First-time voters discuss political issues at gathering in Washington, DC
ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Hundreds of first-time voters from all over the United States gathered in Washington, D.C., in July for a political experiment: a rare opportunity to discuss the 2024 presidential election’s top issues with strangers for three days straight.
The gathering, called “America in One Room: The Youth Vote,” was a collaboration between Close Up Foundation, Stanford University, the Generation Lab, global problem solving organization Helena and the University of Southern California. ABC News’ Christiane Cordero was there, talking to some of the young voters for “GMA3.”
The group of roughly 500 young adults from a variety of backgrounds spent part of their time together in one room. Otherwise, they gathered in small groups for face-to-face talks about different policy issues. Those issues range from the deeply divisive, like the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, to those with a direct impact on their lives.
For Emilea Johnson from Goodridge, Minnesota, a town with a population of around 112, that issue is health care.
“My dad is a farmer. My mom works at the church, which offers no benefits,” Johnson told Cordero. “So navigating the world of health care is extremely challenging when you have to try and figure it out on your own.”
Despite how personal the issue of health care feels, Johnson said she doesn’t have a problem hearing from someone who disagrees with her. Chardon Black from Cleveland, Ohio, expressed concern that many people in the U.S. consider others disagreeing with them to be a form of insult.
“I’ve learned that disagreements are OK and disagreements are fine, as long as you’re expressing yourself in your opinion and the things you care about,” he said.
Before and after the event, participants were asked to share how they felt about a range of issues.
“This is what polling should be,” Henry Elkus, founder and CEO of Helena, said.
The Deliberative Poll found that the weekend experience increased the participants’ satisfaction with democracy from 29% to 58%.
Opposition to a nationwide ban on abortion medication increased from 78% to 80%, the survey said, including among those who identified as Republican.
However, support for increasing the federal minimum wage dropped from 62% to 48%, according to the survey.
And while many participants said they were committed to climate action, after the event support for the U.S. achieving energy independence increased from 62% to 76%, the survey said.
Elkus highlighted a distinct lack of interest in partisan politics among participants.
“They don’t care about the candidates, they care about the issues,” he told “GMA3.” “We see this over and over and over again. They have a very grounded and felt sense that we need to fix this country.”
The ultimate goal was to reach consensus on one thing: take the lessons learned at the gathering and share them.
“Democracy is collaborative, and I hope that everyone will have access to such safe environments for us to share our stories, conversations and to deliberate,” Elaine Gombos from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said in a video diary after the event.
These young voters will be polled again closer to Election Day, to see if their views have shifted. The event’s sponsors are considering doing another event in 2025 – one that focuses on views about artificial intelligence. “This will bring potential for isolated severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts and localized flash flooding this afternoon into evening,” according to the NWS.
(CHICAGO) — Former director of communications for Trump’s transition team, Bryan Lanza, and former Senator Heidi Heitkamp spoke with ABC News about their opinions regarding Vice President Kamala Harris and her presidential campaign.
Lanza said that Harris has not had to answer for the various policy changes she’s made over the last 4 to 6 years, which he says leaves her answers ambiguous while making her solutions seem suitable for everyone. He also stated that Harris has significantly benefited from what he calls a “sugar high” of the media pumping her up and that the Democrats have just been so relieved that it’s no longer Joe Biden on the ticket.
Heitkamp disagreed with Lanza and rebutted by saying that when Harris talks about day care, paid family leave, affordable education and affordable housing — they are each her own ideas. The former North Dakota senator also accused the Republican Party of whining when they talk about the Harris campaign as being borne of canceling a taxpayer-funded primary.
Heitkamp and Lanza debated on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.
ABC NEWS: Joining us now is former senator and ABC News contributor Heidi Heitkamp and former Trump communications adviser Bryan Lanza. Thank you both so much for joining us.
Let’s start with you, Heidi. We’re talking about the momentum, really, Kamala Harris has going into the convention. What do you feel that she’s on solid ground about? And what do you think she still has work to do on?
HEITKAMP: Well, she’s going to have a lot of work to do because you can’t just build on kind of this change in the hey, I wouldn’t say sugar high, but the kind of momentum that you had. I think you already see it plateauing somewhat.
And so she’s got to come out. She’s got to energize young people, which I think she can do because young people have been pretty discouraged. They look at a ticket between Joe Biden and President Trump and they go, ‘you know, they don’t look like me. They don’t know my problems.’ They see her and they really see someone I think that they’re interested in learning more about. And if she can energize young people, suburban women, I think she’s on the way to victory. But that’s, that’s not a given.
ABC NEWS: And Bryan, same question to you. What do you think is working and where do you think that she has work to do still when it comes to convincing maybe some of those Nikki Haley supporters or independents who might still be on the fence?
LANZA: Well, thank you for having me. And, you know, clearly where it’s working is not answering any questions. She doesn’t have to answer the various policy changes that she’s made over the last 4 to 6 years and not have an answer that sort of makes her ambiguous and makes her solution for everybody. But you saw on Friday when she rolled out, you know, some of her economic policies and she talked about, you know, price controls.
You know, that sort of drew some criticism from some very liberal newspapers and even drew some criticism from Nancy Pelosi, who said she’d like Kamala Harris to govern from the center.
So I think she’s benefited a lot from, I’ll call it, a sugar high of the media sort of pumping up Kamala Harris. And the Democrats just been so relieved that it’s not Joe Biden on the ticket anymore. But as with all sugar highs, they all crash. And we’re starting to see the crash now as she talks more and more about policy, which she can’t defend because she’s been a part of this administration that has been, has stood by during record inflation, record illegal immigration, two wars and possibly a third.
I mean, the world is on fire and it was under their watch.
ABC NEWS: Heidi, I just want to put his response right to you. Heard him there. He says sugar high comes first and then, and then you crash.
HEITKAMP: Yeah, I don’t believe that. I think that when you look at what she’s been able to accomplish so far, I think they thought the steam was going to go out of this momentum a lot earlier. And it hasn’t. And I think, you know, I’m going to just take issue with this idea that she’s been speaking to concerns of the American people.
When she’s talking about day care, when she’s talking about paid family leave, she’s talking about making education affordable, housing affordable. Those are all ideas that she has, you know, she has poll tested — they are true. And they have someone who isn’t talking about this at all.
ABC NEWS: And Bryan, Republicans have been very critical of this passing of the torch from Biden to Harris. How do you think that this will play out for voters who think that President Biden was forced out by members of his own party?
LANZA: Clearly he was, and from my perspective, I love the fact that the primaries don’t have to exist at the presidential level anymore. It’s a political operative I’ve found rather annoying, hard to predict, and a tremendous waste of resources.
So I think with the Democrats breaking the seal and canceling out 14 million votes, you’re canceling a taxpayer-funded primary. I think that sets a precedent for less primaries going forward, not more. And so I think they, you know, passing the torch sort of thing. They’ve been successful at it, you know, not having to address the 14 million people who voted millions of dollars of taxpayers that instituted the election and come out to 1,800 phone calls to get it, to get the nomination.
But I think that the, the sort of the end of their argument about threat to democracy. So it cost them a very valuable talking point that they had, but they ultimately got here and, you know, good for her. She unified her party. But by that, I mean, it wasn’t because 14 million people voted. They vacated 14 million people’s votes to get her here.
ABC NEWS: Heidi, I really do have questions for you. But it’s more interesting to get your reaction to Bryan because I see you reacting, shaking your head as he’s talking.
HEITKAMP: I hope Bryan encourages the entire Republican Party to only talk about this switcheroo as some kind of threat to democracy, as opposed to something that needed to happen in order to present the candidate that the public wanted to see. And so the more they complain about this, it’s just whining.
They now have a race between Kamala Harris, who their principal at once upon a time said would be easier to defeat than Joe Biden. So why not be happy about it? As Republicans, they know better. They know that Kamala Harris is is, has already surged in the polls. This race, which was in a very dire condition for the Democratic Party, now is dead even. And she has momentum behind her. And so keep complaining. Keep talking about it because it’s not going to win any votes.
ABC NEWS: Bryan, I’ll give you 15 seconds; Final word here.
LANZA: You know I’m not complaining. You asked the question, but, listen, from our standpoint, once this question, once the election gets back to the issues that matter, inflation, immigration, the wars, it’s clearly, it’s clear that President Trump has the advantage.
There’s a reason Joe Biden is not on the ballot today because he wasn’t able to sell success on those particular issues. And Kamala has less ability to sell that success. Sell that, especially with her sort of liberal San Francisco values and these dangerous liberal policies that she helped introduce on Friday.
ABC NEWS: Bryan Lanza, Heidi Heitkamp, thank you both so much. Good conversation. We appreciate the back and forth. All right. Give both perspectives and opinions on here. We appreciate it.
(WASHINGTON) — When Congress returns to Washington on Monday after summer recess, lawmakers will be staring down a looming government shutdown on Sept. 30 when funding is set to run out.
But before they get down to brass tacks, Republicans and Democrats will face off in an election-year partisan battle over voter eligibility.
During a private phone call with the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, sources told ABC News that House Speaker Mike Johnson outlined his plan to avert a government shutdown — rallying House Republicans around a short-term government funding bill that extends funding into March 2025 but includes a major policy proposal Democrats warn will kill the money bill.
Sources said Johnson told members that he wants to hold a vote on his short-term funding plan early next week — although next week’s floor schedule has not been officially announced.
House leaders regularly attach priority items to must-pass stopgap funding bills as a means of pushing through measures their members demand.
This will be no different, as Johnson told members. According to sources, he’ll attempt to attach the SAVE Act — a bill requiring individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote — to the funding bill.
Johnson’s opening salvo to address the looming funding deadline likely won’t be a winning solution. But with a narrow majority and conservatives clamoring for the SAVE Act, he will attempt to lay down a legislative marker in the House — and give GOP members legislation to point to on the campaign trail.
Senate Democrats have already said the SAVE Act is a non-starter for them, but Johnson’s move sets up a showdown between the chambers with just months remaining until Election Day.
What is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act?
The SAVE Act, which has the backing of former President Donald Trump and the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is a bill that seeks to expand proof of citizenship requirements to vote in federal elections. It bans states from accepting and processing an application to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.
The House passed the SAVE Act on July 10 by a bipartisan vote of 221-198, with five election-year vulnerable Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with all Republicans. It’s unclear whether that same support would carry over into Johnson’s planed showdown vote over funding the government.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus calls the bill “extreme and dangerous” and warns it would purge millions of legal voters from state rolls and make it much more difficult for Americans to reregister to vote.
“Let’s call it what it is — this is a direct attack on hard-working families, including Latino communities,” the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said in a statement following House passage of the bill.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on Republicans to drop the SAVE Act from their funding bill and to instead advance a clean short-term version, called a continuing resolution, or CR.
“We want to see a clean CR,” Jean-Pierre told ABC’s Karen Travers. “That’s what we want to see.”
The administration “strongly opposes” the SAVE Act, Jean-Pierre said. “It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. It’s already illegal.”
Senate Democrats almost sure to oppose
Johnson’s proposal is likely to set off a fierce fight between the House and the Senate, as Senate Democrats will almost certainly reject the stopgap bill because of the inclusion of the SAVE Act.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray called it a “poison pill” and a “nonstarter.”
“We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. Senate Democrats will continue to work in a bipartisan way to ensure we can keep the government funded and deliver responsible, bipartisan spending bills that can actually be signed into law before the end of the year,” Murray said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not yet outlined a plan for dealing with government funding, but he warned House colleagues against the inclusion of any partisan matters in a must-pass funding bill.
“As we have said each time we’ve had CR, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way and that is what has happened every time,” Schumer said in a statement to ABC News.
It’s also not yet clear whether the March 2025 extension date Johnson is proposing will sit well with Democrats, who may seek a much shorter stopgap that allows them to continue to debate and potentially lock in annual appropriations during the lame-duck session at the end of this year.
If it feels to you like we just did this, you’re not wrong.
Government funding expires annually at the end of the federal government’s fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Passing annual appropriations for 2024 was especially calamitous. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost his job over it. Johnson was installed because of it, but not without also facing threats to his position. Johnson ultimately implemented a never-before-seen two deadline system to help push the ball over the line.
Congress did not complete its work codifying current spending levels until mid-March, blowing months past the annual deadline. By the time all the bills were passed, they only funded the government for about six months.
Once again, the deadline is fast-approaching at the end of the month.
As of Wednesday, the House had passed five of the 12 individual government funding bills, including for Defense, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and State-Foreign Operations.
House GOP leaders hoped they would be able to clear all 12 bills, but the reality is that there is not enough time to do so.
Right after taking the gavel in October 2023, Johnson said in a letter obtained by ABC News to colleagues that he would not break for August recess until all 12 appropriations bills had passed the House.
“DO NOT break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House,” Johnson wrote in his first letter as speaker.
That promise was not kept.
Meanwhile, to date, the Senate has not passed a single appropriations bill.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he is “heartbroken, devastated, mad” over the six hostages whose bodies were recovered Saturday in Gaza.
The hostages, which included 23-year-old Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, “were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. IDF officials identified the additional five hostages as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt. Ori Danino.
“If you want the hostages home, which we all do, you have to increase the cost to Iran. Iran is the great Satan. Hamas is the junior partner. They’re barbaric, religious Nazis — Hamas, they could care less about the Palestinian people,” Graham told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl during an interview on Sunday. “I would urge the Biden administration and Israel to hold Iran accountable for the fate of [the] remaining hostages and put on the target list oil refineries in Iran if the hostages are not released.”
Graham urged President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “tell the Ayatollah [Ali Khamenei] what he values is on the target list. Until that happens, nobody is coming home.”
Graham, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not attending Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress in July, saying: “She boycotted Bibi’s speech to Congress, sending a signal to Hamas and Iran that America does not really have Israel’s back.”
At the time, a Harris aide insisted to ABC News that the vice president did not preside because of a scheduling conflict, not to boycott or snub the Israeli prime minister. When pressed by Karl on Sunday that Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance also decided to not attend the address, Graham defended the Ohio senator, saying: “JD has been unequivocally supporting Israel. She [Harris] has been horrible. She is slow-walking weapons. She did not attend the speech, and that juiced up every terrorist in the region.”
“I would say on foreign policy, she [Harris] has been a wrecking ball,” Graham said.
Graham said Trump should highlight her failure on foreign policy and her role with the southern U.S. border at the ABC News presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 10.
While he acknowledged Harris “obviously has some talent” given her political experience, Graham said overall “her job performance has been lousy” as vice president. He urged Trump to focus on issues in a head-to-head race, saying: “Every poll says the same thing. The American people trust you with what matters the most to them — the economy, inflation, border security and just managing the government.”
“If I were you, my friend, I would focus on those issues laser-like and you will win this race,” he added.
Trump last week added a new campaign pledge to get IVF paid for by the government or covered by insurance. When asked Sunday about Trump’s IVF announcement, Graham told Karl: “I think he [Trump] just tried to show his support for IVF treatments that, you know, we’ve been accused, the party has, of being against birth control. We are not. We’ve been accused of being against IVF treatments. We’re not.”
Graham said he’d support a tax credit for Americans using IVF and other treatments to become pregnant.
“I would support a tax credit,” Graham said. “That makes sense to me, to encourage people to have children.”
However, when pressed by Karl, the South Carolina senator said he does not support mandating insurance companies to cover what Trump proposed regarding IVF.
“You wouldn’t support this idea of mandating insurance companies to cover this, would you?” Karl asked.
“No. No, I wouldn’t because there’s no end to that,” he said. “I think a tax credit for children makes sense, means tested. … I’ll talk to my Democratic colleagues. We might be able to find common ground here.”
The presidential debate set to be held by ABC News will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Sept. 10 and will be moderated by “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis. It will be produced in conjunction with ABC station WPVI-TV/6abc, and will air live at 9 p.m. ET on the network and on the ABC News Live 24/7 streaming network, Disney+, and Hulu.
