Trump lobbied House Republicans for last-minute change in government funding plan but failed
Former President Donald Trump speaks to attendees during a campaign rally at the Johnny Mercer Theatre in Savannah, Ga., Sept. 24, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump called several hard-line House Republicans in recent days trying to secure a last-minute change to Speaker Mike Johnson’s short-term government funding plan but failed to sway them, according to multiple House sources.
Trump floated the idea of including undisclosed so-called “election integrity” measures into the legislation — a request House Republican leaders did not accommodate.
The House passed a measure to avert a shutdown and keep the government funded through Dec. 20, on Wednesday afternoon. All Democrats voted for the bill while 82 Republicans opposed it.
Trump’s attempt to change the bill stands in direct contradiction to Johnson’s comment to ABC News on Tuesday that there was “no daylight” between him and Trump on the issue.
“Look, President Trump fully understands the situation, he understands our margins and he’s frustrated as I am that we couldn’t get that done in the original play, but we go back to the play,” Johnson had said.
He went on to say he was “not defying President Trump.”
The story was first reported by The Hill.
Trump had previously called on congressional Republicans to let government funding expire and force a shutdown if they did not get the voting requirements passed as well.
The SAVE Act, a measure that creates voter ID requirements for federal elections, was previously included in Johnson’s government funding plan. The bill failed last week because it did not receive enough support from hardline Republicans and Democrats.
After that defeat, Johnson repeatedly said his current funding plan (which excludes the SAVE Act) was the best option to secure the votes needed to avert a government shutdown by the end of the month.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told ABC News he has spoken with Trump in recent days but wouldn’t discuss the nature of the calls.
Multiple other Republicans told ABC News they have receive similar calls from Trump. And one House leadership source said they were aware Trump was making the rounds to change the legislation.
“[Trump] asked for language that would allow election integrity to be immediately implemented,” Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., told reporters.
“I think [Trump] believes that we ought to be fighting on the SAVE Act,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told ABC News ahead of the vote.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Georgia, Aug. 28, 2024, as they travel across Georgia for a 2-day campaign bus tour. — Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
(DETROIT) — Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota blitzed the country on Labor Day, making a concerted effort to court union workers ahead of the November election.
Harris kicked off Labor Day in Detroit, Michigan, meeting with union members and delivering brief remarks. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Debbie Dingell joined Harris.
“The way we celebrate Labor Day is we know that hard work is good work; we know that when we organize, when we bring everyone together,” Harris said at the Northwestern High School gym in Detroit. “It’s a joyful moment where we are committed to doing the hard work of lifting up America’s families, and I want to thank everyone here for that work and the way you do it every day.”
“So, on Labor Day, and every day, we celebrate the dignity of work,” she later added. “The dignity of work, we celebrate unions because unions helped build America, and unions helped build America’s middle class.”
Harris also credited union labor with many current workplace standards.
“Everywhere I go, I tell people, look, you may not be a union member, you better thank a union member; for the five-day work week, you better thank a union member; for sick leave, you better thank a union member,” she said. “For paid leave you better thank a union member for vacation time. Because what we know is when union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up.”
Union leaders, including United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, stood behind Harris on stage as he delivered her remarks. They took the stage shortly before Harris.
Harris was set to join Biden later Monday in Pittsburgh at a union hall for the pair’s first joint campaign event since Biden dropped his bid for reelection. They will both deliver informal remarks, the Harris campaign said. The United Steelworkers, AFSCME, and other unions will be in attendance, as well as Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey, Mayor Ed Gainey and Reps. Summer Lee, Madeleine Dean and Chris Deluzio.
Walz and his wife, Gwen, started off the day meeting with laborers in St. Paul, Minnesota, before attending Laborfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to prominent labor groups, including SEIU, Teamsters, and United Autoworkers, Gov. Tony Evers, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Gwen Moore and Mayor Cavalier Johnson were there.
Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff was in Newport News, Virginia, to participate in Rep. Bobby Scott’s annual Labor Day Cookout and deliver remarks, the campaign said.
“Vice President Harris always put workers first and held powerful interests accountable. As California’s attorney general, she fought wage theft to make sure workers got the pay they earned. As senator, she fought tirelessly for the most vulnerable workers, walking the picket line with UAW and McDonald’s workers and introducing a domestic workers’ bill of rights,” the campaign said in a statement.
“Vice President Harris chairs The White House Task Force on Worker Organizing, which made it easier for working people to exercise their right to join a union,” the campaign continued.
“Meanwhile, Trump was one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in history,” the Harris campaign later added, criticizing former President Donald Trump. “He stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-labor advocates. He hurt autoworkers, shipped jobs overseas, and lined the pockets of the super wealthy and big corporations at the expense of the middle class.”
(CHICAGO) — Keisha Lance Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 2018 to 2022, before joining the Biden administration as senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement until 2023.
She served the Biden campaign as a senior adviser, a role she has also taken on with the Harris-Walz campaign.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Bottoms sat down with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on Tuesday to talk about organizing the gathering in the wake of President Biden’s decision not to run in November, her home state’s election board and the message the Harris-Walz campaign needs to send to win in November.
ABC NEWS: We are joined now by former Atlanta mayor, Biden senior campaign adviser, Ms. Keisha Lance Bottoms. Thank you so much for joining us.
BOTTOMS: Thank you for having me, Linsey.
ABC NEWS: So let’s talk about 30 days that it’s been for you guys to get all this together. Give us a sense of behind the scenes, what it took.
BOTTOMS: Well, it seems like it’s been dog years, I think, for all of America. But of course, there were plans underway, [2024 DNC Chair] Minyon Moore and the entire team have done an incredible job in not only pulling this convention together, but then making a pivot to make sure that this convention is fitting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
And you can feel the energy in this building. You see the lights, you hear the music. But there is such excitement and enthusiasm. And then, of course, such a warm response to President Biden last night.
ABC NEWS: Of course Georgia once again, in major play. We have JD Vance, who’s heading to Georgia later on this week. Let’s talk about the changes that were made, the state election board changes that could actually potentially delay certification. What does that mean? What’s being done to try to combat it?
BOTTOMS: It is unbelievable that in 2024, the state election board in Georgia is still talking about the 2020 election and attempting to revisit this alleged steal that didn’t happen in 2020. But I was so glad to see that the secretary of state has spoken up, spoken out against the changes proposed. The attorney general has spoken out.
And by the way, these are both Republican election officials who said enough is enough. We need to move forward. Focus on 2024, making sure we are preserving the integrity of this election. And so I think what’s happening in Georgia is that there is bipartisan agreement that we need to move on, and it would be great if so many other states would do the same.
ABC NEWS: You talked about the emotional speech and reception that Joe Biden got in here last night. He talked during that speech about appointing the first Black and South Asian woman as his vice president, delivering on his promise to appoint Ketanji [Brown Jackson] as a Supreme Court justice, first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
What do you think that will mean? How will it resonate for Black voters? Because as we know, we saw during the RNC, Donald Trump is actively pursuing Black voters.
BOTTOMS: Yeah. And to his credit, he’s not taking anyone for granted. And that’s why it’s going to be important for all of us as surrogates — we heard the president do it last night — to remind people what his presidency, what the Biden-Harris administration has meant for African Americans, he made commitments that he kept: first African American woman on the Supreme Court and so many other federal appointments of people of color. And the Court of Appeals and district courts.
And I think all of us are keenly aware, I have a, I’m a lawyer, so I pay attention to courts, but most Americans don’t. But of course, we know with the Dobbs decision and so many other decisions coming from the Supreme Court – people are really starting to pay attention as to what these lifetime appointments mean for their day-to-day lives. So we just gotta keep reminding people that this president, this vice president made a difference.
Kamala Harris has been a strong partner and leader in this White House. And the president laid out the work that she’s going to, that she’s taking the baton and the work that she’s going to continue and expand upon.
ABC NEWS: Keisha Lance bottoms, we thank you so much for your time, really appreciate you joining us.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks at a rally at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University on August 9, 2024, in Bozeman, Montana. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is delivering remarks on the economy in North Carolina on Wednesday as the campaign works to reset his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.
He is speaking in front of banners that read, “No Tax on Tips” and “No Tax on Social Security.”
“The election’s coming up, and the people want to hear about the economy,” Trump said during an interview with Elon Musk on X Monday, directly blaming the Biden-Harris administration for what polls show is Americans’ pessimism about the economy.
The economy has been one of the Trump campaign’s central election issues this cycle — the former president often spending a considerable amount of time discussing inflation, gas prices and the job market.
“I just ask this: Are you better off now, or were you better off when I was president?” Trump said Monday night as he was wrapping up his conversation with Musk.
Last week, Trump blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the recent stock market sell-off and called it a “Kamala crash” — making unfounded claims that the downswing happened because people have “no confidence” in Harris, while experts pointed to concerns about the health of the U.S. economy and that the Federal Reserve’s long wait to cut interest rates as among key reasons for the downturn.
Though the stock market has since bounced back, Trump has seized on economic worries, claiming without evidence or elaboration that if Harris wins in November, there could be a “Great Depression” on par with that of 1929 — an unfunded attack he previously used against President Joe Biden.
On the campaign trail, Trump, even as he rails against the economy under the Biden administration, has announced sparse details on specific economic policy proposals for his possible second administration, often offering his signature “Trump tax cuts,” “Trump tariffs” and “drill, baby, drill” — a boost for the oil and gas industry — as solutions to most economic problems.
In recent weeks, however, he has touted two new policies: a proposal to eliminate taxes on tip wages and Social Security for seniors.
While campaigning in Las Vegas in June, Trump made a direct appeal to Nevada’s hospitality industry workers by announcing that the tax cuts would be the “first thing in office” he would do.
Harris also recently advocated for the same policy, drawing criticisms from Trump and his allies who called her “Copy Cat Kamala.”
“Copy Cat Kamala Harris proved she has no plan or ideas of her own to fix the economic pain and suffering that she personally inflicted on the American people for the last four years,” the campaign said in a statement.
The former president has argued extending the tax cuts from his first administration would be a solution to boosting financial stability for Americans; however, experts say many of his first term economic policies favored the wealthy while also warning that an extension of cuts could exacerbate the country’s budget deficit problem.
Harris is also expected to make her first major policy rollout this week since jumping into the race with an economic policy speech.
Harris’ speech will detail her plan to “lower costs for middle-class families and take on corporate price-gouging,” a campaign official said.
The two dueling policy speeches come as the economy remains a central focus in the race to the White House for both campaigns.
Trump’s speech on Wednesday may also offer a more focused approach to contrast his vision with Harris as supporters have cautioned Trump away from personal attacks against Harris.
Both candidates have room to improve their reliability on economic issues, according to a recent CNBC poll from August, in which 40% of poll respondents said they would be better off financially if Trump wins, 21% said if Harris wins, and 35% responded saying their financial situation would not really change.
Several Trump supporters suggest the recent rise in prices at the grocery store or gas station as a reason they’re behind the former president, and younger voters are also concerned about home buying despite the president’s lack of control of mortgage rates.
“At the end of the day, we have got a lot of work to do to turn this country around. We need to secure the borders. We need to fix inflation. We need to make house prices affordable again,” Dante Bernard, a Trump supporter attending Trump’s Atlanta rally this month, told ABC News. “Less insulting and talking about people’s race or identity and more policies 100%. Let’s focus on politics. Let’s stop the name-calling.”
“It’s all about freedom, small government, less taxes. $2 Gas does everyone remember when it was $2 Gas? remember $2 Trump?” said Dan Bawler, from Carson City, Nevada, praising Trump administration policies.
Democratic voters who spoke with ABC News also say they’re concerned about the economy.
“The economy for my children, my grandchildren — I want to see them flourish and do well in a healthy economy,” said James Allen, a Democratic voter from Roanoke, Virginia.
