Category: Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Over one-third of Gen Z are worried they’ll need to move away from their hometowns due to climate change — and a majority of those in the generation across the political spectrum said politicians need to be held accountable, according to a new poll out Wednesday from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation.

The findings come from a new report that looks at the way Gen Z — those born between 1997 to 2012 — is experiencing and worrying about water issues in the context of climate change — as well as who they believe is responsible to address them. It’s a snapshot from a larger report on the generation’s feelings on climate issues due out in a few months.

“[Gen Z] have been seeing water, and water and climate their whole lives,” Moira Mcdonald, program director for the Environment Program at the Walton Family Foundation, told ABC News. “Their lives have essentially been punctuated by these big moments — the Gulf oil spill back in 2010, the Flint, Michigan, drinking water crisis with lead in the water. They had everyday exposure to the rising seas and warming ocean issue the last few years.”

The poll found that among those in Gen Z who worry they’ll need to move due to climate change, 73% believe it will be because of a water issue such as water pollution, flooding risk, lack of access to clean drinking water and the risk of drought.

The poll also found that 31% of Gen Z are concerned their generation won’t have enough clean water in the future, 72% are concerned about pollution in their waterways and 66% are worried about the health of the fish and oceans.

Among voting age Gen Zers, the poll found that 88% believed politicians are responsible for addressing water issues related to climate change.

Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the youth-led climate advocacy organization Sunrise Movement, explained that young people want to see political action on climate issues.

“We have seen a climate change before our eyes for essentially our entire lives, and we look on to a future when we are the age of people like Joe Biden and Donald Trump with a lot of fear about what’s going to happen in the next 50 years,” O’Hanlon said. “Young people are demanding real action from politicians to stop the climate crisis and protect our rights to clean air and water.”

During the 2024 election cycle, climate change has not been polling as a top issue for U.S. voters across all age groups, but some, like Evergreen Action’s senior communications director Holly Burke, say that it may grow in political importance as Gen Z and younger generations age into the voting population.

“Only the eldest of Gen Z are currently able to vote and fully in the electorate and regularly voting. So I think we’re really only beginning to see this demographic shift, but I think it’s already had a huge impact,” Burke told ABC News, citing the political pressure from young activists that spurred national climate action investments including the Inflation Reduction Act.

“[Young climate activists have] already had some big successes, and I think as they become a bigger part of the electorate, they’re only going to become more influential,” she added.

Researchers found that worries around water — and more broadly around climate change — spanned the political spectrum.

Eighty-two percent of voting-age Gen Zers identifying as Republicans and 96% of those identifying as Democrats said they believe that politicians and governments are “very or somewhat responsible” for improving the quality of water resources, according to researchers.

Burke said climate advocacy has been a “deeply partisan” issue for a long time. But noted that she has seen a shift in Republicans’ willingness to engage on climate issues among young conservatives, but said she hasn’t yet seen that change in the larger party.

“I can’t imagine that Republicans are going to immediately come around to the kind of bold climate solutions that I’m looking for, but I would love to have them at the table in a real discussion about how we can reduce emissions and things we can agree on to get done,” she said. “That would be a tremendously positive change.”

Some young conservatives have banded together to push their party toward more engagement on climate issues. The American Conservation Coalition, a nonprofit organization made up of young political conservatives (aged 18-35), was founded in 2017 with a mission to, “build the conservative environmental movement.”

“Organizations like ACC that represent young conservatives who care about this issue send a pretty clear signal to our leaders that this is an issue that will continue to be really important,” ACC’s Vice President of Communications Karly Matthews told ABC News. “But I also think there’s a really rich history of environmental conservation in the conservative movement, in the Republican Party, and that was kind of not emphasized as much or lost a little bit when climate change became kind of this polarizing topic.”

Matthews said she agreed that climate issues “will continue to be depolarized, and I think that’ll be shown from the general populace of young people, kind of uniting on this issue.”

As for Mcdonald of the Walton Family Foundation, when asked by ABC News whether her organization’s research suggests change will move up the ranks of political priority as more of Gen Z reaches the voting age, she replied, “I have my fingers crossed.”

The poll, conducted online by researchers between Aug. 6-14, defined Gen Z as people aged 12 to 27 years old. The poll had a sample of 2,832 and a sampling error of +/- 2.9 points.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Democrats again helped Republicans get a short-term government funding bill over the finish line on Wednesday to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.

The measure is largely an extension of current funding levels but includes $231 million in additional aid to the Secret Service to help protect presidential candidates during the election.

The bill passed by a 341-82 margin, with 209 Democrats voting for it. While 82 Republicans voted against the bill, 132 voted with Speaker Mike Johnson, who saw his funding plan voted down last week as Democrats rejected the inclusion of the controversial SAVE Act.

The SAVE Act, pushed by Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, would have required proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Democrats said that measure was unnecessary because it’s already a crime for noncitizens to vote. Although Johnson said there was “no daylight” between him and Trump on the funding bill, Trump called several hardline House Republicans in recent days, trying to get a last-minute change to the plan.

Before the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pointed out that it has been House Democrats that have helped Republicans avoid shutdowns during the current Congress.

“Can anyone name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have been able to do on their own to make life better for the American people? A single thing? Just one,” he asked. “Can the American people name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans have done to make their lives better? Zip, zero. So that is the track record that will be presented to the American people,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump had called on congressional Republicans to allow the government to shut down over the SAVE Act.

Johnson told ABC News, “I am not defying President Trump” when asked if the former president approved of the new solution to avoid a shutdown.

“I’ve spoken with him at great length, and he is very frustrated about the situation,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “His great concern is election security, and it is mine as well. It is all of ours.”

Johnson asserted Trump “understands the current dilemma” with House Republicans and said, “there’s no daylight between us.”

The White House and congressional Democrats all slammed Johnson’s attempt to tie the voter eligibility legislation to government funding, noting that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

But the “clean” short-term measure to avert a shutdown was praised by Democratic leaders and the Biden administration.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would “immediately move” to pass the measure as soon as the House sends it over, and “if all goes well in the House, the Senate should be sending President Biden a bill before the end of today.

“Americans can breathe easy that because both sides have chosen bipartisanship, Congress is getting the job done,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We will keep the government open. We will prevent vital government services from needlessly coming to a halt. We will give appropriators more time to fully fund the government before the end of the year. And I’m especially pleased we’re getting the job done with some time to spare.”

In addition to funding the government through Dec. 20, the bill includes funds to replenish FEMA and $231 million for the U.S. Secret Service in the wake a second apparent assassination attempt against Trump.

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday released a statement calling for “swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly, unnecessary Government shutdown.”

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and painted a picture of an “absolutely obliterated” Ukraine as the foreign leader is in the U.S. to present what he calls his “victory plan” to 2024 candidates and President Joe Biden.

At a campaign event in North Carolina, Trump went after Zelenskyy for “making little nasty aspersions” toward him.

While Trump didn’t elaborate on what the comments were, Zelenskyy was recently critical of Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in an interview with The New Yorker.

Zelenskyy expressed doubt Trump knew how to end the Russia-Ukraine war despite Trump’s assertions, without detail or specifics, that the war never would have happened if he were president and he could end it on the first day of his new administration.

“My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how,” Zelenskyy told the magazine. “With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.”

Zelenskyy also called Vance “too radical” over his position that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory taken by Russia. Zelenskyy said the senator’s “message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice.”

Trump, in his freewheeling stump speech on Wednesday, claimed Ukraine is “obliterated” with towns and cities gone that can “never be duplicated.” He said “millions and millions” were dead and accused Ukraine of “using young children and old men” as its military experiences a shortage of soldiers.

Trump continued to call Zelenskyy the “greatest salesman on Earth” amid his apparent criticism of the amount of aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine to help the nation fight President Vladimir Putin’s forces, and how Zelenskyy has used the aid.

“Those buildings are down. Those cities are gone. They’re gone. And we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal,” Trump said.

A day prior, at a campaign event in Georgia, Trump expressed little confidence Ukraine could win while praising Russia’s military capabilities.

“But we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated. I’ll get out. We got to get out. Biden says we will not leave until we win. What happens if they win? That’s what they do, is they fight wars. As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. That’s what they do.”

Zelenskyy will hold meetings with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to present what his “victory plan.” The proposal includes specific figures and amounts of military assistance that he says Ukraine needs to force Russia to stop the war, as well as a list of certain diplomatic and political steps, a source close to Zelenskyy told ABC News.

Trump said last week that he would “probably” be meeting with Zelenskyy but now is not expected to meet with him while he is here in the U.S. this week, sources said, saying Trump’s plans were never firm.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, also won’t meet with Zelenskyy, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday after a meeting had been previously announced. Johnson, who has a mixed record on Ukraine aid, has recently taken issue with Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova organizing a tour for Zelenskyy of an American munitions manufacturing plant in election battleground Pennsylvania.

Vance on Wednesday, during a call with reporters hosted by the Republican National Committee, was asked if he sees an opportunity to discuss with Zelenskyy how a Trump-Vance administration would approach the conflict and if he believed Ukraine should cede land in exchange for the war to end.

Vance said “everything’s going to be on the table” in negotiating an end to the war and that “the biggest problem here is that this war has distracted and consumed a lot of resources at a time when Americans are suffering.”

“I think that the president has said very clearly that, first of all, Russia would have never invaded Ukraine if he had been president, and he’s gonna negotiate an end to the conflict,” he said.

While Trump and Vance voiced skepticism of how much further assistance should be given to Ukraine, President Biden, in his final address at the United Nations General Assembly, urged world leaders not to relent on the issue.

“The world now has another choice to make: Will we sustain our support to help Ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom, or walk away, let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed? I know my answer,” Biden said. “We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away and we will not let up on our support for not Ukraine.”

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Hannah Demissie and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House voted Wednesday to pass a bill that funds the federal government until Dec. 20 and averts a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Once again, Democrats helped Republicans get the bill over the finish line, with all Democrats voting for the bill and 82 Republicans voting against it.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to pass a funding measure that included the SAVE Act — a bill that would have required proof of citizenship to vote — failed last week due to Democratic opposition and several Republican defections. Earlier Johnson had pulled it from the floor when it was clear he didn’t have the votes to get it passed.

Before the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pointed out that it has been House Democrats that have helped Republicans avoid shutdowns during the current Congress.

“Can anyone name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have been able to do on their own to make life better for the American people? A single thing? Just one,” he asked. “Can the American people name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans have done to make their lives better? Zip, zero. So that is the track record that will be presented to the American people,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump had called on congressional Republicans to allow the government to shut down over the SAVE Act.

Johnson told ABC News, “I am not defying President Trump” when asked if the former president approved of the new solution to avoid a shutdown.

“I’ve spoken with him at great length, and he is very frustrated about the situation,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “His great concern is election security, and it is mine as well. It is all of ours.”

Johnson asserted Trump “understands the current dilemma” with House Republicans and said, “there’s no daylight between us.”

The White House and congressional Democrats all slammed Johnson’s attempt to tie the voter eligibility legislation to government funding, noting that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

But the “clean” short-term measure to avert a shutdown was praised by Democratic leaders and the Biden administration.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would “immediately move” to pass the measure as soon as the House sends it over, and “if all goes well in the House, the Senate should be sending President Biden a bill before the end of today.

“Americans can breathe easy that because both sides have chosen bipartisanship, Congress is getting the job done,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We will keep the government open. We will prevent vital government services from needlessly coming to a halt. We will give appropriators more time to fully fund the government before the end of the year. And I’m especially pleased we’re getting the job done with some time to spare.”

In addition to funding the government through Dec. 20, the bill includes funds to replenish FEMA and $231 million for the U.S. Secret Service in the wake a second apparent assassination attempt against Trump.

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday released a statement calling for “swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly, unnecessary Government shutdown.”

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PITTSBURGH) — Vice President Kamala Harris drew contrasts between her economic agenda and that of her opponent, former President Donald Trump, in a speech in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Harris told an audience at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh that her economic philosophy is “rooted in her middle-class upbringing” while Trump’s comes from a “gilded path to wealth.”

“For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers. Not those who build them. Not those who wire them. Not those who mop the floors,” she said.

Harris’ remarks come as she tries to erode Trump’s edge on the economy in voters’ eyes. Polls show more voters believe Trump would do a better job with the economy. Trump often argues that Harris is responsible for the current economic climate as part of President Joe Biden’s administration. And critics say she has provided few specifics on why should be trusted to steer the economy for the next four years.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted after the ABC News presidential debate earlier this month found that the economy was the top issue for voters, with 91% saying it was an important issue for them. In that poll, voters trusted Trump to do a better job handling the economy than Harris by 7-point margin. A recent NBC News poll out Sunday found showed Trump led Harris in dealing with the economy by a 9-point spread.

Harris said she will remove barriers to economic opportunity and identify “common sense solutions to help Americans buy a home, start a business and build wealth.”

Harris has made the economy and the cost of living a focal point of her campaign in recent weeks. She has rolled out proposals to give first time homebuyers $25,000 in down payment assistance, increasing the small businesses startup tax credit tenfold to $50,000, and a $6,000 child tax credit for the first year of a newborn’s life.

The vice president said her plan would invest in strengthening the middle class, engaging in what former President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “bold, persistent experimentation.”

To allow the middle class to be the “growth engine of our economy,” Harris said she would cut taxes for middle class families and individuals, promising that more than 100 million Americans would get a middle-class tax break.

To drive down the cost of housing, Harris promised to increase the supply by cutting red tape that stops homes from being built, take on corporate landlords that she said were increasing rental prices and to work with builders and developers to construct 3 million new homes and rentals for the middle class.

Trump is scheduled to deliver his own economic speech in Michigan on Friday.

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(MINT HILL, N.C.) — Former President Donald Trump didn’t mince words Wednesday at a rally in North Carolina following more reports from security officials that Iran has been plotting to assassinate him.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence met with Trump and his campaign Tuesday, according to a spokesman for DNI. While the agency declined to discuss specifics about the meeting, the former president’s campaign said the meeting involved “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”

During his rally in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump echoed that statement and sent a stark warning to the country.

“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case, Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We’re going to blow it to smithereens,” the former president said to cheers. “There would be no more threats.”

Trump blamed the Biden administration for the escalating threats.

“We don’t have that leadership or the necessary people,” he said Wednesday.

The FBI is still investigating the assassination attempt in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where one person was killed, and the apparent assassination attempt that took place earlier this month at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.

Investigators do not have a motive in either of the cases.

Before the Butler shooting, the Secret Service increased Trump’s security due to intelligence indicating there was an Iranian threat to assassinate the former president, sources told ABC News.

Counter snipers were assigned to the Butler rally because of the increased threats from a foreign threat prior to the event, according to a report released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Trump tried to connect the two assassination attempts to foreign connections without any evidence during his rally Wednesday.

“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve…Iran. But I don’t really know,” he said.

However, there is no indication that Iran was connected to the suspected shooter in the Butler incident, officials said.

Intelligence officials are briefing senators about foreign threats in general later Wednesday.

Iran and Trump have had a long, contentious history, especially after the January 2020 strike ordered by the former president that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

In the aftermath of Soleimani’s killing, Iranian officials vowed they would eventually exact revenge.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reiterated his country’s hatred toward Trump and the U.S. government during an interview in January with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz.

“That was a big, big mistake made by Trump. That is not something that we will be able to forget,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that Tehran still wanted to see “all the people involved” in the strike “brought to justice.”

“What does that mean?” Raddatz asked. “Does that mean killed?”

“Justice will rule on it,” he responded.

ABC News’ Cindy Smith contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House is expected to hold a vote Wednesday afternoon on a bill that would avert a government shutdown at the end of the month.

House leaders are confident the short-term measure, which will keep the government funded until Dec. 20, will achieve a two-thirds majority and pass the chamber under a suspension of the rules with the help of Democrats.

The move comes after Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to pass a funding measure that included the SAVE Act — a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote — failed last week due to Democratic opposition and several Republican defections.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he supports the funding measure, but he pointed out that it has been House Democrats that have helped Republicans avoid shutdowns during the current Congress.

“Can anyone name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have been able to do on their own to make life better for the American people? A single thing? Just one,” he asked. “Can the American people name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans have done to make their lives better? Zip, zero. So that is the track record that will be presented to the American people,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump had called on congressional Republicans to allow the government to shut down over the SAVE Act.

Johnson told ABC News, “I am not defying President Trump” when asked if the former president approved of the new solution to avoid a shutdown.

“I’ve spoken with him at great length, and he is very frustrated about the situation,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “His great concern is election security, and it is mine as well. It is all of ours.”

Johnson asserted Trump “understands the current dilemma” with House Republicans and said, “there’s no daylight between us.”

The White House and congressional Democrats all slammed Johnson’s attempt to tie the voter eligibility legislation to government funding, noting that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

But the “clean” short-term measure to avert a shutdown was praised by Democratic leaders and the Biden administration.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday said the Senate will “immediately move” to pass the measure as soon as the House sends it over, and “if all goes well in the House, the Senate should be sending President Biden a bill before the end of today.

“Americans can breathe easy that because both sides have chosen bipartisanship, Congress is getting the job done,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We will keep the government open. We will prevent vital government services from needlessly coming to a halt. We will give appropriators more time to fully fund the government before the end of the year. And I’m especially pleased we’re getting the job done with some time to spare.”

In addition to funding the government through Dec. 20, the bill includes funds to replenish FEMA and $231 million for the U.S. Secret Service in the wake a second apparent assassination attempt against Trump.

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday released a statement calling for “swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly, unnecessary Government shutdown.”

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Secret Service failed to make clear decisions and did not communicate properly with local law enforcement or provide necessary resources that caused “foreseeable, preventable” security failings on July 13, when a would-be assassin opened fire on former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a new Senate committee report.

The highly anticipated interim report was released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by both Republicans and Democrats and reflects the work of the committee since it opened its probe following the Butler attack.

This report focuses on the Butler shooting and does not extend to investigatory efforts launched after a separate second assassination attempt on the former president at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this month.

Since the Butler attack, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has acknowledged that the event was a “failure” by the agency, but the committee, which interviewed multiple Secret Service personnel, found that individuals “declined to acknowledge individual areas of responsibility for planning or security as having contributed to the failure to prevent the shooting that day, even when as an agency, the USSS has acknowledged ultimate responsibility for the failure to prevent the former president of the United States from being shot.”

On a call with reporters, Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters pointed to several failures by the Secret Service.

“Every single one of those failures was preventable and the consequences of those failures were dire,” Peters said. “This was the first assassination attempt of a former president and the presidential candidate in more than four decades.”

Peters was joined on the call by committee ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., ranking member on the investigations subcommittee.

“Whoever was in charge of security on the day of Butler, whoever’s in charge of security during the recent assassination attempt, those people can’t be in charge. They there’s so many human errors,” Paul said. “No amount of money that you give to Secret Service is going to alleviate the human errors if you leave the same humans in charge who made these terrible, dramatic mistakes with regard to security.”

On Friday, the Secret Service released a four-page Mission Assurance Report, which affirms many of the findings in the committee’s report, but the committee report offers additional details from interviews with USSS and local officials. ‘

In a statement to ABC News, the Secret Service’s Chief of Communications said “many of the insights” gleaned from the Senate report “align with the findings from our mission assurance review and are essential to ensuring that what happened on July 13 never happens again.”

“We have reviewed the interim report on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” Chief of Communications for the U.S. Secret Service Anthony Guglielmi said. “The weight of our mission is not lost on us and in this hyperdynamic threat environment, the U.S. Secret Service cannot fail.”

He said in addition to the mission assurance report their efforts include cooperating with Congress, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security Independent Review, DHS Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office.

“We take the work of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee seriously and have begun to implement many of their proposed enhancements,” Guglielmi said.

As part of the investigation, the committee interviewed Secret Service agents, as well as the Secret Service counter-snipers that were at the rally.

A closer look at the roof of the building where shots were fired from

The Senate report pays special attention to the American Glass Research building from where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired, and unveils new details about the timeline of events on that day.

In the lead-up to the event, local law enforcement raised concerns about the building. The report finds that the line of sight from the AGR building plagued rally planning and that it was identified as a concern, but that no steps were taken to mitigate the threat. Trees obstructed the view of the sniper team that was positioned atop one of the nearby roofs.

The Secret Service initially began planning for the rally in early July with state and local law enforcement. The planning meetings lacked answers or a general plan, according to the report.

A Butler County Emergency Services Unit commander told the committee the July 11 site walkthrough was “incredibly disorganized” with “no coordination,” and said he felt like “there was really no plan.”

When the USSS counter-sniper team leader did a walkthrough of the area, he told the committee he “wasn’t independently looking at the threat areas,” but rather making sure the roofs were safe for law enforcement to stand on.

The leader assumed that if there were an issue with one of the lines of sight with a sniper position, that counter-sniper would have told the head of the unit.

Agents from the Secret Service were notified of a suspicious person with a rangefinder 27 minutes before shots were fired, but that information was not relayed to senior Secret Service leaders on the ground.

Three minutes before shots were fired, local law enforcement communicated over the radio that someone was on the roof of the AGR building. The information was passed to the Secret Service two minutes before Crooks fired. A local officer said there was someone armed on the roof 22 seconds before shots were fired, but that information wasn’t passed on to the Secret Service.

Secret Service counter-snipers did see local law enforcement running towards the AGR building with their guns drawn, but “the thought did not cross” the counter-sniper’s mind to alert the former president’s protective detail, because they were trying to figure out what was going on.

“[W]hen we looked, just plain eyes, no optics or anything, you could see police running towards the building with their hands on their pistols. I think one actually had a pistol facing towards the ground, out of a holster,” the counter-sniper told the committee. “That’s a pretty big deal for us, so immediately we turned and faced our guns towards the threat area. We didn’t know what was happening, but it seemed pretty serious, especially with the locals’ response.”

The counter-sniper told the Committee “police running, guns out, and there were a couple of people just running away from the AGR building, that looks like citizens, I guess you would say, just normal people.”

He said, “something was wrong” and the “police were the main identifier that something bad was happening.”

“At that time, we didn’t know what we were working with,” a USSS counter-sniper told the committee.

Though counter-sniper efforts ultimately failed to prevent Crooks from firing, the Senate report finds that Trump’s Butler rally was the first time that a USSS counter-sniper team was assigned to a protectee who was not the president, vice president, or formally nominated party nominee. Snipers were only at the rally in response to “credible intelligence” of a threat. Though the committee did not identify what that threat was, sources have told ABC News that Iran has targeted the former president since the killing of General Soliemani.

When the Secret Service sniper took his shot at Crooks, he did so “mere seconds” after identifying him, his partner told the committee.

Officers told the committee they didn’t get resources they needed

Rowe has repeatedly asserted publicly that no assets were denied for the Butler rally. But some of the committee’s findings suggest otherwise.

The operator of the USSS counter drone measures, known as C-UAS, told the committee he requested additional C-UAS equipment and personnel in the11 days before the rally. However, these requests were denied, at times without explanation, according to the report.

The USSS lead advance agent told the committee Trump’s Secret Service detail requested counter assault team liaisons to help coordinate tactical assets in advance of the July 13 rally, but USSS denied this request, the report found.

When the CUAS system went down, the agent who was responsible for it called the manufacturer hotline to start troubleshooting the problem, delaying the deployment of the system for hours.

Previous testimony from the acting director stated that Crooks flew a drone over the rally site during the few hours the CUAS system was down.

Secret Service communications and those of local law enforcement were “siloed” in real time, according to the committee’s report.

Those issues included inoperable radios — in one instance, the head of the Pittsburgh Field Office gave his radio to the lead advance agent on the ground because his radio wasn’t working. These types of problems were commonplace, according to the report.

At one point, some of the agent’s communications were getting crossed with those of the detail of first lady Jill Biden, who was nearby.

Blumenthal called the Secret Service’s lack of accountability an “Abbott and Costello” routine, making reference to the infamous “Who’s on First” skit.

“It was really truth being stranger than fiction,” Blumenthal said of the finger-pointing as to who was responsible and who was in charge of the Butler event.

Committee leaders stress that the report is an interim set of findings meant to be expanded upon by further lines of questioning.

Blumenthal also called for new leadership at the Secret Service.

Peters told reporters last week that there have been instances in which agencies were not as responsive to committee requests as he would’ve liked.

Though the committee staff examined “over 2,800 pages” of documents provided by USSS and transcribed 12 interviews with USSS personnel, the report does reflect instances in which agencies did not meet committee requests.

“The majority of documents provided by the USSS and DHS are heavily redacted. This has unnecessarily hindered the Committee’s ability to carry out its constitutional authority to investigate and acquire information necessary to identify needed reforms,” the report says.

Guglielmi said the Secret Service has “been and continue to work cooperatively, transparently, and in good faith with Congress.”

“The U.S. Secret Service has implemented changes to our protective operations including elevating the protective posture for our protectees and bolstering our protective details as appropriate in order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for those we protect,” Guglielmi said.

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(TEMPE, Ariz.) — An office in Arizona used by Kamala Harris’ campaign was shot at early Monday morning in the second apparent gun attack in a week, according to investigators.

Police in Tempe, Arizona, responded to the office, which the local Democratic Party also uses, after they received calls from staffers about the damage. At least five bullet holes were found in the windows and the door.

“No one was inside the office during the overnight hours, but this raises concerns about the safety of those who work in that building, as well as those nearby,” Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Cook told ABC News.

Tempe police said they were analyzing evidence and were taking “additional measures” after the shooting “to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and the investigation continues, according to the police.

The same office was shot at just a week prior, on Sept. 16, in an incident the police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. That shooting also happened just after midnight and caused “criminal damage,” according to the police.

Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano condemned the vandalism in a statement to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV.

“It’s extremely sad that the Arizona Democratic Party has become the target of violence — it’s not who we are as Arizonans or Americans. We are working with law enforcement to ensure this threat is taken seriously and that our staff members are safe while they’re at work,” she said in a statement.

Law enforcement around the country is under heightened alert over an increase in political violence threats.

Harris is scheduled to visit Arizona on Friday.

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(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden, during an appearance on “The View” on Wednesday, said he is “at peace” with his decision to exit the 2024 race but says he is still confident he would have defeated Donald Trump in November.

Biden sat down for roughly a half hour with the show’s five co-hosts in what was his first interview since the Democratic National Convention and the Sept. 10 ABC News presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.

The president was first asked to reflect on stepping aside and ending his bid for reelection amid growing concerns from Democrats about his age and ability to carry out a grueling campaign and possible second term.

“I am at peace with my decision,” Biden said. “Look, when I ran for this last term, I said I saw myself as a transition president … But what happened was we were having so much success in getting things done that people felt we couldn’t get done, I found myself having used more time than I would’ve ordinarily to, you know, pass that torch.”

Biden then turned to praising Harris, who he called “tough” and “honorable.”

“And the thing I like about her, and one thing we share in common, is that we have an optimistic view of the future,” he said.

Still, Biden inisisted he would have defeated Trump had he stayed in the race.

Biden said he “never fully believed” claims that there was “overwhelming reluctance” to his continuing his campaign, despite, at the time of his announcement, there being 40 Democrats publicly calling for him to withdraw and behind-the-scenes pressure from leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He asserted such statements from Democrats wasn’t the reason he stepped down.

“I was confident I would beat Trump. He’s a loser,” Biden told “The View” hosts.

Biden’s advice for Harris on how to win was for her to “be herself.” He then briefly ran through her record as a prosecutor, U.S. senator and in his administration.

“As vice president, there wasn’t a single thing that I did that she couldn’t do,” he said. “So, I was able to delegate her responsibility on everything from foreign policy to domestic policy.”

“I just think she is — she has the energy, she has the intelligence, she has the grit, she has the stamina, and she has the guts to do the right thing,” he added.

Biden’s appearance on “The View” touched on his long career in government, with hosts paying homage to his work on the Violence Against Women Act and his administration’s diverse Cabinet and nomination of the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

But they also discussed hot-button issues such as Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and the Israel-Gaza war.

Asked about Trump blaming Biden and Democrats for the heated environment, Biden called Trump “the most unusual president” and said he was inspired to run in 2020 to restore the “soul of the nation.”

“Trump is — there’s not a social redeeming value there,” Biden said. The president asserted Trump “does not believe in democracy” and “failed to understand” the value of global alliances.

On Israel-Gaza, Biden said while he supported Israel he did not agree with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position and that there needs to be a cease-fire as well as a two-state solution.

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, with fighting between Israel and Lebanon increasing, Biden said the region is at an inflection point.

“An all our war is possible,” he warned. “But I think there’s also the opportunity still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally the change the whole region.”

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