Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

The Tallahassee NAACP and civil rights attorney Ben Crump are asking authorities to drop felony voter fraud charges against a 69-year-old Black woman who was arrested last month as part of a Florida elections investigation.

Investigators allege Marsha Ervin, after serving a prison sentence for a felony conviction and being released in 2018, voted while still on probation in the 2020 general and 2022 primary elections in Florida. Her attorneys, in part, point to confusion around recent changes in state law concerning when people with past felony convictions can vote.

“This is about voter intimidation,” Crump, standing next to Ervin, said during Tuesday news conference in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital. The arrest could have a “chilling effect” on other voters, Crump said.

Tallahassee police arrested Ervin, based on information from a Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security investigation, at her home early on September 29, an arrest affidavit shows.

Ervin is facing a felony charge of submission of false voter registration and two felony counts of voting as an unqualified elector. Ervin could face up to five years in prison for each count if convicted.

“There is no other evidence that she had the intent to commit fraud,” Ervin’s attorney Mutaqee Akbar told CNN.

“To a layman, completion of a sentence means when you are released from custody. She had no idea that she needed to complete her probation as well in order to vote,” Akbar said.

In November 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment Four, which granted the return of full voting rights to people with past felony convictions after they complete their full sentence, including probation and parole, except for those convicted of murder or sex offenses.

However, in 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a bill into law that delayed the restoration of rights until after the person has paid all fines and fees associated with the felony conviction.

Ervin completed her voter registration application in September 2020, according to the arrest affidavit. She received a voter information card in October 2020. She also received a vote-by-mail ballot for the 2022 primary election.

An inspector interviewed Ervin in October 2022. Ervin told the inspector that “she believed she was allowed to vote because she was told she could when she was released from prison,” and she “remembered it being reported that felons could now vote in Florida from the reports on television,” according to the affidavit.

“Ervin also opined that she would not have voted if she believed it was against the law because she just got out of prison and had begun probation,” the investigator wrote.

Documents obtained from the state Department of Corrections did not show Ervin was advised she could vote, or that she could not vote, according to the affidavit.

Confusion over the restoration of voting rights for people who have been released from prison after serving felony convictions is a persistent problem in Florida, according to Democratic leaders.

“She is yet another Black person in Florida, another Floridian, that has been tricked by this confusing system they put in place. And I think it is confusing on purpose. I think it is intentional,” Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell told CNN in a phone interview last week.

The legislature’s Republican majority has “had many opportunities to amend the bill that modified Amendment Four to make it clear, to create a database, to not put the burden of understanding whether they are eligible on the voter,” Driskell said. “Voters have no place to go, there is no ‘one stop shop’ to understand whether or not they are eligible, and it feels like a trap.”

“It seems that every case that DeSantis’ election force is involved in involves a Black person trapped by the confusion of what Republicans did to Amendment Four,” Driskell said.

In April 2022, DeSantis signed into law a sweeping voting overhaul bill that established the Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Florida Department of State – an agency under DeSantis’ jurisdiction – with a staff of 15 to conduct preliminary investigations of election fraud.

“The ultimate responsibility to ensure compliance with the law lies with the voter, as local and state election officials are obliged to take the word of the voter on the voter application”, Mark Ard, a spokesperson for the Department of State, told CNN in an email.

“This includes marking a box affirming that the applicant has not been convicted of a felony, or that, if convicted, has had his or her voting rights restored,” Ard said.

Cases such as this are “a clear attempt by our governor to intimidate returning citizens who qualify to vote from voting,” said Akbar, Ervin’s attorney.

“I am hoping that our state attorney’s office does not participate in this intimidation,” dismisses the case, and allows Ervin “to terminate her probation next month (or sooner) as scheduled,” Akbar said.

“If this is not dismissed, I believe this will be a case that we put before a jury to determine if this is fraud,” Akbar said.

CNN
 — 

Jury deliberations will continue Wednesday in the trial of two Colorado police officers who arrested Elijah McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old Black man who died in 2019 after being subdued by police and injected by paramedics with ketamine.

The two officers, Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, each face charges including reckless manslaughter and have pleaded not guilty.

Jurors were given the cases at around 4:30 p.m. local time and spent about half an hour in the jury room before being dismissed for the day. The 12 jurors will return at 8:30 a.m. local time Wednesday to resume deliberations.

During closing arguments of the trial on Tuesday, prosecutors said the two officers used excessive force, failed to follow their training and misled paramedics about his health status.

“They were trained. They were told what to do. They were given instructions. They had opportunities, and they failed to choose to de-esclate violence when they needed to, they failed to listen to Mr. McClain when they needed to, and they failed Mr. McClain,” prosecutor Duane Lyons said in court.

Rosenblatt was fired by the police department in 2020 and Roedema remains suspended. Roedema and Rosenblatt have pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault causing serious bodily injury in connection with McClain’s death.

The case focuses on the events of August 24, 2019, when officers responded to a call about a “suspicious person” wearing a ski mask, according to the indictment. The officers confronted McClain, a 23-year-old  massage therapist, musician and animal lover who was walking home from a convenience store carrying a plastic bag with iced tea.

In an interaction captured on body camera footage, police wrestled McClain to the ground and placed him in a carotid hold, and paramedics later injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine. He suffered a heart attack on the way to a hospital and was pronounced dead three days later.

Prosecutors initially declined to bring charges, but the case received renewed scrutiny following the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in spring 2020. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed a special prosecutor to reexamine the case, and in 2021 a grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics in McClain’s death.

The prosecution played body-camera footage of the arrest during closing arguments and said the footage showed officers used excessive force for no reason. McClain also repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, yet the officers did not tell that to anyone on the scene.

Defense attorneys placed the blame for McClain’s death on paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec – who are facing a joint trial over their involvement in November – saying in part that they were responsible for evaluating McClain’s medical condition.

The defense attorneys also have argued the paramedics injected McClain with a dose of ketamine too large for his size.

Rosenblatt’s attorney Harvey Steinberg said his client is facing charges because he “didn’t grab the paramedic by the shoulders and throw him down and say ‘do something.’ “

Though the responding officers did not inject McClain with ketamine, their failure to protect McClain’s airway allowed him to become hypoxic then acidotic, and that’s what made the ketamine so dangerous to McClain, prosecutor Jason Slothouber said in his rebuttal.

Roedema and Rosenblatt’s joint trial began last month and featured testimony from Aurora law enforcement officers who responded to the scene as well as from doctors who analyzed how McClain died. The defense did not call any witnesses.

In opening statements, prosecutors argued the officers used excessive force against McClain in the form of two carotid holds. The officers then failed to check his vital signs, even as he threw up in his ski mask and repeatedly said “I can’t breathe,” according to the prosecution.

Dr. Robert Mitchell Jr., a forensic pathologist who reviewed McClain’s autopsy, testified the cause of death was “complications following acute ketamine administration during violent subdual and restraint by law enforcement, emergency response personnel.” He testified there was a “direct causal link” between the officers’ actions and McClain’s death.

Meanwhile, defense attorneys argued there was no evidence the officers’ actions led to his death, and instead pointed to the ketamine injection.

Dr. David Beuther, a pulmonary critical care physician, testified on cross-examination he believed McClain would not have died if the paramedics had recognized his issues and intervened.

A third officer and two paramedics who responded to the scene are set to go on trial in the coming weeks. They have also pleaded not guilty.

In 2021, the city of Aurora settled a civil rights lawsuit with the McClain family for $15 million, and the Aurora police and fire departments agreed to a consent decree to address a pattern of racial bias found by a state investigation.

The House GOP’s two candidates for speaker on Tuesday detailed their plans for avoiding a government shutdown — a key issue for members, and one that sank Kevin McCarthy’s speakership.

During a closed-door meeting, Rep. Jim Jordan told members he wants a long-term, stopgap spending bill that would cut spending levels by 1% to give lawmakers more time to pass individual spending bills, according to multiple lawmakers in the room. 

Rep. Don Bacon, a key moderate Republican, said he is leaning toward House Majority Leader Steve Scalise but was impressed by how “pragmatic” Jordan’s pitch was. 

“Because of his past, I think we expected to hear the Freedom Caucus message — it was not that. It was very pragmatic,” Bacon said.

Scalise, however, didn’t go as far in suggesting the need for a stopgap bill but told members he wants to pass all 12 appropriation bills and force negotiations with the Senate.

“I think we’re voting not just for a speaker, but for the speaker’s plan to get us through the next 75 days. The appropriations cycle. And the biggest difference between Scalise and Jordan is Jordan has a plan to avoid a shutdown. And it wasn’t clear to me that Scalise does,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, who is backing Jordan. 

Both Jordan and Scalise committed to supporting each other if they become the nominee, lawmakers said. And both committed to continuing the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, according to lawmakers in the room.

But Republicans leaving the candidate forum expressed skepticism that they would be able to quickly elect a new speaker.

“in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a pretty a divided conference right now. So I think this might take a little time to sort out,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong.

Asked by a reporter what the chances are that there will be a new House speaker by tomorrow, Massie said, “I’d put it at 2%.” 

And Rep. Ken Buck, one of the members who voted to oust McCarthy, said he isn’t “thrilled” with either choice and predicted someone else may come forward tomorrow, but wouldn’t predict who. 

New York
CNN
 — 

Retail pharmacists and technicians around the country say they’re overworked, underpaid and fed up.

Now some are walking off the job.

Pharmacy staff at Walgreens locations across the country called out of work on Monday to protest harsh working conditions, leaving some stores closed or critically understaffed. Organizers told CNN that hundreds of workers participated in the organized action, which is expected to last through Wednesday.

The walkouts come just two weeks after dozens of pharmacy employees at CVS, America’s largest retail pharmacy chain, walked off the job in Kansas City.

Here’s what pharmacy workers fighting for:

Monday’s walkout wasn’t easy for Walgreens’ employees.

Employees understood that they could be leaving customers without immediate access to some medications and that they were canceling long-scheduled vaccination appointments.

But this was their last-resort option, workers told CNN. They said increased demand for prescriptions, shots and other services without sufficient staff to fulfill the orders made it nearly impossible to do their jobs properly and created potentially unsafe conditions for customers.

“They didn’t feel confident that they could provide care in a safe environment,” said Michael Hogue, CEO of the American Pharmacists Association, who traveled to Kansas City to meet with CVS executives, Walgreens leadership and walkout organizers last week.

A 2022 National Community Pharmacists Association survey showed that nearly 75% of respondents felt they did not have enough time to safely perform clinical duties and patient care.

Stores often operate with just one pharmacist behind the counter for a 12 hour shift.

“Pharmacists are so overwhelmed and worried that they’re going to make a mistake. It’s so easy to make a mistake under those conditions,” said Shane Jerominski, a pharmacy labor advocate who spent a decade working at chain pharmacies including Walgreens and now manages an independent pharmacy.

In a statement, CVS acknowledged stores – and the health care industry overall –are understaffed. CVS said it has taken measures to ensure appropriate staffing levels in stores, and the company said it’s developing an action plan to improve patient care.

“Patient safety is our highest priority,” CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault told CNN on Tuesday. “Safeguards to support patient safety are integrated throughout our prescription workflow, and our pharmacists and pharmacy technicians receive extensive training on all pharmacy systems,” she said.

Representatives from Walgreens did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Walgreens on Monday said it understands “the immense pressures felt across the US in retail pharmacy right now,” according to Fraser Engerman, senior director of external relations at Walgreens. The company is “engaged and listening to the concerns raised by some of our team members.”

CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Amazon and a number of other stores are encouraging customers to seek non-emergency care at their locations. That’s gaining traction, according to Wolters Kluwer’s Pharmacy Next survey. More than 80% of respondents said they trust a pharmacist, nurse, or nurse practitioner to diagnose minor illnesses and prescribe medications to treat them.

“There’s been tremendous consumer demand for those services,” Dr. Peter Bonis, the chief medical officer at Wolters Kluwer Health, told CNN.

That means there’s a lot of money to be made.

But retail pharmacies haven’t done much to address the evolving demands on employees, he said. That puts a tremendous amount of strain on the existing staff.

“I’m not wholly surprised that there is this burnout phenomenon,” he said.

Some CVS and Walgreens employees told CNN that an increased focus on vaccinations from management has added to their workload and made it more difficult to focus on filling prescriptions and customer care.

“Walgreens and CVS have turned into a vaccination clinic first and a pharmacy second,” said Jerominski. “Because immunizations are so profitable, filling prescriptions is almost an afterthought.”

One Walgreens technician told CNN that they now spend their entire day in the “shot room” jabbing arms. h

“That’s the one thing that’s driving us absolutely bonkers,” they said, “the fact that management cares way more about us giving vaccines than anything else.”

The technician is the only immunizer on staff and earns less than $20 per hour.

More staff and better pay

It all comes down to staffing, said Hogue.

There are currently about 30,000 open retail pharmacy technician positions in the United States and about 7,500 open pharmacist positions, he estimated.

“Part of it is that pharmacy technician pay is abysmal,” said Hogue. “In some states pharmacy technicians are making minimum wage, and it’s a very stressful environment.”

That means that young people don’t see pharmacy tech as a viable career path and turnover is high.

The problem isn’t a lack of pharmacists. Pharmacy schools have expanded rapidly over the past few years, producing plenty of new graduates. Plus, a recent posting for a pharmacist role at a VA hospital in Kansas brought in about 700 applications, Amanda Applegate with the Kansas Pharmacists Association told CNN.

The problem, she said, is that many pharmacists don’t want to work for a retail pharmacy.

Every pharmacy needs at least one pharmacist on staff to open, he said, and because staffing is so limited, it’s not uncommon for a pharmacy location to shut down entirely when a pharmacist falls ill or isn’t able to make it in.

Pharmacy staff gets yelled at. A lot.

The pharmacy desk is often the final port of call for patients navigating a confusing and frustrating medical system.

The American public and the average patient doesn’t really understand what goes in to filling a prescription, said Jerominski.

“They just think we’re taking pills from a big bottle and putting them into a little bottle,” he explained, channeling a famous Jerry Seinfeld joke. But pharmacists also have to assess what medications a customer is taking, make sure there will be no interactions and advise them about side effects and best practices, he said.

When that’s rushed through or done haphazardly by an exhausted employee “a lot can go wrong,” he said.

High prices, long waits and medicine shortages don’t help the situation, either.

But pharmacists say that management sets them up for negative interactions with customers by stretching them thin and taking away time that should be spent on customer care.

When pharmacy workers bring their complaints to management, they sometimes fall on deaf ears, found a survey conducted last year by the American Pharmacists Association the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations.

“There is no open mechanism for pharmacists and pharmacy personnel to discuss workplace issues with supervisors and management; if they try, the discussion is not welcomed or heard,” the groups wrote.

“The sad part is it came to this,” the organizer of the CVS walkouts told CNN. “I’ve been asking and asking for more support for 10 years and no one listened. We had to stop asking and take drastic measures to force the issue.”

CVS representatives told CNN that “leaders are actively engaged with our pharmacists to directly address concerns they’ve raised, and we’re providing ongoing updates on the progress made directly to our pharmacy teams. We’re engaging in a continuous two-way dialogue to share how we’re meeting the commitments we’ve made to our teams and to continue to hear their direct feedback.”

CNN
 — 

Deborah Matias, an American citizen who lived in Israel, was shot and killed by Hamas gunmen while shielding her teenage son from their bullets, her father told CNN.

Hayim Katsman, an Israeli-American academic, was hiding in a closet with his neighbor when he was fatally shot, his sibling said.

They are among at least 14 US citizens who were killed in Israel after the Gaza-based militant group launched a devastating attack early Saturday that left at least 1,000 there dead.

There are also “20 or more Americans” in Israel who are currently unaccounted for, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.

Americans are also among the hostages being held by Hamas, US President Joe Biden said.

“I’ve directed my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts, because as President, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being a hostage around the world,” Biden said Tuesday.

In response to the attack, Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes, displacing more than 100,000 people. At least 900 Palestinians have been killed since the airstrikes began, including 260 children and 230 women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and medical care has been hampered by Israel cutting power to the territory. It’s unclear whether any US citizens are among those killed or injured in Gaza.

As families in the US wait for information about their missing loved ones, others are confronted with the sudden loss of siblings, children or parents.

A teen laid under his mother’s body

Ilan Troen said he was on the phone with his daughter when she was killed.

Troen, a professor emeritus from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, said his daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Shlomi Matias, were killed by Hamas militants over the weekend. Troen’s grandson, 16-year-old Rotem Matias, was shot but will survive, Troen told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Monday.

Troen said he was speaking to his daughter when militants infiltrated the safe room the family was in. After she was shot, her body gave cover to her son.

“We were on the phone with Deborah as she was killed,” Troen said. “We were on the phone the entire day with our grandson, Rotem, as he lay first under her body, and then found a place to escape under a blanket in a laundry.”

Rotem was shot in the stomach, Troen said, but will recover.

“The brunt of the shot was borne by his mother,” he said. “The terrorists who came, they had explosives and blew up the front door to their house and then blew out the front door to their so-called safe room.”

Rotem hid for more than 12 hours after he was shot, texting on his phone to communicate with people who were coaching him on how to breathe and how to manage “the blood that was coming out of his abdomen,” Troen said, adding Rotem’s phone was down to a 4% charge when he was rescued.

Deborah Matias attended the Rimon School of Music in the Tel Aviv area, where she met her husband, Troen told CNN. “Deborah was a child of light and life,” Troen said. “She, rather than becoming a scientist or a physician, she said to me one day, ‘Dad, I have to do music, because it’s in my soul.’”

Hayim Katsman was “very pro-peace” and had supported “a solution for this bleeding conflict” between Israel and Palestinians before he was killed, his sibling told CNN.

Noy Katsman – who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns – said they last heard from their brother Saturday morning when he wrote to say there were terrorists in Kibbutz Holit, which is in southwest Israel near Gaza.

When they tried to reach their brother again about four hours later, there was no response.

Hayim Katsman’s friend, Avital Alajem, described how she was hiding inside a shelter’s closet with Katsman when gunmen came and began firing at the door – striking Katsman multiple times.

“He was murdered,” Alajem told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Israel early Tuesday. “I was saved because he was next to the door, and they shot him.”

Katsman, who was a US citizen, was remembered by his sibling as a “brilliant academist,” a musician who DJ’d and played bass, and a volunteer at the community garden in the city of Rahat.

He earned his PhD in international studies from the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies in 2021 and was described as “an emerging scholar in the field of Israel Studies,” in a statement issued by the Association for Israel Studies.

Noy Katsman told CNN they hoped their brother’s death will not be used “as an excuse to kill other innocent people,” adding: “He wouldn’t have wanted that.”

Israeli-American Roey Weiser was killed during Saturday’s attack, his mother, Naomi Feifer-Weiser, told CNN.

Weiser, 21, was a sergeant who served in the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade and was stationed at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, his mother said.

“He died how he lived, by putting others first, and when his base was overrun by terrorists, he went on his own to divert their attention allowing others to escape. Because of his bravery, at least 12 other soldiers are alive today,” Weiser’s mother said.

She said the family was finally able to retrieve her son’s body on Tuesday. They plan to hold his funeral on Wednesday.

“Roey lived his life to the fullest, almost always with a smile on his face,” the mother said. “He was always looking for ways to help those around him, and before he was conscripted he was a volunteer firefighter who was always the first to jump into action when needed.”

Though Weiser’s parents were born and raised in the US, they now live in Israel.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Daniel Ben Senior’s first name.

CNN
 — 

In the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel, former President Donald Trump is turning to a strategy he employed during the 2016 campaign of using terror abroad – and fears of future attacks on American soil – to push for hard-line immigration policies in the United States.

During a Monday rally in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Trump renewed his pledge to reinstate his controversial travel ban that targeted predominantly Muslim countries as he sought to link the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza with US border security. He also asserted, without evidence, that the “same people” perpetrating violent attacks in Israel were entering the US through “our totally open southern border,” before speculating that some people crossing the border may be planning an “attack” on the US.

The former president’s rhetoric harks back to his 2016 presidential campaign and his first term in office, when he used fears over terror attacks stateside to block immigrants and refugees from predominantly Muslim countries.

During the 2016 cycle, Trump’s campaign called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in the wake of the December 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected ISIS sympathizers. He also condemned the Obama administration’s approach to combating ISIS after then-President Barack Obama declared that the terrorist organization had been “contained” one day before the group claimed responsibility for a series of deadly coordinated attacks throughout Paris in November 2015.

“We have leadership who doesn’t know what they’re doing,” Trump said after those attacks.

Within days of taking office in January 2017, Trump signed an executive order for the initial travel ban, which blocked citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries – Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – from entering the country for 90 days.

The ban sparked protests at airports across the country and drew several legal challenges. The Supreme Court upheld the third iteration of the ban in 2018. President Joe Biden revoked the travel ban after he took office in 2021.

Since launching his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has vowed to bring the ban back if elected and to expand it to include “communists and Marxists.”

Trump argued Monday that such a ban would prevent attacks similar to the ones launched in Israel over the weekend by the Palestinian militant group Hamas from happening in the US.

Trump is not the first Republican candidate to link terrorism fears and border security. Republicans raised fears of ISIS terrorists crossing into the US from the southern border during the 2014 midterm elections. Ahead of the 2018 midterms, Trump asserted, without evidence, that migrant caravans heading to the US from Central America had “unknown Middle Easterners” mixed in with the groups.

This election cycle, GOP candidates have been focused on a different threat: fentanyl. Some Republican presidential hopefuls have said they would use military force to combat drug trafficking at the border and vowed to address China’s role in producing the chemicals that cartels use to manufacture the drug. But a few candidates have joined Trump in drawing parallels between the attacks in Israel and safety in the US.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that people who intend to harm Americans might cross the southern border.

“You have to recognize that if that can happen in Israel, what do you think can happen in our country with an open border where 7 million people at a minimum have come through illegally?” he said at a campaign stop in Pocahontas, Iowa.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also sought to tie Israel’s war with Hamas to US-Mexico border policy.

“What we read about in the papers is how could this have happened with the intelligence failures and the security that Israel has on its own borders,” Ramaswamy said Sunday in Manchester, New Hampshire. “And those are important questions that are yet to be answered and will hopefully be answered in the coming weeks. But the No. 1 self-reflection of this country is that if it can happen over there, it can certainly happen over here in this country.”

In a social media post Tuesday, Ramaswamy wrote that America “should use the attacks on Israel as a wake-up call” and said he plans to visit the US-Mexico border on Friday.

Most of the Republican presidential candidates have focused their response to the Hamas attacks on hammering the Biden administration for the recent prisoner release deal with Iran, which included the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian frozen funds.

Trump asserted Monday that the deal had caused the current violence in Israel, in addition to money Iran has made in oil sales and “our country’s perceived weakness with an incompetent and corrupt leader.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said it was “irresponsible” for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to not link the Hamas attack to the prisoner release deal.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott accused the Biden administration of being “complicit” in the attack and called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to testify on the $6 billion transfer before the Senate Banking Committee, on which he is the top Republican.

And DeSantis announced Tuesday that he is planning to roll out legislation during Florida’s upcoming legislative session to increase sanctions on Iran and block Iranian business in the state.

The Biden administration has said that funds from the prisoner release deal went directly to Qatar, and Iran can only access the funds for humanitarian purposes.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN
 — 

The House GOP’s two candidates for speaker detailed their plans during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday for avoiding a government shutdown – a key issue for members, and one that sank Kevin McCarthy’s speakership.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan made their pitches during the Tuesday meeting ahead of a conference vote for speaker on Wednesday, but GOP lawmakers made clear that the conference remains divided, and there’s a heavy dose of skepticism among Republicans that they will quickly coalesce around either candidate to be the next speaker.

Jordan told members he wants a long-term, stopgap spending bill that would cut current spending levels by 1% in order to give them more time to pass individual spending bills, according to multiple lawmakers in the room.

Rep. Don Bacon, a key moderate Republican, said he is leaning toward Scalise but was impressed by how “pragmatic” Jordan’s pitch was.

“Because of his past, I think we expected to hear the Freedom Caucus message – it was not that. It was very pragmatic,” Bacon said. “And I thought convincing, that he would do his best to represent everybody and I thought something like – they could work with the Democrats in the Senate, he has got to work with a Democratic president. So I thought he did a great job.”

Scalise, however, didn’t go as far in suggesting the need for a stopgap bill, but told members he wants to pass all 12 appropriation bills and force negotiations with the Senate.

“I think we’re voting not just for a speaker, but for the speaker’s plan to get us through the next 75 days. The appropriations cycle. And the biggest difference between Scalise and Jordan is Jordan has a plan to avoid a shutdown. And it wasn’t clear to me that Scalise does,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is backing Jordan.

Both Jordan and Scalise committed to supporting one another if they become the nominee, lawmakers said. And both committed to continuing the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry, according to lawmakers in the room.

Scalise told reporters leaving Tuesday’s forum that Republicans had a “great forum” and he was building a coalition in the conference, though he did not answer whether he thought he had the votes to secure the nomination.

“People want to see us get back on track. We need a Congress that’s working,” Scalise said. “Tomorrow, we need to get Congress back to work. Speaker Scalise on day one – we will, number one, be passing a resolution to express our strong support for Israel – Chairman (Mike) McCaul’s bill, which has over 200 cosponsors.”

But Republicans Tuesday evening expressed skepticism that they would be able to quickly elect a new speaker.

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a pretty a divided conference right now,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a North Dakota Republican. “So I think this might take a little time to sort out.”

GOP Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said, “No one is close to 217,” which is what will be required on the floor to win the speakership.

During the forum Tuesday, Cammack pressed Scalise and Jordan on what “promises” they made to members in their bid to become speaker, according to a source familiar with the meeting. It’s a pertinent question given that some of McCarthy’s January side deals to become speaker became a factor in his detractors’ decision to oust him.

Jordan’s response, according to a source familiar, was that the only promise he made was to “fight for you all.” Scalise, however, didn’t answer the question, the source said.

Vulnerable Republican Rep. David Valadao of California would not say which candidate for speaker he would support, but warned that it will be difficult for either Scalise or Jordan to get the needed votes.

“I think both candidates are going to struggle to get to 218,” he said.

McCarthy said Tuesday that he will support whichever candidate for speaker gets the Republican GOP conference’s support, after urging his supporters in the conference not to nominate him for speaker.

Asked who he would vote for while standing outside the party’s candidate forum, McCarthy told reporters, “Whoever comes out of there.”

After leaving open the idea Monday he could be renominated for speaker, McCarthy said Tuesday that he told his allies in the room not to nominate him. “I know a lot of them want to nominate me. I told them, ‘Please do not nominate me,’ ” he said. “There are two people running in there. I’m not one of them.”

McCarthy said that he only expected two members to be nominated, and that how they deal with the eight Republicans who voted to oust him will determine whether House Republicans are able to govern going forward.

“It’s more than selecting a speaker. If this conference continues to allow 4% of the conference to partner with Democrats when 96% of the conference wants something else, they will never lead,” McCarthy said.

Asked whether they could vote on a speaker this week, he said, “I expect there to be a vote and elect a new speaker this week.”

Some allies to Scalise saw McCarthy’s maneuvering heading into the speaker’s vote this week as designed to hobble Scalise’s bid for speaker, which has heightened tension between their camps.

McCarthy and Scalise have maintained a cordial working relationship over the years but have long been seen as potential rivals. Scalise considered challenging McCarthy for leader in 2018, and this year, McCarthy tapped his trusted allies Reps. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Garret Graves of Louisiana – not his top leadership deputies – to help him with his January speaker’s bid, the debt ceiling crisis and government funding deadline.

McHenry is now serving as interim speaker.

On Monday night, the conference gathered for the first time since last week’s historic vote to oust McCarthy, but the two-hour session left them no closer toward coalescing around a speaker nominee and a path forward as they debated potential rules changes and grapple with the raw feelings lingering after the unprecedented events of last week.

While the impetus on Republicans to pick a new speaker escalated after the terrorist attack in Israel over the weekend, the House GOP conference remains bitterly divided over how it should proceed – and who can get the 217 votes needed to lead it.

Republicans are preparing for the prospect that neither Scalise nor Jordan can get the votes to be elected speaker, leaving the conference with no clear path forward. They’re also divided over the rules that the conference will use to elect a new speaker – while hoping to avoid the embarrassment of the 15-vote marathon that played out for McCarthy in January.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

Washington
CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden confirmed Tuesday that Americans are known to be among the hostages held by Hamas after its rampage over the weekend, delivering an emotional and angered denunciation of the terror and making clear he expected a forceful reprisal by Israel.

The president delivered vivid descriptions of the atrocities carried out by the militants, saying they had “butchered” and “massacred” innocents. Biden said the known number of Americans killed now stands at 14.

“It’s abhorrent,” he said. “The brutality of Hamas’ bloodthirstiness brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS.”

The 10-minute speech appeared designed to ensure there is little daylight between the US and Israel at a moment of deep crisis. The president made no equivocation about the attacks and made no call for restraint by Israel as it responds, apart from insisting it follow the rule of law.

Recounting in stark terms the “sheer evil” of the attack, Biden warned other governments in the region not to step into the fray to exploit the situation: “I have one word: Don’t.”

Biden, who spoke earlier with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, offered his own view of what the country’s response might look like.

“I told him that if the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming,” Biden said from the State Dining Room.

The news that Americans are among the hostages taken by Hamas since the attack began on Saturday confirms what had largely been assumed by administration officials but had not been confirmed until Biden’s speech.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said later that the administration believes there are “20 or more Americans” believed to be missing from Israel Tuesday, but that that number does not necessarily reflect the number of hostages in Hamas custody.

Biden said during his speech that he was “directing my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts.

“As president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being a hostage around the world,” he said.

The president also said he intends to ask Congress to approve more funding for Israel to help it defend its territory and people. He promised his administration would not allow Israel to run out of ammunition and interceptors for its Iron Dome air defense system, which is intended to shoot rockets out of the air before they strike Israeli territory.

“This is not about party or politics, it’s about the security of our world, the security of the United States of America,” he said.

The remarks Tuesday, where he was flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were Biden’s most substantive since the outbreak of violence early Saturday. Within hours of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that left hundreds of people dead, the president was on the phone with Netanyahu. He has spoken with him three times since the violence began.

When Biden’s counterpart – reeling from one of the worst attacks on his country in decades – has brought up the possibility of going into Gaza, the president has not offered warnings to him against doing so, a US official briefed on the conversation tells CNN.

That decision by the president to hold back from urging Netanyahu to exercise restraint in the immediate aftermath of the attacks in no small part reflects the sheer shock and breadth of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel that makes this moment different, officials say.

“We are not urging restraint right now,” one official said.

In his remarks, Biden insisted any response must adhere to the rule of law, saying that is what differentiated Israel and the United States from the Hamas militants.

“Terrorists purposely target civilians, kill them. We uphold the laws of war. It matters. There’s a difference,” Biden said.

Later, Sullivan told reporters the two men “had the opportunity to talk through the difference between going full bore against Hamas terrorists and how we distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians.”

The president and his national security team are keenly aware of what appears to be a growing likelihood of Israel making a ground incursion into Gaza. Over the past 72 hours, officials have acknowledged what a deeply tenuous position that possibility puts the administration in. As a general matter, the US has historically urged for a ceasefire on all sides when conflicts have broken out in the region.

The Biden administration has usually been very intent on handling those kinds of discussions very privately, and officials said this time will be no different. Biden’s first written statement over the weekend did not include the term “ceasefire” – an omission that struck current and former administration officials alike.

During his speech, Biden said the violence unleashed by Hamas was reminiscent of some of the worst attacks by ISIS in the previous decade.

“The brutality of Hamas, this blood-thirstiness, brings to mind the worst, the worst rampages of ISIS – this is terrorism, but sadly, for the Jewish people it’s not new,” Biden said. “This attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of anti-Semitism and genocide of the Jewish people, so in this moment, we must be crystal clear, we stand with Israel.”

Domestically, he said, law enforcement officials “have stepped up security around centers of Jewish life,” while “working closely with state local law enforcement and Jewish community partners to identify and disrupt any domestic threat that could emerge in connection to these horrific attacks.”

This story has been updated with additional developments on Tuesday.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified one of the individuals standing behind Biden during his speech. It was Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

CNN
 — 

Federal prosecutors say that 25 witnesses in the election subversion case against Donald Trump withheld information and evidence from investigators by asserting attorney-client privilege and said they are concerned the former president may intimidate witnesses in next year’s trial.

The 25 witnesses, special counsel Jack Smith’s office said in a court filing Tuesday, include “co-conspirators, former campaign employees, the campaign itself, outside attorneys, a non-attorney intermediary, and even a family member of the defendant.”

Prosecutors did not name any of these witnesses in the filing. And it’s unclear from the filing if investigators were ultimately able to overcome those privilege claims to obtain the information.

The special counsel’s office wants Judge Tanya Chutkan to order Trump to formally say whether he wants to argue in trial that he was following the advice of his attorneys, noting that such a move would trigger additional discovery in the case and could open Trump’s communications with his lawyers to scrutiny.

Trump and his attorneys have made clear that they intend to bring this up as a defense in the case, prosecutors say, citing media interviews when Trump’s attorneys claimed the former president was being charged with following the advice of his attorneys in the wake of the 2020 election, including John Eastman.

Eastman and other attorneys who previously worked with Trump have been charged alongside the former president in the separate election subversion case in Georgia. The former president is the only one charged in the federal case, and Trump has pleaded not guilty.

The special counsel’s office also asked Chutkan to place special protections on information about prospective jurors when the case goes to trial next year, citing Trump’s social media posts about this prosecution and his other legal cases.

“Given the particular sensitivities of this case, stemming both from heightened public interest and the defendant’s record of using social media to attack others, the Court should impose certain limited restrictions on the ability of the parties to conduct research on potential jurors during jury selection and trial and to use juror research,” prosecutors wrote in a separate court filing Tuesday.

The most serious concern, prosecutors said, stems from the former president’s “continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings.” Just last week, the former president criticized a clerk during his New York civil trial in a social media post, prosecutors noted.

“Given that the defendant – after apparently reviewing opposition research on court staff – chose to use social media to publicly attack a court staffer, there is cause for concern about what he may do with social media research on potential jurors in this case,” prosecutors wrote.

Trump supporters also have issued threats against those involved in his legal troubles, prosecutors said, citing “directed threats to the Court” and to “grand jurors who returned an indictment in Fulton County, Georgia.”

Prosecutors also asked Chutkan to send a questionnaire to potential jurors in the weeks before the trial begins, allowing both sides to preemptively screen the individuals before they come in for jury selection.