Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration as Donald Trump’s attorney general

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden spent Thanksgiving morning giving back to first responders on Nantucket, while also taking time to give his thoughts on his successor’s threats to issue tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.

Biden told reporters he hopes President-elect Donald Trump “rethinks” his Day 1 proposal, calling it a “counterproductive thing to do.”

“We have an unusual situation in America. We’re surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the two allies: Mexico and Canada. And the last thing we need to do is screw up those relationships. I think we’ve got them in a good place,” Biden said Thursday.

Trump said this week that he plans to sign an executive order when he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, that would charge Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on all products those nations send to the United States, in an effort to stop the flow of drugs entering the country and illegal border crossings.

He also vowed to charge China with an additional 10% tariff on top of any additional tariffs on products coming into the U.S., arguing the country wasn’t doing enough to stop the flow of illicit drugs.

Economists widely forecast that tariffs of this magnitude would increase prices paid by American shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers.

Trump’s tariffs would cost the average U.S. household about $2,600 per year, according to an estimate from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

With migrants being the central issue for Trump in threatening tariffs, Biden noted that illegal crossings are down considerably from what they were back when Trump was in office.

“There’s a lot more to do, but, I hope they reconsider,” he said on Thursday.

The president noted that with a thin GOP majority in Congress, there may have to be some “real compromise” in Trump’s agenda.

“I want to make sure this transition goes smoothly and all the talk of what he’s going to do and not do, I think there may be a little bit of internal reckoning on his part,” Biden said.

Despite the disagreements with Trump, Biden said he was thankful for his family and “for a peaceful transition,” adding that he’s “really thankful” to have secured a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah.

The president also said he spoke to all three Americans who were released from Chinese custody Wednesday.

“I’m happy they’re home,” he said.

Biden, who was joined by the first lady and his grandson Beau at a Nantucket firehouse, was asked what his message is to Americans worried about the future of the U.S. He told them to “remember who we are.”

The White House said the Bidens also called units from each branch of the military “to thank them and their families for their service to the country.”

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris spent Thanksgiving morning with her family at DC Central Kitchen as part of a community service project.

Harris said she will be making a turkey, her “famous corn meal stuffing,” sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, scalloped potatoes, string beans, Brussels sprouts, salad and rolls for dinner.

“Lots of carbs,” she said.

When asked by a reporter, “What’s next for you?” Harris joked, “Thanksgiving dinner,” and continued preparing collard greens.

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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Since Nov. 1, an FBI command post has been operating 24/7 and will continue to for at least nine days to to ensure the election is safe and secure.

“This command post is an opportunity for us to bring people together, all the different subject matter experts here in the FBI at headquarters and in the field, and we bring in our partners so the intelligence and threats that come in, and we can disseminate that information to the key partners, which is state and local officials around the United States,” said Jim Barnacle, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.

The command post is staffed with 80 people from more than a dozen agencies from the U.S. Capitol Police to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The FBI is focused on criminal threats, such as threats to election workers, foreign malign influence, cyberthreats and acts of violence.

Barnacle said there have been some foreign operations that they have seen as well as “some attempted cyber attacks.”

“Russia, China and Iran are seeking to influence us, government, policy and politics for their benefit, they are also looking to undermine democracy, sow discord and undermine Washington’s standing in the world,” he said.

Last week, the intelligence community found that Russian actors were behind a video purporting to show Haitian migrants voting in Georgia.
MORE: Law enforcement on alert for Election Day threats, new report says

Also in Georgia, there was a denial of service attack on the secretary of state’s office. Officials are ready for those incidents to occur and stress there is no material impacting on voting, Barnacle said.

“The FBI is looking at all those threats that come in here in the command post,” he said. “We’re triaging that information.”

Barnacle said the FBI learned from its 2016 and 2020 operations and have improved its communications. When it comes to physical threats, he said it’s important for state and locals to have the information they need to act.

“We’ve learned our lessons in the past,” he said. “We are trying to share information.”

The FBI isn’t monitoring social media and wants to ensure the First Amendment is followed, but when threats are made that is when they step in.

People are more aware about how to report things that happen than in years past, but that has resulted in only a smaller uptick in reporting incidents, he said.

“That’s what we’re asking people to do when they see a threat of violence or they see a foreign malign influence operation, we’re asking people, if they see threats of violence or they see criminal activity, to report that to state and local election officials and law enforcement,” he said.

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(LINCOLN, NE) — Dan Osborn, a former union president and Navy veteran who ran an unusually competitive U.S. Senate campaign in deep-red Nebraska as an independent, is launching a new political action committee meant to help working class candidates like himself run for office.

“At least the idea is to help other people like me, who are teachers, nurses, plumbers, carpenters, bus drivers, to be able to run for office in their particular counties, states, areas, and we can help them accomplish that,” Osborn told ABC News in an interview by phone on Monday.

“You know, we’ve created something pretty special here in Nebraska. And I just want to continue that.”

The organization, the Working Class Heroes Fund, is a new hybrid political action committee (PAC) that will support working-class candidates and mobilize working class voters, according to an announcement and a PAC spokesperson. The group will also advocate for labor unions, including supporting strike funds, which help union workers cover expenses if they go on strike.

Osborn hopes the PAC’s work will help bring more workers’ perspectives to government, about how “people don’t want handouts from their government… they just want to know when you go and you put in your time, you put in your eight hours work for eight hours pay, that your paycheck matters, right?” Osborn said. “And going to be able to afford your mortgage and your cars and hopefully set aside money for college and some Christmases.”

The PAC is a new organization and not a conversion of Osborn’s campaign committee, according to a spokesperson. It will vet and consider which working-class candidates to support on a case-by-case basis, and will support candidates across political parties.

Could supporting candidates across party lines lead to pushback? Osborn, who eschewed party labels or support during his Senate bid, feels that doesn’t matter.

“I’ve never really understood why, if you’re a part of a party, that you have to have a specific set of beliefs, and you have to reject the other set of beliefs, and vice versa,” he said.

Osborn had campaigned explicitly on his labor bonafides, including his work as a steamfitter and mechanic, as well as his insistence that he’d be a truly independent voice in the Senate.

On Election Day, Osborn lost to Fischer by 8 percentage points — not as thin of a margin as some polls had predicted, but well ahead of the margin between President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris; Harris lost statewide to Trump by 21 points. (Harris did lead Trump in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, netting her one Electoral College vote.)

Asked if he was surprised by the margin between him and Fischer, Osborn said, “Yes, I was, actually — and it sucked. I suppose if I had to describe it in one word, it sucked.

“You know, I really thought that the people in Nebraska saw the value in electing a working-class person,” he said, but a late influx of money into the race supporting his opponent made a difference. “Does it hurt a little bit? Sure, but again, I think we created something here.”

His family is “not taking [the loss] as good as I am,” Osborn said later with a chuckle. “Everybody goes back to school and we go back — I’m going back to work tomorrow, and my wife, she was working the whole entire time to help pay for the endeavor. But, you know, we were all hoping for different results, and we didn’t see it.”

Osborn said he was not surprised by the larger margin between Trump and Harris, given Nebraska’s deep Republican lean.

One of the trickier dynamics in the race was that as Osborn tried to maintain an independent image, some national Democrats or Democratic groups indicated that if he was elected to the Senate, he would caucus with Democrats. (Throughout his campaign, Osborn emphasized he would not plan to caucus with either party.)

Did that hurt his campaign? Osborn thinks it made a difference.

“I can’t consult with those people. I don’t even know who they are. They’re making money off of my name, which is completely ridiculous,” he said, adding that he wants independent expenditures out of politics more generally.

His own organization, however, is allowed to make independent expenditures, as a hybrid PAC. Asked about that, Osborn acknowledged the irony but said the PAC will support candidates who support campaign finance reform and want an end to how money influences politics.

“The independent expenditure is part of the problem, and I would love nothing more than our elected officials to get rid of my PAC because it shouldn’t exist. You know what I mean? None of this should exist.”

Even as he launches the PAC, however, Osborn said he is also heading back to work as a steamfitter.

“The debt collectors do not care that I ran the closest Senate race in the country, unfortunately,” he told ABC News. (Pre-Election Day polling had found the race among the closest Senate races in the country, although the final results have been closer in other Senate races, such as in Michigan and Pennsylvania.) “So I got to pay my bills. So yes, I’m going back to work.”

Would he run again for public office? Osborn said he wouldn’t rule it out: “I’m open to everything that’s going to be on the table.”

“In my neighborhood, there’s a position open: the dogcatcher’s open,” he added, “So I should probably start there,” he said, although he immediately clarified, “That’s a joke.”

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd, Will McDuffie, Isabella Murray, and Kate Walter contributed to this report.

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