(CHICAGO) -- In 1968, violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, with hundreds of protesters arrested in a police crackdown, upended the party's gathering and soured public opinion in the final months before the presidential election.

Americans had witnessed it all on their TV screens.

Now, more than 50 years later, as college campuses across the United States have erupted into protests over the Israel-Hamas war, some experts say history could repeat itself at this year's DNC convention -- also in Chicago.

While the 1968 protests were against the Vietnam War, activists today are blaming President Joe Biden for his support of Israel's military operations in Gaza -- and some have expressed intentions to disrupt the party's plan to nominate him this summer for a second term.

Back then, opposition to the Vietnam War had gotten so intense that then-President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from being considered as the Democrats' nominee, throwing the party into political turmoil.

In 2024, unrest over another war could mean a similar chaotic scene that the party badly wants to avoid as it tries to showcase Biden to voters.

​​"We have been making comparisons to 1968, of course, because, you know, it was a very contentious convention," said Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chair of March on DNC, the group leading the protest effort this summer.

More than 70 organizations attended a daylong conference last month to plan protests leading up to the DNC, Abudayyeh said, with close to 200 organizations and thousand of protesters expected to join in by August.

This spring, protesters at college campuses have demanded their institutions divest themselves from any ties to Israel for its response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, which claimed 1,200 Israeli lives, according to Israeli officials. More than 34,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Looking to continue the protests into the summer, some of the same groups are targeting the DNC when more than 5,000 Democratic Party delegates will descend on Chicago.

At a news conference in April, leaders of the Democratic National Convention Committee downplayed the prospect of protests derailing the convention.

"We're trying to create an environment where everyone is welcome. We do protect First Amendment rights. But we also want to reassure you that the people are excited about this convention coming," DNCC Chair Minyon Moore said.

"[The Secret Service is] doing all the right things to protect the citizens of Chicago, but we're also doing -- we hope to do the right things to protect the protesters," Moore said.

The protest groups claim their free speech rights are being violated.

Last week, March on DNC filed for an injunction against the city of Chicago, arguing officials improperly denied issuing permits to hold a pair of protest marches within blocks of the DNC.

Instead of allowing protests "within sight and sound" of the DNC, the group said, the city has instead offered an alternative location four miles away. Abudayyeh of March on DNC argues that the distance keeps them "buried," and that the groups will march "whether they have permits or not."

In a statement to ABC News, the city argued it does not have enough resources to handle the kind of protests the groups want to carry out.

"The City of Chicago has received parade or assembly permit applications from seven groups coinciding with the DNC. All seven permits were denied following review by multiple City departments to identify any potential conflicts, safety issues, and to assess the availability of resources needed to support the gathering," Director of Public Information for Chicago's Department of Transportation Erica Schroeder said in a statement to ABC News.

Nevertheless, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling assured residents that police are properly trained in "anticipation of large demonstrations."

DNCC Chair Moore told reporters they are "very sensitive to the environment that we're walking into here in Chicago," adding that the committee is coordinating "very closely" with the Secret Service, as well as the mayor's office and the Chicago Police Department.

"We have read the stories, we have seen the stories and we have heard the stories. And we know that protesters are coming. Protesters come every four years," she said.

Avoiding 1968 redux
American University professor Leonard Steinhorn said while there are common threads between now and 1968, there are some clear differences, most notably the American death toll in Vietnam -- where more than 58,000 American service members were killed.

"​​It's hitting any neighborhood where you have relatives who are living in a dystopian, horrific, brutalized moment. It's hitting people in that sense, but it's not hitting people because their kids are going off to war in this country," he said.

At the convention in 1968, the city of Chicago refused permits to the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the Youth International Party, denying them a designated space to peacefully protest.

The groups weren't legally able to protest near the convention, which led to a clash between protesters and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's police force. Authorities said 668 protesters were arrested; 110 hospitalized; 425 were treated at temporary hospitals.

The Walker Report, commissioned by President Johnson to look into the violence, called it a "police riot," with many officers using billy clubs, rifle butts, mace and tear gas on the protesters. National Guard troops were called out. The report detailed that the "vast majority of the demonstrators were intent on expressing by peaceful means their dissent."

Former Republican President Richard Nixon tried to harness the unrest to activate what he called the "silent majority," and won a decisive White House victory.

The aftermath of 1968 still looms large over the Democratic Party.

Former President Donald Trump has tried to take advantage. In an interview with a local station in Wisconsin, Trump warned that the Democrats will have a "problem" in Chicago because "they've handled things very poorly."

Steinhorn, the American University professor, surmised that moving the protests this year to a separate location makes logistical sense, but that the city of Chicago must learn from its past "mistake."

"There's sort of a political strategy behind that, which is, where are the cameras going to be? The more you can isolate it and make it a sidebar story that's more helpful," said Steinhorn. "But it's a mistake when you look at the history. If you don't allow peaceful protest and a space to organize, things can get out of control."

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(WASHINGTON) -- The Biden administration opted to pause a shipment of some 3,500 bombs to Israel last week because of concerns the weapons could be used in Rafah where more than one million civilians are sheltering "with nowhere else to go," a senior administration official told ABC News.

Other weapon transfers from the U.S. to Israel -- including the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM kits -- are being closely scrutinized as part of a larger review of U.S. military aid to Israel that began last April, the official said.

The decision to pause the shipment and consider slow-walking others is a major shift in policy for the Biden administration and the first known case of the U.S. denying its close ally military aid since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Asked about the reporting at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin publicly confirmed the U.S. has paused a munitions shipment and that a major Israeli operation in Rafah could change the U.S. calculus on security assistance to Israel.

He's the first senior administration official to confirm the U.S. pause on military aid but he added that no "final determination" has been made.

"We are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah," Austin told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, emphasizing that supplemental funding Congress recently passed is not in jeopardy.

"We've been very clear," he said, "from the very beginning that that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack and Rafah without accounting for and protecting those civilians that are hitting that battlespace. And, again as we have assessed the situation, we paused one shipment of high payload munitions."

At the same time, Austin insisted that the U.S.-Israel alliance is "ironclad."

The Biden administration has been reluctant in the past to withhold weapons from Israel despite policy differences because such contracts are typically years in the making, and withholding aid is unlikely to influence Israeli policy decisions in the near term. At the same time, U.S. officials worried that delaying future weapons shipments could put Israel's defense -- a strategic priority for the U.S. -- at risk.

According to the senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday in order to discuss a sensitive policy decision that hadn't yet been publicly announced, the move came because U.S.-Israeli talks on the humanitarian needs in Rafah "have not fully addressed our concerns."

"As Israeli leaders seemed to approach a decision point on such an operation, we began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah," the official said in a written statement provided to ABC News.

More than half of the shipment that was paused last week consisted of 2,000-pound bombs. The remaining 1,700 bombs were 500-pound explosives, the official said.

"We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza," the official told ABC News. "We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment."

Other cases that remain under review include JDAM kits, which enable precision targeting of bombs.

Several other U.S. officials confirmed the policy decision earlier on Tuesday, the same day Israel began what its officials called a "precise" operation in Rafah. U.S. officials said they did not believe those operations were the beginning of the larger-scale invasion that Israel has been planning for weeks; that timeline remains uncertain, they say.

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

The White House declined to discuss specifics at a press briefing, instead pointing to the overall U.S. support for Israel.

"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."

Biden has faced criticism from some Democrats and other voters who say he's not doing enough to stop the mounting death toll of civilians in Gaza. At the same time, support for Israel's operations in Gaza remains strong among Republicans.

On Tuesday, top GOP lawmakers were quick to criticize the delay in arms shipments to Israel that were already approved by Congress.

"This is not the will of Congress," said House Speaker Mike Johnson. "This is an underhanded attempt to withhold aid, without facing accountability. It's undermining what Congress intended."

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Republican Sens. Jodi Ernst and Ted Budd said they were "shocked" and "deeply concerned" about reports 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.

According to the senior administration official, all of the shipments under review come from previously appropriated funds and are not sourced from the latest aid bill passed by Congress.

"We are committed to ensuring Israel gets every dollar appropriated in the supplemental," the official said, noting another $827 million in new future weapons and equipment for Israel has been approved through Foreign Military Financing.

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

ABC News' Lauren Peller, Shannon K. Crawford, Matthew Seyler, Martha Raddatz, Benjamin Siegel and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) -- The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case has now indefinitely postponed the trial date pending resolution of outstanding pretrial litigation, including disagreements about how the classified information is used during trial.

It comes as Judge Aileen Cannon has continued to delay various deadlines in the case, making it all but certain the case doesn't go to trial before Election Day.

"The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture -- before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming -- would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court, critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury," Cannon wrote in the new order.

"The Court therefore vacates the current May 20, 2024, trial date (and associated calendar call), to be reset by separate order following resolution of the matters before the Court, consistent with Defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice," Cannon wrote.

Cannon has set two hearings for May 22 on two motions to dismiss.

Special counsel Jack Smith declined to comment on the delay.

Trump pleaded not guilty last June to a 37-count indictment related to his handling of classified materials. Prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government's efforts to get the documents back.

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(WASHINGTON) -- Education Secretary Miguel Cardona faced a barrage of questions on antisemitism and college protests during a more than three-hour hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, but repeatedly condemned all forms of hate.

"Make no mistake, antisemitism is discrimination and is prohibited by Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964," Cardona said. "Every student deserves to learn in an environment where they can feel free to be themselves without discrimination or fear, or safety."

Republicans have seized on antisemitism as an election-year issue, claiming the administration isn't doing enough to stop it.

When Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer asked Cardona if he would withhold federal funding, he replied, "if schools refuse to adhere to Title VI -- absolutely."

Cardona pointed to the department's 145 open Title VI investigations -- 100 of which were started after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

He took every opportunity to ask for Congress' help in carrying out the investigations.

"We're asking for a $22 million increase in our [FY 2025] budget," he said, adding, "We need additional investigators to close out these cases and make sure we're providing support for our students."

Cardona said he was appalled by the unrest on some college campuses.

"There should be no place on any campus -- no place in America -- for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students," he said. "There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind."

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., who has been dogged in antisemitism hearings with the presidents of Ivy League schools, grilled Cardona on the encampments at some universities.

"For students who have been told to leave and other protesters in the encampments that are refusing to do so, what is your message to them? Will you tell them to -- as the secretary of education -- that they need to leave?" Kiley asked.

There were also references to both rising antisemitism and Islamophobia from Democrats.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, said "emotions are running high," arguing that students protesting genocide in Gaza had been alienated from their schools.

"What I'm hearing from [Jewish and Muslim] families is that they're scared," Cardona said. "Children are having to hide symbols of their faith on their way to class so that they are not targeted. That to me -- as a father and educator -- is something that I stand against."

He condemned all violent threats against Muslims and Arabs.

But Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the committee chair, said Cardona's answers didn't meet her bar.

"You unequivocally condemned anyone from saying 'kill all Muslims.'Good for you," Foxx said in her closing remarks. "We all should condemn that. And yet, given multiple opportunities, you wouldn't condemn 'from the river to the sea,' nor would you condemn calls for campuses to eliminate Hillel," referring to the Jewish campus organization.

"How can the Jewish community in this country trust you to combat antisemitism on campus if you have such double standards of antisemitism?" she asked.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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."

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(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.

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(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.

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