Reagan FBI director urges caution against Gabbard, Patel
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(WASHINGTON) — The only man to lead both the FBI and the CIA urged caution to senators who might vote to confirm former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Kash Patel to lead the FBI, according to a letter sent to senators this week.
“I am deeply concerned about the potential nominations of Mr. Kash Patel to lead the FBI and the inclusion of Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as DNI in intelligence roles,” William Webster, who led the FBI during the Carter and Reagan administrations and the CIA after that, said in a letter to senators on Thursday.
Webster wrote that Patel’s loyalty to Trump may cause problems.
“Statements such as ‘He’s my intel guy’ and his record of executing the president’s directives suggest a loyalty to individuals rather than the rule of law — a dangerous precedent for an agency tasked with impartial enforcement of justice,” said Webster, who turns 101 in March.
He said that during his tenure at the FBI, he was contacted by the president only twice — once by President Jimmy Carter, who asked him to investigate an issue, and once when President Ronald Reagan had a question about Nancy Reagan’s security.
Webster added that Gabbard’s “profound lack of intelligence experience and the daunting task of overseeing 18 disparate intelligence agencies further highlight the need for seasoned leadership.”
“History has shown us the dangers of compromising this independence. When leaders of these organizations become too closely aligned with political figures, public confidence erodes and our nation’s security is jeopardized,” he wrote. “Every president deserves appointees they trust, but the selection process must prioritize competence and independence to uphold the rule of law.”
The letter was first reported by Politico.
The Trump transition team defended both Patel and Gabbard to Fox News.
“Kash Patel is loyal to the Constitution. He’s worked under Presidents Obama and Trump in key national security roles,” said Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump transition team spokesman.
Alexa Henning, a Trump transition official, also defended Gabbard.
“Lt. Col. Gabbard is an active member of the Army and has served in the military for over two decades and in Congress. As someone who has consumed intelligence at the highest levels, including during wartime, she recognizes the importance of partnerships with allies to ensure close coordination to keep the American people safe,” she told Fox News.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — As North Carolinians continue to recover from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene, early voting begins Thursday in the critical swing state.
State election officials expect a majority of North Carolina voters to cast their ballot in-person over the next two weeks, with early voting concluding on Nov. 2.
More than 400 early voting sites are in operation across the state’s 100 counties.
“To have almost all early voting sites open after such a devastating storm is an effort all North Carolinians should be proud of,” North Carolina State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell said Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remain neck-and-neck in the critical swing state, with Trump holding a 0.4% lead over Harris in 538’s polling average for the state.
Both candidates have visited North Carolina since the remnants of Hurricane Helene brought deadly floods to the state, where 95 people died and 92 remain missing. Trump has repeatedly made false claims about the federal response to the disaster, claiming that the state would be deprived of emergency aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because of undocumented immigrants.
“They got hit with a very bad hurricane, especially North Carolina and parts of Georgia. But North Carolina really got hit. I’ll tell you what, those people should never vote for a Democrat, because they held back aid,” Trump said during an interview last week.
While visiting a church in Greenville, North Carolina, on Sunday, Harris stopped short of naming Trump while criticizing the spread of disinformation about the relief efforts in the state.
“Right now, fellow Americans are experiencing some of the most difficult moments in their lives,” Harris said. “Yet instead of offering hope, there are those who are channeling people’s tragedies and sorrows into grievance and hatred, and one may ask why, and I think, sadly, frankly, the motives are quite transparent: to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people’s heartbreak.”
With recovery efforts ongoing, election officials have expressed optimism about the state’s early voting plans. In the 25 western counties included in the federal disaster declaration, 76 early voting sites have been confirmed — four fewer than originally planned.
“We lost just a few despite the extensive damage, loss of power, water, internet and phone service, and the washing out of roads throughout the region,” said Brinson Bell.
In past presidential elections, the majority of the state’s voters have cast their ballot during early in-person voting, with 65% using that method in 2020 and 62% in 2016. Election officials expect a similar portion of voters to vote early in person, and have enacted a series of measures to improve voting access in the counties hardest hit by Helene.
Voters in the impacted counties can drop off their absentee ballot at any early voting site throughout the state, and the state plans to deploy “multipartisan assistance teams” that can assist with absentee voting at disaster shelters.
This will also be the first presidential election where voters will need to provide photo identification to vote, after lawsuits delayed implementation of the state’s controversial voter ID law following its passage in 2018. Voters can provide a drivers’ license, student ID, or passport to vote, though exceptions are permitted in the case of natural disasters.
The only county to offer fewer early voting sites is hard-hit Buncombe County, whose officials opted to reduce their number of sites from 14 to 10 because of the ongoing emergency response.
“Our office has been preparing for the 2024 election for years, but we certainly didn’t expect this,” said Buncombe County director of election services Corinne Duncan.
(WASHINGTON) — In the days since Election Day, billionaire Elon Musk has emerged as an influential figure in President-elect Donald Trump’s orbit, offering input on staffing decisions and playing a significant role in shaping the future Trump administration, multiple sources tell ABC News.
Since Election Day, the world’s richest man has spent nearly every day at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, multiple sources tell ABC News.
But his presence stretches far beyond that, with sources telling ABC News that Musk is now weighing in on Trump’s staffing choices.
Musk was present for at least two phone calls the president-elect had with foreign leaders, sources told ABC News. During a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, Trump even handed the phone to Musk so he could speak to Zelenskyy as well, sources told ABC News. Musk was also present a call with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sources said.
(CHICAGO) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is on the defensive after all seven members of the Chicago Board of Education announced their resignations Friday, an unprecedented moment in the city’s history, in protest of a $300 million loan Johnson proposed to fund teachers’ contracts and pensions.
The Chicago City Council called a special meeting for Wednesday afternoon to address the crisis, and to hear testimony from the former school board members who resigned, all of whom were hand-picked by Mayor Johnson just last year.
For months, board members for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) – the country’s fourth-largest public school system – had been under pressure by Johnson to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who was appointed in 2021 by Johnson’s predecessor, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, for his objection to Johnson’s proposed $300 million short-term, high-interest loan to pay for the first year of the Chicago Teaches Union’s (CTU) contract. Martinez and the school board pushed back against Johnson, saying the extra borrowing would worsen the city’s already significant debt burden.
In an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune last month, Martinez said Johnson subsequently demanded his resignation, which he also refused, saying it would cause disruption during current union negotiations. Martinez added that the extra borrowing was fiscally irresponsible.
“I remain against exorbitant, short-term borrowing, a past practice that generated negative bond ratings for CPS,” Martinez wrote, in part, adding that repaying the bond and its debt service would “take away dollars from the classroom – all of which means that future generations of Chicago’s children and taxpayers will ultimately pay the price.”
The CPS board ended up passing a school budget without Johnson’s desired pension payment. The school system faces a nearly $1 billion shortfall in 2025, Martinez announced in August .
A former Cook County commissioner, Johnson worked as an organizer for the CTU beginning in 2011 and helped organize the 2012 teachers strike. Illinois State Board of Elections records show that the CTU contributed more than $2.3 million to his 2023 mayoral campaign. Johnson also received nearly $2.2 million from the American Federation of Teachers and nearly $1 million from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
Alderman Gilbert Villegas accused Johnson of “wanting to take care of his former employer” by forcing the resignations of the board amid contract negotiations with the union. “The mayor was elected to serve the whole city, not serve the CTU,” he said.
“We agree we want to make sure CPS teachers have a fair contract, but we also want to make sure taxpayers have fair contract. Right now, the mayor has the thumb on the scale and it’s not right,” Villegas told ABC News.
Spokespersons for Johnson, the Chicago Teachers Union, and Chicago Public Schools did not respond to ABC News requests for comment.
At a press conference Monday, Johnson attacked his critics, whom he compared to supporters of slavery.
“The so-called fiscally responsible stewards are making the same argument [as] when our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in this country,” Johnson said. “The argument was you can’t free Black people because it would be too expensive. They said that it would be fiscally irresponsible for this country to liberate Black people.”
Johnson also announced six new appointees to the board Monday, saying he would name a seventh at a later date. Under state law, the appointees aren’t required to be vetted by the city council, although Villegas said that “in the spirit of transparency and collaboration,” councilmembers ought to have the opportunity to ask them questions.
Villegas is a member of the city’s progressive caucus, which initially supported Johnson’s agenda. In an unprecedented show of unity, most of that caucus joined 41 other council members from across the political divide in signing a public letter dated Oct. 5 that said the mass resignations of the Board of Education’s former members bring “further instability to our school district” and are deserving of a public hearing.
Johnson indicated Tuesday that he would not send his new appointees to Wednesday’s meeting, saying in part that “every single mayor in the history of Chicago has had the authority to appoint board members to multiple boards. Guess who still has that authority? This mayor does.”
The CPS funding crisis is also alarming Chicago’s business community. This week, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago released a joint statement saying their concerns over Johnson’s push for extra borrowing and the Board of Education resignations have “escalated” their concerns about Johnson’s actions, and further said that the quality and stability of Chicago Public Schools is directly tied to “the success of Chicago businesses of every size and the long-term economic future of our city.”
The statement also called for the school board to “keep CEO Martinez in his place,” and to “reject the misguided proposal to borrow more money, and work with all parties to bring transparency and long-term fiscal stability and quality education to the school system.”
