(WASHINGTON) -- The Biden administration is delaying shipments of ammunition expected to be sent to Israel, three U.S. officials told ABC News on Tuesday in what appears to be the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that the U.S. has withheld weapons from its ally.

According to one U.S. official, the U.S. Air Force has been told by the White House National Security Council to pause shipments of ammunition that were already approved and under contract, waiting to be shipped from Dover Air Force Base.

A second U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that the NSC was behind the decision to pause the munitions. U.S. officials said the delay has affected more than one delivery and is being done intentionally.

The NSC has not confirmed the decision or said why the shipments were put on hold.

"Our commitment to Israel's security remains ironclad," said White House spokesman John Kirby. "We don't as a matter of course talk about individual shipments one way or the other. But again, nothing's changed about our commitment to Israel security."

The move comes as the Biden administration has tried to increase pressure on Israel not to launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza without a plan to protect the million civilians seeking refuge there. On Tuesday, Israel began what its officials called a "precise" operation in Rafah.

While Biden has faced demands from some Democrats that he put conditions on further arms transfers to Israel, Republicans were quick to criticize the move.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday said he received a report from on the ground in Israel that said "a shipload of munitions and precision weapons, which are to be used to help protect civilians and Rafah, is being withheld."

In a letter to Biden, Republican Sens. Jodi Ernst and Ted Budd said they were "shocked" and "deeply concerned" that the Biden administration failed to notify Congress before withholding ammunition to Israel.

"If these reports are true, then you have once again broken your promise to an American ally," they said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said operations in Rafah are inevitable and necessary to eliminate Hamas.

Axios first reported on Sunday that a shipment of ammunition from the U.S. to Israel had been held up.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to testify Wednesday before a Senate panel, where he will likely be asked about U.S. policy.

ABC News' Lauren Peller and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on Tuesday to be backing off her threat to force a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson this week, though she signaled that she'll preserve her threat indefinitely -- keeping Johnson on a tight leash as he navigates a one-vote majority in the chamber.

The development comes after Greene and Johnson met on Tuesday afternoon -- their second meeting in as many days. The meetings came after Greene said she would force a vote to remove Johnson from the leadership post this week.

"I will tell you one thing I did say in there: I am so done with words," Greene told reporters on the House steps Tuesday afternoon after the meeting with Johnson. "For me, it is all about actions. And that is all the American people care about."

Ahead of the meeting with Johnson on Tuesday, Greene shared her list of demands for the speaker. Her four requests included a return to the "Hastert Rule," which means no legislation is brought to a vote without the support of the majority of the majority party; no more funding for Ukraine; defund the special counsel's probe into former President Donald Trump; and avoid a government shutdown before the election by passing a continuing resolution to automatically enact a 1% spending cut.

Greene said she is not imposing a deadline for Johnson to comply with her four "suggestions."

"These are not complicated things that we're talking about, and having the majority of Republicans support for bills that are brought to the floor. Yeah, that's very reasonable," Greene said. "It's really simple. It's up to Mike Johnson to be our Republican speaker. And we'll see what he does. And again, it's actions for me."

Greene said she did not provide the speaker with a specific timeline on the demands, but said "it's pretty short."

​​"That's up to Mike Johnson and it can't drag out," she said. "These are things that have to be done."

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, Greene's chief ally in the quest to oust Johnson, said the speaker has been open to the four demands, "but the question is what is he going to do to show that he is moving in that direction."

At the weekly GOP news conference on Tuesday, Johnson didn't rule out Greene's request to defund the special counsel's probe into Trump.

"We're looking very intently at it because I think the problem has reached a crescendo," Johnson said.

Johnson has already passed government funding, aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and even a federal surveillance extension -- meaning that the House is mostly void of must-pass legislation. That gives Johnson the space to advance other Republican-led efforts as the next appropriations battle nears.

Greene has criticized Johnson for working with Democrats on several of those pieces of legislation. Johnson has fought back, saying he's a lifelong Republican, but must do his job to serve the entire House with an extremely thin Republican majority.

The Georgia congresswoman said last week she was moving ahead with her ouster effort despite pushback from many Republicans and a statement from Democrats that they would step in to help save Johnson. Trump has also weighed in on Greene's move to oust Johnson.

Trump spoke privately to Greene over the weekend and urged her to drop her push to oust Johnson, a source close to the president confirmed to ABC News. During their discussion, Trump told Greene that the party needs to be unified, according to the source.

The former president's team has mulled over how best to show support for Johnson. Trump brought Johnson on stage at the RNC spring retreat luncheon over the weekend and praised him "for his leadership and work in the US House," emphasizing "the need for party unity, collaboration, and expanding the GOP's House Majority," according to the campaign.

ABC News' Arthur Jones II and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the federal government Tuesday over what it called an "unconstitutional" potential ban of the social media platform in the United States.

In the lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance claim the law signed by President Joe Biden last month -- which would force the company to sell the platform to a non-Chinese company in nine to 12 months or face a ban in the U.S. -- violates users' First Amendment rights.

"For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide," the company said in its 65-page petition filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was part of a massive, $95 billion foreign aid package passed by Congress, on April 24.

The White House did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

The president and some congressional leaders have argued that the ultimatum against TikTok was necessary because of security concerns about ByteDance and its connections to the Chinese government.

ByteDance refuted those allegations in its lawsuit, arguing there has been no tangible evidence that the app poses any security risk.

"Congress itself has offered nothing to suggest that the TikTok platform poses the types of risks to data security or the spread of foreign propaganda that could conceivably justify the act," it said in the lawsuit.

In previous statements, as the bill made its way through Congress, TikTok slammed the renewed efforts behind divestment, saying at the time: "It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually."

The lawsuit also alleges that the window to sell the company is not possible "commercially, technologically or legally."

ByteDance is seeking for the court to make a judgment that the act violates the Constitution and enjoin Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing it, according to court documents.

Some social media influencers, business owners and other TikTok supporters criticized a ban on the app in the U.S., claiming they would lose a major platform for their businesses.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Tuesday, however, showed that the majority of Americans are in favor of the ban.

About 53% of Americans support a ban on TikTok if it's not sold to a non-Chinese company, while 44% are opposed to the ban, according to the poll.

Roughly 51% of Americans say the U.S. government should try to force a sale of TikTok while 46% say it should not, the poll found.

ByteDance filed a lawsuit against Montana in May 2023 when it issued a similar ban, arguing it violated First Amendment rights. In November, a federal judge ruled in favor of TikTok and blocked the law before it took effect.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- President Joe Biden denounced what he called a "ferocious surge" of antisemitism in America and the atrocities committed by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel in a speech at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.

His keynote remarks were part of a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum ceremony marking the Days of Remembrance to honor the memory of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust as well as other victims of Nazi persecution.

"Never again simply translated for me means never forget," Biden said before a crowd of Holocaust survivors, Jewish Americans and lawmakers gathered in Emancipation Hall.

"Here we are not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting," Biden said. "They're already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas who brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you. And we will not forget."

The high-profile remarks came at a fraught political moment, as a possible Israeli invasion of Rafah looms and college protests against the war in Gaza are unfolding across the U.S.

Biden has faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats as he's tried to balance unwavering support for Israel's security with sympathy for the Palestinians killed and suffering in Gaza.

But his message Tuesday largely focused on his staunch support for Israel and condemnation of the atrocities against Jews witnessed on Oct. 7 as well as the harassment of the community in the months since -- including incidents on college campuses, propaganda on social media and more.

"To the Jewish community I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, your pain. Let me reassure you as your president, you're not alone," Biden said. "My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad even when we disagree."

At least 1,700 Israelis have been killed and 8,700 others injured by Hamas or other Palestinian militants, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since Oct. 7, Israeli military operations have killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza and injured more than 78,000 others, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

Biden did not directly comment on Gaza or the humanitarian crisis unfolding for Palestinians in his speech. On campus protests, Biden again emphasized the right to free speech but spoke out against instances were Jewish students have been "blocked, harassed or attacked while walking to class."

"I understand people have strong belief and deep convictions about the world," he said. "In America, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech, to debate and disagree, to protest peacefully and make our voices heard."

"But there is no place on any campus in America [or] any place in America for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind whether against Jews or anyone else," Biden continued.

Tuesday's remembrance ceremony also featured remarks by House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Biden's faced heavy criticism from Republicans over the campus unrest, with many conservative lawmakers blasting his response as insufficient. Overall, GOP lawmakers have seized on the protests to further their narrative of "chaos" under the Biden administration and to show their strong support for Israel.

Johnson used his remarks to continue criticism of the campus unrest, going so far as to compare them to antisemitic activity at German institutions of higher learning during World War II.

"We remember what happened then and now today we are witnessing American universities quickly becoming hostile places for Jewish students and faculty," he said. "The very campuses which were once the envy of the international academy have succumbed to an antisemitic virus."

"Now is a time for moral clarity and we must put an end to this madness," Johnson said.

Jeffries said antisemitism and other forms of hate speech was not a "Democratic issue or Republican issue" but "an American issue."

"We must crush antisemitism along with racism, sexism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia and all other forms of hatred together," Jeffries said.

The White House on Tuesday also announced new actions intended to combat the rise in antisemitism, including on college campuses.

They include directing the Department of Education to issue new guidance to school districts and universities providing examples of antisemitism and other forms of hate that trigger Title VI investigations; the creation of a website by the Department of Homeland Security and partners that includes campus safety resources; and working with technology firms to address antisemitic content online.

"We've seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world," Biden said in his speech, adding it is "absolutely despicable and it must stop."

ABC News Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- An unexpected announcement from Hamas claiming it had accepted the terms of a cease-fire deal temporarily raised hopes for an extended truce in Gaza and the release of scores of hostages still held in the enclave, but U.S. and Israeli officials say an agreement has not yet been reached -- leaving negotiations in a precarious position.

"We are at a critical stage right now," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday. "I don't know that it gets any more sensitive than right now."

A spokesperson for Hamas' political arm first sparked confusion and widespread speculation by asserting the group had informed Qatari and Egyptian officials mediating the negotiations that it had accepted a proposal from the two countries without providing any additional details.

U.S. and Israeli officials were surprised by Hamas' public declaration, which came on the heels of what officials described as a frustrating weekend of negotiations that almost saw the talks fall apart entirely.

The highest levels of both countries' governments immediately began to analyze Hamas' full response. Israel convened an urgent meeting of its war cabinet, and President Joe Biden was promptly briefed on the latest developments, according to the White House.

Optimism for an agreement waned again when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office signaled that Hamas had not accepted anything that resembles the framework that has been on the table for weeks -- one that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called "extraordinarily generous" on Israel's part -- but instead terms it described in a statement as "far from Israel's necessary requirements."

However, the prime minister's office also said that Israel, which has so far stayed on the sidelines during the latest round of negotiations, would now send a delegation to the talks in order to "exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel."

U.S. officials have not yet given any assessment of Hamas' position, but one described Israel's intention to ramp up its participation as a positive sign.

CIA Director William Burns, who has played a prominent role in the negotiations, arrived in Cairo on Friday and is expected to remain in the region as he works to push a deal over the finish line.

"Director Burns is still talking to partners about this," Kirby said. "And the director traveled to see if we can't bring this thing home."

The Biden administration has been under pressure to lock up an agreement for months to free the hostages, which include American citizens, as well as to stave off a looming Israeli incursion into Rafah that U.S. officials warn would have dire implications for Gaza's civilian population.

But Israel's war cabinet said in a statement on Monday that it unanimously voted to continue operations in Gaza's southernmost city, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, to "exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war."

The U.S. has consistently urged Israel against carrying out an invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, but two administration officials say the administration has softened its public condemnation of Israel's rhetoric surrounding a potential operation --seeing it as a potentially effective means of pushing Hamas to accept a deal.

But the officials also said the U.S. doesn't assess that Israel is bluffing, and that Israel won't agree to any diplomatic resolution to the conflict that allows Hamas battalions to remain inside Rafah.

Before news of Hamas' potential agreement to a cease-fire deal broke on Monday, Biden and Netanyahu spoke over the phone on other pressing matters tied to the conflict, including Israel's military objectives in Rafah and protections for civilians.

"I think we just have to see what transpires," Kirby said. "The president was very direct and consistent that we don't want to see major ground operations in Rafah that put these people at greater risk."

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie met privately on Monday, amid Greene's looming threat to try to oust him.

Emerging from a nearly two-hour meeting inside the speaker's office, Greene said on camera they will have another meeting with Johnson on Tuesday morning.

"I just want to thank you all for waiting -- we just had a very long discussion with the speaker. We are going to be meeting again tomorrow based on the discussion that we've had. And so, we really don't have any news to report at this time," Greene said.

When pressed by ABC's Rachel Scott if Greene still plans to move forward with a motion to vacate, the congresswoman said: "Again, we had a very long discussion with Speaker Johnson. We will be meeting with him again tomorrow based on the discussion that we had and then I'll have more information for you."

Asked again if she plans to force a vote on a motion to vacate, Greene said: "I have been patient. I have been diligent. I have been steady. And I have been focused on the facts. And none of that has changed."

Greene said the meeting Monday afternoon was about "ways to move forward for a Republican-controlled House of Representatives."

Johnson said he had "a lengthy, constructive meeting" with Greene and Massie this afternoon.

"We have discussed some ideas, and we are going to meet again tomorrow," Johnson said.

Johnson said he told Greene and Massie he understands their frustration, saying, "I would really like to advance much more of our conservative policy on a daily basis here. But the reality is we are working with the smallest majority in U.S. history with a one-vote margin."

"We are going to keep this team together and work for the American people," Johnson added.

The meeting comes as Greene has said she will force a vote to remove Johnson from the leadership post this week.

The timing of when Greene plans to trigger the motion to vacate, however, remains unclear. The House will hold votes later Monday evening, after which Greene could act on the motion, though she's made no announcements.

The Georgia congresswoman said last week she was moving ahead with her ouster effort despite pushback from many Republicans and a statement from Democrats that they would step in to help save Johnson.

"Mike Johnson is not capable of that job," Greene said in a fiery press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on May 1 alongside her co-sponsor Massie of Kentucky. "He has proven that over and over again."

Greene and Massie continued their criticisms of Johnson publicly on social media on Monday.

"This week we vote on whether Mike Johnson should remain as Speaker," Massie said in a statement on X. "If you're happy with what he's done this year and if you're looking forward to what he will do the remainder of the year, you should join the Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries in supporting Mike Johnson."

Greene has dangled the motion to vacate the speaker's chair for more than a month. Johnson's defended himself from her criticism -- namely that he's worked with Democrats to keep the government open, provide foreign aid and more -- by emphasizing that he's a lifelong Republican, but must do his job to serve the entire House with an extremely thin Republican majority.

"This motion is wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country," Johnson said last week of the ouster threat.

Johnson also received a boost over the weekend from former President Donald Trump, who brought Johnson on stage at the Republican Nation Committee's spring retreat luncheon at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump praised Johnson "for his leadership and work in the US House," emphasizing "the need for party unity, collaboration, and expanding the GOP's House Majority," according to Trump's campaign.

Last week, Greene denied she was defying Trump in pushing ahead against Johnson.

"I'm the biggest supporter of President Trump and that's why I fight every single day. And that's why I'm fighting here against my own Republican conference to fight harder against the Democrats," she told ABC News Correspondent Elizabeth Schulze.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and "reiterated his clear position on Rafah," according to the White House.

The two men spoke as a major Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city appears imminent, despite opposition from the United States and other nations due to concerns over the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Israel Defense Forces on Monday urged 100,000 people in the southern Gaza city to evacuate and dropped flyers warning of danger. More than 1.4 million Palestinians are thought to be sheltering in Rafah in the wake of Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Biden once again "reiterated his clear position on Rafah" during his call with Netanyahu, according to a brief readout of the call provided by the White House.

"We don't want to see a major ground operation in Rafah," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week. "Certainly, we don't want to see operations that haven't factored in the safety and security of those 1.5 million folks trying to seek refuge down there. And we conveyed that to our Israeli counterparts certainly privately, absolutely publicly, and nothing's changed about that."

The White House also said last week it had not seen a comprehensive plan for protecting civilians if Israel's military were to move into Rafah -- a plan U.S. officials have repeatedly called for.

Still, Netanyahu has pledged to go into Rafah in order to root out the Hamas terrorist group.

"We will destroy the Hamas battalions there, we will complete all the objectives of the war, including the repatriation of all our hostages," Netanyahu said last week.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday that Israel believed it had "no choice" but to forge ahead with an offensive in Rafah.

Strikes have intensified in Rafah and surrounding areas in recent days.

At least four Israeli soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured in a rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday that was orchestrated by Hamas, the IDF said.

In response, Israel closed the crossing, one critical to delivering humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians. But according to the White House, Netanyahu agreed to reopen the crossing for aid into northern Gaza during his call with Biden.

At least 12 Palestinians were killed in IDF strikes on Rafah on Sunday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Israel's military said it continued strikes on Monday on "terror targets" and military structures.

Meanwhile, cease-fire talks in Cairo over the weekend stalled with no resolution. Hamas is demanding a permanent end to the war in exchange for any hostage deal -- something Israel has said it won't accept.

Biden "updated" Netanyahu on efforts to "secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha, Qatar," the White House said on Monday.

Israel’s Netanyahu says his Cabinet has voted to shut down Qatar-owned Al Jazeera offices over tensions with the channel
During their conversation, Biden also reaffirmed his message on Holocaust Remembrance Day and to "forcefully act against antisemitism and all forms of hate-fueled violence."

ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler and Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) -- Locked in a tight race for the presidency, Donald Trump prevails in trust to handle most issues in a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, yet President Joe Biden scores competitively on key personal attributes -- leaving wide open the question of who'll prevail come Election Day, now six months away.

Excluding people who say they wouldn't vote, Trump has 46% support, Biden 44%, in this national survey of more than 2,200 adults. (Nearly all the rest say they'd pick someone else.) Among registered voters, it's Biden 46%, Trump 45%. Among likely voters, it's Biden 49%, Trump 45%, again not a significant difference.

See PDF for full results.

A five-way contest doesn't change the picture in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos. This finds the race at 42% for Trump and 40% for Biden, with 12% for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 2% for Cornel West and 1% for Jill Stein. (That, of course, assumes Kennedy, West and Stein are on the ballot in all states, an open question.) Among registered voters in the five-way race, it's 42-42%, Biden-Trump, and Biden is a non-significant +3 or +4 points in likely voter models.

Kennedy gets 12% even though 77% of his supporters say they know "just some" or "hardly anything" about his positions on the issues. Notably, his supporters are more apt to be Republicans or GOP-leaning independents (54%) than Democrats and Democratic leaners (42%, a slight difference given sample sizes), and in a two-way race, they favor Trump over Biden by 13 points. That may explain why Trump attacked Kennedy as a stalking horse in social media posts last week.

Another result finds a potential risk for Trump in his current trial in New York on charges of falsifying business records to hide a payoff to a pornographic actress who says they had sex, which he denies. Eighty percent of Trump's supporters say they'd stick with him even if he's convicted of a felony in this case. But that leaves 20% who say they'd either reconsider their support (16%) or withdraw it (4%) -- easily enough to matter in a close race.

That said, a chief question raised by the survey is why Biden is competitive at all, given his substantial disadvantages. Just 35% of Americans approve of his job performance, with 57% disapproving; that's 2 points from his career low in approval in January and well below the level historically associated with reelection. Forty-three percent say they've gotten worse off financially under his presidency. An overwhelming 81% say he's too old for another term. Trump easily outpoints him in perceived mental sharpness and physical health.

Trump, moreover, leads in trust to handle six of 10 issues tested in the survey, with Biden ahead in just two. That includes, for Trump, the three most-cited issues in importance -- the economy, on which he has a 14-point advantage; inflation, again 14 points; and crime and safety, 8 points. He tops out with a 17-point lead in trust to handle immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and leads by 8 points in trust to handle the war between Israel and Hamas and 7 points on "America's standing in the world." Biden's leads are on abortion access (+12, but comparatively low-rated as an issue) and health care, +5.

It's also the case that Biden lacks traditional Democratic advantages among young adults and Hispanic people, and he's about 20 points weaker among Black people under age 50 than among those 50 and older. But he and Trump run essentially evenly, 42-40%, among independents, who are swing voters in most presidential elections; Biden leads by 11 points among moderates; and among those who have held steady financially -- not gaining ground but at least not losing it -- he's up by a broad 66-21%.

Other factors help explain why, despite his weaknesses, Biden is in the game. He leads by 16 points on one important personal attribute, being seen as honest and trustworthy, and is about tied with Trump on two others -- representing your personal values (Biden +3) and understanding the problems of people like you (Biden +1). And while neither is popular, more people see Biden favorably as a person, 40%, than see Trump favorably, 33%.

Further, substantial numbers of Americans don't trust either candidate to handle the issues tested in the survey -- and among them, in most albeit not all cases, Biden leads. For instance, among the 14% who don't trust either to handle the economy (excluding nonvoters), Biden has 49% support, Trump 13%. (The rest mainly pick someone else.) In other examples, Biden leads by 45 points among those who don't trust either candidate on immigration and by 35 points among those who don't trust either on inflation.

On personal attributes, among those who don't think either candidate has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively -- about three in 10 adults -- Biden leads Trump by 63-15%. It's a similar result among those who don't think either has the physical health to serve. On the other hand, Trump leads by about as wide a margin among those who don't think either is honest and trustworthy.

Additionally, while eight in 10 see Biden as too old to serve another term, a smaller majority, 55%, says the same about Trump. And Biden wins 39% support even from those who say he's too old; Trump gets less support, 25%, among those who say this about him.

Nonetheless, results on "double-haters" are mixed. Among people who have unfavorable views of both candidates -- a more Republican group -- Trump leads Biden, 48 to 26%. But among those who disapprove of the work both have done during their presidencies -- a more Democratic group -- Biden leads with a similar margin, 48-21%.

In any case, it's certainly a match between unpopular figures. More people see Biden as a person unfavorably than favorably, 40-51%, favorable-unfavorable. But Trump's score, as noted, is worse, 33-58%. And 44% see Trump strongly unfavorably, 10 points more than say the same for Biden.

Trump pushes back with a better retrospective job approval rating, 44-50%, approve-disapprove, than Biden has today. And among Trump's supporters, 55% back him strongly, vs. 44% strong support for Biden among his supporters.

History

From a historical perspective, Biden has a hill to climb, but not an impossible one. In data since the Truman administration, three presidents with underwater approval ratings in the spring before Election Day won a second term -- Barack Obama in 2012, George W. Bush in 2004 and Harry S. Truman in 1948. Obama and Bush both bottomed out in this period at 47%, Truman at 36%, compared with Biden's 35% today.

Of course, historical precedents go only so far, as demonstrated by the 2022 midterms, when the Democrats fared much better than Biden's weak approval rating would have suggested.

Groups

Focusing on the two-way Biden-Trump race, results show the pull of partisanship and ideology. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats support Biden; 90% of Republicans are for Trump. (Nine percent of Democrats defect to Trump, while fewer Republicans, 5%, jump to Biden.) Independents, as mentioned, divide essentially evenly. In exit polls, the candidate who won independents has won the election in nine out of the last 12 presidential contests (all but in 2012, 2004 and 1976).

As reported Friday, liberals are more apt than others to say the United States is doing too much to support Israel and too little to help protect Palestinian civilians. Yet that doesn't appear to move many votes: 84% of liberals support Biden (vs. 8% for Trump). Across the spectrum, 82% of conservatives prefer Trump (vs. 10% for Biden). Biden leads among moderates, 50-39%, though that's weaker for him than in 2020.

Voters age 18-29 divide 43-48%, Biden-Trump; the difference is not statistically significant given the sample size, and it's a far worse result for Biden than the typical Democratic advantage in this group. The same is true for Hispanic people, dividing 46-42%. And while Biden has 74% support from Black people, this, too, is off the usual Democratic lead in this group.

Few Black people, 13%, back Trump; as many pick someone else. But there's a notable age gap: Black people age 50 and older support Biden over Trump by 85-5%. Among those younger than 50, it's 64-20%.

There's no significant gap between Black men and women. But there is a gender gap overall, with Trump up 9 points among men, Biden a non-significant 4 points among women. Among men aged 18-29, 54% back Trump, compared with 41% of women that age.

Biden is +6 points among seniors -- also non-significant, but a group Trump won by single digits in 2020. In rural areas, a GOP stronghold, Biden picks up 35% from women, vs. 25% from men. At the same time, in urban areas, a Democratic bastion, Trump wins 40% of men, vs. 30% of women.

There's a big gap by education, with Biden +19 points among college graduates, Trump +15 among non-grads. Trump has 79% support among evangelical white Protestants, a GOP mainstay and a key source of his strength in the primaries. And it's a 46-45% race in the seven expected swing states, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Likely voters

The poll tests a few versions of likely voters, e.g., those who say they are registered to vote or will register and are certain to vote in November; and those who fit that definition and also say they voted in 2020, if old enough to have done so.

Trump is +2 points among all adults (excluding nonvoters) while Biden is +4 among likely voters. While neither is a statistically significant difference, the reason for the Biden bump is that more educated people are more likely to vote, and, as noted, Biden leads Trump by 19 points among college graduates. Among all adults in the survey, 35% have a college degree. Among likely voters, it's 45%.

Other issues

The poll checked in on other issues; among them:

-- Support for abortion rights remains widespread: Americans by 66-32% oppose the U.S. Supreme Court decision that did away with the constitutional right to abortion and by essentially the same margin say their own state should allow access to abortion in all or most cases.

-- Biden's executive orders to forgive student loan debt get a mixed to negative reception: 42% say he's doing too much in this regard, 22% too little and 34% the right amount. Among those younger than 40, 30% say he's doing too much to forgive these loans; this jumps to 53% of those age 50 and older.

-- Thirty-nine percent call it highly important to them whom Biden picks as his running mate; 35% say the same for Trump. Overall, 54% say Biden should replace Kamala Harris as his choice for vice president; among Democrats, however, 76% say he should keep Harris. It's about the same among Biden supporters.

-- Eighty percent call undocumented immigration a problem nationally, including 54% who call it a major problem. Locally, in their own community, many fewer call it a problem, 46%, or a major problem, 22%. It's seen as a problem locally, and a major problem nationally, particularly by Republicans and conservatives.

-- Passage of a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine did not substantially impact attitudes on the subject. Thirty-nine percent of Americans say the United States is doing too much to help Ukraine, up 5 points from January but about the same as it was last fall. Twenty percent say the United States is doing too little; 39%, the right amount -- both essentially unchanged.

Methodology

This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® April 25-30, 2024, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,260 adults. Partisan divisions are 31% Democrats, 29% Republicans and 28% independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points, including the design effect, for the full sample. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.

The survey was produced by Langer Research Associates, with sampling and data collection by Ipsos. See details on ABC News survey methodology here.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) -- One Saturday last month, several dozen members of the Alaskan Independence Party, a small, largely unknown political group whose primary goal is to put Alaskan secession from the United States to a vote, gathered in Fairbanks for their biennial convention.

Among the topics of conversation: whether to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president.

The party ultimately rejected Kennedy, who is running as an independent, after a few outspoken members said they did not want him atop their 2024 ticket, according to John Howe, the party's chairman, who was involved in the discussions.

"There was serious consideration," Howe, a machine shop owner, told ABC News.

The decision to pass on Kennedy was seen as a blow to the candidate -- "They wanted us to put him on the ballot," Howe said -- as Kennedy works to overcome the biggest obstacle to his plans to run as a major outside candidate in November: getting on the ballot across the country.

Typically, independent candidates must undergo the painstaking, expensive process of gathering thousands of signatures from registered voters in each state in order to qualify for ballot access.

But a candidate can bypass those requirements if a political party that already has ballot access in a given state nominates them to lead their ticket there.

Kennedy has successfully employed that strategy in Michigan and California, where he will technically appear on the ballot as the nominee for the Natural Law Party of Michigan and the American Independent Party of California.

What's more, his campaign has been in contact with minor parties in at least six other states, too, ABC News has learned through conversations with leaders in more than a dozen minor parties across the country. (The Kennedy campaign did not return requests for comment for this story or respond to the details that the party leaders provided.)

"As the campaign sees and recognizes that these are very convenient vessels out there, it's a clever move, and it's not a surprise they do it," Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame professor specializing in election law, told ABC News.

Early polling of the 2024 race suggests Kennedy could take a notable amount of support in a close race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the two leading candidates -- if Kennedy makes it on the ballot. A new ABC News/Ipsos survey of adults found Kennedy with 12% in a hypothetical five-way election with Trump, Biden and two other candidates, Cornel West and Jill Stein.

Kennedy's campaign claims to have made it on the ballot in 10 states so far, including the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. Elections offices in three states have confirmed to ABC News that Kennedy is on the ballot. In other states, officials have said they can't yet confirm his candidacy.

Kennedy's strategy of linking with minor parties has encountered both challenges and success. In some cases, like Alaska, the parties have rejected him while in others, they are actively speaking with his campaign about nominating him.

His campaign tried and failed to earn the nomination of the Unity Party of Colorado, which chose instead to back West, another independent candidate, Tijani Cole, the party's chairman, told ABC News in an email.

The Alliance Party, a national group with ballot access in Minnesota and South Carolina, has been more receptive.

"National Alliance Party leadership has begun early conversations with the campaign for potential mutual support," Phil Feuhrer, the party's national co-vice chair, told ABC News in an email.

"If we reach full agreement with the campaign and our internal statewide leadership teams, it would include placement onto the South Carolina ballot as well as the Minnesota Independence-Alliance taking lead on placing the campaign onto the Minnesota ballot," Feuhrer added, using the official name of Minnesota's branch of the party.

"Those conversations are young and still ongoing."

Kennedy's camp is also in talks with the Reform Party, which has ballot access in Florida and Mississippi, according to party leaders.

Jenniffer Desatoff, the party's Florida chair, told ABC News they are "continuing communication with the Kennedy campaign at this time." (Kennedy's campaign also contacted the Ecology Party of Florida but was informed the party does not have a ballot line in the presidential race, the party's chair, Cara Campbell, told ABC News.)

Elsewhere, the Kennedy campaign twice reached out to representatives of the Constitution Party, which has ballot access in nearly a dozen states, but the party and the campaign were never able to connect, Donna Ivanovich, a spokeswoman for the party, told ABC News.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has formed a party of its own, We the People, to secure ballot access in several states, including in Delaware, Hawaii and North Carolina. In those states, the signature threshold to make the ballot is lower for candidates aligned with a party than for independent candidates.

Although other independent candidates ally with minor parties for ballot access -- like West is also doing in the 2024 race -- the breadth and "coordination" of Kennedy's effort stands out, said Muller, the Notre Dame election law expert.

"You usually don't see this kind of coordination and effort because the candidacies are usually not serious enough to make the outreach to all these parties in all these different states," he told ABC News.

But by aligning himself with small, often niche parties, Kennedy risks absorbing the burden of their sometimes checkered history, some observers warned.

The American Independent Party of California, which nominated Kennedy last month, had backed George Wallace, the former Alabama governor and notorious segregationist, in the 1960s.

In a video announcing his nomination, Kennedy acknowledged the party's past support for Wallace but said it "has had its own rebirth even before I came along."

"It's been reborn as a party that represents not bigotry and hatred but rather compassion, unity, idealism and common sense," he said.

Another problem with wooing minor parties is that Kennedy's beliefs sometimes don't align with theirs.

The members of the Alaskan Independence Party who rejected Kennedy as the party's nominee were wary he would agree with them on their view that government-owned land should be given back to Alaskans, Howe, the party chairman, told ABC News.

But Kennedy's chances at winning the nomination may have sunk days before the convention when he failed to win over the previous chair of the Alaskan Independence Party, Bob Bird, in a radio interview with Bird.

"The AIP will not be placing RFK on the ballot," Bird wrote in a column after the interview, casting Kennedy as an outsider.

"Our liberty and prosperity must come from within ourselves," Bird wrote, "not from a knight galloping in from the Lower 48."

ABC News' Isabella Murray and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday defended the police crackdown on campus protests there, which have become the epicenter of demonstrations around the country against the Israel-Hamas war.

"We want to ensure we protect democracy and the right to protest," Adams told ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, "but we have an obligation that when those protests reach the point of violence ... we have to ensure that we use a minimum amount of force to terminate what is perceived to be a threat not only by our intelligence, but also the school and college officials."

Adams said that the large-scale police intervention seen so far in the city, most notably at Columbia University, resulted from communication between the police and school officials.

"We knew we had to get permission unless there's imminent threat to life, or severe threat to property," he said, referring to Columbia, adding, "We were not going to overstep our legal authority."

Pressed by Karl about criticism, including from some other Democrats, that the response to protesters was disproportionate and improper on school grounds, Adams said, "One has the right to have his or her opinion, and I respect that. ... And I have an obligation and responsibility to ensure the city is safe."

New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman wrote last week that "the militarization of college campuses, extensive police presence, and arrest of hundreds of students are in direct opposition to the role of education as a cornerstone of our democracy."

But Adams, on Sunday, suggested that the protests had become problematic -- despite what many of the student organizers have said is their goal of criticizing Israel's government and denouncing the treatment of Palestinians.

"This has left a point of advocating for a particular item, and as I say over and over again, there's a real attempt to radicalize our young people," he said, "and when you look at some of the information and some of the people who were there, we need to be clear that we cannot take this lightly."

Despite the arrests and violent disruptions on campuses, Adams encouraged universities to stick to planned graduation ceremonies as it is a "wonderful experience."

"I don't think we should allow anything to get in our normal way of life," he said. "We will do our job."

"And if the institution decides to graduate their students and celebrate a beautiful experience for their families, we will make sure it's done in a peaceful manner," he continued.

New York City officials have alleged that the protests have been "co-opted" by professional "outside agitators," a charge that pro-Palestinian supporters have rejected.

When Karl questioned that characterization, Adams stood by it.

Overall, officials say that more than 2,400 protesters both affiliated and not affiliated with educational institutions have been arrested in connection with the ongoing campus protests across the U.S.

"Anyone can protest in the city, but when you are on college grounds and you do not attend that college, you are an outsider," Adams said. "And then when you train people to do disruptive things, you are an agitator."

"So I'm not trying to be politically correct," he said. "I'm trying to be correct for the city of New York as we make sure this continues to be safe."

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton on Sunday pushed for an even stronger police response to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country as both arrests and controversy grow around the demonstrations against Israel's military campaign in its war with Hamas in Gaza.

Speaking to ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Cotton said school leaders, whom he sought to paint as biased by politics, should have sent in law enforcement "the very first day they set up their tents."

"Where were the liberal administrators and liberal politicians sending in the police on the very first day? We should not have tolerated this for a moment," he said.

In recent weeks, student encampments protesting the war in Gaza and the civilian death toll there have sprung up on campuses from coast to coast.

That has sparked a wave of media attention and varying reactions from school and state officials, some of whom have sought to negotiate with the demonstrators while noting a balance between the right to protest and the needs of other students and limiting violence and hate speech.

In some instances, police have been brought in to clear out the demonstrators, including at Columbia University, where arrests were made after students and other protesters occupied the school's Hamilton Hall.

However, encampments are still intact at several other universities.

Cotton, who stirred backlash in 2020 by calling for the military to curb "looting" and "rioting" during widespread civil unrest, took a dim view of the campus movement on "This Week" -- deriding the demonstrators, whom he labeled "fanatics," and dubbing each encampment a "little Gaza."

Pressed about that pejorative by Karl, Cotton said, "Well, they call themselves the Gaza solidarity encampments -- they're little, they're little Gaza."

"It seems like you're mocking the situation in Gaza," Karl pushed back.

Cotton clarified that he wasn't referring to the dire conditions for civilians in Gaza or the deaths there, all of which he blamed on Hamas, which sparked the current war with Israel after an Oct. 7 terror attack. Cotton said his label referred to the decisions of protesters, many of whom are students.

"They deserved our contempt. They also deserved our mockery," he said.

Though Cotton conceded that protesting by itself is, with some exceptions, a protected form of activity, he insisted that what was being seen on campuses had gone too far.

He denounced reports of violence and "vile, antisemitic hate" and singled out, for example, how a George Washington statue was covered in pro-Palestinian garb at one school.

"You can protest all you want. If you want to make a fool of yourself and support a terrorist group, you can do that," he said, adding, "But you are not allowed to violate campus rules and policies and break the law."

Many of the groups behind the pro-Palestinian demonstrations have rebuked antisemitism and sought to distance themselves from any such conduct, saying it's not representative of their goals or values in calling attention to the civilian toll in Gaza.

In his "This Week" interview, Cotton, a supporter of a muscular U.S. presence abroad, also defended House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for the recent passage of a foreign aid package that includes funds to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine -- legislation that is expected to spark a vote on a resolution from firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pushing for Johnson's ouster.

"About two-thirds of House Republicans said that they wanted to support Ukraine in one way or another even if they didn't support that specific piece of legislation. It was a much smaller majority that voted to cut off aid entirely. So, Speaker Johnson has about two-thirds of his entire conference behind them on that specific issue, and almost all of them behind him on the question of Israel or Taiwan," Cotton said after Karl pointed out that most House Republicans voted against the bill.

Cotton swatted away the idea of a more isolationist GOP, arguing that opposition to foreign aid is more centered around debates over logistics than principles.

"I think what you see among a lot of Republicans, they have legitimate and reasonable concerns about our defense industrial base's ability to support our own military, much less other countries' wars. I share those concerns. I think the way to do that is to invest more in the defense industrial base, but that's largely a practical difference about circumstances here in our defense industrial base," he said.

Israel's main cable provider halts Al Jazeera broadcasts, citing government ban
When Karl raised various issues related to Donald Trump, the Republican standard-bearer, Cotton sought to play down certain differences with the former president including Trump's continued refusal to acknowledge the 2020 election wasn't marred by widespread fraud.

Cotton, who doesn't share Trump's rhetoric, instead pivoted to saying he agreed with Trump that certain parts of the 2020 race were "deeply unfair."

Asked if he would consider being Trump's running mate, Cotton waved away the discussion as a speculative "parlor game" and didn't answer directly.

"What Donald Trump is focused on is winning this election. What I'm focused on is helping him win and making sure Republicans win the Congress. When he's ready to make his decision about vice president, he will," Cotton said.

Karl asked if he agreed with Trump that the people being prosecuted for their alleged acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot were really "hostages."

Cotton contended that some participants who did not engage in violence had been unjustly placed in lengthy pretrial detentions but "people who were involved in that riot, who assaulted police officers or who defaced and damaged public property should face the legal consequence."

"That's different," he said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- Locked in a tight race for the presidency, Donald Trump prevails in trust to handle most issues in a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, yet President Joe Biden scores competitively on key personal attributes -- leaving wide open the question of who'll prevail come Election Day, now six months away.

Excluding people who say they wouldn't vote, Trump has 46% support, Biden 44%, in this national survey of more than 2,200 adults. (Nearly all the rest say they'd pick someone else.) Among registered voters, it's Biden 46%, Trump 45%. Among likely voters, it's Biden 49%, Trump 45%, again not a significant difference.

A five-way contest doesn't change the picture in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos. This finds the race at 42% for Trump and 40% for Biden, with 12% for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 2% for Cornel West and 1% for Jill Stein. (That, of course, assumes Kennedy, West and Stein are on the ballot in all states, an open question.) Among registered voters in the five-way race, it's 42-42%, Biden-Trump, and Biden is a non-significant +3 or +4 points in likely voter models.

Kennedy gets 12% even though 77% of his supporters say they know "just some" or "hardly anything" about his positions on the issues. Notably, his supporters are more apt to be Republicans or GOP-leaning independents (54%) than Democrats and Democratic leaners (42%, a slight difference given sample sizes), and in a two-way race, they favor Trump over Biden by 13 points. That may explain why Trump attacked Kennedy as a stalking horse in social media posts last week.

Another result finds a potential risk for Trump in his current trial in New York on charges of falsifying business records to hide a payoff to a pornographic actress who says they had sex, which he denies. Eighty percent of Trump's supporters say they'd stick with him even if he's convicted of a felony in this case. But that leaves 20% who say they'd either reconsider their support (16%) or withdraw it (4%) -- easily enough to matter in a close race.

That said, a chief question raised by the survey is why Biden is competitive at all, given his substantial disadvantages. Just 35% of Americans approve of his job performance, with 57% disapproving; that's 2 points from his career low in approval in January and well below the level historically associated with reelection. Forty-three percent say they've gotten worse off financially under his presidency. An overwhelming 81% say he's too old for another term. Trump easily outpoints him in perceived mental sharpness and physical health.

Trump, moreover, leads in trust to handle six of 10 issues tested in the survey, with Biden ahead in just two. That includes, for Trump, the three most-cited issues in importance -- the economy, on which he has a 14-point advantage; inflation, again 14 points; and crime and safety, 8 points. He tops out with a 17-point lead in trust to handle immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and leads by 8 points in trust to handle the war between Israel and Hamas and 7 points on "America's standing in the world." Biden's leads are on abortion access (+12, but comparatively low-rated as an issue) and health care, +5.

It's also the case that Biden lacks traditional Democratic advantages among young adults and Hispanic people, and he's about 20 points weaker among Black people under age 50 than among those 50 and older. But he and Trump run essentially evenly, 42-40%, among independents, who are swing voters in most presidential elections; Biden leads by 11 points among moderates; and among those who have held steady financially -- not gaining ground but at least not losing it -- he's up by a broad 66-21%.

Factors

Other factors help explain why, despite his weaknesses, Biden is in the game. He leads by 16 points on one important personal attribute, being seen as honest and trustworthy, and is about tied with Trump on two others -- representing your personal values (Biden +3) and understanding the problems of people like you (Biden +1). And while neither is popular, more people see Biden favorably as a person, 40%, than see Trump favorably, 33%.

Further, substantial numbers of Americans don't trust either candidate to handle the issues tested in the survey -- and among them, in most albeit not all cases, Biden leads. For instance, among the 14% who don't trust either to handle the economy (excluding nonvoters), Biden has 49% support, Trump 13%. (The rest mainly pick someone else.) In other examples, Biden leads by 45 points among those who don't trust either candidate on immigration and by 35 points among those who don't trust either on inflation.

On personal attributes, among those who don't think either candidate has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively -- about three in 10 adults -- Biden leads Trump by 63-15%. It's a similar result among those who don't think either has the physical health to serve. On the other hand, Trump leads by about as wide a margin among those who don't think either is honest and trustworthy.

Additionally, while eight in 10 see Biden as too old to serve another term, a smaller majority, 55%, says the same about Trump. And Biden wins 39% support even from those who say he's too old; Trump gets less support, 25%, among those who say this about him.

Nonetheless, results on "double-haters" are mixed. Among people who have unfavorable views of both candidates -- a more Republican group -- Trump leads Biden, 48 to 26%. But among those who disapprove of the work both have done during their presidencies -- a more Democratic group -- Biden leads with a similar margin, 48-21%.

In any case, it's certainly a match between unpopular figures. More people see Biden as a person unfavorably than favorably, 40-51%, favorable-unfavorable. But Trump's score, as noted, is worse, 33-58%. And 44% see Trump strongly unfavorably, 10 points more than say the same for Biden.

Trump pushes back with a better retrospective job approval rating, 44-50%, approve-disapprove, than Biden has today. And among Trump's supporters, 55% back him strongly, vs. 44% strong support for Biden among his supporters.

History

From a historical perspective, Biden has a hill to climb, but not an impossible one. In data since the Truman administration, three presidents with underwater approval ratings in the spring before Election Day won a second term -- Barack Obama in 2012, George W. Bush in 2004 and Harry S. Truman in 1948. Obama and Bush both bottomed out in this period at 47%, Truman at 36%, compared with Biden's 35% today.

Of course, historical precedents go only so far, as demonstrated by the 2022 midterms, when the Democrats fared much better than Biden's weak approval rating would have suggested.

Groups

Focusing on the two-way Biden-Trump race, results show the pull of partisanship and ideology. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats support Biden; 90% of Republicans are for Trump. (Nine percent of Democrats defect to Trump, while fewer Republicans, 5%, jump to Biden.) Independents, as mentioned, divide essentially evenly. In exit polls, the candidate who won independents has won the election in nine out of the last 12 presidential contests (all but in 2012, 2004 and 1976).

As reported Friday, liberals are more apt than others to say the United States is doing too much to support Israel and too little to help protect Palestinian civilians. Yet that doesn't appear to move many votes: 84% of liberals support Biden (vs. 8% for Trump). Across the spectrum, 82% of conservatives prefer Trump (vs. 10% for Biden). Biden leads among moderates, 50-39%, though that's weaker for him than in 2020.

Voters age 18-29 divide 43-48%, Biden-Trump; the difference is not statistically significant given the sample size, and it's a far worse result for Biden than the typical Democratic advantage in this group. The same is true for Hispanic people, dividing 46-42%. And while Biden has 74% support from Black people, this, too, is off the usual Democratic lead in this group.

Few Black people, 13%, back Trump; as many pick someone else. But there's a notable age gap: Black people age 50 and older support Biden over Trump by 85-5%. Among those younger than 50, it's 64-20%.

There's no significant gap between Black men and women. But there is a gender gap overall, with Trump up 9 points among men, Biden a non-significant 4 points among women. Among men aged 18-29, 54% back Trump, compared with 41% of women that age.

Biden is +6 points among seniors -- also non-significant, but a group Trump won by single digits in 2020. In rural areas, a GOP stronghold, Biden picks up 35% from women, vs. 25% from men. At the same time, in urban areas, a Democratic bastion, Trump wins 40% of men, vs. 30% of women.

There's a big gap by education, with Biden +19 points among college graduates, Trump +15 among non-grads. Trump has 79% support among evangelical white Protestants, a GOP mainstay and a key source of his strength in the primaries. And it's a 46-45% race in the seven expected swing states, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Likely voters

The poll tests a few versions of likely voters, e.g., those who say they are registered to vote or will register and are certain to vote in November; and those who fit that definition and also say they voted in 2020, if old enough to have done so.

Trump is +2 points among all adults (excluding nonvoters) while Biden is +4 among likely voters. While neither is a statistically significant difference, the reason for the Biden bump is that more educated people are more likely to vote, and, as noted, Biden leads Trump by 19 points among college graduates. Among all adults in the survey, 35% have a college degree. Among likely voters, it's 45%.

Other issues

The poll checked in on other issues; among them:

• Support for abortion rights remains widespread: Americans by 66-32% oppose the U.S. Supreme Court decision that did away with the constitutional right to abortion and by essentially the same margin say their own state should allow access to abortion in all or most cases.
• Biden's executive orders to forgive student loan debt get a mixed to negative reception: 42% say he's doing too much in this regard, 22% too little and 34% the right amount. Among those younger than 40, 30% say he's doing too much to forgive these loans; this jumps to 53% of those age 50 and older.
• Thirty-nine percent call it highly important to them whom Biden picks as his running mate; 35% say the same for Trump. Overall, 54% say Biden should replace Kamala Harris as his choice for vice president; among Democrats, however, 76% say he should keep Harris. It's about the same among Biden supporters.
• Eighty percent call undocumented immigration a problem nationally, including 54% who call it a major problem. Locally, in their own community, many fewer call it a problem, 46%, or a major problem, 22%. It's seen as a problem locally, and a major problem nationally, particularly by Republicans and conservatives.
• Passage of a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine did not substantially impact attitudes on the subject. Thirty-nine percent of Americans say the United States is doing too much to help Ukraine, up 5 points from January but about the same as it was last fall. Twenty percent say the United States is doing too little; 39%, the right amount -- both essentially unchanged.

Methodology

This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® April 25-30, 2024, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,260 adults. Partisan divisions are 31% Democrats, 29% Republicans and 28% independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points, including the design effect, for the full sample. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) -- Jurors in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial on Thursday were played a recording found on Michael Cohen's phone, in which the two appeared to be discussing the alleged plan to pay off a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an extramarital affair with Trump.

The conversation, which took place on the morning of Sept. 6, 2016, was played Thursday as part of the testimony by expert witness Douglas Daus, who handles the processing of electronic devices for the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Cohen, Trump's former attorney, secretly recorded the conversation, which lasts about two minutes, during which he and Trump seem to discuss making a $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal to keep her quiet about the alleged affair, which Trump has denied ever took place.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David," Cohen can be heard saying on the call, appearing to refer to National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.

Cohen seemed to be speaking about a shell company he created to originally pay American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's publisher, before the deal went through.

On the phone, Cohen is heard saying he had "spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding" referring to the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.

"So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?" Trump can be heard asking in the recording.

At one point during the conversation, Trump suggested making the payment in cash.

"No, no, no, no, no, I got it," Cohen responded.

American Media Inc. paid McDougal $150,000 to stay silent about her story in the summer of 2016. Trump did not end up reimbursing them, as they'd originally discussed, after Pecker backed out of the deal.

In the defense's cross-examination of Daus, Trump attorney Emil Bove attempted to raise doubt about the integrity of the material on Cohen's phone, suggesting it has been "subject to the risk of manipulation" somewhere in the chain of custody.

Bove also questioned Daus on why the recording abruptly ends.

Daus suggested that he heard in the recording that another call was coming in, but could not say with certainty why the call ended.

"You don't have firsthand knowledge of why it cuts off," Bove said.

During redirect, Daus told prosecutor Christopher Conroy he did not see any evidence of tampering with Cohen's phone.

"Did you see any evidence of tampering or manipulation on any of the data that you pulled related to the recording…," Conroy asked.

"I did not," Daus said.

The recording is expected to come up again during the trial, potentially when Cohen is called to testify.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TEXAS) -- Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife were indicted Friday on charges of conspiracy and accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from foreign entities, the Justice Department announced.

Prosecutors allege Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, began accepting the roughly $600,000 in bribes beginning as early as December of 2014 from an oil and gas company owned by Azerbaijan's government as well as a bank headquartered in Mexico City.

While Cuellar's wife allegedly propped up sham front companies on the promise of providing consulting services to the two companies in order to launder the payments, she "performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts" all while Rep. Cuellar was promising to use his office for the benefit of Azerbaijan's foreign policy as well as influencing "high-ranking" officials in the executive branch to benefit the Mexico City bank, according to the indictment.

According to the indictment, Cuellar influenced a series of legislative measures regarding Azerbaijan's conflict with neighboring Armenia, inserted language favored by Azerbaijan into legislation and committee reports governing certain security and economic aid programs and consulted with representatives of Azerbaijan regarding their efforts to lobby to the U.S. government.

Cuellar once served as a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, and repeatedly met with Azerbaijan officials, including the ambassador of Azerbaijan, Elin Suleymanov in that role.

As for the Mexico City bank, Cuellar is alleged to have accepted bribes in exchange for influencing federal regulation of the financial industry to benefit the bank and its affiliates, according to the indictment.

Also, the indictment said Cuellar allegedly "advised and pressured" executive branch officials regarding anti-money laundering enforcement practices that threatened the bank's business interests, supported legislation that would have blocked federal regulation of the payday lending industry and supported revisions to money-laundering statutes favored by the Mexican corporate conglomerate to which the bank was a member.

The Justice Department said Cuellar and his wife made their initial appearance Friday before a magistrate judge in Houston.

Cuellar his wife are each charged with the following offenses and if convicted, face maximum penalties as indicated: two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal (five years in prison on each count); two counts of bribery of a federal official (15 years in prison on each count); two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud (20 years in prison on each count); two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal (two years in prison on each count); one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering (20 years in prison); and five counts of money laundering (20 years in prison on each count).

Earlier Friday, Cuellar claimed innocence.

"I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations," Cuellar said in a statement. "Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas."

Rep. Cuellar will take a leave as ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee while "this matter is ongoing," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' spokesperson Christie Stephenson.

Rep. Cuellar is entitled to his day in court and "the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process," Stephenson added.

Cuellar, who represents Texas' 28th Congressional District along the U.S.-Mexico border, has been in Congress since 2005.

ABC News' Lauren Peller and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) -- Columbia University is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education following allegations of discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their supporters.

Palestine Legal, an advocacy group centered on Palestinian Rights, filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of four students and the student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine with the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Columbia University declined to comment on the pending investigation. Columbia University is one of eight schools that the DOE has opened an investigation into over alleged Title VI violations concerning shared ancestry discrimination since April 22, as protests nationwide escalated. This is at least the second investigation into shared ancestry discrimination since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Shared ancestry cases refer to discrimination complaints based on ancestry, ethnic characteristics, and citizenship or residency of a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity -- this could include Islamophobia, antisemitism, and other forms of discrimination.

An investigation into a school does not imply that the OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint, according to the DOE's website.

The complaint from Palestine Legal hinges on the school calling for NYPD officers to enter the campus to help quell protests, a move that led to the arrest last week of over 100 students who were protesting Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

However, the complaint further details allegations of discrimination and harassment against Palestinian students, Arabs, Muslims, and students advocating for Palestinians – including a January attack on protesters with a "chemical-based weapon.”

The New York Police Department told ABC News at the time of the attack that protesters smelled a foul odor and began to feel nauseated, accompanied by headaches, during a protest Friday. Students for Justice in Palestine said several students were hospitalized or sought medical care following the incident.

Victims reported symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, chest and abdominal pain and headaches.

Students also say they have been the target of death threats, harassment for wearing keffiyehs or hijab, doxxing, stereotyping and differential treatment by high-ranking administrators.

Student protesters opposed to Israel's war in Gaza have been camping out on the Columbia University campus since April 17 to call for the university to financially divest from companies and institutions that “profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine,” according to an online statement from the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

The encampment grew as University President Minouche Shafik attended a contentious congressional hearing about antisemitism on Columbia's campus.

One day after the hearing, Columbia asked students to leave their encampments. When students refused, Columbia University gave the NYPD the green light to clear the protesters and police in riot gear arrested more than 100 protesters for trespassing.

New York City officials, including NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, said that protesters who were arrested "were peaceful" and "had no resistance whatsoever."

In a statement following the protests, Shafik said that the encampment "violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students."

Student protesters denounced the arrests, as well as growing suspensions faced by students who have been suspended in connection with pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

"We have knowingly put ourselves in danger because we can no longer be complicit in Columbia funneling our tuition dollars and grant money into companies that profit from death," Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement.

Tensions have been high on college campuses nationwide since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel. The Israeli military then began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 34,000 people have been killed and more than 77,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,700 people have been killed and 8,700 others injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since the first round of arrests, the encampment grew and pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a hall on campus, leading to further arrests.

"Students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech," said Shafik. "Many students have also felt uncomfortable and unwelcome because of the disruption and antisemitic comments made by some individuals, especially in the protests that have persistently mobilized outside our gates."

Columbia University has continued to face backlash from the several sides of debate surrounding the Israel-Gaza war, and is also facing litigation from a group of Jewish students who say that the university violated its safety protocols by allowing the encampment on school grounds.

Shafik has been under fire for Columbia's handling of antisemitism allegations on the college campus.

"Safety is paramount and we would do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of our campus," Shafik said at the congressional hearing on antisemitism on April 17. "We must uphold freedom of speech because it's essential to our academic mission, but we cannot and shouldn't tolerate abuse of this privilege to harass and discriminate."

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.