Homeland Security designates next Jan. 6 as a ‘National Special Security Event’
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(WASHINGTON) — The act of certifying the presidential election results will now be given the highest security designation the federal government makes available, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.
Jan. 6, 2025, will now be designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE) by the Department of Homeland Security — on par with events like the Democratic and Republican national conventions. This designation allows for “significant resources from the federal government, as well as from state and local partners, to be utilized in a comprehensive security plan,” according to the agency.
“National Special Security Events are events of the highest national significance,” Eric Ranaghan, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, said in a statement. “The U.S. Secret Service, in collaboration with our federal, state, and local partners are committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated security plan to ensure the safety and security of this event and its participants.”
An NSSE is designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security and is led by the Secret Service.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser made a request for the designation, according to the agency.
Jan. 6 is a formality, but the last time Congress attempted to certify the results of the presidential election, a group of supporters of former President Donald Trump breached the Capitol in an attempt to stop it.
The results of Jan. 6 resulted in hundreds of prosecutions by the Justice Department and criminal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith against Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia Thomas arrive at the Heritage Foundation, Oct. 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — An alleged private message from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni to the leader of First Liberty Institute, which describes itself as the nation’s largest religious liberty organization, has triggered a wave of criticism from top Democrats, including a new call for the justice to recuse himself from future cases involving that organization.
First Liberty frequently petitions the high court and is behind a number of landmark conservative victories, including those protecting the ability of public school teachers to pray on the job; helping families obtain state funding to attend religious schools; and, forcing private employers to be more accommodating of religious observance.
On a late July conference call with supporters, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica, First Liberty CEO Kelly Shackelford is heard reading aloud an email from Ginni Thomas cheering on the group’s efforts to oppose a White House push to legislate Supreme Court term limits and an enforceable ethics code, prompted in part by controversy last year over her husband’s previously undisclosed financial ties and luxury travel with a GOP billionaire.
“YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES,” Ginni Thomas apparently wrote to First Liberty head Kelly Shackelford, according to ProPublica. “CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”
Critics said the message suggests Clarence and Ginni Thomas are beholden to First Liberty and benefit directly from its advocacy.
“The reported comments by Ginni Thomas are deeply problematic,” said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in a statement Monday. “She’s testified before Congress that she and Justice Thomas do not discuss each other’s work. That defense now rings hollow. Whether she’s inflating her knowledge of judges’ views on ethics reform or telling the truth, her apparent comments on behalf of judicial officers create a clear appearance of impropriety for Justice Thomas.”
Durbin, who has previously called on Thomas to sit out cases stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot because of his wife’s activism, newly demanded the senior conservative justice also recuse himself from future cases involving First Liberty.
The couple did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. The justice has previously declined to address Democrats’ demands for recusal. First Liberty Institute does not currently have an active case under consideration by the Supreme Court.
Ginni Thomas and the couple’s Republican allies believe Justice Thomas has been the target of a left-wing smear campaign aimed at undermining the conservative-majority court’s credibility. They oppose changes to the Supreme Court’s structure and function and insist the institution must remain insulated from lawmaker meddling.
“People in the progressive, extreme left, upset by just a few cases,” want to change the Court to “really destroy the court, the Supreme Court,” Shackelford says in the recording.
Two members of the court this summer — Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — publicly came out in favor of adopting an enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with the ethics code. Chief Justice John Roberts opposes such a step on constitutional grounds but said publicly last year the matter should be studied. His position has not changed.
“The path forward is clear: Chief Justice Roberts can use his existing power to implement binding ethics reforms,” Durbin said. “Until he does, I will continue pushing to pass our [Supreme Court Ethics, Reform and Transparency] Act and deliver the ethics reforms that the American people—and our democracy—demand.”
The measure cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023 but has not yet received a vote by the full Senate.
While Justice Thomas signed on to the court’s ethics code in late 2023 — which says a justice must avoid the mere appearance of a conflict of interest — it does not apply to spouses, who are not forbidden from engaging in political activity as private citizens. Ginni Thomas has spent decades publicly advocating for conservative causes and was a high-profile supporter of the “Stop the Steal” effort to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
Some legal scholars have pointed out that Ginni Thomas was taking a position on court-related legislation long shared — and publicly expressed — by members of the court from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
Neither the recording nor Ginni Thomas’ email has been independently obtained by ABC News.
(INDIANA, Penn.) — Former President Donald Trump appears to be trying out a new line in an effort to appeal to women — a group where polls show he is behind.
In a rally in battleground Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump said that he will be a “protector” of women and repeated a claim that they “will no longer be thinking about abortion” if he wins the White House — though he often brags about his role in the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe vs. Wade, which secured the constitutional right to abortion. He said similar remarks on social media and a rally over the weekend.
In an effort to court women voters, Trump said at his rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Monday evening that he will make the country safer for women and claimed that women are “poorer, less healthy, less safe, more stressed, depressed and unhappy” than they were four years ago.
“I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector,” Trump said.
He touted his abortion policy suggesting that women will no longer be thinking about it — and celebrated his appointment of three U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overrule Roe vs. Wade.
“You will no longer be thinking about abortion,” Trump said. “Because we’ve done something that nobody else could have done. It is now where it always had to be, with the states and a vote of the people.”
Abortion remains a top issue for voters — especially women — in the upcoming election. Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are working to connect with voters on the topic in what’s expected to be a close contest in November.
And polling shows Trump has some ground to cover with women. Harris leads Trump by nine points (53% to 44%) among women, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Monday was not the first time Trump has said women will “no longer be thinking about abortion” if he becomes president again. Trump made the same claim in a social media post late Friday night, which he then repeated during a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday afternoon.
“Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free,” Trump said at the North Carolina rally of winning the election. “You will no longer be thinking about abortion, because it is now where it always had to be with the states and with the vote of the people. The people are now voting, and many of those votes are far more liberal than we thought.”
Trump added that women’s “lives will be happy, beautiful, and their lives will be great again. So women, we love you. We’re going to take care of you.”
Trump is working to appeal to women, which come after a jury last year found him liable of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Also, the former president has made demeaning comments about women in the past.
In response to Trump’s latest comments about protecting women, the Harris campaign said “Trump snapped” and that “women aren’t stupid.”
“Trump thinks he can control women — he’s wrong,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement Saturday. “He’s terrified that women across the country will vote like our lives and freedoms depend on it, because they do. Women aren’t stupid.”
Harris, who could become the first female president, focused on abortion policy during campaign events in Georgia last week. During them, she slammed Trump on his abortion stance, arguing that it’s impossible to do what’s in the best interest for women and children and also enforce abortion bans.
Polling suggests Harris is gaining momentum nationally, leading Trump 48.3% to 45.6%, according to 538’s polling average. However, a set of New York Times/Siena College polls show a tighter race with Trump leading in the battleground states of Arizona and North Carolina.
Women at Trump’s North Carolina event shared their reactions to the former president’s remarks on the topic.
Sarah Cooper from Wilmington, North Carolina, said that “abortion is an important topic, but we’re glad that he has brought it back to the state level. It really shouldn’t be a federal issue.”
Laura Hinton from Rocky Point, North Carolina, told ABC News that she has “mixed emotions” on abortion.
“I have mixed emotions on the abortion topic in general, because I had to do a medical procedure. So when that happens, I think it definitely needs to be there to protect us, allowing us to make that decision, to keep us safe,” Hinton said.
Still, she said her feelings on abortion would not prevent her from voting for Trump.
“As far as the ballot box this time, I don’t know that would stop me from voting for him, even if that were the case, because, again, he’s put it back in the state’s hands, not in the federal aspect of it.”
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Will McDuffie and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats again helped Republicans get a short-term government funding bill over the finish line on Wednesday to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
The measure is largely an extension of current funding levels but includes $231 million in additional aid to the Secret Service to help protect presidential candidates during the election.
The bill passed by a 341-82 margin, with 209 Democrats voting for it. While 82 Republicans voted against the bill, 132 voted with Speaker Mike Johnson, who saw his funding plan voted down last week as Democrats rejected the inclusion of the controversial SAVE Act.
The SAVE Act, pushed by Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, would have required proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Democrats said that measure was unnecessary because it’s already a crime for noncitizens to vote. Although Johnson said there was “no daylight” between him and Trump on the funding bill, Trump called several hardline House Republicans in recent days, trying to get a last-minute change to the plan.
Before the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pointed out that it has been House Democrats that have helped Republicans avoid shutdowns during the current Congress.
“Can anyone name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have been able to do on their own to make life better for the American people? A single thing? Just one,” he asked. “Can the American people name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans have done to make their lives better? Zip, zero. So that is the track record that will be presented to the American people,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump had called on congressional Republicans to allow the government to shut down over the SAVE Act.
Johnson told ABC News, “I am not defying President Trump” when asked if the former president approved of the new solution to avoid a shutdown.
“I’ve spoken with him at great length, and he is very frustrated about the situation,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “His great concern is election security, and it is mine as well. It is all of ours.”
Johnson asserted Trump “understands the current dilemma” with House Republicans and said, “there’s no daylight between us.”
The White House and congressional Democrats all slammed Johnson’s attempt to tie the voter eligibility legislation to government funding, noting that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.
But the “clean” short-term measure to avert a shutdown was praised by Democratic leaders and the Biden administration.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would “immediately move” to pass the measure as soon as the House sends it over, and “if all goes well in the House, the Senate should be sending President Biden a bill before the end of today.
“Americans can breathe easy that because both sides have chosen bipartisanship, Congress is getting the job done,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We will keep the government open. We will prevent vital government services from needlessly coming to a halt. We will give appropriators more time to fully fund the government before the end of the year. And I’m especially pleased we’re getting the job done with some time to spare.”
In addition to funding the government through Dec. 20, the bill includes funds to replenish FEMA and $231 million for the U.S. Secret Service in the wake a second apparent assassination attempt against Trump.
The White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday released a statement calling for “swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly, unnecessary Government shutdown.”
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
