Category: National

(GEORGIA) — Former President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on Tuesday night in front of an all-female audience in Cummings, Georgia, where he addressed several issues aimed at appealing to women voters including the child tax credit, the economy and reproductive rights — calling himself the “father of IVF.”

Speaking in front of a friendly audience of more than 100 women of all ages, Trump attempted to court suburban women in Georgia’s Forsyth County — a reliably-red county where Democrats have made gains in recent years.

Recently, Trump has worked to connect with women voters — the largest voting bloc in the 2024 election — by suggesting they’ll be “safer” under a Trump administration, that he will be a “protector” of women and they “will no longer be thinking about abortion” if he wins the White House.

During the event, which aired Wednesday morning, Trump was asked about his positions on abortion access and in vitro fertilization — key voter issues after the Supreme Court overruled Roe vs. Wade in 2022. Trump himself often brags about his role in the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule the case that secured the constitutional right to abortion.

“Oh, I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF,” Trump blurted.

Sen. Katie Britt, who introduced the IVF Protection Act, explained IVF to the former president, according to Trump.

“Within about two minutes, I understood we’re totally in favor of IVF. I came out with a statement within an hour, a really powerful statement with some experts, really powerful,” he said, adding that “we really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization.”

Trump reiterated his position on abortion where he suggested he has turned the power back to the states.

“It’s back in the states, where they can have the vote of the people. It’s exactly where they want to be. Remember this, this issue has torn this country apart for 52 years. So we got it back in the states, we have a vote of the people, and it’s working its way through the system, and ultimately it’s going to do the right thing,” Trump said.

At one point, Trump suggested that some states have to redo their abortion laws, referencing rape, incest and exceptions.

“Actually called himself the ‘father of IVF’ and if what he meant is taking responsibility, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state. What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working towards growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk,” Harris told reporters.

Trump’s comment was also quickly picked up by women championing the abortion-rights movement such as EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood Action Fund where they called it “deeply out of touch with the vast majority of the American people.”

“Let’s call this charade what it is: a last-ditch attempt to deceive voters,” said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List, calling it an “insult to women everywhere that he thinks they’ll fall for his bogus attempt to rebrand on abortion.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said Trump “cannot be trusted — not with our bodies, our lives, or our futures.”

Trump also doubled down on his rhetoric where he suggested to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that “the bigger problem is the enemy from within” when answering a question on whether he thought the November election would be peaceful.

Trump’s comments in the previous week suggest that the military would handle his political adversaries if he became president. Faulkner played the video clip during the town hall, to which Trump replied, “if we have to.”

He continued, doubling down on his rhetoric, “I thought it was a nice presentation” and saying he wasn’t “unhinged” as Harris claimed during an Erie, Pennsylvania, rally earlier this week.

“It is the enemy from within, and they’re very dangerous,” Trump said to Faulkner.

At one point in the town hall, Faulkner described the Democrats’ prebuttal of the event, mentioning the family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died of complications following her abortion in the state — with a ProPublica report saying her death was a direct result of the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Thurman’s family was on a press call with Sen. Raphael Warnock, and when Faulkner asked about that call, Trump — instead of acknowledging the Thurman family and Amber Thurman’s death — quipped that the Fox News town hall he was currently participating in would “get better ratings.”
 

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(GEORGIA) — When 14-year-old Colt Gray rode the bus to his Georgia high school on the morning of Sept. 4, he had a long gun hidden in a poster board that looked like a school project, surveillance video showed, a state agent said in court Wednesday.

Colt Gray is accused of killing two students and two teachers, and injuring several others, at Apalachee High School that day.

A George Bureau of Investigation (GBI) agent who had viewed surveillance footage from the bus and the school appeared in a Barrow County courtroom on Wednesday to describe what the videos captured during a probable cause hearing in the case against Colt Gray’s father, Colin Gray.

On the morning of the shooting, Colt Gray left a notebook on his desk in math class, went to the bathroom with his backpack and came out of the bathroom with gloves on and the poster board in front of him, appearing to hide the AR-15-style rifle, the GBI agent said.

Colt Gray knocked on the door of his math class to go back in, and a classmate went to open the door, the agent said. But the classmate saw Colt Gray through the door window, backed up, put her hand over her mouth and told the teacher, the agent said.
The teacher went to the door window, told students to get into the corner and initiated a lockdown, the agent said.

The 14-year-old suspect allegedly entered another classroom and started shooting, the agent said. About six or seven people were shot during the approximately seven seconds the gunman was inside the room.

Colt Gray then ran back toward the bathrooms, and at 10:22 a.m. he allegedly aimed his rifle at a teacher and fired multiple shots, the agent said. The teen then turned toward another hallway and shot two coaches, the agent said. A student then came out of a bathroom and was shot and killed.

Two school resource officers entered the hallway and ordered the 14-year-old to put his rifle down and surrender, the agent said.

The notebook Colt Gray allegedly left on his desk contained a plan on how to execute the shooting, an estimated possible casualty count and sketches of his classroom, according to the agent.

Colt Gray was arrested on murder charges while Colin Gray is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Colin Gray is accused of knowingly allowing his son to possess the weapon used in the shooting, according to the GBI.

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(NEW YORK) — Robert Telles, the former Nevada politician convicted of murdering journalist Jeff German in September 2022, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 28 years.

The former Clark County public administrator was found guilty in August of fatally stabbing German to death after the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter reported on alleged corruption in his office, which ended his political career and his marriage. German’s story detailed an allegedly hostile work environment in Telles’ office — including bullying, retaliation and an “inappropriate relationship” between Telles and a staffer — all of which Telles denied.

Following his conviction in August, the jury sentenced Telles to 20 years in prison. On Wednesday, Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced him to additional eight to 20 years for enhancements of murder of a person over 60 and use of a deadly weapon. Having already served two years behind bars, Telles will become eligible for parole in 26 years.

Days after German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home in September 2022, Telles was taken into custody. Police said DNA evidence found in Telles’ home tied him to the crime scene, and a straw hat and sneakers — which the suspect was seen wearing in surveillance footage — were found cut up in his home. His DNA was also found on German’s hands and fingernails, police said.

Ahead of the judge’s ruling on Wednesday, Telles addressed the court, extending his “deepest sympathies” to German’s family but continuing to maintain his innocence.

“I understand the desire to seek justice and have somebody accountable for this, but I did not kill Mr. German,” Telles said.

German’s brother, Jay German, also spoke Wednesday, remembering him as a beloved brother, uncle, and friend to many who miss him.

“He was our leader, and we’re never going to see him again,” he said.

Jay German pushed for enhanced sentencing for Telles, saying the family would worry for their safety if Telles were released.

“We have a lot of anxiety about the future safety of our family, and the children of our family, if Robert Telles were to be released after just 20 years incarceration,” he said.

In a press conference after the hearing, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Telles had shown no signs of remorse or acceptance of his guilt.

“We got what we wanted: a life sentence and max on the enhancement,” Wolfson said.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, with a total of at least 67 journalists killed around the world that year.

Previously, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo called the case against Telles “unusual,” saying that “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”

“It is troublesome because it is a journalist. And we expect journalism to be open and transparent and the watchdog for government,” Lombardo said. “And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case.”

In a statement published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal following Telles’ conviction in August, the paper’s executive editor Glenn Cook praised the guilty verdict “as a measure of justice” for not just German, but “slain journalists all over the world.”

“Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Cook wrote. “Robert Telles could have joined the long line of publicly shamed Nevada politicians who’ve gone on with their lives, out of the spotlight or back in it. Instead, he carried out a premeditated revenge killing with terrifying savagery.”

“Let’s also remember that this community has lost much more than a trusted journalist,” Cook added. “Jeff was a good man who left behind a family who loved him and friends who cherished him. His murder remains an outrage. He is missed.”

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(NEW YORK) — A detective was shot and killed during a home invasion at her residence in New Jersey, authorities said.

Detective Sgt. Monica Mosley, with the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey, was fatally shot at her home in Bridgeton on Tuesday night, according to police.

Police responded to the home around 10:30 p.m. for a report of “several subjects kicking in a front door at a residence,” the Bridgeton Police Department said in a press release.

Mosley, 51, died at the scene, police said.

An individual who had been treated for a gunshot wound at a hospital in Camden was detained for questioning in connection with the incident, police said. No additional information on the individual was released.

No arrests have been made or charges filed in the case as of Wednesday morning, police said.

Multiple agencies are investigating the deadly shooting, including the State Police Major Crime Bureau, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bridgeton Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Authorities could be seen on the property of the Bridgeton home on Wednesday.

Mosley began her career at the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, located in Bridgeton, in 2006 as a paralegal specialist. She became a county detective in 2009, “where she served our community with honor, dignity and respect before her untimely passing,” Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said in a statement.

Bridgeton Chief of Police Michael Gaimari Sr. said he knew Mosley for most of her career.

“Always loved and admired, so devastating of a loss,” he said in a statement. “Justice will be served and you will always be in our thoughts and prayers.”

Mosley served in several units of the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, including Trial Teams, the Special Victims Unit, the Community Justice Unit and the Professional Standards Unit, where she was assigned as the unit supervisor, the office said.

“Sergeant Mosley was a constant friend and role model for all those with whom she served and led in the law enforcement community throughout Cumberland County and beyond,” Webb-McRae said. “She will be missed more than words can detail, but she will never be forgotten by her CCPO family.”

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(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office in New York lacks the resources to meet “ambitious” deadlines imposed by the judge overseeing the Gilgo Beach serial killing case, DA Ray Tierney said Wednesday.

Tierney called on the Justice Department to release some money tied up in an ongoing investigation into the office to help defray the cost of a prosecution that he said presents “a singularly unique strain on our budget.”

Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, a New York City architect, was arrested in July 2023.

Heuermann is charged in the murders of six women: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. The first victim was found in 1993 and the last victims were found in 2010.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Timothy Mazzei said he wants to set a trial date at the next hearing, which is scheduled for Dec. 17.

Tierney called the schedule “ambitious” because of the large amount of evidence amassed in the case against Heuermann.

“I think the timeline right now is very ambitious and very compressed given the ridiculous nature of our discovery laws, where I have to provide every single piece of paper that was generated in a case that started in 1993,” Tierney said.

Tierney is asking for millions in federal asset forfeiture proceeds frozen by the Justice Department as part of an ongoing investigation into a previous district attorney. He estimated about $13 million is tied up in that investigation.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Special counsel Jack Smith is urging the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference case to reject an effort by Trump’s attorneys to throw out obstruction-related charges brought against him following a Supreme Court ruling this summer that narrowed the statute’s use against Jan. 6 rioters.

Trump’s attorneys have argued that the obstruction of an official proceeding statute should no longer apply to Trump’s alleged conduct in the indictment against him, arguing that Trump was never directly involved in obstructing the Jan. 6 vote-certification proceedings.

But Smith, in his new filing, said his recent superseding indictment clearly alleges Trump and his co-conspirators’ involvement in attempting to send fraudulent certificates to Congress that day, for then-Vice President Mike Pence to use as he presided over the certification.

“As set forth in the superseding indictment, the defendant and others began in early December 2020 to cause individuals to serve as the defendant’s purported electors in several targeted states with the intent that those individuals ‘make and send to the Vice President and Congress false certifications that they were legitimate electors,'” Smith wrote.

“Ultimately, the defendant sought” to “certify illegal votes” through “fraudulent elector certificates” that were “mailed to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States, and others in connection with the January 6 proceeding to certify the 2020 presidential election results,” wrote Smith.

Trump last year pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power. In July, the Supreme Court ruled in a blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.

Smith subsequently charged Trump in a superseding indictment that was adjusted to respect the Supreme Court’s ruling.

In his new filing, Smith also disputed arguments put forward by Trump’s attorneys that the former president “bears no factual or legal responsibility” for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The superseding indictment “plainly alleges that the defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C., and then directing them to march to the Capitol to pressure the Vice President and legislators to reject the legitimate certificates and instead rely on the fraudulent electoral certificates,” Smith wrote.

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(TAMPA, FL) — The former owner of a dog that was left tied to a post off a Florida highway in floodwaters ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall has been arrested for animal cruelty, officials announced Tuesday.

The dog was found up to its chest in floodwaters off Interstate 75 in Tampa on Oct. 9, as many residents were evacuating due to Milton, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

A state trooper rescued the dog, now known as Trooper, the department said. Florida Highway Patrol shared a video on social media last week of the dog tied to the post with the caption, “Do NOT do this to your pets please…”

The former owner of the dog — identified by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, Florida — was arrested on Monday for aggravated animal cruelty, a felony.

State Attorney Suzy Lopez, whose office is prosecuting the case, also announced the arrest on Tuesday, saying, “We take this crime very seriously and this defendant will face the consequences of his actions.”

Aldama Garcia was released Tuesday on $2,500 cash bond, according to online jail records. ABC News’ attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Online court records do not list any attorney information.

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(PHOENIX, AZ) — A disabled Black man in Arizona faces multiple charges after a pair of Phoenix police officers punched him and shocked him with a stun gun. Tyron McAlpin, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, faces charges of felony assault and resisting arrest.

The incident, which took place on Aug. 19, was captured on both surveillance video and police body-worn camera. The officers said they were investigating an assault at a nearby Circle K and McAlpin fit the description of the suspect given by a bystander. However, the original description of the suspect was for a white man who had been creating a disturbance in the store. They also claimed that McAlpin became combative and tried to run when they approached him.

McAlpin’s lawyers said the video shows otherwise.

In the video, police are seen pulling up to McAlpin and ordering him down to the ground. He doesn’t appear to immediately comply. The video then shows the officers punching him 10 times in the head and shocking him with a stun gun four times while yelling “Get your hands behind your back.” McAlpin’s attorney said he didn’t know what was going on and could not hear the commands.

A union for the department’s officers argues that people should know what to do if a police car comes up and uniformed officers approach and that the officers had to force McAlpin to comply not knowing he was deaf at the time. The union also said McAlpin took a fighting stance and bit the officers.

“After reviewing all evidence presented, Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Nick Saccone determined there was sufficient evidence for the felony charges against the suspect due to his actions against the officers,” Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Darrell Kriplean said. A Maricopa County judge has ruled there was probable cause for the arrest and is cause for the charges.

The department said it stood behind the officers and suggested people avoid making judgments about the incident until all the evidence is reviewed rather than focusing entirely on an excerpt of the footage. The police department is investigating the arrest.

The incident came after the Department of Justice in June released a report concluding that the Phoenix Police Department engaged in civil rights violations including racial discrimination and bias against the disabled. Their investigation found “systemic problems” within the department’s policies, training, supervision and accountability systems that were “perpetuated” for years.

The DOJ opened its investigation in August 2021 after complaints about use of excessive force among Phoenix police. The department said it welcomed this inquiry to help them understand how they can better serve the community.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to say if he’s been in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he left the White House but said it would have been smart if he had.

“Well, I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Chicago Economic Club. “If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Trump’s interactions with Putin have been the source of speculation since journalist Bob Woodward’s book reported that the two have communicated multiple times since Trump left the presidency in early 2021.

Throughout his presidency, Trump praised Putin, including saying he believed Russian intelligence over the U.S. intelligence community with regard to Moscow’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

Trump last week flatly denied during an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that the two leaders had recently been in touch.

“So, you haven’t spoken to him since you left the White House? Karl asked Trump. “No, I have not. That’s false.”

Despite repeatedly touting his close relationship with Putin in the Tuesday interview, Trump insisted he was tough on him, again saying he terminated the Nord Stream II pipeline.

“I said I don’t comment on those things,” Trump said when Micklethwait repeatedly followed up.

Trump also insisted that the 2020 election ended with a peaceful transition of power despite the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a pro-Trump mob on the U.S. Capitol.

“People were angry,” Trump said of the reaction to the election results before noting that he traveled home to Florida the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated.

“And it was love and peace. And some people went to the Capitol and a lot of strange things happened there. A lot of strange things with people being waved into the Capitol by police, with people screaming, ‘Go in,'” Trump said.

Looking forward to a possible second Trump administration, the former president defended his plans to slap significant tariffs on many imports, which critics have said will amount to a sales tax on American consumers.

Micklethwait opened up the conversation with a critique from multiple economists — a concern that his proposals for tax cuts would raise the national debt by trillions. Trump reiterated his claim that a major growth from his proposals would make up for the cuts, saying the auto industry and other factories will come back to the United States.

“We’re all about growth. We’re going to bring companies back to our country,” Trump said. “And we’re going to bring the companies back. We’re going to lower taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA.”

Trump claimed that he’s not going to allow foreign companies to sell a single car in the United States, throwing out self-admittedly random numbers for tariffs like “100%, 200% or 2,000%.”

“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States so it doesn’t have to pay the tariff,” Trump said.

That would take “many years,” Micklethwait said.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for the first time this cycle, will soon hit the campaign trail with former President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, according to a senior campaign official.

The vice presidential nominee will be out with his party’s former standard bearers this week and next week in an effort to push for early voting in battleground states, ABC News has exclusively learned.

The governor will first rally with Clinton in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday — the first day of early voting in the critical battleground state. Next Tuesday, Walz will travel to Wisconsin, another battleground, with Obama for the start of early voting in that state.

The joint campaign blitzes come as the Harris-Walz ticket has deployed both former presidents — some of its strongest political assets — headed into the final stretch of the election cycle.

Obama hit the trail for the ticket starting on Oct. 10 and has additional stops planned in the run-up to Election Day, according to the campaign.

His first stop was in battleground Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh area — a visit where he sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris, saying he finds them sitting out or voting for former President Donald Trump “not acceptable.”

Obama will also independently hit the campaign trail in the Sun Belt this week, with stops on Friday in Arizona and on Saturday in Nevada — the first days of early voting in the state.

On Sunday and Monday, Clinton made his trail debut with travel across rural communities in Eastern and South Georgia to encourage Georgians to vote early.

Last night, on the eve of early in-person voting in the state, Clinton stumped for the Harris-Walz ticket in battleground Georgia, mounting the stakes of the election and the importance of voting.

“I want you to be happy, and I want you to know that I am here because I believe. I believe, based on my personal knowledge of the job and the candidates, that Kamala Harris will be a fine president,” he said.

“All we gotta do is show up. If we show up, we’ll win,” Clinton added.

The joint principal campaign events also come as Walz himself has made campaign stops related to early voting. The governor campaigned last week in Phoenix and Tucson on the first day of early voting in Arizona.

“I know you’ve started voting here in Arizona. It’s happening across the country. We can make a difference. And I think just the idea of having an administration building on these strong relationships, this is our opportunity to take this to the next level that we need to do,” Walz said at event with tribal leaders in Chandler, Arizona last Wednesday.

ABC News’ Selina Wang, Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
 

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