Trump picks Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, as national security adviser: Sources

(TALLAHASSEE, F.L.) — In just one week, voters in Florida will head to the polls to decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the Florida constitution, through a ballot measure that Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration have spent months fighting in the courts.

If passed, Amendment 4 — officially titled “The Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” — would block any law from restricting an abortion before fetal viability, which is typically around 24 weeks, according to experts. The amendment would repeal the state’s current six-week abortion ban that was signed into law after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

Florida is one of 10 states that will have reproductive rights-related questions on the ballot, after the overturning of Roe v. Wade left the issue up to the states.

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 46% of those Floridians polled support the measure, while 38% are against it, with 16% refusing to answer or saying they don’t know. To pass on Nov. 5, the ballot measure will require the approval of 60% of those casting votes.

The governor and his allies have been waging an intense campaign against the ballot initiative.

“When you’re dealing with constitutional amendments, your default should always be no,” DeSantis said at a press conference last week, where he was joined by a dozen doctors. “You can always alter normal policies and legislation. Once it’s in the constitution, that’s forever. You really have zero chance of ever changing it.”

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Health sent letters to television stations across the state — including ABC-affiliated stations — asking them not to air an ad supporting the ballot initiative and threatening criminal charges against broadcasters that did not comply. The ad featured a Florida mother describing how she was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago, when she was 20 weeks pregnant.

“The doctors knew that if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom,” Florida resident Caroline Williams said in the ad, saying that she believes she would be dead if she had been diagnosed under the sate’s current six-week abortion ban, which went into effect earlier this year.

After Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group behind the ballot initiative, sued the state for threatening “criminal proceedings” against the broadcast stations, a federal judge issued a restraining order against Florida’s surgeon general, prohibiting the Department of Health from threatening the stations.

“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in the ruling.

John Wilson, the Department of Health attorney who signed the letters to the television stations, resigned two weeks ago, stating in a signed affidavit that attorneys for DeSantis wrote the letters and directed him to send them under his name.

“I resigned from my position as General Counsel in lieu of complying with directives … to send out further correspondence to the media outlets,” Wilson said in the affidavit. “The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

Critics of DeSantis say the letter threatening broadcasters may not have been his administration’s only attempt at intimidation.

Last month, two Florida residents reported that law enforcement from the Office of Election Crimes & Security, a unit created by DeSantis in 2022, knocked on their doors and asked them about petitions they had signed to get the amendment on the November ballot, the Miami Herald reported.

“I had indeed signed a petition seeking to have the right to an abortion placed on the ballot in Florida,” Isaac Menasche, one of the residents, said in a Facebook post. “The experience left me shaken. What troubled me was [the officer] had a folder on me containing my personal information.”

DeSantis defended the actions by the Election Crimes unit, saying at a press conference last month that there were “a lot of complaints” about one group that was supporting Amendment 4.

“They’re doing what they’re supposed to do,” DeSantis said of the Elections Crimes unit. “They’re following the law.”

The Election Crimes unit also released a report last month alleging that Floridians Protecting Freedom committed petition fraud to reach the 891,523 signatures needed to place the amendment on the ballot. The group has denied any wrongdoing.

“These lawsuits, coming on the heels of the State of Florida’s latest attempt to undermine Floridians’ right to vote on Amendment 4, are desperate,” said Lauren Brenzel, director of the “Yes on 4” campaign supporting the amendment. “Ask yourself, why is this happening now — over half a year after over 997,000 petitions were verified by the state of Florida and with less than a month until the election — that these anti-abortion extremists want to relitigate the petition-collection process?”

“It’s because our campaign is winning and the government and its extremist allies are trying to do everything they can to stop Floridians from having the rights they deserve,” Brenzel said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Catholic voters have always been a key voting bloc in every presidential election, with candidates vying hard for their support.

And this year, the battle for their votes has gotten aggressive as former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Vice President Kamala Harris has been anti-Catholic.

While Harris has not said the same about Trump, she has sent a message to Catholic voters that her policies are in line with their social and political views and priorities. But in reality, academics who have been studying religion’s role in politics tell ABC News that it’s not easy to pin a single label on the nation’s Catholics.

“It’s really interesting that the Catholic Church is probably one of the few places where you find people with different perspectives sitting together at Sunday Mass,” Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, told ABC News.

Thompson and others said that if past election results are any indication, Catholic turnout and the choices they make at the polls will depend on a variety of factors.

Changing demographics show schism in voting patterns

Thompson, who has been researching Catholic vote trends, said that, as a whole, Catholics have been voting more Republican in the last 44 years after abortion became a major campaign issue for the Christians as a whole.

But over those decades, she noted that the makeup of American Catholics has also changed as the number of non-white Catholics has grown.

Since 2007, the share of American Catholics who are white has dropped by 8 percentage points, while the share who are Hispanic has increased by 4 points, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

“It has changed the map a lot,” Thompson said. “Latino Catholics have risen in numbers in the South and in swing states like Arizona and have brought their own perspectives on their faith and their beliefs.”

Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, who has compiled data on the voting patterns of the county’s religious groups, agreed.

“The Catholic vote is full of contradictions,” Burge said. “There is a lot of cross-pressures that they face. They may be white, but also a union member. They may be against LGTBQ rights but want better immigration rights.”

Burge told ABC News that the increased diversity among Catholics has also reflected a shift in the presidential races.

In 2020, 56% of Catholic voters voted Republican, according to data he compiled from Harvard University’s Cooperative Election Study. However, when the community was broken down into race, 59% of white Catholics voted Republican last election while it was only 31% of non-white Catholics voted for the GOP.

“We see the same racial trends for most religious groups,” he explained.

Not in communion with the Catholic Church’s teaching

Thompson said the diversity also extends to Catholics’ political leanings.

For example, Pew found that 61% of all Catholics find abortion should be legal in all or most cases. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found 55% of Catholics would rather the federal government restore abortion access as it was before the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.

“Just because the hierarchy says ‘this is right, this is wrong’ doesn’t mean that every Catholic is going to follow their lead,” she said.

Burge also noted that cultural ties outside of one’s religion have factored in individual leanings of certain Catholic groups.

For example, he noted that data has shown that Latino Catholics are less in favor of promoting LGBTQ rights and socialism ideals than their white and Black counterparts.

“I think they are pulled in two directions,” he said of Latino Catholics. “Traditionally they’ve been Democratic and we’ve seen them in a majority still vote Democratic but they’ve always been culturally conservative. I think that’s where you’re seeing the shift in some Latino circles voting Republican because of the party’s messaging on those issues.”

A recent ABCNews/Ipsos poll found that Catholic likely voters are closely divided in vote preference, 51-48% Trump-Harris.

“I think they seem to be a more moderate voting bloc. I don’t think they can be taken for granted,” Burge said.

Trump slams Harris over Catholic vote on the campaign trail

Since the start of the election season, the Trump, Biden and Harris campaigns have been trying to court various religious groups.

Trump, in particular, has been sounding off in rallies, social media and interviews against Harris, calling her anti-Catholic. He’s claimed in a Truth Social post that she lost the Catholic vote due to her stance on reproductive rights and that she was “persecuting” the group.

“Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined,” he said in a Truth Social post in September.

Harris has rarely made direct comments about the Catholic vote during the campaign and did not attend the annual Al Smith Dinner hosted by the Archdiocese of New York, saying it was due to schedule conflicts.

Even though she was the first presidential candidate not to attend the dinner in 40 years, she provided a video speech that included a skit with “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon.

“The Gospel of Luke tells us that faith has the power to shine a light on those living in darkness and to guide our feet in the path of peace. In the spirit of tonight’s dinner, let us recommit to reaching across divides, to seek understanding and common ground,” she said.

Trump, in breaking with the dinner’s soft-hearted roasting, continued his attacks on Harris at the dinner.

“You can’t do what I just saw on that screen, but my opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular to our great Catholic community. Very disrespectful,” he said.

Rhetoric does little to sway Catholic voters

Despite the media attention, the experts said that Trump’s rhetoric and back-and-forth with Harris over the Catholic vote isn’t going to move the needle.

Thompson said that there are very few undecided voters left and most voters’ preferences are locked in at this point.

She also noted Trump’s attacks and messaging are no different from the language he’s used for other religious groups, such as Jewish voters, Latino voters and Black voters.

“It’s his go-to phrase: ‘They should have their head checked,'” she said.

Thompson also noted that the sentiment applies to the Vatican.

Pope Francis weighed in on the election in September and appeared to take a middle ground, claiming “One must choose the lesser of two evils.”

“Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know,” he told reporters during a news conference.

Francis did not directly name Trump or Harris or either political party, but even while noting the church’s opposition to abortion, he also emphasized a more moderate stance on social issues.

“To send migrants away, to leave them wherever you want, to leave them … it’s something terrible, there is evil there. To send away a child from the womb of the mother is an assassination, because there is life. We must speak about these things clearly,” he said.

Thompson said that the pope has contributed to a major schism among Catholics, with more conservative members dismissing his progressive stances on LGBTQ rights and the environment and more liberal members calling him out for not shifting the church’s stance on reproductive rights.

“There is selective listening to the pope by everyone,” she said. “I don’t think that his non-endorsement is really going to change people’s minds, either.”

Burge said that, at the end of the day, the moments that are going to affect the Catholic vote are in the rhetoric and actions of the candidates in the final days.

“Politicians have always had a problem speaking about religion without sounding pandering,” he said. “The public just cares about where they stand and how they are going to tackle the issues they feel are important.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — For a second day this week, Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing on a key voting bloc that is a critical base for the Democratic Party: Black men.

On Tuesday, Harris will participate in an audio town hall event with Charlemagne tha God, host for the popular “The Breakfast Club” podcast. Also on Tuesday, the vice president is meeting with Black entrepreneurs in Detroit.

Her events come a day after her campaign rolled out a comprehensive plan — just three weeks until the election — to help Black men “get ahead” economically, which includes providing one million fully forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs and an effort to invest in Black male teachers.

In an interview on “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” also released on Monday, Harris argued that economic policies that consider “historical barriers” facing Black people benefit all Americans.

“If you have public policy, and I’m talking about economic public policy specifically at this point, but if you have public policy that recognizes historical barriers and what we need to do then to overcome,” Harris said. “First, speak truth about them and then overcome them, that in the process of doing that, not only are you directly dealing with the injustices and the legal and procedural barriers that have been focused on Black folks, but by eliminating those barriers, everyone actually benefits, right?”

The focus on Black voters comes after former President Barack Obama sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris while speaking to a group of Black at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood last week.

“You have [Trump], who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person, and you’re thinking about sitting out?” Obama asked. “And you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses?”

Harris is polling ahead of Trump with Black voters who are registered to vote, 82-13%, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. That compares with 87-12% in the 2020 exit poll (a slight 5 points lower for Harris; no better for Trump). Black men are at 76-18% (compared with 79-19% four years ago), the poll found.

These differences from 2020 aren’t statistically significant, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said he agrees.

“I don’t buy this idea that there will be huge swaths of Black men voting for Donald Trump. That’s not going to happen. What I would urge folks to do is to show up, to understand that if you don’t vote, that is a vote for Donald Trump. That’s the concern.,” said Warnock on a Tuesday campaign call with reporters.

Part of the Harris campaign’s plan for Black men includes legalizing recreational marijuana nationwide. Such a move would “break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back,” the campaign said in its release.

This takes the Biden administration’s current stance, which includes pardoning people convicted of marijuana possession, a step further. For Harris’ part, such a proposal is evidence of her evolving position. She has become more progressive since her time as attorney general of California when she was heavily criticized for aggressively prosecuting weed-related crimes.

Asked if she ever smoked by Charlamagne tha God back in 2019, Harris responded, “I have. And I inhaled — I did inhale. It was a long time ago. But, yes.”

She went on to clarify that she believes in legalizing the substance.

“I have had concerns, the full record, I have had concerns, which I think — first of all, let me just make this statement very clear, I believe we need to legalize marijuana,” she said. “Now, that being said — and this is not a ‘but,’ it is an ‘and’ — and we need to research, which is one of the reasons we need to legalize it. We need to move it on the schedule so that we can research the impact of weed on a developing brain. You know, that part of the brain that develops judgment, actually begins its growth at age 18 through age 24.”

Her answer garnered backlash due to her record prosecuting the substance, particularly given the racial disparities in punishment nationwide. Harris’ new proposal looks to correct those historical inequities.

But is it enough?

In addition to the new proposals, Harris has aggressively been campaigning in Black communities in the past week, stopping at several local Black-owned businesses and churches in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan as well as appearing on several media programs with predominately Black audiences.

In September, Harris told a group of Black reporters in a moderated conversation hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists that she was “working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”

Her campaign launched a “Black Men Huddle” organizing call on Monday, which featured remarks from campaign senior officials Tony West, Brian Nelson, Quentin Fulks and Rep. Cedric Richmond. Later, there was a weekly event focused on Black men supporting Harris featuring actor Don Cheadle.

“What the vice president is doing is giving us the tools to be able to go and have meaningful, impactful conversations when Black men turn back around to us and say, ‘Well, what’s in it for me,’ I think that we have policy and tools like this that we can say exactly that,” said Fulks.

Doc Rivers, who interviewed Harris for his “ALL the SMOKE” podcast on Monday, said he agreed with Obama’s comments last week and pushed for Black men to cast their ballots.

“I agree 100% with President Obama — it’s unacceptable not to vote. When you look back at what your parents and your grandparents had to do to get the right to vote, that’s unacceptable for me,” said Rivers. “But there are Black men who out there that feel hopeless, they don’t believe a vote helps them in either way, and I’m here to tell them they’re wrong.”

ABC News interviewed Black men in Pittsburgh’s predominately Black Homewood Brushton neighborhood last Friday about their impressions of Harris and what she needed to do to get their vote.

Aquail Bey, a student at The Community College of Allegheny County and president of its veterans club, said Harris needs to meet them where they are and genuinely speak with them.

“She’s doing a good job right now, but I think she should have — go to places where they are, you know, meet them on their own terms, you know. Go to the neighborhoods where they are, go to the barber shops … ” Bey said. “Wherever the Black men are, go to where they are, speak to them a way that they understand.”

Aaron Stuckey said people shouldn’t assume Black men aren’t getting behind Harris.

“Just poll us instead of assuming that that’s where we’re not going,” he said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.