(NEW YORK) — Cities across the heartland are expected on Monday to see temperatures close to 100 degrees, with the heat index in some locations reaching to 110.
More than 60 million Americans across 21 states are under heat alerts coast to coast.
The heat index is expected to soar between 100 and 110 in locations from South Dakota to Florida.
Temperatures this week will remain very hot over the middle and southern parts of the US, but not necessarily record-breaking.
The greatest heat risk this week will be in Oklahoma, where each day Oklahoma City is under extreme heat risk — a four out of four on the heat risk scale — due to their combined hot afternoons and very warm nights which won’t provide relief.
In South Dakota and Iowa, where there has been historic and catastrophic flooding, temperatures on Monday are expected to reach the 90s. Heat indices could reach up to 110 and a heat advisory has been issued.
Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; Oklahoma City and Little Rock, Arkansas, are all forecast to reach around 100 degrees on Monday with heat indices up to between 105 and 110.
(NEW YORK) — In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, litigation has been critical in restoring access to abortion care — but it has not been a successful path in all states.
At least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and seven other states have restrictions in effect, limiting access to the procedure.
State courts around the country have been the site of battles over how to regulate abortion care — with abortion rights advocates making a number of different arguments in their efforts to restore access to care.
“Litigation also serves a very powerful role in educating the public. We’ve seen a lot of what the harms and the dangers of abortion bans are,” Jennifer Dalven, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, told ABC News.
One kind of challenge that has been made in lawsuits challenging abortion bans has been asserting a right to abortion under state constitutions. There have been five court rulings on cases of this nature since Roe was overturned.
In South Carolina, the court found that abortion is not protected under the privacy clause of the state’s constitution.
In Idaho, the court found that abortion is not protected under an unalienable rights clause in the state constitution.
In Indiana, a court found that the state constitution does not have protections for abortion but said there are protections for the life and health of the mother.
In Oklahoma, the court found that the state constitution protects abortion to preserve the life of the mother, but the courts did not speak on whether the right to abortion could be broader — an issue that could still be addressed in the future.
In North Dakota, the court found that the state constitution protects abortions to preserve the life and health of a pregnant woman — but the court did not speak to whether the right to abortion could be extended further.
Rulings are also pending in other states — including Utah, Wyoming, Wisconsin and New Mexico. Litigation has blocked bans in Utah and Wyoming while litigation continues.
“The courts there have been asked to decide whether their constitutions protect the right to abortion, and they have not issued final decisions, yet,” Amy Myrick, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told ABC News.
Colorado, Florida, Maryland and South Dakota will have an abortion question on the ballot in November.
“At the ballot every single time, voters have been asked whether they want to protect access to abortion, they have said yes, and that includes in conservative and battleground states, like Ohio, Michigan and Kansas,” said Dalven.
Active lawsuits in North Dakota, Idaho, Tennessee and Indiana are asking courts for protections for abortions to preserve the life and health of mothers in medical emergencies.
“If those cases go well, it’s not that the state court is going to declare a right to abortion, instead — hopefully — they will clarify the law and increase access for people who are facing horrible medical crises,” Myrick said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling in a pivotal lawsuit brought by the Biden Administration against Idaho over its strict abortion ban. The lawsuit claims that the ban violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) — a federal law that mandates that facilities receiving medicare funds must provide patients with “stabilizing” emergency health care.
“The most extreme outcome would be they hold that EMTALA doesn’t preempt state law broadly,” Myrick said.
“Every state that has an abortion ban has a lot of nuance and specificities about what’s in that ban, so [the ruling] will still be pretty fact-specific as to how each ban interacts with EMTALA — even if they found that state law was going to prevail,” Myrick added.
The high court already issued a decision on abortion medication, preserving nationwide access.
A lawsuit brought in Texas by 22 women suing the state over its multiple abortion bans, saying their lives were put in danger due to the bans was dealt a blow last month, when the state Supreme Court issued a decision pushing back against the claims made by women in the lawsuit.
The court argued, in part, that a lower court judge overstepped when she permitted abortions “for any ‘unsafe’ pregnancy,” according to the ruling.
“All pregnancies carry risks. The law limits permitted abortions to address life-threatening conditions ‘aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy.’ While merely being pregnant may increase a mother’s risk of death or injury, pregnancy itself is not a ‘life-threatening physical condition’ under the law,” the court wrote.
“In differentiating ordinary risks attendant to pregnancy — those that can be treated short of an abortion — from conditions for which the law permits an abortion, the Legislature drew the line at ‘life-threatening physical condition.’ Because the trial court’s order opens the door to permit abortion to address any pregnancy risk, it is not a faithful interpretation of the law. A trial court has no discretion to incorrectly interpret the law in ordering a temporary injunction,” the court wrote.
Similar lawsuits brought by women over state abortion bans are pending in Idaho and Tennessee.
Kate Cox, a Texas woman who had asked the court for an emergency abortion to preserve her fertility, was denied abortion care for a pregnancy with a severe anomaly. Cox left the state to access abortion care.
Litigation in Kansas, Montana, Alaska, Michigan and Ohio is also fighting state abortion restrictions.
Dalven argues that abortion is an issue that needs to be resolved at the national level — with legislation, warning that if Donald Trump is elected into office, Republicans could use a 150-year-old law, called the Comstock Act, to ban abortion nationwide.
The law, which remains on the books, is an anti-obscenity law that, among other things, “makes it a crime to mail anything that’s ‘indecent, filthy, or vile’ or ‘intended for producing abortion,'” according to the ACLU.
The law could prevent abortion pills, medical instruments, ultrasound machines and other devices used in abortions from being sent by mail.
“His allies have promised to use a law from the 1800s to ban abortion nationwide,” Dalven said.
(NEW YORK) — When Jorge Leon invented at the age of 22 a small device that turns Glock pistols into fully automatic weapons, he said he intended it to be used for the good of society, to help the military and police in his native country of Venezuela.
But 26 years after being granted a U.S. patent for his “fire selector system,” U.S. law enforcement officials say his creation is flooding the streets of American cities with these outlawed machine guns and many have fallen into the hands of teenage criminals indiscriminately using them to wreak havoc on communities both large and small.
“After seeing and reading about all those deaths, those unnecessary deaths of youngsters, of police officers, of broken families, I don’t feel nice about that, I don’t feel good,” Leon, now 59, told ABC News. “I regret filing that patent because … my technology, which was very well protected at that time, is free for everybody.”
Leon said that soon after his U.S. patent expired in 2016, he no longer had legal recourse to stop unscrupulous developers from taking his intricate drawings and detailed explanations of how his invention works and manufacturing them for the black markets as so-called “auto sears” or “Glock switches” and illegally selling them on the internet for as little as $20.
“I felt very bad, sure. I felt very bad because I created my invention always looking for the future to help, to help the military, to help SWAT teams, to help like a tool,” said Leon, who now invents surgical equipment.
With the official start of summer here, police across the nation are bracing for what one law enforcement expert described to ABC News as the “next level” of gun violence. Law enforcement officials attribute a dramatic increase in the number of shots fired at crime scenes across the country to a lethal combination: multiple people drawing guns in crowded settings to settle disputes and a growing number of criminals using Glock firearms converted to machine guns with extended magazines.
In numerous shootings that have erupted this year, police said Glock pistols fitted with auto sears devices have dramatically increased the number of people killed or injured.
“What that’s telling us is that criminals who already are owning these handguns illegally are now taking it to the next level, and they are trying to maximize the destruction that they cause,” Jillian Snider, a former New York City police officer and an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told ABC News.
In a recent interview with ABC News, Martin Collins Jr. said his 19-year-old son, Marsiah, was one of four people killed in a shooting that erupted at a Sweet 16 birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama, on April 15, 2023, in which, according to police, a Glock with an auto sear device was used. Another 32 people were wounded in the shooting and police collected 89 shell casings at the scene.
“It’s the worst invention in American history, in world history,” Collins called Leon’s device.
In the year since his son was killed, Collins, a Marine who served in Iraq, said he has spoken with local, state, and federal officials, telling them converted guns are not just killing victims, but devastating entire families.
“I tell every congressman, congresswoman, senator, state representative, local representative until you walk into a funeral home and see your 19-year-old son wrapped in plastic from the morgue and knowing what they did to him, you will never understand,” Collins said. “But I live with that every day because I went to see what they did to my son.”
In numerous shootings that have erupted this year, police said Glock pistols fitted with auto sears devices have dramatically increased the number of people killed or injured.
“They’re falling into the wrong hands. They are falling into the hands of teenagers and young adults. Folks are making just horrible decisions, impulsive decisions with the inability to resolve relatively basic conflict,” Detroit Police Chief James White told ABC News after four people were wounded, two critically, in a June 1 shooting in which 93 shell casings and eight guns, including a Glock with an auto sear, were recovered at the crime scene.
On March 6, eight teenagers, ages 15 to 17, were shot at a Philadelphia SEPTA bus stop by three masked gunmen who opened fire, spraying more than 30 shots in a matter of seconds, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. One of the guns seized in the crime was a Glock 22 pistol with an auto sear and laser sights. Five suspects, ranging in age from 15 to 19, were arrested and charged in the shooting, according to police.
On April 20, two people were killed and seven were injured at a block party in Memphis, Tennessee, when multiple people pulled out guns, including at least one fitted with an auto sear, and opened fire, according to the Memphis Police Department.
On April 12, 2024, Memphis police officer Joseph McKinney was killed and two other officers were wounded in a firefight that erupted as they responded to a suspicious vehicle call. They were confronted by two teenagers in the car, one armed with a handgun modified with an auto sear, according to the Memphis Police Department. An 18-year-old suspect was killed and a 17-year-old accomplice was wounded, police said.
On April 11, 2024, a 14-year-old boy was arrested in Columbia, South Carolina, and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy and his father during a robbery, according to the Columbia Police Department. Police said the young suspect, who shot himself in the leg during the incident, was armed with a pistol illegally modified with an auto sear.
According to a 2023 report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 5,454 guns with machine-gun conversion devices were taken into ATF custody at crime scenes between 2017 and 2021, a 570% increase in the five-year period.
‘It’s going to get worse’
Asked about teenagers as young as 14 wielding guns equipped with an auto sear that can now be produced with 3-D printers, Leon responded, “I feel terrified.”
He said there are tens of millions of Glock pistols in the United States, most owned by responsible gun owners, but each capable of being converted into machine guns in as little as 15 seconds.
“It’s going to get worse. Just imagine the quantity of Glock pistols that are out on the streets,” he said of one of the most popular guns sold in the United States.
From slingshots to guns
Leon said he has had a passion for inventing things since he was a child, recalling that at age 12 he built the most powerful slingshot on his block.
“At 15, I designed my own car, and I built it. At the same age, I made a working microscope for biology class,” he said. “Guns were something that caught my attention because of the precision required and the complexity of the components in order to function.”
Leon said that he was 16 years old and working at a gun repair shop in Venezuela when Glock first introduced its firearms in the county in the mid-1980s. He said that after studying the Glock pistol closely, he discovered it did not have an external manual safety but did come with a trigger safety mechanism that prevents the guns from firing if accidentally dropped or bumped from the side.
He said he became obsessed with inventing an external manual safety for the Glock. But as he set out to build one, he discovered what he described as “a gate left open” by inventor Gaston Glock: Manipulating the gun’s trigger bar could convert the weapon from a semiautomatic, which requires a pull of the trigger for each shot fired, into a fully automatic weapon in which numerous rounds can be fired by depressing the trigger and holding it.
“I discover some kind of a design flaw in that particular gun,” Leon said.
Leon said that when Gaston Glock, an Austrian engineer, got word of his full-automatic conversion device, he asked to meet him while on a visit to Venezuela in the late 1980s.
“We sat and had breakfast at his hotel for him to see my invention. So that happened. And he suggested to me to leave that as a curiosity,” said Leon.
Georgia-based Glock Inc. does not make the auto sears and has no affiliation with those who manufacture them. The company did not respond to requests from ABC News for comment.
Leon said he continued working on his design in private, creating six different prototypes. The last one, he said was “very light, very reliable, with very few moving parts.”
He said he did nothing further with his invention until a friend working in the intellectual property field asked him in 1996 if he was interested in getting the device patented in the United States.
“Together, with intellectual property lawyers in New York, I filed that document and I introduced that patent in 1996,” Leon said. “Two years later, I got the patent pending certificate.”
Leon said he was “surprised” that his patent was approved, given the laws against possessing machine guns in the United States.
In 1934, the National Firearms Act was signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, outlawing machine guns that were being used by gangsters against police and rivals, including the 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago when famed mob boss Al Capone’s crew used machine guns, or Tommy Guns, to kill seven members of a rival gang. The law defined the term machine gun to include “parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun.”
In 1994, five years before Leon’s invention was patented, President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which outlawed military-style semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. The ban expired in 2004.
“My technology was clearly defined in that patent, every dimension, every detail, the physics, the properties, how it works … so in this way, there was very explicit information there in the patent. Anyone reading the patent could understand perfectly how it works,” Leon said.
Under the rules of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency must grant a patent when an application meets the statutory requirements under which a patent may be obtained, including being novel, non-obvious, adequately described and enabled, and falls within one of the classes of subject matter that are eligible for patent protection.
There is no statutory authority for the U.S. Patent and Trade Office to determine whether the invention is beneficial to society and the potential uses of an invention can significantly change as technology continues to develop, according to the agency.
“Ownership of a patent does not grant an individual or entity the right to produce the invention, but rather the right to exclude others from making it, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing into the United States the invention claimed in the patent,” according to the agency’s website.
“I feel like I tried to do the correct thing to keep my technology in safe hands during all that time. But what happened was all the information that was available for everyone who wanted to print out the patent and to make very light, reverse technology and manufacture an illegal Glock switch,” Leon said.
Leon said he offered the device to police departments and the military at what he described as a low price. He estimates he has made little money on the device and ceased manufacturing it several years ago.
‘No control’
After his patent expired, Leon said his invention “escaped from my hands.”
“That, for me, [was] like a heart-crushing feeling because you care about something, then it’s not any more yours. It’s something hard because there was no control on that technology anymore,” Leon said.
Leon said he felt “frustrated” and helpless as he saw his invention being co-opted and used by criminals.
“We have to find a way how to control this unleashed bad thing that occurred, joined together with the bad design of a Glock pistol and with the stolen technology of the U.S. patent that belonged to me,” he said.
According to a lawsuit filed in March against Glock Inc. by the city of Chicago, the Chicago Police Department recovered more than 1,000 Glock guns that had been modified into automatic weapons between January 2021 and Dec. 31, 2023.
“These terrifying weapons have caused death and destruction throughout Chicago: they have been recovered in connection with homicides, aggravated assaults, batteries, kidnappings, burglaries, home invasions, carjackings, and attempted robberies,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Glock Inc. has known about the dangerous workaround for decades, and mentions in a footnote Gaston Glock’s meeting “with the inventor of the ‘Fire Selector System'” in the late 1980s.
“Glock’s willful decision to not take any meaningful action to address this problem in its sales to civilians — despite its awareness — is immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous and unreasonable,” the lawsuit states. “This is especially so given that the aspect of Glocks that allows the pistols to be so easily modified can also be easily changed to prevent that modification.”
The lawsuit notes that other guns produced by manufacturers like Smith & Wesson or Sig Sauer cannot be easily converted and would “require time-consuming and difficult engineering well beyond the capability of most civilians.”
On June 10, Glock Inc. responded to the lawsuit by filing a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Nothern District of Illinois asking that the litigation be dismissed. In its motion, the company argued that the city of Chicago’s complaint “asserts claims that are barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act [PLCAA].”
“The City’s attempt to hold Glock, Inc. liable for the actions of criminal third parties is precisely the kind of action that prompted Congress in 2005 to enact the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” according to Glock’s motion. “With limited exceptions, the PLCAA bars actions that seek to hold firearm manufacturers like Glock, Inc. liable for alleged injuries ‘resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse’ of a firearm by a third party.”
In its lawsuit, the city alleged Glock is violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (ICFA), but Glock countered that the “ICFA is unconstitutional because it interferes with interstate commerce, is unconstitutionally vague, and violates the Second Amendment.”
“Just as Chicago looks to blame certain carmakers for the City’s inability to stop auto thefts in the City, Chicago seeks to place the blame on Glock, Inc. for crime involving the use of Modified Glock Pistols,” according to the company’s motion. “Chicago does not claim that Glock pistols fail to function properly when they are sold by Glock, Inc. and, in light of their popularity and reliability, does not seek to restrict their sale to, or use by, law enforcement.”
Glock’s attorneys also stated in its motion, “Like all semi-automatic pistols, Glock pistols can be illegally converted to fire fully automatic through the installation of a device known as an auto sear.”
The company added that the city filed a similar lawsuit against Glock and other gun manufacturers 20 years ago “arguing that their sale of legal handguns created a public nuisance in the City based on third parties who illegally possessed them and used them to commit crimes.”
“The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously held that the City’s complaint failed to state claims under Illinois law based on lack of duty and proximate cause,” according to Glock’s motion.
‘The American people don’t deserve this’
Leon said he sent a letter on May 13 to Glock’s general counsel Carlos Guevara about re-designing the mechanical configuration of its guns so they will no longer accept auto sears, but has received no response.
He said he hopes to speak with American lawmakers soon to explain to them the problem and come up with a solution.
“The Glock mechanical configuration should be banned, just the configuration until the company comes up with a newly designed weapon,” Leon said.
He added that such a ban has to be national instead of state by state, noting that people could go to neighboring states with no ban to purchase Glock weapons.
“When something wrong happens with a car and provokes an accident or something, they recall all the cars in order to make a correction. But what do we see in the gun industry? Nothing. People die every day and the gun industry is mute,” Leon said.
He said he began speaking out earlier this year for the first time after being contacted by a Minnesota television journalist about the rise of the auto sear. Leon said he decided to publicly address the issue after undergoing life-threatening open heart surgery late last year that gave him a new lease on life.
“If I am going to invest my time in something, the time I have left, I want to do it for the right causes. I want to do it for something that will promote life,” Leon said. “This is my word of commitment that I am looking forward to helping and cooperating with a solution because the American people don’t deserve this. They don’t deserve this crime rising because of the full-auto.”
Donald Trump is addressing the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority Conference at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2024. (Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A trip to Mar-a-Lago taken by former President Donald Trump that aides allegedly “kept quiet” just weeks before FBI agents searched the property for classified materials in his possession raised suspicions among special counsel Jack Smith’s team as a potential additional effort to obstruct the government’s classified documents investigation, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The previously unreported visit, which allegedly took place July 10-12 in the summer of 2022, was raised in several interviews with witnesses, sources familiar with the matter said, as investigators sought to determine whether it was part of Trump’s broader alleged effort to withhold the documents after receiving a subpoena demanding their return.
At least one witness who worked closely with the former president recalled being told at the time of the trip that Trump was there “checking on the boxes,” according to sources familiar with what the witness told investigators.
Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get them back. His longtime aide, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira pleaded not guilty to related charges.
Trump has denied all charges and denounced the probe as a political witch hunt.
Gathering evidence
Several witnesses who spoke to investigators described the trip as highly unusual, given that Trump typically spends the summer months at his Bedminster club in New Jersey, and because Trump’s living quarters at his Mar-a-Lago property were under construction at the time of the visit, sources said.
Other witnesses who were questioned by Smith’s team said they were led to believe that Trump returned to check on the status of the renovations, said sources.
Just weeks before the trip, as ABC News has previously reported, Trump allegedly had the lock on a closet in his residence changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago’s basement searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told contained all such documents. The FBI failed to check the locked closet in Trump’s residence when they searched the estate in August 2022, which some investigators later came to believe should have been done.
The trip came as investigators were gathering evidence that Trump continued to possess classified documents, and followed a separate subpoena in late June 2022 seeking surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago that showed aides to Trump moving boxes between a storage room in the resort and his residence.
The trip also followed a similar instance of unplanned travel to Mar-a-Lago by Nauta, where, according to a superseding indictment, he is alleged to have conspired with Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira to attempt to delete security camera footage.
Contacted by ABC News, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, without providing evidence, accused prosecutors of lying and illegally leaking material.
“The entire documents case was a political sham from the very beginning and it should be thrown out entirely,” Cheung said in comments to ABC News.
A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News.
‘Keeping this one quiet’
At the time of Trump’s trip in July 2022, some staff expressed confusion as to where Trump would even stay on the property, sources said, given the renovations that his living quarters were undergoing.
“They were keeping this one quiet … nobody knew about this trip,” one witness with direct knowledge of the trip told investigators, according to sources familiar with the witness’ statements.
Trump left New Jersey on July 9, 2022, for a campaign rally in Anchorage, Alaska, and was scheduled to return to New Jersey following that event, according to aircraft manifests described by sources to ABC News. But the plans changed in the days immediately leading up to the trip and he decided to fly to Florida instead, updated aircraft manifests of the trip show.
According to sources, investigators involved in the case identified what they believe to be a series of unusual steps taken by Trump and members of his inner circle to ensure the trip stayed under the radar.
Nauta, who traveled with Trump on the trip, sent a number of text messages to close staff members indicating that the Florida visit was to be kept quiet, according to sources familiar with the contents of the messages.
“I’m pretty sure [Trump] wants minimal people around on Monday,” Nauta texted one longtime Trump employee just one day before Trump arrived in Florida, according to a message sources detailed to ABC News.
And on July 8, when one Trump Organization employee reached out to Nauta wanting to confirm rumors of a Trump visit so proper preparations could be made, Nauta made clear he wanted the trip to remain “discreet,” sources familiar with the communications said. The sources said Nauta sent a text message to the employee that included emojis with zippers over the mouth, which is often used to convey a secret.
Nauta also wrote a message to De Oliveira on July 7 that said “Coming down to FL soon” with shushing emojis to indicate the visit be kept quiet, according to another text message described by sources.
De Oliveira initially told investigators that he had no knowledge of Trump’s trip to Florida — but the special counsel has evidence that supports the allegation De Oliveira was well aware of Trump’s travel plans, corroborated in part by security camera footage that shows Trump and De Oliveira together, according to sources familiar with De Oliveira’s meetings with investigators.
De Oliveira later told investigators he recalled seeing the former president very briefly during that trip, sources said.
Smith’s interest in the trip adds to the list of instances in which investigators appeared to suspect Trump was seeking to obstruct their probe.
Last month, a court filing from Smith’s team revealed additional steps prosecutors believed Trump and his associates had taken to obstruct their probe, alleging that after Trump was informed by his attorney of a government subpoena for video footage from Mar-a-Lago, Trump instructed aides to return several boxes they had previously removed from the storage room in the club’s basement — without being caught on camera.
Joe Biden speaks, as President Donald Trump, left, listens during the U.S. presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, Oct. 22, 2020. (Morry Gash/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump face off in Thursday’s presidential debate, it will be a replay of 2020, but at the same time, much different now in 2024.
Hosted by CNN, the debate comes at a crucial time as undecided voters work to decide how to cast their ballots in what’s expected to be a close contest in November. It’s also an opportunity for Biden and Trump to highlight their competing visions for the United States should they become president.
It’s the earliest ever in a presidential race, taking place before the Republican and Democratic conventions in July and August — when both Trump and Biden will officially accept their party’s nominations.
The showdown is scheduled to go 90 minutes with two commercial breaks. There will be no live studio audience — a major change from previous debates.
How to watch
Moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, the debate will air Thursday, June 27 at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT/6 p.m. PDT.
It will air live on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Max and stream without a cable login necessary on CNN.com.
CNN made the debate available to simulcast on additional broadcast and cable news networks in the United States.
It will be simulcast on ABC and ABC News Live with pre-debate coverage beginning at 8 p.m. EDT on the network and 7 p.m EDT on ABCNL.
ABC News Digital and 538 will live blog the latest from the debate stage as it happens and provide analysis and the biggest takeaways from the night.
What are the ground rules?
CNN recently shared its rules for the debate, which both Biden and Trump agreed to.
Biden and Trump will stand at lecterns decided earlier by a coin flip. Their microphones will be muted unless it is a candidate’s turn to speak, CNN said, which is likely to limit how much the candidates can interrupt each other.
Though it’s yet not clear who will control the ability to mute the candidates’ microphones, the moderators “will use all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion,” according to the network.
According to CNN’s rules, Biden and Trump won’t be allowed to use any props or pre-written notes, but will be given paper, a pen and water. Their campaign staffs will not be allowed to interact with them during the debate.
To meet CNN’s debate qualifications, candidates had to appear on enough state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win the presidency. Also, they must receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting.
CNN announced on Thursday that Biden and Trump met those requirements — meaning third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won’t make it on the stage.
What is the debate format?
The candidates will not give opening statements, CNN confirmed to ABC News.
They will each have two minutes to answer moderators’ questions. They also will have one minute for rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals. Flashing red lights will warn them when they have five seconds left, and then turn solid red when their time has expired.
CNN has not yet given specifics about topics to be discussed.
How will this debate be different?
This isn’t the first time Biden and Trump have squared off at a debate: The pair squared off twice during the 2020 election, but this time the circumstances are considerably different. Both now have one presidential term under their belts — and several controversies as well.
This is Trump’s first debate since he was found guilty of 34 felonies in his New York hush money criminal trial. In the run-up to this debate, it’s something the Biden campaign has seized on through a $50 million advertising blitz, and many will be watching to see how Biden addresses Trump’s conviction.
It is also unclear if Trump will bring up Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son recently convicted on felony gun charges. Trump brought up Hunter Biden during their 2020 debate — and has many times since then.
Biden’s job approval rating will be ripe for Trump’ attacks as well, with about 56% disapproving as of June 20, according to 538’s polling average.
Trump will almost surely blame Biden for allowing a surge of migrants at the southern border, claim he’s caused inflation and mismanaged foreign conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
In addition to Trump’s conviction, Biden may hit Trump for his comments surround the Jan. 6 attacks at the U.S. Capitol.
Reproductive rights are another key issue for voters where Biden is likely to draw a comparison between his approach and Trump’s. The former president has taken credit for the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overrule Roe v. Wade.
When is the next presidential debate? And what’s next?
The June 27 debate marks the first of two debates Biden and Trump have agreed to. The second will be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The driver of a vehicle authorities say was involved in an overnight shooting in Columbus, Ohio, that left 10 people injured has turned himself in, police said late Sunday night.
“Shortly before 6:30pm this evening, an adult male turned himself in at Columbus Police headquarters and identified himself as the driver of the pictured Honda Civic,” Columbus police said.
The male was arrested and charged with obstructing official business, according to the authorities.
The driver’s identity is being “withheld at this time due to investigative purposes,” police said.
The Honda Civic authorities were searching for following the shooting was recovered outside of Columbus PD headquarters.
Police said detectives are still working to identify all parties involved in the shooting.
The 10 people who were injured in the shooting ranged in age from 16 to 27, police said. Nine were in stable condition, and one was in critical condition, police said earlier Sunday.
