DOJ meeting with longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell

(BALTIMORE) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore defended his rhetoric against President Donald Trump over crime in his home city of Baltimore amid an escalating feud between the two leaders.

“I have no interest in fighting with the president, but I have an interest in fighting for my communities and fighting for our people,” Moore told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz in an interview that aired Sunday.

Earlier this month, Trump offered to send the National Guard into other cities across the country after his law enforcement surge into Washington, D.C., calling Baltimore “so far gone.” Moore responded by formally inviting the president to join him and Baltimore officials on a public safety walk.

After the two continued to trade barbs on social media, Trump rebuked the invitation and renewed his threat to send the National Guard into Baltimore, calling the city a “hellhole” in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“Wes Moore was telling me he wants — ‘I want to walk with the president.’ Well, I said, ‘I want to walk with you, too, someday. But first you’ve got to clean up your crime,” Trump said.

Baltimore, like most of the U.S., has seen a drop in crime and homicides in recent years, but remains one of the country’s most violent cities. It had the fifth highest rate of violent crime and fourth highest murder rate per capita in cities with at least 100,000 people last year, according to recent FBI data.

While Moore acknowledged there is still “work to do there,” he touted the progress the state has made and called out the president’s comments.

“It would just be great if we could have a president of the United States to actually understand that this is one of the great American turnaround stories that’s happening right now, and we would love the help to be able to continue to do that work instead of this — arrogant criticism and cynicism that he continues to introduce into the conversation,” Moore said.

Moore said while he “would love more federal support,” he called the National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. “performative.”

Raddatz pressed Moore on the reduction in crime in Washington since the increased federal presence that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser cited this week.

“You’ve heard Mayor Bowser say [they’ve seen an] 87% reduction in carjackings, robberies cut by half. Why wouldn’t you want that here, if that is actually helping?” Raddatz asked.

“If the president of the United States were to have a serious conversation with me and say, what can we do — particularly when you look at the cost of the National Guard of well over a million dollars a day?” Moore responded. “I would tell him things like, we need to make sure we’re increasing funding for local law enforcement.”

“Asking me to deploy my National Guard, people who are not trained for municipal policing, is just not a serious approach,” Moore added.

In posts on his social media platform, Trump has also resurfaced a controversy over Moore’s military record. The New York Times reported last year that Moore falsely claimed to have been awarded a Bronze Star in a 2006 White House application. During his 2022 campaign, clips of Moore being introduced as a Bronze Star recipient and not correcting the interviewers in 2008 and 2010 surfaced.

Moore had been recommended for the medal but did not receive it until last year and has called it an “honest mistake.”

In response, Moore called Trump “President Bone Spurs” in a post on X, referencing Trump’s medical deferment from the Vietnam draft.

Moore said about his post: “When the president wants to attack my military record as someone who’s actually a decorated combat veteran, as someone who actually has served overseas, as someone who has defended the country, I just think that if the president wants to have a real debate about public service and about the sacrifice for this country, he should really sit that debate out. I’m not the one he wants to have it with.”

Asked why he put the Bronze Star on his 2006 application, Moore told Raddatz he “didn’t think about it” since his commanding officers told him to include it.

“I think it’s pretty common knowledge or common belief that when your, when your commanding officers, and your superior officers tell you, ‘Listen, we put you in, and we’ve gone through everything, so as you’re going through your application, include it.'” Moore said. “I included it, and I didn’t think about it.”

Pressed on why he didn’t correct the interviewers when they wrongly introduced him, Moore said “Even at the time of those interviews, it wasn’t something I thought about.”

“Now I’m thankful that the military, after they found out that the paperwork was lost and didn’t process [it], that they came back and awarded me the Bronze Star,” Moore said. “So I do have a Bronze Star that I earned in Afghanistan and a Combat Action Badge that I earned in Afghanistan. So I’m proud of that, but that’s not why I served.”

“But do you regret not correcting when you were introduced that way?” Raddatz asked.

“I don’t regret not going back and consistently looking over my service records. I don’t. I’m thankful for the service I did. I’m grateful for the fact that I had the opportunity to lead soldiers in combat, what a small fraction of this people of this country will ever understand,” Moore responded.

Moore’s national profile has risen from his public clash with the president and some have drawn comparisons to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s brash style.

Asked how Democrats should approach taking on Trump, Moore said the party should “move with the kind of aggression that is necessary.”

“The Democrats don’t have a messaging problem, there’s a results problem. The Democrats have to deliver results and stop being the party of no and slow and start being the party of yes and now because the frustration that people have, it is real,” Moore said.

While speculation mounts about his future presidential ambitions, Moore said he’s focused on delivering results for Marylanders.

“You’ve got to focus on protecting your people right now and the issues that the people in our states are facing, and that’s where I know my focus is,” Moore said.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Democratic statehouse legislators are planning to leave Texas on Sunday in order to break the quorum of a special legislative session in which Republican state legislators are aiming to pass a new congressional map that could create up to five new GOP seats.

The move comes after a marathon public hearing on the plan in the state Capitol on Friday and less than a week after state Republican legislators proposed the new maps. Republicans hold a majority in the Texas state legislature; Democrats had said they would consider all options to stop the maps from being passed, although their options for striking back have been limited.

“We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over,” state Rep. Gene Wu, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.

After news broke of Democratic legislators breaking quorum, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a post on X that Democrats who left should be arrested and brought back to the state capitol.

“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he wrote. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott issued a blistering statement Sunday evening, accusing the House Democrats who fled the state and prevented quorum of doing so for illegitimate reasons. He said their premeditated decision could result in forfeiture of elected state office and demanded they must return when the statehouse reconvenes for special session at 3:00 p.m. CT on Monday or risk losing their jobs.

“This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House,” part of Abbott’s statement read.

The Texas House Democratic Caucus issued a four-word response to Abbott’s letter, “Come and take it.”

The walkout itself cannot stop the passage of the bill, but Democrats aim to run out the clock on the 30-day special legislative session, which would mean Abbott would have to call another one. Texas House Democrats previously broke quorum in 2021 to try to stop an elections bill and in 2003 to try to stop a similar redistricting effort by Republicans. Republicans eventually managed to pass the bills both times.

President Donald Trump has previously said he wanted Texas legislators to draw five new Republican districts.

More than 51 legislators are leaving the state, denying the state House the two-thirds majority out of 150 legislators it needs to have a quorum. An exact number of how many of the 62 Democratic legislators from the state House were leaving was not immediately available.

Democrats who break quorum risk accruing a $500-a-day fine, according to the state House rules, and potential legal action.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, speaking with “War Room” host and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, said on Thursday, “The House rules and the Senate rules both allow for these people to be arrested if they leave … The challenge is, if they go out of state, we lose jurisdiction, and that — it’s been a challenge in the past, but in the end, as long as the governor is willing to keep calling sessions, ultimately they have to come home.”

Paxton also said he was not worried about defending the maps in court: “We’ve got, we’ve got good maps. And the legislature has the right to draw the maps they want. They’re politically based, not race-based. And if they’re politically based, then they’re defensible.”

Some of the Democratic legislators fleeing the state will appear on Sunday evening with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at a press conference. Pritzker has been a staunch supporter of Texas Democrats and has floated the possibility of getting Illinois’ own congressional maps redrawn if Texas redraws its maps. Illinois’ maps have been criticized by outside observers as highly partisan in favor of Democrats.

In late June, the chair of the Texas Democrats, Kendall Scudder, flew from Dallas to Oklahoma to see Pritzker, who was giving remarks at the state Democratic Party’s dinner. The pair had a private meeting during that time to talk about the possibility of lawmakers fleeing the state to Illinois — and if they were to flee the state, that they would have a place they would feel safe and supported.

Since then, Pritzker and Texas Democrats have been in touch, and a small group of them traveled to Chicago in July when members of the delegation left for Illinois and California for brief meetings.

Pritzker and his team have been helping behind the scenes to help find hotels in the area for the Democrats, help their operation, and grease the wheels so things go smoothly for them as they head to Illinois.

The bill containing the maps had been scheduled to be taken up on the state House floor on Monday.

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(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement Sunday the release of U.S. citizen Amir Amiry, who had been considered wrongfully detained in Afghanistan.

This is the fifth release of an American citizen from detention in Afghanistan this year. Amiry’s case was not previously known to the public.

In his statement, Rubio thanked and credited President Donald Trump for his leadership and commitment, and he also gave credit to Qatar for helping to secure Amiry’s release.

“Today, thanks to President Trump’s leadership and commitment to the American people, the United States welcomes home U.S. citizen Amir Amiry who was wrongfully detained in Afghanistan. We express our sincere gratitude to Qatar, whose strong partnership and tireless diplomatic efforts were vital to securing his release,” Rubio said in his statement.

Rubio said there are still other Americans “unjustly detained” in Afghanistan and Trump “won’t rest” until they are returned home.

Officials at the State Department have said they hope an executive order signed by Trump earlier this year will deter nations from wrongfully detaining American citizens and that it will help to secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans abroad. The EO enhances efforts to protect U.S. nationals from wrongful detention abroad by authorizing robust responses against foreign governments engaging in such practices.

Special envoy for hostage response Adam Boehler traveled to Kabul to personally oversee Amiry’s release and to make sure all went according to plan, according to an administration official.

The official notes that Amiry was an American citizen and had received a special immigrant visa (SIV), which is a U.S. immigration program for Iraqis and Afghans who worked for the U.S. government or military to become permanent residents. Examples of SIV holders include translators and interpreters. Details of Amiry’s employment were not provided.

The diplomatic talks and negotiations leading to Amiry’s release was a joint U.S.-Qatari effort. This was not a prisoner exchange and the U.S. did not give anything to the Taliban in exchange for Amiry’s safe return, a U.S. official said.

Amiry’s release and Boehler’s visit to the region comes one week after Trump urged the Taliban to give back control of Bagram Air Base to the United States, threatening “bad things” would happen to Afghanistan if it does not.

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