Biden to establish Frances Perkins National Monument in Maine
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(NEWCASTLE, MAINE) — President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Monday to establish the Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine.
The location will “honor the historic contributions of America’s first woman Cabinet Secretary, the longest-serving Secretary of Labor, and the driving force behind the New Deal,” according to the White House.
Perkins served as labor secretary for 12 years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During that time, she “helped create Social Security; helped millions of Americans get back to work during the Great Depression; fought for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively; and established the minimum wage, overtime pay, prohibitions on child labor, and unemployment insurance,” according to the fact sheet.
Perkins also created the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that provided conservation and development jobs for manual laborers on government-owned rural land, according to Roosevelt presidential library.
Biden has dubbed himself the most pro-union president in American history. In 2023, he made the historic move of joining auto workers on the picket line.
The Perkins Family Home, built in 1837 and known as the “Brick House,” will be the centerpiece of the new monument, according to the White House.
“Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014, the Perkins Homestead is a 57-acre property along the Damariscotta River that supported the family for generations,” the White House said. “Visitors experience the same landscape, garden paths and wooded walking trails that were a lifelong source of inspiration and rejuvenation for Perkins.”
In addition to this monument, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will also announce five other monuments across the nation that will “increase the representation of women’s history in historic sites across America,” according to the White House.
(WASHINGTON) — Senior Justice Department officials serving under Donald Trump’s first administration may have violated federal law in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election by pushing for pandemic-related investigations that targeted states with Democratic governors, and then leaking private information about those investigations to friendly media outlets in a potential attempt to influence the election, according to a previously-undisclosed report from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
The inspector general’s report, obtained by ABC News, concluded that for one of the officials — a senior member of the department’s public affairs team who the report said first hatched the alleged plan to leak investigative information — “the upcoming election was the motivating factor.”
The report specifically pointed to a text message he sent in mid-October 2020, describing a proposed leak to a major New York-area tabloid about reviews of COVID-related deaths at nursing homes in New York and New Jersey as “our last play on them before [the] election” — “but it’s a big one,” he added, according to the report.
The inspector general’s report comes just weeks before Trump takes office again, after winning reelection two months ago in part by promoting questionable claims that the Biden administration had used the Justice Department to further its own political agenda.
Last week, the inspector general’s office released a brief and vague summary of its report, saying only that three former officials had violated Justice Department policies by leaking “non-public DOJ investigative information” to “select reporters, days before an election.”
The summary said the officials may have even violated the Hatch Act, a non-criminal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to engage in political activities.
The summary did not say when the alleged violations occurred or which election may have been implicated, but some of Trump’s supporters and at least one major conservative media outlet claimed that it involved the Biden administration trying to harm Trump’s most recent reelection bid.
The partially-redacted report, obtained by ABC News through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows otherwise.
According to the report, in the summer of 2020, leaders of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division at the time pushed for reviews of government-run nursing homes in several states, looking to find any connections between deaths there and orders from governors directing nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients.
In late August 2020, when the Justice Department then sent letters to the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York seeking relevant data — “despite having been provided data indicating that the nursing homes with the most significant quality of care issues were in other states” — the Justice Department’s public affairs office issued a press release about the move, the report said.
Though the inspector general’s office said it did not find evidence that any officials, even career officials, raised concerns at the time, the report said current and former officials more recently described the press release as “unusual and inappropriate.”
The report further details how over the next few months, leadership in the Civil Rights Division pressured officials in the department’s Civil Division to send a letter to New York officials seeking data regarding COVID-19-related deaths in private nursing homes throughout the state, the report said. The Civil Division officials were reluctant to do so, but they ultimately complied because they were “led to believe” that the directive to make the investigative activity public was “coming from Attorney General [Bill] Barr,” the report said.
Then in October 2020, in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, the senior official with the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs proposed his plan to leak information about the letter and other information about an investigation of state-run facilities in New Jersey, according to the report.
On Oct. 17, 2020, the senior public affairs official texted colleagues: “I’m trying to get [them] to do letters to [New Jersey and New York] respectively on nursing homes. Would like to package them together and let [a certain tabloid] break it. Will be our last play on them before election but it’s a big one,” according to the report.
A week before the election, on Oct. 27, 2020, the investigative information was provided to the New York-area tabloid, which published a story that night, accusing New York authorities of undercounting deaths in nursing homes, the report said. The inspector general’s report noted that official statistics released at the time did in fact undercount the actual number of deaths.
Nevertheless, “the conduct of these senior officials raised serious questions about partisan political motivation for their actions in proximity to the 2020 election,” inspector general Michael Horowitz said in his report.
“[T]he then upcoming 2020 election may have been a factor in the timing and manner of those actions and announcing them to the public,” Horowitz added, concluding that the three officials violated the Justice Department’s media contacts policy.
Horowitz said his office has referred its findings to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which is tasked with investigating potential violations of the Hatch Act.
A spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel confirmed to ABC News that his office received the referral and is now reviewing it.
The inspector general’s report noted that Barr declined to be interviewed in connection with Horowitz’s investigation.
A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
As of Wednesday morning, Trump surpassed the 270 electoral votes need to secure the presidency, and that could mean major changes to the health care landscape.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to make the Affordable Care Act “better” and to protect “women.” He also suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would shape the public health agenda of his administration.
This is what a second Trump term would mean for health care policies including health insurance and reproductive rights.
Future of the ACA and Medicare
Trump has been inconsistent on what his plans are regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the landmark law signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama.
During his first term, Trump tried several times to repeal the ACA but was unsuccessful. In November 2023, he also vowed to replace it in a post on his social media planform, Truth Social.
Since then, he has shifted course. In March, Trump said is “not running to terminate” the ACA but said he wanted to make it “better” and “less expensive,” in a post on Truth Social.
During the September presidential debate, he said he had “concepts of a plan” and said it would be “better health care than Obamacare,” but offered few details.
There could also be changes to Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older and younger people with disabilities.
Trump has promoted Medicare Advantage, which is run by commercial insurers. What’s more, Project 2025 — a plan of conservative policy proposals proposed by the Heritage Foundation and not endorsed by Trump — has proposed Medicare Advantage be the default option for Medicare coverage.
Experts have said this could privatize the program and prevent people from receiving care from doctors and hospitals that don’t accept Medicare Advantage.
Also at risk are those with pre-existing conditions. Under the ACA, insurers cannot charge more or deny coverage to someone or their child because of a pre-existing health condition. However, Vice President-elect JD Vance has suggested placing people with chronic conditions into separate risk pools, which could raise premiums for those with pre-existing conditions.
Kennedy vows to remove fluoride from drinking water, vaccine review
During a charity dinner last month in New York City, Trump pledged that Kennedy would “go wild on health.”
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no public health or medical background, has been vocal on certain health policies he would like to tackle including fluoride in drinking water and review of vaccines.
In an interview with NPR on Wednesday morning, Kennedy doubled down on his promise that the Trump administration will recommend that local governments remove fluoride from their water supplies.
He has claimed that fluoride in drinking water affects children’s neurological development and that other countries which have removed fluoride from their water supplies have not seen an increase in cavities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fluoride prevents cavities and repairs damaged to teeth caused by bacteria in the mouth. Fluoride also replaces minerals lost from teeth due to acid breakdown, according to the agency.
Additionally, Kennedy told NPR he would work “immediately” to increase research into the safety of vaccines, though he insisted, “We’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody.”
“We are going to make sure that Americans have good information,” he said. “Right now, the science on vaccine safety, particularly, has huge deficits in it. We’re going to make sure those scientific studies are done, and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children’s vaccinations.”
Top U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have said that FDA-approved vaccines are “high quality, effective, and safe.”
In an interview with NBC News, he also suggested firing many workers at the FDA’s nutrition department.
Uncertainty about the future of reproductive rights
Although Trump has taken credit for ending Roe v. Wade — which was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 — he was hesitant during his campaign to state his stance on abortion.
During the presidential debate in September, he said he believed in exceptions for rape, incest and to save the mother’s life but declined to say if he would veto a national ban.
However, in October, he wrote on the social platform X that he would not support a federal abortion ban, and said abortions laws are up to the will of the voters in individual states.
Trump told CBS News in August he would not use the 150-year-old Comstock Act to ban mail delivery of medication abortion pills, which drew rebuke from some conservatives and anti-abortion advocates.
In September, during a rally in Pennsylvania, he said he would be a “protector” of women and that they “wouldn’t be thinking about abortion” if he were elected. He doubled down on these claims last month during a rally in Wisconsin, with Trump saying he would “protect” women “whether the women like it or not.”
He has not offered specifics on what being a “protector” means in this capacity.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting former President Barack Obama knowingly and repeatedly breached his duties while trying to woo a love interest — and living a double life, according to a new memoir by the agent’s former girlfriend.
In “Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma,” Koryeah Dwanyen describes a series of potential security lapses, including a time when she said she was invited to join the senior agent at the Obamas’ beachfront property in Hawaii in 2022 while they were away.
He had already sent her “several photos” of the house a week earlier, and suggested a tour, according to the book.
“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” says the agent in the memoir, where he is given the pseudonym “Dale.”
He then tried to get her to fool around in the first lady’s bathroom, according to Dwanyen.
“We should have sex in Michelle [Obama]’s bathroom, like a mile-high club,” Dwanyen claims he said.
The senior agent’s alleged violations of fundamental regulations prompted an internal investigation by the Secret Service.
The self-published memoir was released on Oct. 28, adding another reputational shiner to the agency after a major security lapse in the summer led to calls for operational reform.
The Secret Service had faced intense scrutiny since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump while the former president campaigned at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. That incident, which prompted the ouster of the agency’s director, was called a “historic security failure by the Secret Service” in an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security.
“The U.S. Secret Service’s top priority is ensuring the safety and security of our protectees, and any actions that compromise this commitment are addressed with the utmost seriousness,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, told ABC News.
Guglielmi confirmed that an incident matching the book’s Hawaii anecdote had occurred – and that upon finding out, a probe was launched and the agent involved was ultimately fired.
“On Nov. 6, 2022, a Secret Service agent involved in protective functions brought an individual who did not have authorized access into a protectee’s residence without permission,” Guglielmi said. “As soon as the Secret Service became aware of the incident, the agent involved was immediately suspended and after a full investigation, terminated.”
“Although the protectees were not present at the time of the incident, these actions were an unacceptable violation of our protocols, our protectees’ trust and everything we stand for,” he continued.
The former agent and prominent character in the book did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
According to her memoir, Dwanyen first met the Secret Service agent while he was assigned to the security detail of the Obama family and while she was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.
He said that he was divorced and had been for nearly a decade, Dwanyen said.
As their relationship developed, the author said, so did her concerns about the man that she had fallen for. She would later come to find out that the agent was still married, according to the book.
“There were major red flags — breaches of trust and of his job,” the author said in a phone interview with ABC News. “One of my friends has joked, ‘You were a walking national security risk.’”
Finally, Dwanyen said, she sent an email to his boss outlining her fears related to the agent’s safety — as well as his family’s and her own.
She wrote that, by then, she had met the agent’s boss “several times” in Hawaii, and she explained that she had his “direct contact information” from emails that the agent had shared with her.
The agent’s boss immediately set up an exhaustive interview with agents in the Inspection Division of the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Dwanyen told ABC. The meeting would last “nearly four hours,” she wrote in her book.
“They realized that not only had ‘Dale’ shared photos of the Obamas’ house, but he had also brought me there,” Dwanyen wrote. She “showed them photos on my phone to corroborate what I was saying,” scrolling through “pictures of Alicia Keys’ house, Steven Spielberg’s boats, Melinda Gates, Tyler Perry and Amal Clooney.”
“He was really oversharing,” Dwanyen recalled one of the agents saying.
The agent told her “personal tidbits he should not have,” Dwanyen said on the phone with ABC News. Those “tidbits” he shared spanned across protectees, she said: ranging from information about background on Mike Pence — whom the agent had been assigned to during his vice presidency under Trump — to details about the Obamas.
“I knew their code names. I knew what day Orange Theory was, what day [Michelle Obama] had private tennis lessons and when her personal trainer came,” Dwanyen said. “Things that I should not have been privy to as a civilian.”
