Harris says she’s full of ‘resolve,’ urges supporters to ‘accept the results of this election’ in concession speech
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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris said her heart is “full of resolve” after losing the presidential election to former President Donald Trump.
“My heart is full today — full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve,” Harris said Wednesday at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for. But … the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up,” Harris said.
“We must accept the results of this election,” she said.
Harris’ defeat came as Trump won the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin overnight. Trump won another swing state, Michigan, on Wednesday.
Trump’s victory underscores just how deep voters’ frustrations were surrounding inflation and immigration, Republicans’ two top issues this election cycle as polls consistently showed Americans’ unhappiness with how President Joe Biden handled them. Trump’s return to the White House also suggests that Democrats were not motivated enough by the prospect of electing the first female president and that its base’s fury over the Supreme Court’s revocation of constitutional abortion protections has waned since 2022.
Harris had an extremely hurried campaign, which began this summer when Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his vice president.
Biden, who plans to address the nation on Thursday, spoke with Harris on the phone Wednesday to congratulate her on “her historic campaign,” the White House said.
Trump and Harris also spoke by phone on Wednesday, according to the Trump campaign. Harris told Trump she will work with Biden to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, unlike the transition in 2020, according to an email Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon sent to campaign staff.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for United Justice Coalition
(DALLAS) — Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger became eligible for parole over the weekend, five years after being convicted of murder in the fatal 2018 shooting of Botham Jean. Jean’s family is calling for the parole board to reject early release for Guyger and to ensure that she serves her full 10-year sentence.
“We have to deal with that sentence for the rest of our lives. So for the person responsible for taking Botham away from us just unjustly and senselessly, the logical thing to do is to have her serve her full sentence,” Allisa Charles-Findley, Jean’s sister, told ABC News in an interview on Monday. “And 10 years, to me, it’s a light sentence for murder.”
Guyger fatally shot 26-year-old Jean on Sept. 6, 2018 while he was eating ice-cream in his Dallas, Texas, home after mistakenly entering his apartment believing it was her own. She was convicted of murder on Oct. 1, 2019, after a jury unanimously rejected Guyger’s self-defense claims in the fatal shooting.
Charles-Findley and her family, including her mother and brother Brandt, who publicly forgave Guyger in an extraordinary moment during her sentencing hearing in 2019, all want to see Guyger serve her full sentence and are planning to share their thoughts in interviews with the parole board next week, she told ABC News.
“Brandt’s forgiveness of Amber Guyger does not mean that she does not get to be punished for her crime,” Charles-Findley said. “Forgiveness doesn’t supersede punishment, so whether he forgave her or not, that has no bearing on her serving her full sentence for committing that crime.”
The date for Guyger’s parole hearing hasn’t been set, and her attorney didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Death of an innocent man: Timeline of wrong-apartment murder trial of Amber Guyger
Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Oct. 2, 2019 and became eligible for parole on Sunday — the day that would have been Jean’s 33rd birthday.
With Guyger ‘s parole eligibility, Charles-Findley said that her brother’s birthday this year was a “very difficult day” for the family as they honored his memory.
“Botham was a praise leader at church, so every single song just reminded me of him. I could hear him singing it,” she said. “So yesterday was hard. We spent it together at church. But after that, I just needed time alone and, like the past six years, I’ve spent Botham’s birthday just crying in bed.”
Guyger, who was fired from her job as a Dallas police officer in the wake of the shooting, was initially facing a maximum sentence of up to 99 years in prison in this case.
Her sentence initially disappointed Jean’s family, with some of them breaking down in tears and shaking their heads after it was announced.
“Ten years was a bitter pill to swallow, but eventually I accepted it,” Charles-Findley told ABC News. “So now, five years later, to have to deal with her being eligible for early release … it feels like just going through this whole trial all over again, because every single minute I have this pit in my stomach just wondering if she will be let go early, and how, how am I now supposed to accept it?”
Amber Guyger convicted of murder in wrong-apartment killing of innocent man
While delivering her victim impact statement ahead of Guyger’s October 2019 sentencing hearing, Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, said she has struggled to work or sleep and her family’s lives had not been the same since her middle child was killed.
“I have to keep the family together because everybody’s in pain,” she said.
Meanwhile, Guyger’s mother, Karen Guyger, said that her daughter hasn’t been the same since the shooting and she “wanted to take [Jean’s] place. She’d always tell me she wished she could have taken his place. She feels very bad about it.”
Jean’s then-18-year-old brother took the witness stand and spoke to Guyger.
“I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you,” Brandt Jean said.
Brandt Jean, who opened up about why he chose to forgive his brother’s killer in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” on Oct. 4, 2019, then asked the judge if he could give Guyger a hug — a request that the judge granted.
“This is what you have to do to set yourself free,” Brandt Jean told “GMA.” “I didn’t really plan on living the rest of my life hating this woman.”
Extraordinary act of mercy: Brother of Botham Jean hugs and forgives Amber Guyger after 10-year sentence imposed
Charles-Findley said that while her brother forgave Guyger because it was “necessary for him to be relieved of the burden,” she is “not there yet.”
“I haven’t started to process forgiving Amber Guyger. I know for me, my reasoning is, I don’t believe her story. I don’t believe she has been honest with the events that took place that night,” she said.
Charles-Findley has petitioned the U.S. Department of Justice to look into this case as she seeks “full accountability,” she noted.
“As his big sister, I will not stop until I just try my hardest to get full accountability for him because he deserves it. He did nothing wrong. Eating ice cream in your apartment, watching football is not a crime, no matter the color of your skin,” she said.The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
After her conviction, Guyger’s attorney filed multiple appeals, but they were rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals — Texas’s highest court — in 2022, according to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA.
Unless she is released on parole, court records indicated that Guyger has a projected release date of Sept. 29, 2029.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The jury has requested to receive two readbacks and several pieces of footage as they continue to deliberate in the subway chokehold death trial of Daniel Penny.
Little more than an hour into deliberations on Tuesday, the jury asked for a readback of a portion of the judge’s instructions on the law. The jury is interested in the part about justified use of force.
They also asked for several pieces of video on Wednesday, including police body camera footage, Penny’s interrogation video, and a bystander’s video.
The jury also asked for a readback of the cross-examination of the city medical examiner who concluded that Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
The medical examiner, the final witness for the prosecution, found that Neely died from compression to the neck and never wavered from her view under intense cross-examination.
The defense countered her conclusion, suggesting public sentiment about the case had influenced her findings and that Neely died of other factors.
The jury requested the definitions of criminal negligence and recklessness on Thursday. They also requested to see two bystander videos — one of which they had already seen — capturing the moments when Penny placed Neely in a chokehold. Wiley allowed the jury to access a laptop with the videos so they could watch the requested videos as many times as they’d like.
The jury — comprised of seven women and five men — is considering whether to convict Penny of manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, on a New York City subway train.
To convict, prosecutors have told the jury that Penny’s use of lethal force must be considered unjustifiable and that Penny acted recklessly and consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for so long. Defense attorneys told the jury that Penny was only trying to protect subway passengers.
Defense attorneys also said that Penny never intended to kill Neely, while prosecutors said they do not have to prove Penny intended to kill Neely to have the jury hand down a guilty verdict.
Read the key takeaways presented to the jury during the weekslong trial here.
(WASHINGTON) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been permanently disbarred from practicing law in the District of Columbia, a court of appeals panel ruled Thursday.
According to the ruling, Giuliani’s disbarment is a resort of reciprocal discipline resulting from his law license being stripped in New York state over his efforts aiding former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
Giuliani’s law license had already been suspended in D.C.
The appeals court panel noted that Giuliani declined to respond when given notice back in July that he could face reciprocal discipline.
In a report issued in July, the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility recommended Giuliani be disbarred, saying that in his capacity as personal attorney to then-President Trump, he committed misconduct by his “frivolous and destructive” efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s win through his failed legal challenges to the election results in Pennsylvania.
According to the report, the former New York City mayor violated two legal ethics rules in bringing the lawsuit, which sought to block the certification of votes in the state following Trump’s defeat.
The committee said that one of the rules was violated when he filed the lawsuit in Pennsylvania “when he had no factual basis and no legitimate legal grounds to do so.”
The other rule Giuliani violated was Pennsylvania’s Rules of Professional Conduct, the report said.
“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the committee wrote.
