President Biden to address nation from White House on Thursday
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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will step into the White House Rose Garden on Thursday to speak to the nation for the first time since his party’s bruising defeat at the polls on Tuesday.
The White House announced that he would give an address at 11 a.m. ET.
His address is scheduled to begin a little more than 24 hours after his twice-former opponent, Donald Trump, was projected to have won the presidency. Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed in July, as he stepped aside as the party’s presumptive nominee.
Biden in a statement on Wednesday said that adding Harris to his 2020 Democratic ticket was the first and “best decision” he made in that campaign. He praised Harris, saying she had “stepped up and led a historic campaign” under extraordinary circumstances.
That statement made no mention of Trump, the former Republican president and now president-elect, who will bookend Biden’s sole term in office.
Biden and Harris have both spoken to Trump to offer congratulations to him for winning a second term. And Biden on Wednesday also spoke with Harris on the phone, the White House said.
Harris in a speech on Wednesday conceded the race to Trump.
“Sometimes the fight takes a while … The important thing is don’t ever give up,” she said, speaking at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
Biden in his Wednesday statement praised Harris, saying, “Her story represents the best of America’s story.”
“And as she made clear today, I have no doubt she’ll continue writing that story,” he said, according to the White House.
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for the release of the committee’s report, telling ABC News that one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor.
“My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor,” Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News.
“As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers,” Leppard said. “What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?”
“Democracy demands transparency. Release the Gaetz Ethics report,” said Leppard, who represents two women who sat for closed-door testimony with the committee over the summer.
Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump selected this week to serve as his attorney general, has long denied any wrongdoing, including have an inappropriate relationship with a minor. The Justice department declined to charge Gaetz last year after a yearslong investigation into the allegations.
Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding Leppard’s claims.
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the congressman. Gaetz’s one-time friend Joel Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes including sex trafficking of the woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage.
According to Greenberg’s plea deal, the woman, who ABC News is not identifying, met Greenberg online in 2017 and began meeting him in hotels and houses in the Middle District of Florida, where he “introduced the Minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with the Minor in the Middle District of Florida,” court documents said.
At the time, the minor “represented that she was an adult” on the website where she met Greenberg — and according to his plea agreement, he acknowledges that he “acted in reckless disregard of the fact that the Minor was less than 18 years old when he engaged in commercial sex acts” and had a “reasonable opportunity to observe” that she was underage.
Leppard’s statement comes after attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, called for the release of the Ethics Committee’s report on Thursday.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” Clune said in a statement.
The woman, who is now in her 20s, testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old and he was in Congress, ABC News previously reported.
In a statement responding to that reporting, Gaetz said, “These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.”
The Justice Department spent years investigating the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges.
Gaetz has long vehemently denied any wrongdoing related to the Justice Department probe. In September, he released a detailed response to questions sent to him by the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating allegations of alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
“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 posted to his social media account.
Gaetz resigned from office this week after being selected to lead Trump’s Justice Department, which ended the House Ethics Committee’s probe that sources tell ABC News had been entering its final stages. Prior to Gaetz’s resignation, the committee had planned to meet this week to discuss whether to release their report on the investigation — leaving it unclear if the report will ever see the light of day.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he does not think the House Ethics Committee should release the findings of its investigation into Gaetz, now that the Florida Republican is no longer a member of Congress.
“I believe it is very important to maintain the House’s tradition of not issuing ethics reports on people who are no longer members of Congress. I think it would open a Pandora’s box,” he said.
Leppard told ABC News he supports the release of the report.
“What if sworn testimony detailed conduct that would disqualify anyone from serving as our nation’s chief law enforcement officer?” the attorney said in his statement to ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — As Election Day arrives, polling still shows razor-thin margins between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in battleground states.
If the actual vote margin remains that thin in some states, it is possible that automatic recounts could be triggered or that a campaign could request a recount, depending on that state’s rules.
A recent analysis of statewide recounts in general elections from 2000-2023 by the advocacy group FairVote found that statewide recounts in general elections are very rare and usually have not changed much of the vote count. Recounts have almost never changed the state’s winner of a presidential election, although in 1960, a recount in Hawaii changed the winner of the state’s Electoral College votes from Richard Nixon to John F. Kennedy.
More recent presidential recounts have not impacted the winner in the states they were held in, including the attempted 2000 recount in Florida meant to deal with a razor-thin margin between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which the Supreme Court halted. (If Florida’s results had flipped, Al Gore would have won that election.)
In 2020, Donald Trump’s campaign requested recounts in Georgia (after the secretary of state had already undertaken a recount) and some Wisconsin counties. In 2016, the campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a recount that was fully undertaken in Wisconsin, and requested one in Michigan (which was halted) and Pennsylvania (which was denied).
Here’s what to know about the rules that govern if and how presidential race recounts are conducted in each of the seven battleground states.
The “canvass of the vote” discussed below refers to the county and/or state procedures that compile, confirm, and validate every vote cast. Recount rules may vary for other races, such as congressional or mayoral races. An “automatic recount” means a recount that is mandated by state law because of the results; the term does not reflect how votes are recounted.
Arizona
A recount is automatically triggered in Arizona if the margin between the two candidates who received the most votes is equal or less than half a percent of the total votes cast, according to Arizona law. The recount must be completed five days after the canvass of the vote is completed, which is Nov. 30.
It is not possible for a candidate, party or voters to request a recount in Arizona. (A Republican-aligned review of election results in Arizona’s Maricopa County in 2021 was not a state-run recount and found no evidence that changed the results in the county.)
Georgia
According to Georgia law, a candidate can ask for a recount within two days of results being certified if the margin between the candidates is less than half a percentage point of the vote. Election officials can also request recounts if they think there is an issue with the results, while the secretary of state can ask for a recount if a candidate petitions them about a suspected issue. There is no explicit deadline for a recount to be completed.
There are no automatic recounts in Georgia.
Michigan
According to Michigan law, an automatic recount is triggered in statewide races if the margin between the top two candidates is 2,000 votes or less.
A candidate can petition for a recount if a few requirements are met, including “a good-faith belief that but for fraud or mistake, the candidate would have had a reasonable chance of winning the election,” according to Michigan law. The petition needs to be filed within 48 hours of the canvass of votes being completed.
Recounts must be completed within 30 days of the end of the period that candidates are allowed to file petitions challenging results, or within 30 days of when recounts are allowed to begin.
(New laws changing how recounts can be done in Michigan were signed into law this year, but will not be in effect for the 2024 election.)
Nevada
A candidate for presidential elector — specifically an Electoral College elector, not the candidate — can request a recount in Nevada up to the 13th day following the election, according to Nevada statutes. The requester needs to deposit the estimated cost of the recount with the secretary of state, but gets the deposit refunded if the recount results in a change in the winner.
The recount needs to be started within a day after being requested and finished within 5 days.
There is a more general statute in Nevada law that allows statewide candidates to request recounts, but this does not apply to presidential races, according to Nevada-based attorney and election law expert Bradley Schrager. Rather, the specific and more recent statute overrides the more general one, so the recount request would have to come from the presidential elector.
“In practice, that’s not really significant, however, because any elector candidate would follow the direction of his or her presidential candidate,” Schrager said.
There are no automatic recounts in Nevada.
North Carolina
A presidential candidate can request a recount in North Carolina if the margin between the candidates is less than half a percentage point or 10,000 votes, whichever is less, according to state law. (The North Carolina State Board of Elections told ABC News that the threshold this year will likely be 10,000 votes.)
The candidate needs to ask for a recount by noon on the second day after the county canvassing of the vote. (In 2024, that day is Tuesday, Nov. 19.)
There are cases where a requested recount would trigger an automatic recount as well, but the election results themselves do not trigger automatic recounts in North Carolina.
Pennsylvania
An automatic recount is triggered in Pennsylvania if the margin between the candidates is within half a percentage of the vote.
The recount must begin “no later than” the third Wednesday after Election Day and be done by noon on the next Tuesday, according to guidance published by the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Candidates themselves cannot request recounts in Pennsylvania.
Wisconsin
In a presidential race, any presidential candidate can request a recount if the margin between the candidates that got the most votes is one percent or less of the total votes cast, according to Wisconsin state statutes. The candidate must request it within the first day after the canvass of the vote is completed.
The state itself pays if the margin is 0.25% of the vote or less; if it is larger, then the candidate who requested the recount must pay. (They receive a refund if the election result changes due to the recount.)
The recount must be completed within 13 days of being ordered.
There are no automatic recounts in Wisconsin.
ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan and Mitch Alva contributed to this report.
(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.
