Category: Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden makes a farewell speech to world leaders at the United National General Assembly on Tuesday as he seeks to burnish his foreign policy legacy.

But even though he came into office with decades of foreign policy experience, he leaves behind a mixed record.

Biden will tout his administration’s rebuilding of alliances, but the two wars that started under his administration have no clear end in sight.

His presidency is winding down as the conflict in Ukraine continues to rage and the risk of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon increases.

The president has said a top priority before the end of his administration is to end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, but negotiations to achieve a cease-fire have stalled.

It’s one of his last high-profile chances to rally world leaders.

“The fact that we do have Gaza, the fact that we do have Ukraine and Sudan, still serious issues in our world, just underscores the need for that kind of cooperation, and I think you’ll hear that in his speech,” a senior administration official said previewing Biden’s day at the U.N.

“Yes, he’ll talk about the significant accomplishments, achievements, of his approach, but also talk about how we need to — we need to continue working together to solve these big challenges,” the official told reporters.

With nearly 500 people killed in Lebanon on Monday alone from Israeli strikes, the escalating tensions in the Middle East and the threat of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, will surely overshadow other topics at the U.N.

The senior administration said this meeting will allow for a range of officials to be in the same room to talk about the situation.

“This is one of the advantages of U.N. General Assembly. You literally have the whole world here. So, when you do have crises of the day, they’ll be addressed. And I have no doubt that the situation in the Middle East will be an important theme in a lot of a lot of the meetings, not just that the president has, but other senior U.S. officials who will be convening to talk about — about various aspects of the crisis and what we can do to stabilize the situation,” the official said.

“I think it’s an opportunity to talk about what we have achieved and what we what we still need to do, given a situation that is just heartbreaking where hostages have not been returned, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and as you know, just such a sensitive issue, and such a delicate and dangerous situation between Israel and Lebanon right now,” the official said.

The president “should’ve been more outspoken from the beginning about what Israel is doing,” said Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, adding that “Netanyahu constantly bites the hand that feeds him.”

Notably, even though Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be at UNGA, there are currently no plans for Biden and Netanyahu to meet on the sidelines.

Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet separately with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House later this week.

“On Russia-Ukraine, Biden has not moved quickly enough to figure out what eventual negotiations will look like, and he’s waited until Ukrainians are in a weaker position,” Bremmer said.

Harris will not be at UNGA, which Bremmer said creates some distance between Biden’s foreign policy and her own.

Where Biden has made strides is in stabilizing relations with China and strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific region: Biden launched a new security partnership with Australia, the U.K. and U.S. (AUKUS); he brought together Japan and South Korea — two countries with a rocky history — to work with the U.S. on defense and economic cooperation; and Vietnam upgraded the U.S. to its highest level of diplomatic relations. (Biden is meeting with Vietnam’s general secretary this week.)

All of those relationships are part of Biden’s strategy to counter China’s influence in the region.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Russia and Iran are using artificial intelligence to influence the American election, U.S. intelligence officials said on Monday.

“Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content,” an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. “The IC (intelligence community) considers AI a malign influence, accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool.”

Officials saw AI being used in overseas elections, but it has now made its way to American elections, according to intelligence officials, who says there is evidence Russian manipulated Vice President Kamala Harris’ speeches.

Russia “has generated the most AI content related to the election, and has done so across all four mediums, text, images, audio and video,” an ODNI official said.

“These items include AI generated content of and about prominent U.S. figures whose content is also consistent with Russia’s broader efforts to boost the former president’s candidacy and denigrate the Vice President and the Democratic Party, including through conspiratorial Americans,” according to an ODNI official.

Russian AI content has sought to exploit hot-button issues to further divide Americans, the ODNI said.

“The IC also assesses that Russian influence actors were responsible for altering videos of the vice president’s speeches,” the official said.

Russia’s altering of videos runs the “gamut” from painting her in a personal bad light, and compared to her opponent and they are using both AI and staged videos, the official said.

The country was targeting President Joe Biden’s former campaign, but once he dropped out of the race it had to “adapt” to targeting the vice president’s campaign, the official said.

“Russia is a much more sophisticated actor in the influence space in general, and they have a better understanding of how U.S. elections work and where to target and what state what states to target,” an ODNI official said.

Iran has also used AI in its election influence efforts, including help in writing fake social media posts and news articles to further Iran’s objectives, which are to denigrate the former President Donald Trump’s candidacy, the official said.

Iran is also using AI to sow discord on hot-button issues, an official said.

“One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers, and so Iran can use the tools to help do that, and so one of the issues that could be attractive or using foreign language for that is immigration,” an ODNI official said. “The reason why Iran is focused on immigration is because they perceive it to be a divisive issue in the United States, and they identify themes, and this is broadly speaking, they identify themes with which they think will create further discord the United States.”

Officials have previously assessed Iran prefers that Vice President Harris win the 2024 election.

China has also been using AI to generate fake news anchors and social media content with pro-China propaganda, they said.

The intelligence community assesses that AI is an “accelerant” to influence operations, but doesn’t yet have the capability to be believable.

Adversaries are also using AI to go back and forth with people in the comments.

As to whether what occurred in 2020 might happen again — where the election might not be called on Election Day — this period is something the IC is “watching” closely and is of “great interest.”

“The various influence actors have fairly steady state influence operations that seek the stoking of division and undermine U.S. democracy,” an ODNI official said.

During the Democratic primaries, the use of an AI generated robocall was used to give misinformation about voting the result was state criminal charges being brought against the individual who sent the recording and an FCC fine.

A foreign adversary engaging in that tactic would be a “top concern” for intelligence officials, an official said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — With about six weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail with stops in battleground Pennsylvania on Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris is in Washington to meet with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Here’s how the news is developing:

Trump expected to return to Butler for a rally on Oct. 5: Sources

Trump is expected to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the city of his first assassination attempt, next Saturday for a rally, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans.

The rally is scheduled for Oct. 5.

Trump has long promised to return to Butler to honor the victims who died at his July rally.

“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO. WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in July.

NBC News was first to report the news.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Lalee Ibssa, Kesley Walsh and Soorin Kim

Harris won’t attend the Al Smith dinner, a presidential campaign staple

Vice President Harris will not attend the Al Smith dinner next month in New York, breaking with tradition of major party nominees sharing laughs at the benefit dinner, and will instead be on the campaign trail, a campaign official confirmed to ABC News.

“She is going to be campaigning in a battleground state that day, and the campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” the official said.

The dinner, which benefits Catholic Charities, is scheduled for Oct. 17. It has become a traditional stop on the presidential campaign trail, with both the Republican and Democratic nominees attending and delivering remarks full of roasts. In recent years, both nominees attended the gala, including in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. (The latter was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

The official also added that Harris’ team informed the dinner’s organizers she would be absent, but was willing to attend in a later year as president.

ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie

Melania Trump to sit for her 1st interview of 2024 election cycle

Former first lady Melania Trump will sit down for her first interview of the 2024 election cycle with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt as she continues to promote her new book.

The interview is set to air on Thursday, Fox announced on Monday.

While Melania Trump has remained relatively quiet this campaign cycle, mainly appearing with the former president at closed-door events, she has been more active online recently as she launches her forthcoming memoir, “Melania.”

Her book is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Trump again says it’s too late for another debate amid challenges from Harris

Trump is again ruling out another debate against Harris, arguing it would be “a very bad thing” for the country.

“Well, I’ve already done two debates, and they, you know, we’re good, but to do a third one, everybody’s voting now, and it’s very late to be doing a third debate,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin in a phone conversation that aired Monday morning.

Harris said over the weekend she accepted an offer from CNN for a debate on Oct. 23.

Her team has also noted that there have been presidential debates in years past in the final weeks before Election Day.

“The final 2020 debate was October 22,” the Harris campaign wrote on X. “The proposed CNN debate is October 23.”

Trump also debated Hillary Clinton for a third time around the same timeframe: Oct. 19, 2016.

Trump slightly leads in Arizona, about even in North Carolina: Polls

A set of New York Times/Siena College polls found Trump slightly leads Harris in Arizona and they are about evenly matched in North Carolina.

Among likely voters in Arizona, Trump leads Harris 50% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup. In a six-way matchup with other candidates, Trump still leads Harris 48% to 43%.

In North Carolina, Trump also leads Harris among likely voters 49% to 47%. He also leads by 2 percentage points in a six-way matchup. The lead, however, is within the poll’s margin of error.

Arizona and North Carolina are considered crucial battlegrounds this election, along with Georgia. According to 538’s polling average, Trump is ahead slightly in each of the three Sun Belt states.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — As Sen. JD Vance prepares to face Gov. Tim Walz in next week’s vice-presidential debate, the Ohio senator is turning to Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer to help him in debate rehearsals by playing Walz, sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.

One of the sources said Emmer was invited to stand in for Walz so that Vance could prepare to take on the governor’s folksy personality.

Vance’s debate preparations have included sessions at his Cincinnati home and online sessions with his team and with Jason Miller, a senior advisor on former President Donald Trump’s campaign, a source told ABC News.

Vance is expected to paint Walz as too liberal, focusing on the policies he has passed while governor of Minnesota, one of the sources said.

Emmer is the third-ranking Republican in the House and serves as the majority whip. Emmer also previously served as the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Emmer backed Trump for president earlier this year — despite the fact that the former president called Emmer a “Globalist RINO” who is “totally out-of-touch” with Republican voters, effectively tanking Emmer’s speakership bid in October 2023.

Walz and Emmer overlapped in the House from 2015 through 2019 before Walz ran for governor of Minnesota.

Walz’s debate preparations are also underway with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acting as a Vance stand-in during the Walz team’s debate rehearsals. Walz has also held policy sessions with his own longtime aides, Biden White House alumni and members of the Harris-Walz campaign team.

The vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News is set to be in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 1, the network has announced, with both Walz and Vance agreeing to participate. The debate will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LINCOLN, Neb.) — A growing effort backed by Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, to switch Nebraska’s electoral process to winner-take-all hit a major snag on Monday after a key state lawmaker said he wouldn’t support such a change before the November election.

State Sen. Mike McDonnell, one of the key Republicans holdouts GOP Gov. Jim Pillen was looking to for support to break a likely filibuster, said in a statement that he would not vote to change electoral process before then.

Instead, McDonnell said he believed the legislature should take up the issue in next year’s legislative session, which tentatively starts the first week of January 2025.

“In recent weeks, a conversation around whether to change how we allocate our electoral college votes has returned to the forefront,” McDonnell said. “I respect the desire of some of my colleagues to have this discussion, and I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”

“I have notified Governor Pillen that I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election,” he added. “I also encouraged him and will encourage my colleagues in the Unicameral to pass a constitutional amendment during next year’s session, so that the people of Nebraska can once and for all decide this issue the way it should be decided — on the ballot.”

Pillen released a statement last week saying he would not call a special session unless Republican legislators could show they have 33 votes needed to break an expected Democratic filibuster. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and staunch ally of Trump, traveled to Nebraska last week to lobby lawmakers and met with stakeholders.

ABC News spoke to Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood, who agreed that McDonnell was a key holdout and understood the Nebraska legislature needed at least three more votes to break a very likely filibuster.

If the other state Senate holdouts stand firm, McDonnell’s decision effectively throws cold water on the ongoing effort to switch the state’s Electoral College vote to winner-take-all, even after Republican members of Congress and Trump pushed for the change.

Flood, a Republican who represents Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, said Trump engaging directly on the issue “underscores how big of a deal this is.” Flood, who supports changing the process along with the rest of Nebraska’s federal delegation, said Nebraska “has the right to speak with the majority of its citizens, by and through its legislature, and that’s what I want to see done.”

The winner-take-all electoral change would be pivotal if the Republican-leaning state allocates all of its five electoral votes solely to Trump, instead of dividing them with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Nebraska split its electoral votes in 2020, with President Joe Biden flipping the 2nd district, which includes Omaha. Without gaining the votes from Nebraska’s 2nd district, Harris could not win the general election with “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania alone. It would also create a new possibility for a 269-269 Electoral College tie.

“It is amazing to think that could come down to Nebraska, but I think the math and the reality is that it very well may be true,” Flood said.

ABC News’ Nathaniel Rakich contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is looking to ban Chinese-made software from cars because of national security concerns, the Commerce Department announced on Monday.

The Bureau of Industry and Security, part of the Commerce Department, is expected to publish a rule that “focuses on hardware and software” of the software connected in cars and developed in China.

“Cars today have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking, and other technologies connected to the internet. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious risk to both our national security and the privacy of U.S. citizens,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “To address these national security concerns, the Commerce Department is taking targeted, proactive steps to keep PRC and Russian-manufactured technologies off American roads.”

The software could be exploited by malicious Chinese actors, and in some cases “allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities in connected vehicles,” the Commerce Department said.

The proposed rule would apply to all wheeled on-road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and buses, but would exclude vehicles not used on public roads like agricultural or mining vehicles, and would start to take effect in 2027 models, and be fully integrated in 2030 models.

The rule also bans technology with a nexus to the PRC or Russia from selling connected vehicles that incorporate hardware or software in the United States, even if the vehicle was made in the United States.

This is the most recent step in the Biden administration’s economic actions against China.

Earlier this year, the Biden Administration increased tariff’s on steel and aluminum, semiconductors and electric vehicles.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Murders in the United States were down 11.6% in 2023, according to statistics released by the FBI Monday morning.

The murder rate went down from 6.2 per 100,000 people in 2022 to 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2023. The steep decline last year comes after a 6.1% drop in 2022 over 2021.

Violent crime, which is one of the top issues for voters in the presidential election, as a whole was down 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the FBI.

An FBI official said the drop in murders represents the “largest drop” since the agency has been collecting data, the agency said in a call with reporters on Monday.

“An estimated 1,218,467 violent crime offenses were committed in 2023, indicating a rate of 363.8 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, down from the 2022 offense rate of 377.1 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants,” the Uniform Crime Reporting Program report released on Monday said.

Other crimes, like rape, decreased by 9.4%, aggravated assault decreased by 2.8%, and robbery decreased by 0.3%, according to the report.

Robberies also behaved differently during the pandemic and, unlike murders, went down during the shutdown and popped back up post-pandemic.

The number of law enforcement agencies who reported their data also increased from last year with 85.% of agencies actively enrolled in the FBI’s UCR Program and cover a combined population of 315,761,680 (94.3%) inhabitants.

All 12 cities that have 1,000,000 or more people reported data, the FBI said.

A crime that increased in 2023 was motor vehicle theft, which increased 12.6%, the FBI said.

Overall, property crime decreased by 2.4%, burglary decreased by 7.6% and larceny theft decreased by 4.4%.

Hate crimes are up in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023, according to the FBI statistics – including the number of incidents, offenses and victims of hate crimes.

The FBI doesn’t specify which group is the most targeted.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — With about six weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail with stops in battleground Pennsylvania on Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris is in Washington to meet with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Here’s how the news is developing:

Trump slightly leads in Arizona, about even in North Carolina: Polls

A set of New York Times/Siena College polls found Trump slightly leads Harris in Arizona and they are about evenly matched in North Carolina.

Among likely voters in Arizona, Trump leads Harris 50% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup. In a six-way matchup with other candidates, Trump still leads Harris 48% to 43%.

In North Carolina, Trump also leads Harris among likely voters 49% to 47%. He also leads by 2 percentage points in a six-way matchup. The lead, however, is within the poll’s margin of error.

Arizona and North Carolina are considered crucial battlegrounds this election, along with Georgia. According to 538’s polling average, Trump is ahead slightly in each of the three Sun Belt states.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WILMINGTON, N.C.) — Former President Donald Trump returned to the key battleground state of North Carolina for a rally Saturday, but declined to mention Mark Robinson — his party’s nominee for governor in the state.

The rally went on amid the allegations surrounding the Republican lieutenant governor, who the former president had previously supported and called “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Robinson, who did not appear at the rally, was accused of posting inflammatory comments on the message board of a pornography website more than a decade ago, according to a report published Thursday from CNN.

The embattled gubernatorial candidate had not been expected to attend Saturday’s rally. Trump has not given any indication that he intends to pull his endorsement of Robinson.

In a statement Sunday, Robinson’s campaign said four key staffers had “stepped down” from the campaign: general consultant and senior advisor Conrad Pogorzelski, III; campaign manager Chris Rodriguez; finance director Heather Whillier; and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk.

“I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the campaign, and I wish them well in their future endeavors. I look forward to announcing new staff roles in the coming days,” Robinson said in a statement.

Trump has campaigned for Robinson multiple times during this election cycle, including inviting him to speak at his rallies in North Carolina this year and hosting him at his Mar-a-Lago estate for a fundraiser last year.

People close to the former president told ABC News that they were bracing for the Robinson story on Thursday. The campaign was planning to put more distance between Trump and Robinson, but initially did not have plans to push him to drop out, sources said.

Robinson’s beleaguered campaign, however, did come up at a rally headlined by vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Walz insinuated that Trump was no “different” from Robinson.

“We got folks running as Republicans for governor that are proud to refer to themselves as Nazis. Let’s not pretend that there’s a gradual difference between the folks that are running here– that they’re running together,” Walz said.

ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump said Sunday that he doesn’t see himself running for president again if he loses in November.

“No, I don’t. No, I don’t,” Trump responded to Sinclair Broadcast Group’s “Full Measure” host Sharyl Attkisson’s question about another run. “I don’t see that at all. I think that, hopefully, we’re going to be successful,” he said.

With President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, Trump is now the oldest presidential nominee in history as age and mental acuity have become focal points in this year’s election cycle.

During his third presidential bid, Trump has balanced his courtroom appearances in the four criminal cases he faces with campaign stops.

As he lays out the stakes for the 2024 election, Trump often emphasizes his point by describing the turmoil that has he and his campaign have faced over the course of the cycle.

“I didn’t need this. I had a very nice life. I didn’t need to go through court systems and go through all the other stuff and run at the same time,” Trump told tech entrepreneur Elon Musk during a livestream conversation in August when asked why he decided to launch another presidential bid.

“But if I had to do it over again, I would have done it over again, because this is so much more important than me or my life,”

Trump was also asked about the possibility of Tulsi Gabbard or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., two former Democrats that have become surrogates for the Trump campaign, serving in his cabinet during a potential second administration and claimed that he made no promises to them.

“It doesn’t mean anything. It means it could be, but I didn’t make deals with anybody,” Trump said about when asked about Kennedy serving as Health and Human Services secretary, as Kennedy’s former running mate Nicole Shanahan suggested. “It’s not appropriate to do it. It’s too early.”

Trump briefly talked about unity after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, but now blames rhetoric from Democrats for political violence.

“They are a danger. They’re destroying our country,” Trump said in the interview which aired Sunday.

Trump again repeated his claims that he feels that “only consequential” presidents are in danger as he talked about the close call he had with a would-be shooter on his golf course in Florida last week.

“Well, I think we just have to do what you have to do,” he said, praising his Secret Service protection.

“I think that I will feel safe I think I’m going to feel safe.”

“I can’t be scared, because if you’re scared, you can’t do your job, so I just can’t be I have, thus far, had somebody protecting me,” he said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.