Murders down 11.6% in US as crime remains key election issue
Oliver Helbig/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Murders in the United States were down 11.6% in 2023, according to statistics released by the FBI Monday morning.
The murder rate went down from 6.2 per 100,000 people in 2022 to 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2023. The steep decline last year comes after a 6.1% drop in 2022 over 2021.
Violent crime, which is one of the top issues for voters in the presidential election, as a whole was down 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the FBI.
An FBI official said the drop in murders represents the “largest drop” since the agency has been collecting data, the agency said in a call with reporters on Monday.
“An estimated 1,218,467 violent crime offenses were committed in 2023, indicating a rate of 363.8 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, down from the 2022 offense rate of 377.1 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants,” the Uniform Crime Reporting Program report released on Monday said.
Other crimes, like rape, decreased by 9.4%, aggravated assault decreased by 2.8%, and robbery decreased by 0.3%, according to the report.
Robberies also behaved differently during the pandemic and, unlike murders, went down during the shutdown and popped back up post-pandemic.
The number of law enforcement agencies who reported their data also increased from last year with 85.% of agencies actively enrolled in the FBI’s UCR Program and cover a combined population of 315,761,680 (94.3%) inhabitants.
All 12 cities that have 1,000,000 or more people reported data, the FBI said.
A crime that increased in 2023 was motor vehicle theft, which increased 12.6%, the FBI said.
Overall, property crime decreased by 2.4%, burglary decreased by 7.6% and larceny theft decreased by 4.4%.
Hate crimes are up in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023, according to the FBI statistics – including the number of incidents, offenses and victims of hate crimes.
The FBI doesn’t specify which group is the most targeted.
As part of its ongoing investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, the House Ethics Committee recently issued a subpoena for documents from a civil lawsuit brought by one of the Florida congressman’s longtime friends against several third parties, ABC News has learned.
The subpoena, which has not been previously reported, requests all documents related to Gaetz that are part of a lawsuit brought last year by Gaetz’s longtime friend, prominent Florida lobbyist Chris Dorworth, who alleged he was defamed by several third parties over the course of the yearslong sex trafficking probe into Gaetz, sources told ABC News.
The documents from the lawsuit, which include witness depositions and affidavits, could provide Congress with new details regarding allegations that have dogged Gaetz for years, including the allegation he had sex with a minor who was introduced to him by his onetime friend Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing. Last year, following a yearslong investigation, the Justice Department declined to bring any charges against the congressman.
Last week, Gaetz stated that he would no longer voluntarily participate in the House Ethics probe, which he blasted as a “political payback exercise,” and said that he had recently learned that the committee had issued — but not yet served him — a subpoena for his testimony.
The Florida congressman also reiterated his denial that he ever had sex with a minor. “Your correspondence of September 4 asks whether I have engaged in sexual activity with any individual under 18. The answer to this question is unequivocally NO. You can apply this response to every version of this question, in every forum,” Gaetz said in a statement to the committee posted on social media.
Members of the House Ethics Committee declined to comment to ABC News. Representatives for Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment.
When reached for comment, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, told ABC News, “While I am reluctant to comment on a pending congressional investigation, Joel Greenberg’s position remains the same. He will fully cooperate with all congressional inquiries, whether by subpoena or not, and regardless of whether the cooperation occurs in the rain or on a train, with a fox or in a box. Yes, Mr. Greenberg will fully cooperate here or there, he will cooperate anywhere.”
Among the documents related to the civil lawsuit, according to court filings, is the deposition of the woman who Gaetz allegedly had sex with when she was a minor, as well as testimony from another woman who was a witness in the DOJ investigation, plus Dorworth’s deposition and an affidavit from Gaetz’s former girlfriend. Those documents could be turned over to Congress as part of its ongoing probe into related allegations.
The documents Congress is seeking stem from a lawsuit brought last year by Dorworth, who alleged that the onetime minor, identified in the lawsuit only as “A.B.,” and others, including Greenberg and his family, worked to defame him amid the Justice Department’s probe.
Gaetz, who was not a party in the suit, was scheduled to sit for his own deposition as a witness in the lawsuit prior to Dorworth dropping the suit in early September. Dorworth has a separate ongoing defamation lawsuit against the Greenbergs in state court.
It is unclear if and what documents have been handed over to Congress. And while many of the lawsuit’s documents, including depositions and sworn statements, remain sealed, recent public court filings shed some light on what alleged details could be included in the underlying documents requested by Congress.
One filing, Exhibit 23 in a motion for attorneys fees filed by attorneys representing the Greenbergs, details some of the allegations made during discovery in the lawsuit, including that Gaetz was allegedly among the guests at a July 2017 party that “A.B.,” who was 17 years old at the time, also attended. The filing states that according to a woman who attended the party, there was “alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy also known as molly, and marijuana” present, that there was “access to the bedrooms” for “sexual activities,” and that A.B. was seen naked at the gathering.
In July, the House Ethics Committee released a rare statement updating the status of its probe into Gaetz. The committee stated that it had stopped looking into certain claims, including whether the Florida congressman misused state identification records or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity, but that its investigation had found that other allegations “merit continued review.”
The committee said that it would continue to review claims that Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” and that he “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
In Gaetz’s statement last week regarding the committee probe, he reiterated his denial of any wrongdoing while seemingly responding to a string of questions the committee issued to him earlier in the month.
In response to whether or not he had ever used illicit drugs, Gaetz stated, “I have not used drugs which are illegal, absent some law allowing use in a jurisdiction of the United States. I have not used ‘illicit’ drugs, which I consider to be drugs unlawful for medical or over-the-counter use everywhere in the United States.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump will visit the city of Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the area over the last few days, while Vice President Kamala Harris is cutting short a campaign swing through Las Vegas to return to Washington to be briefed on the hurricane response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
On Monday, Trump will receive a briefing on the hurricane as well as facilitate the distribution of relief supplies, his campaign said. He is then expected to deliver remarks to reporters in front of the Chez What Furniture Store, whose owners posted pictures online of their store completely demolished by the storm.
Harris said she intends to visit communities impacted by Hurricane Helene “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations,” according to a White House official. Harris, who was briefed by FEMA on the federal response to the hurricane, reached out to local officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
“We are deploying food, water and generators, and working to restore state and local leaders, we will provide whatever help they need in the days and weeks ahead,” Harris said Sunday while rallying in Las Vegas.
She will learn more from FEMA during meetings in Washington on Monday, according to a White House official.
Trump’s visit to Georgia comes after his recent criticism of President Joe Biden and Harris for their response to the natural disaster.
“She ought to be down in the area where she should be. That’s what she’s getting paid for, right? That’s what she’s getting paid for,” Trump said at his rally Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Trump has attacked Harris’ response to Hurricane Helene specifically, saying her delay in visiting the impacted region demonstrates that she isn’t qualified to become president.
Biden, while returning home from the beach on Sunday, was adamant that his administration was doing everything possible to help the affected communities.
Asked by ABC New is there are more resources the federal government could be giving, Biden responded, “no, we’ve given them.”
“We have pre-planned a significant amount, even though they didn’t ask for it yet — hadn’t asked for it yet,” Biden said Sunday.
Hurricane Helene’s storm surge, wind damage, and inland flooding caused deviation and casualties in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee, flooding neighborhoods, stranding residents, demolishing homes and toppling trees. The storm has killed at least 107 people and left dozens missing.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris released a report with details about her health and medical history on Saturday, as the Harris team tries to place former President Donald Trump’s health and advanced age under new scrutiny.
Harris “remains in excellent health,” her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said in a letter on Saturday. “She possesses the physical and mental resilience required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
The doctor pointed to seasonal allergies and hives (urticaria) as a “notable” part of her health history. He also listed a number of over-the-counter medications used to improve her symptoms, which he said have never been “severe.”
Simmons details Harris’ most recent physical exam, which was in April 2024. He said the results were “unremarkable.” The doctor also said he found her routine bloodwork was “unremarkable,” though he noted that her Vitamin D levels were “in the insufficient range.”
Simmons also noted that the vice president has a family history of colon cancer. He detailed no other personal history of a number of conditions.
Harris slammed Trump, who has yet to release his own medical records, during an interview with reporters on the tarmac in North Carolina.
“So, today I release my medical records as has, I believe every candidate for president of the United States, except Donald Trump in this election cycle. And it’s just a further example of his lack of transparency that on top of his unwillingness to debate again, his unwillingness to do an interview with ’60 Minutes,’ which again, is part of the norm of what anyone running for president of the United States does,” she said.
When asked if, despite never seeing his medical records, Trump seems unfit to be president, Harris resonded that she would not give “a medical analysis of his fitness,” but added the former president “does not have the ability to do the job.”
The most comprehensive details that are known of Trump’s health care are from a nearly 7-year-old report from his physician at the time following a physical exam. In that report, it was learned Trump had high cholesterol, was overweight and had rosacea, a benign skin disease.
Trump refused to release his medical records during his first campaign in 2016, and despite promising multiple times to release his medical records in this race, he’s not done so yet.
In response to ABC News’ requests concerning Trump’s medical records, his campaign is pointing to previous letters released by former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Bruce Aronwald.
Jackson’s letters, released in July after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, describe in detail the former president’s ear injury but doesn’t detail Trump’s health conditions. In one of the two letters, Jackson wrote that he reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital and said he was rapidly recovering from the injury.
Aronwald’s letter, released in November last year, said he conducted “several comprehensive examinations” and reported that his “overall health is excellent,” without providing any details.
“President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson who treated him after the first assassination attempt,” Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said. “All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief.”
Cheung added that Trump “has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history, whereas Kamala Harris has been unable to keep up with the demands of campaigning and reveals on a daily basis she is wholly unqualified to be President of the United States.”
Not much was known about Harris’ health prior to this new report, either.
For example, in contrast to President Joe Biden, whose physician has issued memos following his routine physicals, no such reports have been made available for the vice president. Only her annual check-up in 2021 was announced by the White House, but results from that visit were not released.
The White House had also previously announced that Harris tested positive for COVID-19 in April 2022, for which she was treated with the drug Paxlovid.
Ahead of the release of Harris’ medical report, ABC News had also inquired about the records for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Harris and Trump’s running mates, respectively.
This new move by Harris is a stark illustration of how the political baggage of advanced age has flipped.
Before he dropped out of the race for a second term, Biden’s age was an effortless battering ram for Trump and Republicans. The former president would attack his successor, America’s oldest president, as “sleepy Joe” “sick” and “weak.” But now it’s Harris, who is approximately two decades Trump’s junior, and her allies taking advantage of their opponent’s age.
Walz described Trump’s debate performance as “a nearly 80-year-old man shaking his fist at clouds;” former President Bill Clinton joked during his Democratic National Convention speech, “Two days ago I turned 78… and the only personal vanity I want to assert is I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
Hours before the vice-presidential debate earlier this month, the Harris campaign rolled out a new ad taking aim at Trump, who, if he wins, would be the oldest person elected president, through Vance.
“He’s not just weird or dangerous,” a narrator says of Vance, “he could be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.” The ad ends with clips of the former president appearing to slur his words.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Soorin Kim, Isabella Murray, Hannah Demissie, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
