(NEWARK, N.J.) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin amped up his threats Thursday to pull Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who process international passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport to help control protesters outside of New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center.

Mullin continued to slam the protests, now in their seventh day, outside the Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention center over reports of poor living conditions and poor health among its 300 detainees. DHS has denied the allegations.

ICE agents have clashed with protesters who attempted to block vehicles from entering, prompting the federal agents to use pepper spray and batons against them.

Mullin told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that DHS needed to “prioritize federal police officers” in response to the protests and is considering pulling CBP agents from the airport to help agents outside the detention facility, which would delay processing international travelers and cargo.

“That may effect international flights coming in and out of their airport because I’m going to have to pull Customs and Border Protection officers out of being able to process international flights and put them helping our ICE agents,” he said.

“By the way, if you can’t process international flights because Customs is closed, you can’t obviously process international flights coming in from out of country,” he added.

Mullin said on Fox News that if “things don’t change” he’ll have to make the move “pretty quick.”

“We are not going to halt the flights, we won’t be able to process them because we won’t have officers there,” he said. “We will have to pull out our Customs and Border Patrol officers that process these flights and put them in these [detention] facilities to help protect our employees coming out to work.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International, did not immediately comment on Mullin’s proposal.

Mullin has long been teasing a plan to pull CBP officers from airports that are in so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions.” On Wednesday, he said he is “drawing up plans.”

However, Mullin’s controversial proposal has received pushback from travel groups.

U.S. Travel Association, a group representing the country’s travel industry, met with Mullin last week and expressed concerns about the plan to withdraw CBP officers from several cities.

“U.S. Travel believes such a move would have devastating consequences for the travel industry and communities that depend on international visitation,” the group said in a statement Friday.

At least one Trump administration official has questioned such a policy.

Asked about the proposal in a congressional hearing last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wasn’t familiar with Mullin’s comments but said it wouldn’t be a good idea to implement such a policy based on politics.

“I’d like to take a look at [Mullin’s] comments and get the context and I’d even ask him a question of what he meant by that, but we have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places. We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics,” Duffy said.

The demonstrations at Delaney Hall continued Wednesday night and protesters again clashed with federal law enforcement.

Several Democratic Congress members, including New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker, have visited the detention center over the last week and say they have seen the decrepit conditions first hand.

“The stories I’ve gotten, especially from women inmates, about the access to medical attention, seemed unsatisfactory, if not downright dangerous to their conditions,” Booker said Wednesday.

That same day, Mullin denied the allegations and the reports of a hunger strike inside the facility contending that  there were “only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat” because they allegedly wanted their “ethnic right food.”

“Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want,” he told reporters. 

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(WASHINGTON) — Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the pivotal U.S. Senate race in Texas, appeared on Wednesday to walk back some of his past comments on religion that have become a major line of attack in the race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton. 

When asked about his comments in 2021 during floor debate in the legislature that “God is non-binary” in an interview on ABC News Live, Talarico replied that “Ken Paxton is clipping my past cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption,” as part of a “playbook” of “distraction and division.”

When pressed on his comments, Talarico replied that they were “meant to be deliberately provocative” and that he believes “you can’t use human categories to define God.” He said that Republicans are seizing on the comments “to try and distract from the corrupt system that Ken Paxton embodies.”

ABC News reached out to Paxton’s campaign for response to Talarico’s comments.

Talarico’s comments along with other statements on transgender rights and immigration were highlighted in Paxton’s first general election ad, which ends with the tagline “Radical Talarico: too low-T for Texas.” “Low-T” is a reference to levels of testosterone that is used to insult men for a lack of masculinity. 

Republicans have used transgender rights as a major line of attack, including in the 2024 presidential race. The DNC’s after-action report on the election identified the Trump campaign’s attack ads labeling his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, as “for they/them” as one of the most effective ads of the cycle. 

Democrats think Talarico’s potential to reach beyond the Democratic base and appeal to independents and Republicans disaffected by Paxton’s candidacy could be enough to win the seat and possibly control of the Senate next year.

Paxton faced ethical and personal questions during the primary. He was acquitted in an Republican-driven impeachment trial in 2023. Paxton’s wife filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds.”

Republican leadership, which had encouraged President Donald Trump to back Paxton’s opponent in the primary, Sen. John Cornyn, as more electable in the general election, have begun to coalesce around Paxton as the Republican nominee.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a radio appearance Wednesday that Republicans were going “all-in” on Paxton and attacked Talarico as a “far left liberal.”

The National Republican Senate Committee, which backed Cornyn in his primary race, has taken down past press releases and ads attacking Paxton and has issued a statement opposing Talarico without mentioning Paxton by name.

Talarico has made explicit overtures to Trump voters and Cornyn voters, who are necessary to win any statewide election in Texas, saying, “There is a lot of disillusionment among the president’s supporters here in Texas, and I’m extending an open hand to those Trump voters. So that they know they have a place in our campaign.”

While Cornyn has not explicitly endorsed Paxton in the election, he has said that he will “support the Republican ticket.”

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to clarify Texas State Rep. James Talarico’s comments. It has also been corrected to note that the National Republican Senate Committee, not the Senate Majority PAC, has taken down Paxton its attack ads and opposes Talarico.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he isn’t concerned about making a deal soon with Iran, adding that he doesn’t “care about the midterms” in what he said he thinks is the regime’s calculation that he has to negotiate a deal before what are expected to be highly-competitive elections in November.

“They thought they were going to out-wait me, you know. ‘We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms. Look what happened last night, that was a prelude to the midterms. People understand it,” Trump said, likely referencing his endorsed candidate, Ken Paxton, winning the Senate Republican runoff in Texas.

With tensions escalating with Iran and gas prices still up across the country, Trump said he feels no urgency to end the war.

“Mr. President, you’ve said that you’re in no rush to make a deal, but with gas prices that are still high across the country, people are paying more for travel. Does that give you more urgency to make a deal? Why doesn’t it?” ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump during the Cabinet meeting.

“Well, I’ll tell you, the primary urgency, I’ve said this, it wasn’t covered properly, but the primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump responded.

The president also appeared to issue a new threat against Oman, a key American ally in the Middle East.

Trump said he would not accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the Strait of Hormuz — as reported in Iranian state media, and that the critical shipping lane will be “open to everybody.”

“Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that,” Trump said.

Trump on Wednesday was asked whether he would consider easing any sanctions on Iran. He said no.

“No, we’re not talking about any easing of sanctions or giving money. No sanctions, no money, no nothing,” Trump said. “We have control of money that they claim is theirs. We’ll keep control of that money. And when they behave properly and when they do what’s right, we’ll let them have their money. But right now, we’re not doing that … One thing is not contingent on the other.”

The comments come after a senior administration official told reporters over the weekend that Iran could be rewarded with a lifting of sanctions and unfreezing of assets in exchange for a deal on its nuclear program.

On the status of negotiations, Trump said on Wednesday he’s “not satisfied” and that Iran is “negotiating on fumes.”

“We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be. We will be. Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” Trump said.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Former President Joe Biden filed suit against the Justice Department on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave for his memoir that were central to a special counsel probe regarding his handling of classified materials after his time as vice president.

The lawsuit follows an intervention by Biden in a separate lawsuit brought by the conservative Heritage Foundation over a FOIA request that sought records from the investigation by former special counsel Robert Hur.

The audio recordings and transcripts stem from interviews Biden did with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer for his 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.”

The materials were obtained by the DOJ as part of the special counsel’s probe, which ended in February 2024, finding that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed” classified materials but recommending no criminal charges.

Biden’s lawsuit seeks to further bolster his demands that the materials not be shared with the conservative think tank or congressional Republicans, citing his right to privacy as well as allegations against DOJ that it is acting unlawfully in seeking an avenue to release the records.

“President Biden—like every American—has a right to privacy in personal conversations he had within his own home,” the lawsuit said. “That is particularly true here, where the Department obtained this information through a criminal investigation.”

Biden’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the DOJ has indicated it will release the audio recordings and transcripts to both the Heritage Foundation and the House Judiciary Committee on June 15 unless a court order blocks the release.

The lawsuit details a frenzied effort and communications between Biden’s counsel and DOJ in recent weeks to walk through potential redactions and other issues surrounding release of the audio and transcripts.

While the DOJ and career attorneys during the Biden administration had taken the position that release of the materials was a clear departure from department norms, Biden’s attorneys said the current DOJ reversed its position without any formal explanation beginning in February. 

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(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday effectively killed a proposed congressional map that could have allowed Republicans to flip the seat held by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a major rebuff to a mid-decade redistricting effort promoted by President Donald Trump.

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted Tuesday afternoon to adjourn their special legislative session until June 10, after the state holds its June 9 primaries, without nearing a final vote on the map.

The adjournment means that possible redistricting in the state before the 2026 midterms appears all but dead.

Early voting in the primaries began Tuesday, which opponents of the map argued meant it was too late to redistrict without running into major legal issues. 

Lawmakers adjourned after a procedural vote to limit debate on the map failed, and after multiple Republican state senators spoke out against the map on the Senate floor, with some citing the start of early voting as why it was too late to redistrict.

“The deadline has passed, voting has begun. It is time to conclude the matter,” Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “Now I know there is going to be a lot of anger and frustration that we did not get the job done. I get it. Many of us are also frustrated and disappointed at what is a very unsatisfying outcome, but we need to face it. The time clock for getting this done ran out, and the time clock for in-person voting started at 8:30 this morning.”

A subsequent statement attributed to the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus blamed South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for calling a special session too close to the primaries and cited the possibility that ballots cast today would be thrown out as the reason the legislature adjourned.

The proposed congressional map could’ve helped the Republican Party flip the state’s 6th congressional district, held by Clyburn, the longtime Black representative who is the state’s lone Democrat in Congress.

Clyburn slammed the redistricting effort in a press conference earlier Tuesday.

“As I stand here, our state senate is debating whether or not to recreate this congressional district in order to fulfill orders from the White House to say to the 29% of African Americans in South Carolina, the 43% of Democratic voters in South Carolina, irrespective of your presence, you are not deserving of a single member of Congress of the seven that we have,” Clyburn said.

“That is a challenge to the goodness of South Carolinians, and nothing has made me more incensed than to see this kind of imposition on the people of South Carolina,” Clyburn said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is expected to hold a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Wednesday, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.

Sources told ABC News that the plans are subject to change due to possible inclement weather in the Washington, D.C., area. 

According to the White House official, all Cabinet members are expected to attend, and the meeting will “highlight recent successes of the administration including economy and small business wins, Task Force to Eliminate Fraud highlights, and foreign policy updates.”

The travel to the presidential retreat was first reported by the New York Post. 

The trip would be Trump’s first return to Camp David in almost a year.

Trump previously visited the retreat in Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland, last June in what the White House described at the time as “a regular off campus retreat of principals attended by the President and Vice President.”

The decision to hold an official Cabinet meeting at Camp David marks a departure from typical practice, though it is not unprecedented. Trump held a Cabinet meeting there in September 2017, as well, which was closed to the press.

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