Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Monday issued an administrative stay of a lower court order that had rolled back access to mifepristone nationwide.
The move preserves access to the abortion pill without the need for an in-person doctor’s visit.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump contradicted Vice President JD Vance on Monday after the vice president asserted last week that the administration’s top priority amid the Iran war was to keep the price of oil and gas down for Americans.
In a social media post on Monday morning, Trump said that the “number one Goal is, and always will be” that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.
Last Thursday, Vance laid out a different order of priorities on Fox News, saying that “goal No. 1” for the administration amid the war was to “keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.”
“And then obviously, goal No. 2 is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon,” he added. “I feel confident we’re accomplishing both of those goals.”
Vance’s comments about prioritizing gas prices diverge from the president’s stated mission of eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. And while some Republicans have acknowledged gas prices are too high, Trump said he won’t apologize for it.
In the past, the president had outright rejected the idea that the domestic American economy should factor into military decisions around Iran.
“Not even a little bit,” Trump said back in May when asked to what extent financial pressure on Americans was motivating him to strike a deal.
“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, that’s all.”
Asked about Vance’s comments aboard Air Force One last Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “both goals are equally as important to the president.”
“Of course, we want to keep gas prices low. That’s why the administration has done so much to keep the markets stable, but also ensuring Iran can never get a nuclear weapon is the president’s priority with respect to the ongoing conflict, and it’s something he’s going to see through one way or another,” she added.
Trump’s apparent rebuke of the vice president came just minutes after “Fox and Friends” anchor Lawrence Jones reacted to Vance’s comments during the program’s Monday morning broadcast, and called for “more clarity” from the White House on the U.S. objectives. Roughly eight minutes later, the president posted his message.
“It also looks like we got an answer from the president about what is priority No. 1 for the United States,” Jones said about an hour later in the broadcast as he relayed the details of the president’s post.
While the status of the Strait of Hormuz has become a central focus of the war — injecting volatility into the global energy market even as the conflict between the two countries has ebbed and flowed — Trump has repeatedly argued that the cost of not intervening in Iran would far outweigh the higher gas prices Americans are dealing with now.
The average price of a gallon of regular is $4.02 according to GasBuddy, up 7 cents form last week and up more than a dollar per gallon since the start of the war.
Speaking at the New York police academy last Friday, Trump told the gathered crowd that he would not apologize for the price of gas.
“[Iran’s] the No. 1 state sponsor of terror in the world. We don’t want to have them have nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “So remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you’re at $4. It’s OK. I mean, it’s, I’m not — I’m not — I will never apologize. I did the right thing.”
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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Alabama Republicans to use a contested 2023 congressional map that a lower court last week called “intentional race-based discrimination” in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.
The move is a significant win for the GOP, allowing the state to eliminate one of two majority-Black districts occupied by Democrats, even as election experts and state administrators have warned of major confusion for voters with the late change.
Civil rights groups lamented the decision as a stark example of the impact of the court’s historic April decision in Louisiana v. Callais which rolled back longstanding voting rights protections for minority voters.
In an unsigned opinion Tuesday, the court’s conservative majority said the unanimous three-judge panel — which included two Trump appointee — in the Alabama dispute failed to apply “updated” standards the justices issued in the Callais decision for proving a political process is not equally open for minority voters.
The court said the panel “did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith” by concluding state lawmakers had “discriminatory animus.”
The court’s decision concluded that the judges also erred in blocking the 2023 map even though the minority voters challenging it could not provide an alternative map that offered the same political advantages sought by Republicans.
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey praised the decision, and her office confirmed the state would hold a special primary using the new maps with redrawn districts on Aug. 11.
“The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed what I have said all along and that is that Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best,” Ivey said in a statement. “Today’s decision is a win for the people of Alabama and our elections.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a lengthy dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused her colleagues of “unleashing chaos” and “confus[ing] voters.”
The map change will require state officials to change the voter registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters in a matter of days and educate them on where to cast new ballots.
“Just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the Court today doubles down on chaos,” Sotomayor wrote. “Because I choose to defend the rule of law and the right of all Alabamians to participate equally in democracy, I respectfully dissent.”
In 2024, Alabama had been required to use a map with two majority-Black districts, one of which was won by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.
The new map could allow Republicans to flip Figures’ seat.
The NAACP slammed the Supreme Court’s decision as discriminatory.
“The Supreme Court continues to unleash chaos in our democratic process, and with this latest action, gives Alabama approval to use a congressional map that had previously been found to be intentionally discriminatory,” NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke wrote in a statement. “This is a Court that is stripping Black voters of power and voice at a speed that would put Jim Crow jurists to shame. Our message to communities remains the same — the best way to express dissent is by showing up at the ballot box this election season.”
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
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(WASHINGTON) — After drama and delay, House Republicans narrowly approved a blueprint for legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies, the first step in the GOP’s plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
The party-line vote, which was held open for more than five hours, was called at 10:39 p.m. on Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders huddled with holdouts.
Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Michael Cloud of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana flipped their votes to yes after hours of discussion. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, an Independent who conferences with Republicans, voted present.
The final vote was 215-211-1.
The budget resolution kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
Trump has set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund the immigration enforcement agencies.
Republicans are using reconciliation, a lengthy and complex process, to overcome Democratic opposition.
Democrats have said they won’t support funding for ICE and CBP without reforms to their operating procedures, after two American citizens in Minneapolis were fatally shot by federal agents earlier this year.
DHS has been shut down since mid-February, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday rekindled the DHS funding fight. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the funding lapse a “national emergency.”
But it’s currently unclear when House Republican leaders plan to put a Senate-passed bill to fund the rest of DHS on the floor for a vote.
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