Trump says he’ll sign order to pay all DHS employees as shutdown continues

(FLORIDA) — President Donald Trump is continuing to ratchet up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, saying it would be “smart” for him to step down and warning him not to play “tough.”

Trump, taking reporter questions at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Monday evening, was directly asked if his administration’s ultimate goal in Venezuela is to force Maduro from power.

“Well, I think it probably would. I can’t tell him. That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re going to find out,” Trump said.

At the same time, Trump issued a warning to Maduro.

“He can do whatever he wants, it’s alright, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough,” Trump said.

The president added, “We have a massive armada for him. The biggest we’ve ever had and by the far the biggest we’ve ever had in South America.”

The U.S. has built up its military presence in the region in recent weeks, with 15,000 U.S. troops and several warships standing ready in the Caribbean.

Trump last week also ordered what he called a “complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela, targeting the government’s main source of revenue.

Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil in the face of the “blockade,” and has said regime change “will just not happen, never, never, never.”

Separately, since September, the U.S. military has launched dozens of strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying drugs. These strikes have killed more than 100 people, according to numbers provided by the administration. The strikes have several raised legal questions from lawmakers of both parties and legal experts, though the administration’s justified the use of lethal force as part of what it calls its “war” on drug cartels.

“We’ll be starting the same program on land,” Trump said on Monday. “The land is much easier.”

While Trump continued to tease that land strikes on Venezuela, he also took it a step further and threatened land strikes on other countries.

“Anywhere drugs are pouring in. Anywhere, not just Venezuela,” Trump said when asked if he was only referring to Venezuela land strikes.  

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing began with a personal confrontation between fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul as Mullin seeks to take over the Department of Homeland Security from its embattled leader, Kristi Noem.

Paul, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman, sparred with Mullin over comments the Oklahoma senator reportedly made earlier this year regarding Paul’s voting record and assault by a neighbor in Kentucky in 2017.

“You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said.

Paul also pointed to Mullin’s previous public confrontations and said Mullin had “low impulse control.”

“Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues,” Paul said.

Paul questioned, “I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits of the proper use of force.”

Before his opening statement, Mullin fired back at Paul.

“I said I could understand, because of the behavior, you were having, that I could understand why your neighbor … did what he did,” Mullin said. “As far as my term of ‘snake in the grass,’ sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems. I’ve worked with many people in this room. It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.”

Mullin, who President Donald Trump earlier this month tapped to take over the agency from Noem, asked Paul to let him earn his respect and that he will be secretary for all Americans. 

Paul later played a montage of Mullin challenging people to a fight, including a tense moment at a November 2023 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing when Mullin stood up from his seat and appeared to prepare to physically fight Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien.

“I get it it’s about character assassination for you,” Mullin said to Paul. “That’s the way this game is played. I understand it. And you are making this about you, which is fine.”

Mullin noted that O’Brien came to the hearing on Wednesday as a “close friend.”

“As you can notice over my shoulder is my good friend, Sean O’Brien. Both of us have had conversations and shaken hands and agreed we could have done things different,” Mulin said. “Sean has become a close friend. We talk all the time. I have been on his podcast. It is how you handle your differences. Not like this, chairman.”

Lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee are expected to grill Mullin through the day as the department he’s seeking to lead remains shut down due to a funding stalemate, with no clear end to that shutdown in sight.

Parts of DHS — from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Transportation Security Administration — are shut down amid a funding fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Democrats have said they will fund the department only if changes are made to the agency in the wake of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Mullin may also face questions about threats to the homeland after DHS warned of potential lone-wolf and cyberattacks amid the ongoing strikes in Iran, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by ABC News.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination on Thursday. After that vote, if his nomination is confirmed, it would then head to the Senate floor where he could be confirmed as soon as next week.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(SAN FRANCISCO) — Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell announced he is suspending his California governor’s race campaign after accusations made by a former staffer to the San Francisco Chronicle that he sexually assaulted her, which the congressman has denied.

It comes amid a growing push from his party to not only get out of the race, but to resign from Congress.

“I am suspending my campaign for Governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell wrote in a post to X Sunday night.

“I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s,” he wrote.

The San Francisco Chronicle published the account of a woman, who it did not identify, who says she was hired at the age of 21 to work as an intern in Swalwell’s district office.

She claims Swalwell began pursuing her and sent her a nude photo. In 2019, she went out for drinks with Swalwell and woke up naked the next morning in Swalwell’s hotel bed and “felt the effect of vaginal intercourse,” according to the article.

The woman alleges that five years later, at a gala in New York, when she was no longer working for him, Swalwell pursued her while she was inebriated and forced himself on her, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the wake of the accusations, at least four other women have detailed allegations that range from sexual assault to inappropriate conduct by Swalwell. ABC News has not been able to corroborate all of the alleged accounts, including those reported by The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN.

ABC News spoke with Ally Sammarco, who accused the lawmaker of sending her inappropriate messages and an unsolicited nude picture of himself in 2021.

Sammarco, a social media content creator who said she was 24 at the time she met Swalwell, told ABC News that she was working on Terry McAuliffe’s race, as he was running to be governor of Virginia, and was looking for a job on Capitol Hill.

She says she sent the congressman a direct message on Twitter in August of 2021, asking about his upbringing growing up in a Republican family.

She says they spoke about the race in Virginia, and then Swalwell gave Sammarco his personal cell number, where she says he started to ask her “more personal questions.”

In September 2021, she says they began messaging on Snapchat, where she said he offered to help send her resume and find a job. He invited her to his office on Capitol Hill, according to text messages reviewed by ABC News.

She says he initially said she could meet his staff, but when she arrived, she said he escorted her in his office, and she “didn’t meet anybody but him.”

Sammarco told ABC News that sometime in October of 2021, Swalwell allegedly sent her an unsolicited picture of his penis. 

She said the alleged photo made her feel “gross” and that he was “pushing a sexual agenda.”

In a video posted to social media late Friday evening, Swalwell called allegations made against him “flat false. They’re absolutely false.”

“They did not happen. They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have,” he said.

Swalwell did not address the allegations in detail in the video statement.

Fellow Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, also from California, called the allegations against Swalwell “sick and disgusting.”

Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., told CNN’s “State of the Union,” “The accusations are absolutely heinous, and his admissions betraying his family are deplorable. So Eric Swalwell needs to resign. He needs to drop out of the race.”

Vindman emphasized the need to hold leaders accountable, regardless of party or stature.

“And we have grown far too accustomed to having our senior leaders, our elected officials, uh, fall far below what we expect their behavior to be morally, ethically … And Representative Swalwell needs to go,” Vindman said.

The top three House Democrats, including Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have called on Swalwell to end his bid for governor.

“Following the incredibly disturbing sexual assault accusations against Congressman Eric Swalwell, we call for a swift investigation into these incidents and for the Congressman to immediately end his campaign to be California’s next Governor,” Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a joint statement released Friday.

Pressed Sunday on whether Swalwell should resign, Jeffries told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, “Our statement for the moment speaks for itself. We’ll reconvene in Washington early next week and we’ll have more to say.”

In his Friday video, Swalwell said the allegations “come on the eve of an election where I have been the frontrunner candidate” and cited his career as a public servant and prosecutor who went to court for sexual assault victims, he said.

“I do not suggest to you in any way that I am perfect or that I am a saint,” he said. “I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past. But those mistakes are between me and my wife and to her I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”

Fellow Democrats started calling for Swalwell to drop his gubernatorial campaign shortly after news of the allegations broke.

In a statement, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “This extremely sensitive matter must be appropriately investigated with full transparency and accountability. As I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign.”

Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who chaired Swalwell’s campaign for governor, announced that he was stepping down from the campaign and referred to the accusations as “the ugliest and most serious accusations imaginable.”

“I cannot in good conscience remain in any role with this campaign, and I am stepping down from it effective immediately,” Gomez said. “The congressman should leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction, or delay.”

Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who had in recent days defended Swalwell from online rumors of misconduct, posted Friday that he was withdrawing his endorsement and said that he “regret[s] having come to his defense on social media.”

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also said he is pulling his endorsement “immediately” and called on Swalwell to withdraw.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said Saturday that she plans to force a vote next week to expel Swalwell if he does not resign.

“Eric has an option. I am going to bring this vote next week. If Democrats want to protect this type of garbage, I wouldn’t recommend it, but they are going to put on the board for that. I am tired of this,” Luna said on Fox News.

Swalwell added that he is willing to pursue legal action to combat the accusations.

“I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action. My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies,” Swalwell said.

In the wake of the Chronicle’s reporting, several of Swalwell’s Democratic opponents in the governor’s race, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, and former State Controller Betty Yee have also called on Swalwell to drop out of the race.

The two frontrunners in the race, billionaire businessman Tom Steyer and former Congresswoman Katie Porter, expressed support for the alleged victim but stopped short of calling on Swalwell to drop out of the race.

Earlier this week, Swalwell’s campaign told ABC News that Swalwell has not received any complaints and has not asked anyone to sign non-disclosure agreements.

“This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race,” campaign spokesperson Micah Beasley said in a statement provided to ABC News on Tuesday.

“In 13 years, no one in Eric Swalwell’s Congressional office has ever been asked to sign an NDA. Ever,” Beasley said. “In 13 years, not a single ethics complaint by any staff in his office or any other office has ever been lodged. Ever.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is investigating allegations against Swalwell, a source familiar with the investigation said Saturday.

“We urge survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division at 212-335-9373,” the Manhattan DA’s office said. “Our specially trained prosecutors, investigators, and counselors are well-equipped to help you in a trauma-informed, survivor-centered manner.”

Swalwell’s campaign has not responded to a request for comment. An attorney representing Swalwell said “no comment” on Saturday.

House ethics rules prohibit sexual relationships between members and interns or staffers but the House cannot investigate an incident occurring more than three terms of Congress ago.

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