Johnson ramps up attacks on VP Harris during visit to southern border in California
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(SAN DIEGO) — During a visit to the southern border shared with California and Mexico on Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson ramped up attacks on the Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her a “San Francisco radical” who “bears responsibility for this disaster” as “border czar.”
The visit included a press conference along a border fence called “Whiskey 8” in San Ysidro, California — south of San Diego — with California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa as well as a tour of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and Imperial Beach locations, Johnson’s office told ABC News.
“We’ve had a very interesting tour here at the San Diego sector. This has become in many ways the epicenter of the Biden-Harris border catastrophe. And now we’re very concerned in Congress that this illegal immigrant invasion is threatening even the integrity of our elections,” Johnson said at a press conference held along a border fence.
Johnson claimed the situation in San Diego has worsened.
In recent weeks, San Diego has had the highest number of encounters of any border region in the U.S., according to a senior CBP official. But those numbers have declined by 60 percent since the new asylum restrictions from the Biden administration were put in place earlier this summer.
“[Biden’s] executive order was too weak, too little too late, and it’s not solving the problem,” Johnson said Thursday.
Johnson said human trafficking and illegal narcotics are concerns at the border, specifically in San Diego.
Johnson’s visit came hours after the House approved a resolution to condemn Harris’ border policies. Six Democrats in vulnerable House races — Reps. Mary Peltola, Don Davis, Henry Cuellar, Yadira Caraveo, Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden — voted with Republicans to pass the measure.
Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the resolution “fake and fraudulent” during his weekly press conference.
“[Kamala Harris] was never assigned border czar. [Republicans] are making that up,” Jeffries said.
Johnson last visited the border in January 2024 when the speaker led a delegation of 64 Republicans to tour the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry.
The House has passed its own border bill called the Secure the Border Act, but rejected the bipartisan Senate border bill after Trump pressured Republicans to kill the deal.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally with and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at Girard College, on Aug. 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris spent this past weekend interviewing the top contenders on her VP shortlist, meeting in person at her Washington, D.C. home with Govs. Tim Walz and Josh Shapiro, and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.
It was just 17 days ago that President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, and Harris and her vetting team, led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, were operating in a truncated time frame. The vetting team initially cast a wide net, with more than a dozen people in consideration. That list quickly got shorter, with nine people being formally asked to submit vetting materials.
It’s a process that is extensive and one that would typically take months — but Holder, along with his vetting team led by former White House counsel Dana Remus, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, campaign chief of staff Sheila Nix, and Harris’ brother-in-law Tony West — wrapped up their work on Friday, turning it over to Harris for a final decision.
Harris met with her vetting team on Saturday and was provided with extensive briefings on each candidate under consideration. She would then interview her top choices.
Following Harris’ interview with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, there was a sense among Shapiro’s team that the meeting did not go as well as it could have, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Later Sunday, after the interview, Shapiro placed a phone call to Harris’ team, indicating he had reservations about leaving his job as governor, sources said.
Walz, on the other hand, had an indication Monday evening that he would be chosen as Harris’ running mate, sources familiar with the matter said.
Harris came to her decision on Monday and told a small group of staff, sources said. She did not place a phone call to Walz until Tuesday morning.
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(WASHINGTON) — Project 2025, a 922-page playbook of controversial policy proposals intended to guide the next conservative administration, is gaining attention as the presidential election campaigns heat up.
Project 2025 has been authored by at least two dozen members of Donald Trump’s administration and allies, organized by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and is backed by more than 100 additional groups.
Democrats say the plan is a warning of what is to come under a second Trump term, while Trump has tried to distance himself from the policy proposals: “They are extreme, seriously extreme,” said Trump in a July 20 rally. “I don’t know anything about it. I don’t want to know anything about it.”
Project 2025 officials told ABC News that it does “not speak for any candidate or campaign.” However, Trump’s official campaign plan called Agenda47 aligns with several proposals in Project 2025.
So, what is in Project 2025?
Some of Project 2025’s goals
The project suggests disbanding federal agencies like the Department of Education — an idea Trump has supported — and the Department of Homeland Security. It recommends privatizing others, including the Transportation Security Agency, and would expand presidential control over the executive branch.
“The modern conservative president’s task is to limit, control and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people,” the project reads in its first section titled, “Taking the Reins of Government.”
On health care, the project recommends withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market and stopping the drug from being mailed, eliminating mandated insurance coverage for the week-after pill, prohibit funding for patients traveling across state lines for reproductive health care and prohibit funding for health care centers that provide abortions.
Additionally, the project suggests that the Department of Health and Human Services should “maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.”
On climate change, Project 2025 suggests cutting federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and instead calls for the next president to “stop the war on oil and natural gas.”
The project aims to repeal and eliminate preventive climate change initiatives. The project calls for replacing carbon-reduction goals to instead increase the use of fossil fuel energy production and “energy security.”
This aligns with Trump’s official Agenda47, in which Trump said he plans to make America the “No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world.”
On economics, the proposals recommend cutting and restricting the use of food stamps and social welfare programs, creating more eligibility requirements for Medicaid, creating a two-rate individual tax system of 15% and 30%, reducing the corporate income tax rate, cutting rates for high-income investors and canceling federal student loan forgiveness programs.
On housing, the project recommends that it reverse several Biden administration policies, including the Housing Supply Fund, which states that it provides funding and low-income housing tax credits to “address market gaps, increase housing supply and help to stabilize housing prices over the long term … [and] remove barriers to affordable housing development.”
It also would remove Biden-backed programs aimed at addressing housing discrimination, including the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity program and affirmatively furthering fair housing.
Trump’s Agenda47 broadly calls for new home construction, tax incentives and cutting housing regulation.
On diversity, the project proposes eliminating several terms from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists” including: “sexual orientation,” “gender,” “gender equality,” “gender awareness,” “gender-sensitive” “abortion,” “reproductive health,” “reproductive rights,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and more.
On immigration, the project advocates for immediately deporting unaccompanied children, increased funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, for the implementation of fees for asylum seekers and speedier processing at a premium price, pause funding for nongovernmental immigration groups and more.
Project 2025 also advocates for a “merit-based immigration system,” and urges the next president to get rid of the existing employment visa process, the family-based chain migration process and lottery systems, replacing it with a system “to award visas only to the best and brightest.”
In Trump’s Agenda47, he states he plans on carrying out “the largest deportation operation in American history” as well as reinstated Trump-era policies including increased focus on the border wall.
On education, the document calls for increased school choice and parental control over schools — limiting federal school accountability and encouraging every parent to direct their child’s share of public education funding “to choose a set of education options that meet their child’s unique needs” — which has been embraced by several conservative leaders through ESA programs.
It also bars public education employees from using a name or pronoun other than what is listed on a student’s birth certificate without a parent’s permission, and it would not require a school employee to use a name or pronoun for someone “that does not match a person’s biological sex if contrary to the employee’s or contractor’s religious or moral convictions.”
Trump similarly backs school choice policies, eliminating tenure for teachers, defund schools that “promote gender transition,” and plans to “promote love of country” in education.
He also states on his website that he plans to sue large private universities and “use that money to endow a new institution called the American Academy.”
Separately, the project recommends that pornography be “outlawed” and criminalize its distribution.
Is Trump tied to Project 2025?
While Trump has said that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, several of the former president’s current and former advisers and appointees have authored or supported the project.
They include:
Christopher Miller — who served as Acting Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the President under Trump — is credited with the project’s Department of Defense recommendations.
Ben Carson — who served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Trump — is credited with the project’s (HUD) recommendations.
Brendan Carr — who was appointed to serve as a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — is credited with the project’s FCC recommendations.
Adam Candeub — who served under the Trump administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information — is credited with the project’s Federal Trade Commission recommendations
Bernard L. McNamee — who was nominated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Trump — is credited with recommendations on the Department of Energy and Related Commissions.
Additionally, the RNC platform committee’s policy director, Russ Vough, authored a portion of the Project 2025 plan.
The RNC platform committee’s Deputy Policy Director Ed Martin is also president of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, which is listed on the project’s advisory board.
Others connected to Trump, including Trump’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women appointee Lisa Correnti, are listed among the contributors.
Some conservatives are distancing themselves from Project 2025, including former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who is requesting the removal of his organization, America First Legal, from the website’s list of advisory board members, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
However, Trump’s official Agenda47 and the proposals uplifted by the Republican National Committee align in part with some of Project 2025’s goals.
President Joe Biden’s campaign has used Project 2025 in its efforts to motivate voters away from Trump.
“Project 2025 is the plan by Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies to give Trump more power over your daily life, gut democratic checks and balances, and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins,” Biden’s campaign states on its website.
ABC News’ Will Steakin and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on August 08, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In a long and, at times, rambling news conference on Thursday, former President Donald Trump repeated numerous falsehoods as he lashed out against Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the presidential race.
Trump led the event, his first open news conference since Gov. Tim Walz was named Harris’ running mate, by announcing he agreed to ABC News’ Sept. 10 debate against Harris. Trump did not mention Walz by name during the news conference at Mar-a-Lago, which went on for over an hour.
Trump responded to several questions from the press but went off-topic several times to push false claims on several topics, including the outcome of the 2020 election. Here are some of the major takeaways:
Trump continues attacks on Harris’ race, gender, intelligence
Trump continued to push racist rhetoric about false claims that Harris only recently brought up her Black heritage.
“Well, you’ll have to ask her that question because she’s the one who said it; I didn’t say it,” Trump falsely stated. “So, you’ll have to ask her.”
Earlier, Trump also appeared to attribute Harris’ success to her gender while questioning her intelligence.
“I’m not a big fan of his brain, but I think that she’s actually not as smart as he is,” he said, bringing up his former opponent, President Joe Biden.
“Well … uh, she’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people,” Trump added.
Harris was asked about Trump’s comments later in the day.
“I was too busy talking to voters. I didn’t hear them,” she told reporters.
Trump gets defensive when asked about Harris’ rallies
Trump grew increasingly angry when asked about Harris’ crowd size at her recent rallies.
“Oh, give me a break,” he told a reporter.
“I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me,” he said.
Trump brought back the issue of crowd size, specifically the crowd in Washington D.C., on Jan. 6. when asked if there was a peaceful transfer of power when he left office.
The former president compared his speech that day, before the riot, to that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington, which the civil rights leader delivered to an estimated crowd of 200,000 people, according to the U.S. Census.
“If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more,” he said.
An estimated 10,000 people came onto Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, according to records.
Trump appears to shift stance on abortion pills
Trump also appeared to show a shift in his stance on abortion pills, opening up the possibility of directing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone, a move supported by Project 2025.
“Absolutely. And those things are pretty, open and humane,” he said when asked if he would ask the FDA to ban the drug. “But you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote, and the votes are taking place right now as we speak.”
The Trump campaign later clarified the former president’s belief that abortion laws should be left up to the states.
“As President Trump said, he wants ‘everybody to vote’ on issues regarding abortion, which is consistent with his long-held position of supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the news conference.
Trump told reporters the abortion issue has “very much tempered down.”
“It’s a very small,” he claimed, “I think it’s actually going to be a very small issue.”
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last month found that 57% of Americans said access to abortion was a highly-important factor in their vote.
The former president said he supports abortion for exceptions but that he felt the matter should be left up to the states.
He was asked specifically about Florida, which will have a ballot measure seeking to establish a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability. Trump said he would hold a press conference about the topic “at some point in the near future.”
“Florida does have a vote coming up on that, and I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought. But I’ll be announcing that at the appropriate time,” he said.
Trump says Harris’ ‘honeymoon’ will continue through DNC
Harris and Walz are currently on a campaign tour hitting seven battleground states.
Trump said he was not doing the same type of tour because he felt he was leading in those states.
He also predicted that Harris’ “honeymoon period” isn’t going to last long.
“Oh, it’s going to end. The honeymoon period is going to end. Look, she’s got a little period, she’s got a convention coming up,” he said.
