President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again on Wednesday but continues to feel “well,” his physician, Kevin O’Connor, said in a new update that noted Biden is coughing less frequently.
O’Connor said that he examined Biden on Wednesday morning after the president enjoyed a “light workout” and that Biden has no fever and his vital signs remain normal.
“The President continues to feel well,” O’Connor wrote in a memorandum released by the White House. “He is still experiencing an occasional cough, but less frequently than yesterday. He remains fever-free and in good spirits. His temperature, pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation remain entirely normal. His lungs remain clear.
Biden is expected to continue to isolate himself in the White House residence until tested negative.
Wednesday was the fifth day in a row that Biden tested positive for the coronavirus in what his doctor described as a “rebound” infection that has been seen in some patients who take the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.
Biden was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 21. After completing his five-day course of Paxlovid and experiencing only mild symptoms, Biden reemerged from isolation last week only to test positive again on Saturday.
The events have complicated Biden’s schedule, forcing him to cancel a planned trip to Michigan on Tuesday that he instead participated in virtually. Biden will virtually agree to an interagency task force on reproductive rights on Wednesday afternoon and sign an executive order aimed at supporting people who travel out of state for abortions.
“At least half can’t walk out of their doors to get the things they need,” he said. “They’re stuck in these hollers and they can’t get out.”
Kevin Kelly, a spokesperson for Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, said rescuers with the agency have delivered more than 1,760 hot trays of food, 500 sandwiches, 39 cases of water, several cases of laundry detergent, cleaning supplies and diapers, as well as several air conditioners and generators to residents in hard-to-reach areas without power.
In some cases, rescue workers were saddling up and delivering food and water on horseback.
For many flood survivors, the cavalry can’t come soon enough.
“They’re wishing they could get out,” Joanne Miller said of her 67-year-old father, Chester Marshall, who is hunkered down in his Perry County home with her teenage son and her 5-year-old granddaughter because flooding wiped out the local road. “They can’t get their car out of the driveway.”
Miller, who is 45 and lives in nearby Breathitt County, said she’s been using Facebook messenger to stay in touch with her 18-year-old son Jacob Marshall because they don’t have a landline or cellphones.
“I talked to him this morning,” Miller said. “I told him that there was a woman that was gonna come over there hopefully today and he said, ‘Mom, we could use anything that we can get right now’.”
Compounding the misery, the worst-hit areas in eastern Kentucky like Perry County were expected to be blanketed by high heat and humidity that will make it feel close to 100 degrees for the next two days.
“It will certainly slow down operations,” said Dustin Jordan of the National Weather Service. “Anytime you’re having to deal with more heat, you’ve got to move slower, you’ve got to go at a little bit slower pace.”
Beshear echoed that as he announced the opening of eight cooling centers where workers will be “bringing in water by the truckloads.”
“It’s going to get really, really hot,” Beshear warned. “And that is now our new weather challenge.”
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After infuriating China over her trip to Taiwan, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met South Korean political leaders in Seoul on Thursday but avoided making direct public comments on cross-Strait relations that could have further increased regional tensions.
Pelosi, the first incumbent House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, said Wednesday in Taipei that the American commitment to democracy on the self-governing island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.” In response, China announced it would launch its largest military maneuvers aimed at Taiwan in more than a quarter of a century.
After visiting Taiwan, Pelosi and other members of Congress flew to South Korea — a key US ally where about 28,500 American troops are deployed — on Wednesday evening, as part of an Asian tour that included stops in Singapore and Malaysia.
She met South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin Pyo and other senior members of Parliament on Thursday. After that hour-long meeting, Pelosi spoke about the bilateral alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, and legislative efforts to support a push to boost ties but did n’t directly mention her Taiwan visit de ella or the Chinese protests.
“We also come to say to you that a friendship, a relationship that began from urgency and security, many years ago, has become the warmest of friendships,” Pelosi said in a joint news conference with Kim. “We want to advance security, economy and governance in the inter-parliamentary way.”
Neither Pelosi nor Kim took questions from journalists.
Kim said he and Pelosi shared concerns about North Korea’s increasing nuclear threats. He said the two agreed to support their governments’ push to establish denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula based on both strong deterrence against North Korea and diplomacy.
Later in the day, Pelosi planned to visit an inter-Korean border area that is jointly controlled by the American-led UN Command and North Korea, a South Korean official said requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media on the matter .
If that visit occurs, Pelosi would be the highest-level American to go to the Joint Security Area since then-President Donald Trump went there in 2019 for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Sitting inside the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile)-wide Demilitarized Zone, a buffer created at the end of the Korean War, the JSA is the site of past bloodshed and a venue for numerous talks. US presidents and other top officials have often traveled to the JSA and other border areas to reaffirm their security commitment to South Korea.
Any critical statement from North Korea by Pelosi is certain to draw a furious response from Pyongyang. On Wednesday, the North’s Foreign Ministry slammed the United States over her Taiwan trip, saying that “the current situation clearly shows that the impudent interference of the US in internal affairs of other countries.”
Pelosi will speak by phone Thursday afternoon with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on a vacation this week, according to Yoon’s office. No face-to-face meeting has been arranged between them. Yoon, a conservative, took office in May with a vow to boost South Korea’s military alliance with the United States and take a tougher line on North Korean provocations.
Pelosi’s Taiwan visit has angered China, which views the island nation as a breakaway province to be annexed by force if necessary. China views visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognizing its sovereignty.
“Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” Pelosi said in a short speech during a meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday. “America’s determination to preserve democracy, here in Taiwan and around the world, remains ironclad.”
The Biden administration and Pelosi have said the United States remains committed to the so-called one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. The administration discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi from visiting.
The military exercises that China launched in response to Pelosi’s Taiwan visit started Thursday, the Chinese military said. They were expected to be the biggest aimed at Taiwan since 1995, when China fired missiles in a large-scale exercise to show its displeasure over a visit by then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to the US
China also already flew fighter jets and other war planes toward Taiwan, and blocked imports of citrus and fish from Taiwan.
Tsai pushed back firmly against Beijing’s military exercises, parts of which will enter Taiwanese waters.
“Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said at her meeting with Pelosi. “We will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy.”
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry on Thursday called the Chinese drills “unreasonable actions in an attempt to change the status quo, destroy the peace and stability of the region.”
“Our national military will continue to strengthen its alertness level, and every squadron will conduct normally their daily training in their usual places of operation,” it added.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby sought to tamp down fears. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that US officials “don’t believe we’re at the brink now, and there’s certainly no reason for anybody to be talking about being at the brink going forward.”
Addressing Beijing’s threats, Pelosi said she hopes it’s clear that while China has prevented Taiwan from attending certain international meetings, “that they understand they will not stand in the way of people coming to Taiwan as a show of friendship and of support.”
Pelosi noted that congressional support for Taiwan is bipartisan, and she praised the island’s democracy. She stopped short of saying that the US would defend Taiwan militarily and emphasized that Congress is “committed to the security of Taiwan, in order to have Taiwan be able to most effectively defend themselves.”
On Thursday, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations called for calm in the Taiwan Strait, urging against any “provocative action.” ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a regional forum said they were concerned the situation could “destabilize the region and eventually could lead to miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts and unpredictable consequences among major powers.”
Pelosi’s focus has always been the same, she said, going back to her 1991 visit to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, when she and other lawmakers unfurled a small banner supporting democracy two years after a bloody military crackdown on protesters at the square. That visit was also about human rights and what she called dangerous technology transfers to “rogue countries.”
Pelosi’s trip heightened US-China tensions more than visits by other members of Congress because of her position as leader of the House of Representatives. The last House speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.
China and Taiwan, which split in 1949 after a civil war, have no official relations but multibillion-dollar business ties.
__
Wu reported from Taipei Taiwan.
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Associated Press writer David Rising in Phnom Penh, Cambodia contributed to this report.
The governor of California supports legislation that will extend the state’s film and television tax program through 2030. Newsom made the announcement on Wednesday in an act to draw filmmakers away from anti-abortion states.
If the bill passes, it will provide $1.65 billion, or $330 million annually, in tax credits to the film and TV industry, as well as other media productions. The initial bill was set to expire in 2025 before Newsom’s proposed extension.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a $1.65 billion tax credit bill for the film/TV industry to draw production companies away from anti-abortion states. (David McNew/Getty Images)
“As other states roll back people’s rights, California will continue to protect fundamental freedoms for all and welcome businesses that stand up for their employees,” he said in a statement.
NEWSOM COULD WIN IN 2024 DESPITE HAVING ‘DESTROYED’ CALIFORNIA: CAITLYN JENNER
“Extending this program will help ensure California’s world-renowned entertainment industry continues to drive economic growth with good jobs and a diverse, inclusive workforce.”
On Wednesday morning, Newsom sent out a tweet to Hollywood.
“Today, Hollywood will wake up to this ad,” he wrote alongside an open letter. “Time to choose. You can protect your workers, or continue to support anti-abortion states that rule with hatred. We’re here for you. We’re extending tax credits for those that come home to the Golden State. Choose freedom. Choose CA.”
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Throughout the letter, Newsom urged production companies to stop doing business in states that “waged a cruel assault on essential rights.”
“Today more than ever, you have a responsibility to take stock of your values — and those of your employees — when doing business in those states,” Newsom wrote.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom angrily denounced the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade during a news conference in Sacramento, California, on June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli/AP Newsroom)
In 2019, Georgia passed legislation that banned abortions after a heartbeat was detected. Companies such as Netflix, Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, AMC, Sony, CBS and Viacom threatened to leave the state if the law followed through.
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After the initial backlash, studies continued to shoot in Georgia and other states that take a stance against abortion rights. About 100,000 people have jobs in the film industry in Georgia alone, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, effectively ending recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and giving individual states the power to allow, limit or ban the practice altogether.
A map showing locations where Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will conduct military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills is seen on newspaper reports of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, at a newsstand in Beijing, China August 3 , 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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BEIJING, Aug 4 (Reuters) – China’s People’s Liberation Army has begun military exercises including live firing on the waters and in the airspace surrounding the island of Taiwan, Chinese state television reported on Thursday.
The drills, spread out across six locations, are due to end at 12:00 pm (0400 GMT) on Sunday. The exercises followed US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, a trip condemned by Beijing, which claims the self-governed island as its own.
Significantly, in the north, east and south, the exercise areas bisect Taiwan’s claimed 12 nautical miles of territorial waters – something Taiwanese officials say challenges the international order and amount to a blockade of its sea and air space. read more
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The locations encircle the island in an unprecedented formation, Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defense University, told Chinese state television, describing how an actual military operation against Taiwan could play out.
“In fact, this has created very good conditions for us when, in the future, we reshape our strategic landscape conducive to our unification,” Meng said.
Chinese forces in two areas off the northern coast of Taiwan could potentially seal off Keelung, a major port, while strikes could be launched from an area east of Taiwan targeting the military bases in Hualien and Taidong, he said.
The “doors” to Kaoshiung could also be closed by Chinese military off the southwestern coast, Meng said.
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Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong & Simon Cameron-Moore
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A driver spotted a bloodied woman screaming for help inside the cab of a tractor-trailer on a Jersey highway Wednesday in a disturbing scene straight out of a horror movie.
Officers are now searching for the woman who the witness said was bleeding from her face inside a white semi-truck pulled over to the side of Route 130 near Dayton Toyota, South Brunswick Police said.
The passerby said the woman called out for help before the male truck driver pulled her back into the cab and drove away around 2 pm The truck turned off Route 130 at the Ridge Road exit.
The woman is believed to be white or Hispanic and in her 20s. According to the witness description, she has long brown hair and was wearing a brown flannel shirt.
The driver is a white older man who is bald and has a white beard. He was wearing a blue shirt at the time of the incident, police said.
ALERT-NEED PUBLIC HELP Police looking for white tractor cab in video. At 2pm woman seen yelling for help, bleeding from cab on Rt 130 headed towards Ridge Rd. Suspect – Older white male, bald, white beard. Victim- white/Hispanic female,20s,long brown hair. INFO CALL 732-329-4646 pic.twitter.com/7MJN775Jzd
The superintendent of Hanover schools is apologizing about the district using a logo on T-shirts and other materials that resemble a swastika.
The logo was used in a Hanover County Public Schools professional learning conference this week.
T-shirts distributed for a Hanover County Public Schools conference display a logo that resembles a swastika.
courtesy photo
“One of our teachers designed the logo intending for it to represent four hands and arms grasping together — a symbol of unity for our all-county professional learning conference. Nothing more,” Superintendent Michael Gill wrote in a message to families and staff.
“While we are confident that the logo was created without any ill-intent, we understand that this has deeply upset members of our staff and community who see the logo as resembling a swastika.”
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Gill said the administration has stopped distributing the T-shirts that include the logo and staff are working to remove the logo from all conference materials.
“We are deeply sorry for this mistake and for the emotions that the logo has evoked by its semblance to a swastika and, by extension, to the atrocities that were committed under its banner,” Gill wrote.
“Unquestionably, we condemn anything associated with the Nazi regime in the strongest manner possible.”
Gill was not part of developing or reviewing the logo, according to district spokesperson Chris Whitley.
Moving forward, the administration will reevaluate the process by which logos are reviewed, Whitley said.
In a letter on Monday afternoon, the NAACP said that the incident is another example of the urgent need for required training and professional development in diversity, equity and inclusion for all HCPS employees, including the School Board and Board of Supervisors.
“We stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in calling out this insensitivity,” said the letter signed by Hanover NAACP President Patricia Hunter-Jordan. “We appreciate and respect Superintendent Gill’s apology. However, mere oversight by one individual cannot explain this pattern of a lack of diversity, and the refusal to make substantive changes that would result in the new direction for our schools…”
Last week, the NAACP wrote a letter urging the Hanover Board of Supervisors to “reconsider” some School Board appointments and to require both boards to participate in diversity, equity and inclusion training.
Newly appointed School Board member Johnny Redd, who was criticized in the letter in part for previous comments about using a biblical worldview to analyze policies, responded by referring to Hunter-Jordan as an “angry African American lady.” I later apologized.
The Anti-Defamation League’s regional office in Washington said in a statement to the Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that the ADL appreciates Gill’s swift response to the community and his acknowledgment of the impact the incident has on the Jewish community and other marginalized groups targeted by white supremacy and hate.
“We were deeply disturbed when we saw the image, and with antisemitic incidents continuing to reach historic highs across the country and the Commonwealth, it was upsetting for many of our community members to see this symbol — which so closely resembles a swastika — being used for a conference for educators,” the Washington ADL statement said in part.
According to an annual ADL audit, there were 46 antisemetic incidents reported in Virginia last year, a 6% decrease from the 49 incidents reported in 2020 and a 64% increase from the 28 incidents reported in 2019.
Virginia was the state with the 15th-highest number of antisemitic incidents reported in the US last year, according to the ADL.
Can you identify these Richmond-area locations from aerial photos?
Conservative political adviser Alyssa Farah Griffin is rumored to be the newest co-host of ABC’s “The View.”
The move has allegedly already caused a rift among the show’s longtime hosts.
Griffin, 33, would be joining Sara Haines, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin for the daytime talk show’s 26th season, which begins in September.
In 2020, Griffin acted as White House director of strategic communications and assistant to the president in the Trump administration. In 2021, she joined CNN as a political commentator.
Her permanent seat at the talk show’s table isn’t official until Thursday when the show said its new member will be revealed. However, “The View” fans — as well as MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross and comedian Wanda Sykes — have already slammed the network for reportedly hiring Griffin.
Who is Alyssa FarahGriffin?
Born in Los Angeles on June 15, 1989, Griffin is the daughter of two journalists. Her father, Joseph Farah, was the executive news editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, then an editor at Northern California’s the Sacramento Union.
Her father is of Syrian and Lebanese descent. In 1997, Joseph founded the far-right conspiracy website WorldNetDaily, known for espousing conspiracy theories — including doubts about President Barack Obama’s US citizenship.
Griffin worked for her father as the “special Washington correspondent” during and after she pursued her bachelor’s degree in journalism and public policy at Patrick Henry College.
Then-White House communications director Alyssa Farah talks to reporters following an interview with FOX outside the West Wing on Oct. 9, 2020.Getty Images
Her mom, Judy — who’s of Ukrainian descent — has worked for HuffPost, the Associated Press and Comstock’s.
Griffin married Justin Griffin, a current MBA candidate at the Stern School of Business at New York University, in Florida in November 2021. He is the grandson of real estate developer and Republican Party activist Samuel A. Tamposi.
While acting as a guest host on “The View” in February, Griffin revealed that her father and stepmother did not attend the couple’s wedding after she publicly spoke up against President Donald Trump.
What jobs has Griffin had?
Griffin started her journalism career writing for World Daily Net. In 2010, she accepted a media internship with Congressman Tom McClintock and had a yearlong stint as an associate producer on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
During the 2012 presidential election cycle, she traveled across the country as a spokesperson for the College Republican National Committee, speaking on the youth vote.
Two years later, she became Congressman Mark Meadows’ press secretary, then his communications director.
Under Meadows and Jim Jordan, she then became the communications director for the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives.
In September 2017, Griffin became Vice President Mike Pence’s special assistant to the president and press secretary.
Two years later, she was appointed as press secretary for the US Department of Defense after the position was vacant for nearly a year. She also served as the director of media affairs during this time.
Alyssa Farah Griffin walks beside then-Vice President Mike Pence. Official White House Photo
She joined the Trump administration as the controversial president’s chief of staff in 2020 and became a White House press secretary that April — a job she later regretted.
Griffin resigned as press secretary on Dec. 3, 2020, which was effective the following day.
She denounced Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection and joined CNN as a political commentator near the end of 2021.
“At no point in my entire life was my goal to be on TV and be a talking head. I know I for sure said to my husband multiple times, ‘I want to stay off TV because I don’t want to forever be seen as a Trump spokesperson,’ ” she told Vanity Fair about the gig.
“Famous last words,” Griffin added.
What did Griffin do for the Trump administration?
Griffin was an important piece of the president’s coronavirus response, the Washington Post reported.
She reinforced that report during an appearance on “The View,” telling the hosts, “My duty was to serve the American public and to serve the country, and I did my best to do that.
“We were dealing with unprecedented crises in this country, hearing we were going to have a ‘Pearl Harbor a day’ of loss of life,” Griffin explained about accepting the job during the pandemic.
“And I thought if there’s anything [I can do] to help, I couldn’t say no.”
However, Griffin said she would not support another Trump presidency, adding, “We got to move on from this era.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin as a guest co-host on “The View” on May 24.ABC via Getty Images
What are Griffin’s political beliefs?
Griffin is a Conservative.
Although she worked for the Trump administration, she has spoken out against him, saying she quit a month after he lost the 2020 election because she “saw where this [the Republican Party] was heading.”
During the Jan. 6 insurrection, she tweeted, “Condemn this now, @realDonaldTrump… You are the only one they will listen to. For our country!
“There were cases of fraud that should be investigated,” she continued later that day. “But the legitimate margins of victory for Biden are far too wide to change the outcome. … We must accept these results.”
Although her Twitter still regularly leans to the right, Griffin doubled down on her Jan. 6 words while also bashing former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews in July.
She [Matthews] believed in him [Trump] like millions of Americans. On 1/6 he let her de ella & our entire country down, ” Griffin wrote in a tweet.
There were cases of fraud that should be investigated. But the legitimate margins of victory for Biden are far too wide to change the outcome. You need to know that.
I’m proud of many policy accomplishments the Trump Admin had. But we must accept these results.
Alyssa Farah Griffin has made multiple appearances on “The View.”The View / YouTube
Has she been a guest on ‘The View’ before?
Yes, Griffin has made multiple appearances on the ABC primetime talk show after the show’s Conservative host Meghan McCain departed in 2021. Ostensibly on the hunt for someone to replace her, “The View” launched a sort of “public audition,” the Hollywood Reporter has speculated, featuring a number of prominent Conservative pundits.
Griffin oftentimes sits at the Hot Topics table, including the memorable moment she revealed her dad and stepmom did not attend her wedding due to political differences on Feb. 11, as previously mentioned.
Griffin also faced tough questions from the permanent hosts on the Oct. 4, 2021, episode while discussing how some Trump employees bought into the narrative that the election was stolen.
“I got plenty of tea to spill, ladies,” she laughed on the episode. “Here today and tomorrow,” she quipped.
Mask mandates, skipping a wedding and heading straight to a honeymoon and Andrew Cuomo are among other topics Griffin has discussed on the show.
Alyssa Farah Griffin on “The View” on May 24.ABC via Getty Images
Who else was considered for the co-hosting gig?
Stephanie Grisham, Tara Setmayer, Michele Tafoya, Ana Navarro and others were candidates for the empty seat at “The View’s” table, PrimeTimer reported.
Since McCain’s departure, producers have also recruited Mia Love, Gretchen Carlson and Eboni K. Williams, among others to temporarily fill in, but it sounds like Griffin will outweigh them all.
But she won’t be the only familiar face come Thursday. Longtime co-host and God-fearing Republican Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to the show on Wednesday after being fired in 2013 when producers wanted to shake up the cast. However, they subsequently spent years trying and failing to bring in a Conservative who captivated audiences in the same way that she did.
“The View” will make its official co-host announcement on Thursday at 11 am EST.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Wednesday that Social Security and Medicare should be up for congressional approval each year, instead of staying under their current status as federal entitlement programs.
“Social Security and Medicare, if you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost,” Johnson said in an interview that aired Tuesday on “The Regular Joe Show” podcast.
The Wisconsin senator, who is up for reelection in a highly contested race this fall that will help determine which party holds the majority next year, argued that the mandatory spending status of funding for the federal programs should be switched to discretionary spending “so it’s all evaluated.”
“Our problem in this country is that more than 70 percent of our federal budget, of our federal spending, is all mandatory spending. It’s on automatic pilot. It never — you just don’t do proper oversight. You don’t get in there and fix the programs going bankrupt. It’s just on automatic pilot,” Johnson said.
“As long as things are on automatic pilot, we just continue to pile up debt,” he added.
I have argued that funding for the programs should instead come before Congress for annual approval.
A spokesperson for Johnson’s office told The Hill in a statement Wednesday that the senator “never suggested putting Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block.”
“The Senator’s point was that without fiscal discipline and oversight typically found with discretionary spending, Congress has allowed the guaranteed benefits for programs like Social Security and Medicare to be threatened. This must be addressed by Congress taking its responsibilities seriously to ensure that seniors don’t need to question whether the programs they depend on remain solvent,” the spokesperson said.
Social Security benefits are available to US retirees, and Medicare health insurance is available to citizens who are over the age of 65 or disabled. American workers’ taxes fund the programs, with workers paying into the federal programs. In the case of Social Security, benefits are linked in part to one’s earnings, which help determine a monthly payment.
Democrats quickly pounced on Johnson’s remarks, suggesting the majority party thinks they could hurt Johnson in his reelection bid.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) said that Johnson’s comments showed that the programs could be cut by Republicans.
“They’re saying the quiet part out loud. MAGA Republicans want to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block,” Schumer wrote, referring to the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”
Johnson’s spokesperson pushed back against the majority leader, saying in a statement that “Senator Schumer is lying about what Sen. Johnson said.”
Robert E. Crimo III pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 117 criminal charges stemming from the Highland Park massacre as his parents told reporters they “deeply regret the actions their son had taken.”
The plea was entered by Crimo’s attorney during a brief court hearing in Lake County. Crimo answered “yes” to several questions from Judge Victoria Rossetti on whether he understood the case against him.
Crimo was indicted two weeks ago on the charges accusing him of firing from a rooftop during a Fourth of July parade, killing seven people and wounding 48 others.
They include three counts for each person who died, and counts of attempted murder and aggravated battery for each person wounded that day. Crimo faces natural life in prison if convicted of two or more of the murder charges.
Crimo entered the courtroom shortly before 11 am, his hands shackled to a belt around his waist. He was dressed in a dark blue jump suit and wore a blue surgical mask on his face as he sat next to his attorneys from him. Eight sheriff’s deputies stood facing Crimo.
When the hearing began, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart called the case, and the judge asked if Crimo has seen the indictment. The judge then read each charge as Crimo sat back in his chair, looking straight ahead.
Crimo’s parents attended the hearing but declined to speak with reporters afterward. An attorney representing them, George Gomez, said the parents are “still devastated by what had occurred on July Fourth.” I have added they “are in shock” at the possibility of a life sentence for their son.
Asked what the parents want to say to the community, Gomez said, “In hindsight, they deeply regret the actions their son had taken. They’re part of the Highland Park community. They’re heartbroken by all those affected by this tragic event. They’re here to express their sorrows.”
Attorney George Gomez (from left); Robert Crimo III’s father, Robert Crimo Jr.; mother Denise Pesina; and attorney Sussethe Renteria enter the Lake County courthouse Wednesday.
Rinehart, speaking to reporters after the hearing, would not comment on whether there have been any plea negotiations. While Crimo’s attorney did not ask for a trial, the request can be made later.
“They did not request a trial, I’ll leave it to them” to answer why, Rinehart said. Crimo’s next court date was set for 11 am Nov. 1.
Ashbey Beasley, who was at the parade with her young son, said she attended Wednesday’s hearing “because people from my community cannot be here. They’re not ready. They are broken, living in fear.”
She said she wanted “to be a presence for them, to be able to sit in the courtroom and know the people in my town matter, and that what happened to them matters.”
Beasley said she has faith in the Lake County state’s attorney, and “he will bring down the hammer of justice on this defendant.”
Prosecutors have given no motive for the mass shooting, but during an initial court hearing two days after the shooting, they said Crimo has confessed to firing more than 80 rounds into a crowd of spectators lining the downtown parade route.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart speaks Wednesday outside the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan after Robert E. Crimo III’s arraignment.
On the day of the attack, Crimo dressed in women’s clothing and wore makeup to cover his face tattoos because he feared he would be recognized, prosecutors have said.
Surveillance video allegedly shows Crimo walking down an alley behind a building at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Second Street and climbing stairs to reach the roof.
Police found 83 shell casings. Paramedics took 52 people to hospitals and five people died at the parade, according to an ambulance report. Two people died later at hospitals.
Despite his disguise, police officers familiar with Crimo identified him in still images taken from surveillance cameras after the shooting, prosecutors said.
Video shows Crimo running down the alley with a bag over his shoulder and dropping a rifle wrapped in a cloth, prosecutors said. Police recovered the weapon within minutes and traced it to Crimo, who had purchased it in 2020 when he was 19.
Crimo went to his mother’s nearby home and took off in her car as police launched a manhunt. He drove to Madison, Wisconsin, where he spotted a group of people and thought about shooting them with a second rifle in the car, authorities have said.
Crimo had about 60 rounds in the car with him, but he apparently felt he hadn’t put enough “thought and research” into opening fire, authorities said.
He turned back, dumped his cellphone in nearby Middleton and was finally spotted that evening in North Chicago, about eight hours after the shooting. He was arrested around 5:30 pm after a brief car chase.
The victims who died are: Katherine Goldstein, 64; Irina McCarthy, 35; Kevin McCarthy, 37; Jackie Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88, all of Highland Park; Nicolas Toledo, 78, of Morelos, Mexico; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, of Waukegan.
Dozens of mourners gather for a vigil near Central Avenue and St. Johns Avenue in downtown Highland Park, one day after a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens more by firing a semiautomatic rifle from a rooftop into a crowd attending Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade .
