U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy boards a NextGen Amtrak Acela train for a trip to Boston following a news conference for the upgraded train’s first day of service along the Northeast Corridor on August 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Transportation announced new high-speed Acela trains during a Wednesday news conference, which included details about how the agency is “reclaiming the management” of Union Station in Washington, D.C., in an effort to restore it and bolster financial opportunities in it.
Joined by Amtrak leaders, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy helped announce the launch of the NextGen Acela, which Amtrak is calling a high-speed rail service. The NextGen Acela had its inaugural ride from Washington to New York City’s Penn Station Wednesday morning following the announcement.
Duffy said that high-speed trains should be available in the United States — not just abroad. He said these high-speed trains will carry more people, which will lead to better pricing and an overall “better traveling experience for the American public.”
Amtrak President Roger Harris described the new trains as “premium, convenient and comfortable.” The trains are being marketed as the future of high-speed rail with Harris saying they will travel 160 miles per hour. Harris also noted that 95% of the trains are made in the United States and the investment in the new Acela trains helped generate 15,000 new jobs across the country.
While Amtrak is promoting that the trains are high speed, its schedules show the new train is slower than existing ones on the route — by 3-7 minutes per trip between Washington and New York City.
“Trip time improvements will continue to be determined based on infrastructure improvements we will also make along the Corridor. This includes updating and modernizing the tracks and overhead wires,” an Amtrak spokesperson said in response.
Duffy also announced that Union Station is “back under DOT control” in an effort to better restore and monetize it. Though the Union Station has previously been owned by the Department of Transportation, it has been under various agreements and leases.
“Not a power play — we’ve always had it, but we think we can manage the property better,” Duffy said of control of Union Station. “Bring in more tenants, bring in more revenue and that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building.”
Duffy said the effort aligns with President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce crime and homelessness in Washington and beautify Union Station. He added that Trump “wants Union Station to be beautiful again, he wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again. And today is part of that.”
“We are going to make the investments to make sure that this station isn’t dirty, that we don’t have homelessness in Union Station,” Duffy said. “We want a place where businesses want to obtain leases and set up shop and serve the community of D.C. and also the people who travel into D.C. via train. But also … if you want to go to a great meal and you want to go shopping, you want to come to Union Station because it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful, it’s safe.”
Last week, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Union Station to thank National Guard members stationed there. During the visit, Vance spoke to reporters about Union Station and crime there.
“You have vagrants, you have drug addicts, you have the chronically homeless. You have the mentally ill who harass, who threaten violence, who attack families, and they’ve done it for far too long. This should be a monument to American greatness. There should be a place where you can come and share a meal or go shopping with your family. It should not be a place where parents of small children are afraid to bring them,” Vance said.
Catelin Drey, Democratic candidate for the Iowa State Senate, is seen in an advertisement for her campaign. Catelin Drey Campaign
(WASHINGTON) — National Democrats are celebrating the results of a special election for the Iowa State Senate, after Democrat Catelin Drey won in a district President Donald Trump carried by 11 points in 2024 to break a Republican supermajority of the chamber.
Republicans argue the low turnout race won’t reflect the voters who come out to support the party in the midterms, and that the results are influenced by the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to inject national money and volunteers into the race.
But the results are a potential warning sign for Republicans and suggest Democratic voters may be more engaged heading into next year’s elections, where control of Congress is at stake.
Drey won with 55% of the vote, with Republican Christopher Prosch garnering 44%, according to preliminary results from the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office.
“For the fourth special election in a row, Iowa voted for change,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said after Drey’s victory.
“Our state is ready for a new direction and Iowa Democrats will keep putting forward candidates who can deliver better representation for Iowans,” Hart added.
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on Wednesday the party mobilized more than 30,000 volunteers to aid Drey and Iowa Democrats.
Martin, in a statement touting Drey’s victory, said Iowans are “putting Republicans on notice and making it crystal clear: any Republican pushing Trump’s unpopular, extreme agenda has no place governing on behalf of Iowa families.”
“That’s why all year long, Iowans have been electing Democrats ready to fight for working Iowans. Make no mistake: when Democrats organize everywhere, we win everywhere, and today is no exception,” Martin said.
This is the second time this year that Democrats have won a special election in Iowa. In January, they flipped another Iowa State Senate seat in a GOP area that President Trump won by 21 points last November.
The result of Tuesday’s special election also has practical implications for the state. Without a supermajority, Republicans can no longer confirm the governor’s appointees without Democratic support.
Iowa Republican Party chair Jeff Kaufman, on social media, downplayed the win for Democrats.
“National Democrats were so desperate for a win that they activated 30,000 volunteers and a flood of national money to win a state senate special election by a few hundred votes,” Kaufman wrote on X. “If @DNC thinks things are suddenly so great again for them in Iowa, they will bring back the caucuses.”
Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, speaks during a press conference with Texas Democrats at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades union hall on August 05, 2025 in Aurora, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Democrats are in a tough stretch. Their fundraising and voter registration lags Republicans. And polls show American voters find the party generally unfavorable.
But at this week’s Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Minneapolis, members are desperate to turn a page, shed a rudderless reputation, and more clearly define their platform as they look to deliver wins in upcoming governor’s races and the midterms next year.
In fact, at least a half dozen members who spoke to ABC News say that they are eager to start fighting back more aggressively against President Donald Trump and feel like some of the problems the party finds itself in is due to compounding factors, rather than the direct fault of Chair Ken Martin, who was elected in early February.
One of the ways Democrats believe they can get their footing back is leaning into the recent outrage around Republican efforts to pursue mid-decade redistricting and take a page out of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s playbook to give Trump a taste of his own rhetoric. Many members also believe they can resonate with voters as they push back against the impacts Trump’s spending and policy bill have on health care and costs.
“We all know that this is going to be an uphill battle. We all know that there’s tremendous challenges ahead, but we also know that the American people are not happy with the way things are turning out, and you see it in the polling,” said Maria Cardona, a member from Washington, D.C., who brushed off anxieties about Democrats in disarray as “b——t.”
“All of this internal b——t is exactly that — it’s b——t,” Cardona said.
This week’s meeting is the first major gathering of Martin’s tenure — and an early litmus test of his popularity and trust in his leadership, as his first few months have been mired in growing pains.
The DNC reported having around only $14 million cash on hand as of the end of July — far less than the Republican National Committee, which reported having $84.3 million cash on hand. The DNC also fundraised less than the RNC in July.
The news is better for Democrats’ official U.S. House campaign arm. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported having $40.4 million cash on hand by the end of July, while its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, reported having $37.6 million cash on hand. The DCCC also outpaced the NRCC in fundraising in July.
Martin has faced increased scrutiny and criticism over infighting surrounding Gen Z activist David Hogg, who resigned from his role as vice chair after he promised to support primary challenges of incumbent Democrats he saw as complacent. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also stepped away from the DNC in June, writing in her resignation letter she is “out of step” with new party leadership. Weingarten endorsed Martin’s most prominent chair challenger, Ben Wikler, the former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair.
When asked by ABC News about Democratic voter registration lagging as reported by The New York Times last week, Martin said the party has “work to do, for sure,” and pointed to the committee’s new organizing summer project, a volunteer training and voter registration initiative that sets to train Democrats to engage — and ideally convert voters — in non-political spaces in battleground areas and online as proof of concept.
“We’ve got to get back to registering voters — that’s what the DNC has already started this year with our summer organizing program. We are doing that with our state parties now,” Martin said during an event at the Minnesota State Fair.
Shasti Conrad, a DNC member from Washington state, said that grief over the election loss has permeated several conversations with fellow members, but has felt a recent energy shift, particularly after Texas House Democrats denied a quorum to delay the passage of new congressional district maps — which now await the signature of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“When you lose an election like we did last year, you’re going to feel people’s rage, their sadness, their despair, all of that, and that is very much, has been what has been reverberating through every conversation that I’ve had,” Conrad said. “I think we’re all trying to move through this.”
Conrad continued: “We are starting to really get on solid footing, and that’s my hope with this meeting, is that we’ll be able to walk out of here feeling ‘Ok, we’re settled.'”
Conrad finds some of the handwringing about fundraising and voter registration “slightly overblown” and feels like the organization is in a solid place and has room to grow.
That doesn’t mean internal concerns have evaporated — but members feel concern is finally resulting in consensus.
“This is the crows coming home to roost. We’ve abandoned partisan voter registration for a very long time and it’s no surprise that we’re not only losing elections, but we’re also losing voters,” said progressive DNC member Michael Kapp from California. Kapp says he is “so happy” that Martin, in his view, is focused on righting the wrong.
Kapp said he believes it’s a “new day at the DNC” and that many members are frustrated with national Democratic top brass — like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — for not doing enough. He also suggested that some members are galvanized to be a more active resistance.
“I see anger. I see willingness to stand up and defend the communities that are being impacted by this administration. I see frustration that we can’t move fast enough, and I know that that’s a frustration that Chair Martin himself feels, but he’s working like crazy,” Kapp said.
“A number of members arrived concerned about the direction of the party, but the focus on unity and messaging has been well received,” North Dakota member Jamie Selzler said. Selzler added that while he expects conversations about the fundraising figures to keep coming up, “There’s a sense that standing up against Republican overreach over the next few years and winning in Virginia and New Jersey this year will be an important factor in proving we can fight back.”
Andre Treiber, a Texas DNC member and youth council chair, feels like the committee is nearing the end of a “rebuild phase.”
“This is going to be repouring the final cement,” Trieber said. “The Democratic Party definitely has a brand issue, and I think that is what so many people here this week care a lot about fixing.”
For John Verdejo, a DNC member from North Carolina, the next step for the party is to keep things simple — focus on core issues like affordability, for instance — and stop feeling sorry for yourself.
“We need to get our message straight,” said Verdejo, who stressed the party should keep things simple: focus on core issues like affordability, for instance.
Verdejo understands why some members of the party may be licking their wounds post-loss, but believes the complaining should wrap as the committee reaches a critical transition point. Internally, there’s a desire for more fighters, Verdejo said, which he does see reflected in Martin, who he and other Democrats who spoke to ABC maintain is broadly well-liked despite the early challenges of his tenure.
“We need to, we need to think differently, strategically, dirty even, take the gloves off. Never mind the polling, never mind what the stats say. Never mind what the numbers say … people want to see that fire in us. Let’s give it to them. This is life or death out here,” Verdejo added.
In creating the nation’s central bank, Congress explicitly sought to insulate the Fed from political interference by mandating 14-year terms for board members appointed by a president and confirmed by the Senate.
Federal law says members can only be fired “for cause,” which has been interpreted to mean inefficiency, neglect, or malfeasance while in office.
No president has ever tried to terminate a member of the Federal Reserve for cause, and no court has ever been asked to weigh in on such an action.
The administration accuses Cook, who was appointed by President Biden in 2022, of “gross negligence” based on unproven allegations that she had engaged in mortgage fraud before taking office. Cook denies any wrongdoing.
Legal experts say her continued tenure at the bank could turn on whether courts find sufficient evidence exist of alleged “malfeasance” and how much discretion the president may have to decide whether the standard has been met.
The showdown is expected to play out over the next few weeks with at least a preliminary decision by the Supreme Court possible before the end of the year.
“President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis,” Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement Tuesday. “We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.”
While the Supreme Court has recently endorsed broad presidential power to remove members of independent agencies that exercise executive power – like the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), National Labor Relations Board (NRLB), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) – the conservative majority of justices has also made clear that the Fed is different.
“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the court wrote in an unsigned May opinion that allowed Trump to terminate Democratically-appointed members of the MSPB and NLRB.
The court emphasized that its ruling for Trump did not implicate the legality of for-cause removal protections at the Fed. By implication, the Court suggested that members of the Fed do not exercise power on behalf of the president.
The ultimate outcome of the landmark dispute is far from clear, however.
As Justice Elena Kagan noted in May – dissenting from her conservative colleagues in the case of Trump’s firings at the MSPB and NLRB – “[I] do not doubt the the majority’s intention to avoid imperiling the Fed. But then, today’s order poses a puzzle. For the Federal Reserve’s independence rests on the same constitutional and analytic foundations” as that of the other independent government agencies Congress has created.
Governor Wes Moore holds a press conference at Salvation Army Annapolis Corps with energy company partners to announce an initiative to help lower energy costs for Marylanders. Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — After a weekend of tit-for-tat jabs on social media and television, President Donald Trump and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore are continuing their feud — with Trump claiming the governor called him the “greatest president of my lifetime,” but Moore referring to this as an “imaginary conversation.”
While signing executive orders in the Oval Office Monday afternoon, Trump continued his ongoing criticism of Moore and the city of Baltimore for being a “deathbed” with “tremendous crime,” before flashing back to an interaction that he described fondly.
“I met him at the Army-Navy game. They said, ‘Oh there’s Gov. Moore. He’d love to see you.’ He came over to me, hugged me, shook my hand, you were there. He said, ‘Sir, you’re the greatest president of my lifetime,'” Trump said, adding that Moore had told him he was doing a “fantastic job.”
“I said, ‘That’s really nice that you say that. I’d love you to say that publicly, but I don’t think you can do that so it’s OK,'” the president continued.
But the governor denied that such a conversation ever happened, calling it “imaginary.”
“I’m a person who takes my integrity very seriously and I spent the past six months before that election campaigning as to why I did not think that he should be the next president of the United States, so when I say that that conversation never happened — that imaginary conversation never happened — I mean, that conversation never happened,” Moore told WBAL Radio.
Moore also turned to X Monday evening, writing, “Keep telling yourself that, Mr. President” in response to a clip of Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office.
A video clip from the Army-Navy game aired on Fox News Monday night, showing the two smiling and shaking hands, with Moore saying “it’s great to see you … it’s great to have you back here.” However, there was no mention of Moore calling Trump the “greatest president” of his lifetime.
“We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” Moore told the president, emphasizing federal funding to repair Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge as a focal point for the state of Maryland. A cargo ship struck the historic bridge last year, causing a partial structural collapse and plunging multiple vehicles from the bridge into the water.
“We’ll help you out,” Trump said after the two conversed some more.
Moore’s office told ABC News that the governor and the president did not have any other interaction at the Army-Navy game apart from what was seen in the video clip.
Yet the White House continues to double down on Trump’s remarks, telling ABC News that Moore’s flattering commentary took place “behind the scenes.”
“Governor Wes Moore heaped praise upon President Trump behind the scenes after the President’s landslide victory on November 5th,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement. “The only reason lightweight Wes Moore is attacking President Trump now is because he’s desperate for attention and delusional enough to think he has a chance at becoming the next President.”
In the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump once again denounced the city of Baltimore’s crime rate, calling it a “hell hole.”
“Wes Moore was telling me … ‘I want to walk with the president.’ Well, I said, ‘I want to work with you, too, someday. But first you’ve got to clean up your crime because I’m not walking.'”
Last week, Moore formally invited the president to join Baltimore officials on a public safety walk. In a letter, Moore highlighted the action Maryland has taken to combat crime while also underscoring the federal cuts made by the Trump administration that have impacted the state.
“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him. I assume he is talking about out of control, Crime ridden, Baltimore?,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in response, saying he “will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” if the governor “needs help.”
The president’s concern with the city’s crime rate comes as the mayor of Baltimore announced “historic reductions in violent crime” last month for the first half of 2025, in addition to citing the lowest homicide rate in 50 years.
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge has dismissed the case brought by the Department of Justice against the entire Maryland judiciary over a standing order that bars the government from deporting undocumented immigrants for at least one day after they file a legal challenge to their detention.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen called the Trump administration’s attacks on district judges across the country a “smear” and “unprecedented and unfortunate.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said he is still prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities besides the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.
The comments come after Trump threatened Chicago as the next city he would target after his administration’s federal takeover of Washington, prompting pushback from Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who on Monday afternoon called the proposed actions “un-American.”
“They should be saying, ‘Please come in,'” Trump told ABC News Correspondent Jay O’Brien as he took questions from reporters the Oval Office after signing executive orders.
Trump still railed against Chicago, which he called a “disaster,” and Pritzker, who he said was a “slob.”
“I made the statement that next should be Chicago, because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don’t acknowledge it. And they say, ‘We don’t need him. Freedom. Freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying ‘maybe we like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person,” the president said.
“But I’m really saying, and I say this to all of you, in a certain way, we should wait to be asked,” Trump continued.
Trump went back and forth repeatedly on Monday over whether the government should wrest control or wait to be asked.
“We may wait. We may or may not. We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do,” Trump said. “The problem is, it’s not nice when you go in and do it and somebody else is standing there saying, as we give great results, say, ‘Well, we don’t want the military.'”
Meanwhile, Pritzker and Chicago officials are speaking out against Trump’s threat to deploy the National Guard.
“Earlier today, in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’ Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,'” Pritzker said at a news conference in Chicago on Monday afternoon.
“What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American,” the governor added.
Crime statistics from Chicago’s Police Department show murders year to date and robberies are down 31% and 33% respectively compared to the same period in 2024. Overall, the statistics show crime in the city is down 13% year to date compared to 2024.
“There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention,” Pritzker said on Monday. “There is no insurrection. Like every major American city in both blue and red states, we deal with crime in Chicago. Indeed, the violent crime rate is worse in red states and red cities.”
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed Trump on whether he would send troops to Republican-led states and cities experiencing high crime. Trump said yes but appeared to brush off that it would ever be necessary.
“Sure,” Trump responded. “But there aren’t that many of them.”
Trump continued to focus on Democrat-led areas and railed against cashless bail policies, though a report from Axios that analyzed FBI crime data showed 13 of the 20 U.S. cities with the highest murder rates were in Republican-run states.
The president on Monday defended the first 11 days of his administration’s takeover of Washington, which includes more than a thousand National Guardsmen deployed to the nation’s capital, some permitted to carry weapons for personal protection.
As part of his crime crackdown, Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending cashless bail in Washington and threatening to revoke federal funds for other areas around the country that have similar policies.
The president also signed an order directing the Justice Department to investigate instances of flag burning for possible charges, despite a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that the government cannot criminalize destruction of an American flag when done as an act of expression.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced that he is removing Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Board Governor, from her position.
In the letter addressed to Cook that was posted on social media Monday night, Trump said there was “sufficient evidence” that Cook made false statements in mortgage agreements in a referral made by Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency to the Department of Justice to remove her from her role.
“At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator,” the letter said.
“I have determined that faithfully executing the law requires your immediate removal from office,” Trump closed the letter.
In response, Cook released a statement saying Trump “has no authority” to fire her and that she will “continue to carry out my duties.”
“I will not resign,” she said.
Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, also indicated legal action is coming, saying they will take “whatever actions are necessary” in order to block what they describe as Trump’s “attempted illegal action.”
ABC News has reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment.
Last week, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, “potentially committing mortgage fraud,” the letter stated.
In a statement provided to ABC News last week, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte’s letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in the statement last week. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
Cook was nominated to serve on the board of governors in 2022 by former President Joe Biden. Her term runs until January 2038. Cook is the first Black woman in history to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is once again upping the pressure on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to do away with a century-old Senate tradition that places some constraints on the president’s authority to appoint judicial nominees.
Trump is targeting the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, a time-honored Senate process that gives senators the right to approve or object to nominees nominated to serve as federal judges or U.S. attorneys in their home states.
Senators approve of a nominee by returning their blue slip to the Judiciary Committee Chairman. If a senator does not return their blue slip or returns it with objections, the nominee does not advance. In blue states like New York, some of Trump’s judicial nominees have stalled out because Democratic senators have not returned blue slips.
In a post on his social media platform on Sunday evening, Trump made his continued displeasure with this Senate tradition known.
I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” Trump said. “This is because of an old and outdated “custom” known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has gone after blue slips and Grassley. But Grassley has consistently committed to maintaining the Senate tradition.
In a post on X on Monday, Grassley once again defended the Senate process.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley posted. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILUREThe 100 yr old “blue slip” allows home state senators 2 hv input on US attys & district court judges In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES.”
But Grassley’s pushback has not dissuaded Trump from trying to force modifications to the process.
While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump doubled down, saying he would file a lawsuit to challenge the use of blue slips, though he did not say who he intended to file suit against. He then blamed Grassley for a lag in the advancement of his appointees to be judges and U.S. attorneys.
“It’s a gentlemen’s agreement that’s about 100 years old, where if you have a president like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or or U.S. attorney in particular,” Trump said. “And this is based on an old custom. It’s not based on a law … And I think it’s unconstitutional. And I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.”
The Senate has the authority to govern itself and typically retains authority to make its own rules and traditions. Blue slips are not codified in the Senate rules, but are rather a courtesy observed by the committee chairman.
The blue slip process goes back to at least 1917, according to the Congressional Research Service. Since the use of blue slips is not codified or in the committee’s rules, the chair has the discretion to determine whether a home state senator’s negative or withheld blue slip stops a judicial nomination from receiving consideration by the committee and whether it reaches the Senate floor.
Trump explicitly expressed his desire to advance nominees like Jay Clayton, who was appointed to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York by Manhattan federal judges earlier this month despite his nomination being stalled in the Senate by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s refusal to return a blue slip on the nominee.
“That’s the only way you get by. But generally speaking, you can’t do that because you’ll have judges from the other party. So, so Jay Clayton just got approved and he’s in, but he didn’t get approved by the senators, Trump said.
Trump said the blue slip process was a barrier for him to get any Republican judges through — that he can now “only get a Democrat U.S. attorney.”
“The only person that I can get approved are Democrats or maybe weak Republicans. But we don’t want that. But the only person I will be able to get approved in any of those states where you have a Democrat will I can’t get a U.S. attorney. I can only get a Democrat U.S. attorney,” Trump said.
Still, Senate Republicans are generally opposed to modifying the tradition.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who serves on the Judiciary Committee and announced earlier this year he wouldn’t seek re-election next year, said in a post on X Monday that getting rid of the blue slip is “short-sighted.”
“Chairman Grassley is a principled conservative who wants to keep radical liberals off the bench. Getting rid of the blue slip is a terrible, short-sighted ploy that paves the path for Democrats to ram through extremist liberal judges in red states over the long-term,” Tillis posted. “It’s why radical liberal groups have been pushing to get rid of the blue slip for years — Republicans shouldn’t fall for it.”
A number of Senate Republicans spoke out when Trump last called for changes to the Senate process in July.
At the time, Majority Leader John Thune expressed little interest in making modifications.
“I think that the blue slip process is something that’s been used for a long time by both sides, and neither side has violated its usage in the past,” Thune said in July. “So my view on it is and I’m happy to hear what Sen. Grassley and some of my colleagues say, “but no, I don’t think there’s any strong interest in changing that up here.”
(WASHINGTON) — Despite more than 2,000 National Guard troops authorized by President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said students in the nation’s capital will not be aided by their presence as children return to school this week.
“We don’t need federal agencies to help get kids to school,” Bowser told ABC News. “We will take care of getting our kids to school.”
The school year begins as Bowser and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) tout proficiency rates in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and math are the highest since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ELA proficiency rate is the highest on record.
Hundreds of thousands of students are returning to the classroom across major metropolitan school districts this week.
Some 100,000 students return to D.C. schools on Monday amid the Trump administration’s surge of law enforcement into Washington. Student safety is always a top issue for education leaders during back-to-school season. However, the presence of troops in Washington is raising new questions as a military-style vehicle was involved in an accident last week and troops will be gathering throughout the city at Metro rail stations, which is how many students get to school.
Bowser said D.C.’s existing transportation strategies include using the district’s safe passage program with local law enforcement lining the streets. If families feel unsafe, the district offers a safe connect program, which connects students with a ride to school.
Bowser believes using the Guard as law enforcement is unnecessary and said the crime rate had decreased “precipitously” before Trump’s surge.
“I think calling men and women from their homes and their jobs and their families — they have to be used on, you know, on mission-specific items that benefit the nation,” Bowser said, adding, “I don’t think we have an armed militia in the nation’s capital.”
But Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith acknowledged that the federal agents spread throughout the city have made improvements to safety.
“Hearing from the officers on the street, some of them have found it to be very helpful, some people in the community have found it to be very helpful,” Smith said.
In Philadelphia, where nearly 200,000 students are returning to schools this week, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington argued crime and shootings have also decreased there. He noted that the nation’s eighth-largest school district is investing in “safety zones” by contracting with the Philadelphia Police Department to provide additional patrols in areas that have an uptick in violence.
“We’ve invested more resources and safe paths programs where we contract with community organizations to oversee children as they traverse, as they make their way to school, to ensure their safety,” Watlington told ABC News. In addition, Philadelphia is hiring more school safety officers for the school district staff, Watlington said Watlington said he is fostering a welcoming environment in the City of Brotherly Love, which he said is creating a culture where young people feel connected, seen, and heard.
“We have to build relationships,” Watlington said.
“We’re focusing on that heavily in the school district, because when kids who feel connected, their social and emotional mental health and wellness are attended to, and they have relationships with each other and with adults, when they see something, they’re more likely to say something and so those are a number of things that we’re doing in our strategic plan to provide for the safety and well being of our young people and our staffs,” he said.
But Watlington and Philadelphia parents and families do have anxiety about significant cuts to its public transit system, SEPTA.
“We just can’t go and get more yellow school buses and put them on the street in Philadelphia,” Watlington said. “We rely on public transit, and it is unfortunate, and it’s no fault of our children that they’ll have some impacts to their transportation.”
Still, Bowser and education officials in both D.C. and Philadelphia agree safety is the top priority for their respective cities. At Bowser’s back-to-school pep rally earlier this month, she stressed a community response is needed to ensure a successful first day back.
Bowser urged D.C. residents to clap, cheer, and celebrate the city’s students all week.
“Our children deserve and will get a joyful start to their school year,” Bowser said, adding, “All the adults in our buildings, all of the people in our government are focused on making sure that that happens.”
“We want them to have a great school year, and we’re all going to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them.”
