the call. “I am in this election, in this race, for many reasons, including to fight for our democracy and in a democracy, there is no place for political violence. We can and should have healthy debates and discussion and disagreements, but not resort to violence to resolve those issues.”
Asked if she felt Secret Service could keep her and her family safe, Harris said, “I do.”
“But I mean, you can go back to Ohio, not everybody has Secret Service, and there are far too many people in our country right now who are not feeling safe.”
The panel discussion also featured Harris’s most extensive remarks on race since launching her presidential bid over the summer.
She tied many of her economic proposals to the Black community, including her small business tax credit, saying “part of what I also know is that our young Black men, our Black men, just like any group of people … are really the backbone of our economy overall. And when they do better economically, we all do better.”
But in the time since she got into the race, at a similar NABJ panel interview in July, Trump got into a fiery back-and-forth with reporters and falsely questioned Harris’ race.
“So I’ve known her a long time, indirectly, not directly, very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said during that heated exchange. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Harris — the child of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, both immigrants to the United States — has not directly responded to Trump’s comments. In an August interview with CNN, after being asked to comment on the personal attacks Trump has lobbied at the vice president surrounding her racial identity, Harris dodged.
“Same old, tired playbook,” she told the network. “Next question, please.”
And when asked to comment on the same attacks during ABC News’ debate last week, instead of speaking about her own racial identity, Harris chose a more generic answer.
“I think it’s a — a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people,” she told ABC News’ David Muir.
Harris is not new to people falsely questioning her “Blackness.” During her presidential run in 2019, Harris faced questions about whether she was Black enough to identify as a Black candidate.
“I’m Black, and I’m proud of being Black,” Harris said on “The Breakfast Club” radio show in February of that year. “I was born Black. I will die Black, and I’m not going to make excuses for anybody because they don’t understand.”
Harris’ 2019 campaign also put a larger focus on race compared to her current run for president.
At the NBC debate in 2019, Harris strong-armed her way into the opportunity to take on then-Vice President Joe Biden on efforts to desegregate public schools, specifically school busing programs.
“As the only Black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” Harris said, interjecting as the moderators were moving on to someone else.
During that debate, Biden brought up his ability to work with politicians across the aisle, fondly recounting his relationship with segregationist Sens. James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman E. Talmadge of Georgia. Harris, who directly benefited from busing programs, jumped in to respond.
“It was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing,” Harris continued. “And you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
In another departure from her time as a candidate in 2019, as vice president, and as Biden’s running mate during his bid for reelection, Harris hardly mentions one of her top issues: Black maternal mortality.
In 2020, Harris had a section on her website’s issues page devoted to “Health Justice For Black Communities,” with a commitment to “fight to end the Black maternal mortality crisis.” Now, her website only says she’ll “combat maternal mortality” more generally. She introduced the Maternal CARE Act to tackle the issue while in the Senate. The bill mentioned “Black women” 10 times.
ABC News has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on the shift between her two presidential campaigns, and whether this is part of political calculation ahead of the general election. They did not respond by the time of publication.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump sparked criticism when he said the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, is “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, because soldiers are in “bad shape” or dead when they receive it – comments the former president’s campaign suggested were misinterpreted.
During an event at his Bedminster, NJ estate Thursday night, which was about antisemitism, Trump called attention to a major donor, Miriam Adelson – the widow of his friend and business mogul Sheldon Adelson – upon whom he bestowed the Medal of Freedom in 2018.
“Sheldon and Miriam were best friends together, and I was in their group. And we just had always a great relationship, known her for a long time,” Trump said. “Sheldon was one of the greatest businessmen in the world, and she’s turning out to be one of the greatest businesswomen of the world.”
Trump then recalled the moment Miriam Adelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“But I really, I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” he said. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version, it’s actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead. She gets it and she’s healthy, beautiful woman.”
Miriam Adelson was awarded the Medal of Freedom as a “committed doctor, philanthropist, and humanitarian.” “As a committed member of the American Jewish community, she has supported Jewish schools, Holocaust memorial organizations, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and Birthright Israel, among other causes,” the Trump White House wrote in part.
The Kamala Harris campaign pounced on Trump’s words, saying he “knows nothing about service to anyone or anything but himself.”
And progressive veterans group VoteVets said in a statement: “It isn’t just that Donald Trump doesn’t respect Veterans and their sacrifice. It’s that Donald Trump hates Veterans and their sacrifice, because he looks so small in comparison to them.”
In a statement, the Trump campaign said the former president was referring to the experience of giving the award, not denigrating the Medal of Honor or the actions of servicemembers.
“President Trump was simply saying how it can be an emotionally difficult experience to give the Congressional Medal of Honor to veterans who have been wounded or tragically killed defending our country, as he proudly did when he was Commander in Chief,” said campaign spokesperson Brian Hughes.
Trump, who holds himself up as a champion of the military and regularly discusses his record of rebuilding the military while in office, has drawn fire for swipes at servicemembers.
One of the most notable examples was when he criticized another Republican, John McCain — the late Arizona senator and former presidential candidate — who spent five years as a POW during the Vietnam War, casting doubt on his status as a war hero.
“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said in 2015. At the time, the remarks set off a firestorm, including from members of the Republican party, who called for him to drop out of the 2016 presidential race.
More recently, Trump came under scrutiny when The Atlantic reported in 2020 that he had called those who died in war “suckers” and “losers.” Trump has vehemently denied the reported remarks, which President Biden repeated on the campaign trail before he dropped out of the race. ABC News has not independently confirmed the story.
During the Bedminster event, Trump highlighted the importance of the Jewish vote, while also making false claims about various Democrats, including Harris.
“We’re here tonight because we believe that this vicious outbreak of militant and antisemitism is very militant. Must be given no quarter, no safe harbor, no place in a civilized society. We must reject it in our schools, reject it in our foreign policy, reject it in our immigration system and reject it at the ballot box,” Trump told the crowd.
Trump then repeated a dual loyalty trope – that itself has been criticized as antisemitic – that American Jews owe a dual loyalty to Israel or having two separate interests that conflict, telling the audience, “Jewish people have to not vote by habit. You vote by habit for Democrats, and the Democrats are really against you.”
Trump continued to make similar comments, suggesting that Jewish people need to “stop” voting for Democrats. “You have to be smart,” Trump said, before discussing his list of accomplishments such as the Abraham Accords and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris is holding a rally in Atlanta on Tuesday, marking her 15th trip to Georgia since taking office and her first trip to the battleground state since launching her own presidential bid.
On a call with reporters ahead of her trip, Harris’ campaign said Georgia, a formerly red state that voted blue in the last presidential election, is still “in play.”
“The vice president is energizing and mobilizing our base,” said Dan Kanninen, the campaign’s battleground states director. “Having a candidate who can mobilize our key Biden-Harris coalition, talking about the issues that resonate with Georgians … make that state in play.”
Since President Joe Biden announced earlier this month that he was leaving the 2024 race, Harris has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting, according to ABC News reporting.
The trip comes as the campaign reported raising $200 million in less than a week since Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris. The campaign is also boasting 170,000 new volunteers who have signed up to back Harris. This past weekend to commemorate the 100-day mark from November’s election, the campaign hosted 2,300 events across the battleground states with more than 29,000 volunteers participating.
Harris — who will be introduced by a graduate of Morehouse College, a historically Black university — will be joined by Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as well as former Rep. Stacey Abrams along with several other special guests. One of those special guests will rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who is expected to give a special performance at the rally, a source confirmed to ABC News.
Harris’ remarks at the rally will follow a meeting with local reproductive rights leaders and activists.
Georgia played a crucial role in Biden’s 2020 victory, going blue for the first time since 1992 due, in significant part, to organizing efforts from Abrams, who spent years spearheading get-out-the-vote efforts in Black communities. Harris’ campaign will be looking to replicate success in Georgia by shoring up support among Black voters, a key group of voters that both Harris and former President Donald Trump will work to connect with as the November election approaches.
Biden only won the state by some 12,000 votes in 2020, a win heavily contested by Trump, who is currently in the midst of an election interference case in the state. Trump hasn’t held a campaign event in Georgia since his debate with Biden in June.
Kanninen said although the Harris campaign has achieved an impressive fundraising haul in a short amount of time, they are not getting “comfortable.”
“I continue to be very clear with our partners and with our own staff. This campaign will not get comfortable. We jumped in with just 100 days ago against an opponent who has shown he’s willing to do anything to win,” said Kannien. “This is going to be an incredibly close race just like it was in 2020. But just like four years ago, we are going to win this thing.”
The Harris campaign told reporters they expect the state to be just as “competitive” this election, claiming that their infrastructure in the state gives them an advantage.
“We expect it to be as close as competitive this year,” said Communications Director Michael Tyler. “That’s why we have the team and the operation in place to make sure that we can turn out every single Harris voter in the state of Georgia.”
According to the campaign, they have more than 170 coordinated staff and 24 offices across the state with three of those opening this past weekend. The Trump campaign only recently opened its first campaign office in the state in June.
“We’re making these investments across the entire map because the data is clear. We have multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes,” said Kanninen. “The vice president is strong in both the blue wall and in the Sun Belt and we are running hard in both.”