Illinois National Guard authorized for Chicago mission, official says
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(CHICAGO) — The Illinois National Guard has received an official notification from the Pentagon authorizing a mission in Chicago, according to an Illinois official.
The official confirmed the mission will involve 300 Guardsmen tasked with protecting federal property under Title 10 authorities.
The Guard has not received mobilization orders, which means it will take a number of days to process and muster soldiers — and train them for the mission, according to the official.
At the very earliest, Guardsmen would be deployed in Chicago at the end of this week, the official said.
“The Governor did not receive any calls from any federal officials. The Illinois National Guard communicated to the Department of War that the situation in Illinois does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status,” a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.
The authorization comes amid escalating tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, alleging she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the CBP agents’ vehicles.
Describing the incident as “really strange,” Noem alleged that before the shooting, a caravan of 10 vehicles was following the CBP agents and officers through the streets of Chicago.
“They had followed them and gotten them cornered, pinned them down and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over and had semiautomatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves and shots were fired and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said in a statement on Sunday.
North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger looks on as Rep. Destin Hall speaks during a press conference at the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — The North Carolina House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a new congressional map into law, two days after the state Senate approved it, giving the Republican Party the chance to net a new seat in the 2026 midterms.
Republican legislators said they want to adopt the new map to bolster President Donald Trump and the effort comes as the White House continues encouraging Republicans to redraw their state maps ahead of the midterm elections in order to help Republicans flip more seats.
In a striking moment just ahead of a committee vote on Tuesday, protesters in the hearing room chanted “Berger’s maps are racist maps!” — referring to state Sen. Phil Berger, who introduced the redistricting proposal, and “Fascists!” as they were led out by law enforcement.
Democrats argue the new map could impact Black voters and could cause U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat and one of three Black members of the state’s congressional delegation, to lose his seat in the midterms.
At a rally outside the Capitol ahead of Tuesday’s vote, U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, another member of the state’s Democratic delegation, said, “We know they’re lying when they say, ‘Well, it’s not racial.’ It is racial. They’re going to take out, trying to take out, the only Black male that we have.”
Republicans argue the map was not drawn with racial considerations and is meant to combat Democratic-aligned congressional map-drawing in other states, such as California.
Berger, who announced the mid-decade redistricting push last week, wrote on X on Tuesday morning ahead of the vote, “Across the country, Democrat-run states have spent decades ensuring that Republicans would be drawn out of Congress. North Carolina Republicans will not sit quietly and watch Democrats continue to ignore the will of the people in an attempt to force their liberal agenda on our citizens.”
North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Josh Stein, has slammed the redistricting effort but has no power to veto any district maps, according to an analysis of state law by the Rutgers University Eagleton Institute of Politics
Currently, North Carolina’s congressional delegation is made up of 10 Republicans and four Democrats.
Trump himself has been openly supportive of the effort. In a post on his social media platform on Friday, he called on legislators to adopt the map: “this new Map would give the fantastic people of North Carolina the opportunity to elect an additional MAGA Republican in the 2026 Midterm Elections, which would be A HUGE VICTORY for our America First Agenda, not just in North Carolina, but across our Nation.”
Davis, the Democratic member whose seat is put at risk by the new map, told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday that he has never heard any requests from constituents for a new map.
“In the 2024 election with record voter turnout, NC’s First Congressional District elected both President Trump and me,” Davis wrote. “Since the start of this new term, my office has received 46,616 messages from constituents of different political parties, including those unaffiliated, expressing a range of opinions, views, and requests.
“Not a single one of them included a request for a new congressional map redrawing eastern North Carolina. Clearly, this new congressional map is beyond the pale.”
One of the speakers who joined a rally with North Carolina Democrats on Tuesday, Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier, has her own experience with fighting mid-decade redistricting — as one of the Texas House Democrats who left the state to deny a quorum when Republican legislators tried to push through a new congressional map. Collier also was temporarily confined to the Texas House after she refused a law enforcement escort for having previously broken quorum.
She told ABC station WTVD’s Michael Perchick that she has been telling legislators to continue to fight, and to “Never quit. Keep fighting. That means take it to the streets and into the courts. We’ve got to fight this in the court system.”
ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a Hispanic Heritage Month event at Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Sept. 15, 2023, in Los Angeles. Mario Tama/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday ruled out running for president in 2028, apparently defending himself against accusations by conservative influencer Laura Loomer that he and top aides are quietly preparing for another White House bid as Kennedy runs America’s health apparatus.
“The swamp is in full panic mode,” Kennedy wrote in a lengthy post on X. “DC lobby shops are laboring fiercely to drive a wedge between President Trump and me, hoping to thwart our team from dismantling the status quo and advancing [Trump’s] Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
“They’re pushing the flat-out lie that I’m running for president in 2028. Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028.”
In the post, Kennedy also defended his longtime aide and deputy chief of staff at HHS, Stefanie Spear, whom Loomer accused in a Politico interview this week of trying “to lay the groundwork for a 2028 RFK presidential run.”
In his X post, Kennedy defended Spear, calling her “a fierce, loyal warrior for MAHA who proudly serves in the Trump Administration and works every day to advance President Trump’s vision for a healthier, stronger America.”
Spear served as press secretary for Kennedy’s failed presidential campaign, which ended last August with an endorsement of Trump.
Loomer, a staunch pro-Trump figure, has previously boasted of initiating the firings of government officials she deemed insufficiently loyal to the president. She did not immediately respond publicly to Kennedy’s post.
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to review and revise the ways it investigates complaints of hazing and harassment, according to policy memos obtained by ABC News.
The memos, which came after Hegseth ordered top military generals and admirals to come to Virginia to hear a speech about the importance of the “warrior ethos,” call for a 30-day review of the definition of hazing, bullying and harassment within the military. Hegseth claims in the memos that the current policy preventing those behaviors is “overly broad” and puts combat readiness in jeopardy.
“While the Department of War remains firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and exemplary conduct, the current adverse information policy has too often resulted in unproven allegations being considered adverse information, cumulative penalties for a single event, procedural redundancies, and unnecessary administrative burdens,” Hegseth wrote.
“By embracing these changes, the Department will not only honor its commitment to fairness and integrity but also reinforce the core principles of the warrior ethos — courage, selflessness, and unwavering commitment to the mission,” he added.
Another policy calls for reforms to the Defense Department’s independent watchdog office, the Inspector General, which is currently investigating Hegseth’s handling of classified material.
Among the changes called for is that “non-credible complaints” must be closed no later than seven business days after receipt. Command-directed investigations must be closed within 30 days, according to Hegseth.
Other directives call for new tougher department-wide fitness standards and calls for a 60-day review of what is taught at the military service academies and training schools.
