(NEW YORK) -- The 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade may be an attractive target for both foreign and domestic terroristic violence, according to a joint threat assessment obtained by ABC News.
Among the most significant threats facing the nation's largest Thanksgiving celebration "stems from lone offenders and small groups of individuals seeking to commit acts of violence," according to the report put out by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and New York Police Department.
There is not a "specific, actionable threat," but the document raises a particular concern about vehicle ramming, which "has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors" looking to target crowded pedestrian areas. The NYPD will have sanitation trucks and other so-called "blocker vehicles" deployed along the route, the report states.
The 98th annual parade steps off at 8:30 a.m. on Manhattan's Upper West Side and proceeds along a 2 1/2-mile route toward Herald Square.
The parade is expected to draw 2 million spectators and 10,000 participants.
There are 17 featured character balloons, 22 floats, 15 heritage and novelty balloons, more than 700 clowns, 11 marching bands, 10 performance groups and, of course, Santa Claus to close it out. There are six new featured character balloons, including Disney's Minnie Mouse and Marvel's Spider-Man.
"Though the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade event will provide a broad set of potential soft targets for an attack, congested areas where the largest amount of people gather -- particularly designated viewing areas -- are likely the most vulnerable spots for a mass casualty attack," the assessment said.
After pro-Palestinian protesters glued their hands to the pavement along the parade route last year, law enforcement agencies said they "remain concerned that malicious actors may seek to engage in public safety disruptions, including attempting to block ingress and egress paths and roadways around the event and major transportation locations."
AUSTIN (AP) – The University of Texas System is expanding its free tuition program so undergraduate students whose families make $100,000 or less will receive free tuition and fees starting next fall.
A committee of the UT Board of Regents gave preliminary approval to expand the Promise Plus Program on Wednesday. The full board will take a final vote Thursday. Once approved, the system will send $35 million directly to the universities to support the expansion which will apply to eligible students at all nine universities.
“To be in a position to make sure our students can attend a UT institution without accruing more debt is very important to all of us, and as long as we are here, we will continue our work to provide an affordable, accessible education to all who choose to attend a UT institution,” Board Chair Kevin Eltife said in a statement.
Students must be Texas residents enrolled full-time in an undergraduate program and apply for applicable state and financial aid to qualify.
The expansion is the latest move by the regents to make college more affordable for students. In 2019, the regents created a $167 million endowment at the University of Texas at Austin to provide free tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students whose families make less than $65,000; it also provided tuition support to students from families who made under $125,000. Three years later, regents established the Promise Plus Program with a $300 million endowment fund to help other UT system universities expand their existing financial aid programs.
According to the UT system, the University of Texas at El Paso expanded the income threshold for free tuition from $60,000 to $75,000, reaching 75% of households in the region.
In recent years, many universities and community colleges in Texas and across the country have launched similar tuition programs to increase college access for low-income students and to encourage enrollment for those who might be hesitant to take on student debt. Many universities structure these programs so they pay what’s left on a student’s tuition bill after federal or state grants have been applied.
The $35 million will come from endowment distributions, the Available University Fund — investment returns from a state fund that provides money from the UT system — and other resources, the system said in a press release.
The money will immediately expand the number of UT system students who will receive free tuition and fees next year, and also ensure the Promise Plus program is supported in perpetuity.
“Across UT institutions, enrollment is growing, and student debt is declining, indicating success in both access and affordability,” said Chancellor James Milliken in a statement. “That’s a rare trend in American higher education, and I’m proud the UT System is in a position to be a leader.”
Since launching the original free tuition program, the percentage of UT system graduates with debt has declined from 54% in 2019 to 48% in 2023, according to the UT system.
Keira Knightley gets back to action in the new trailer for Black Doves, a six-part spy thriller set at Christmas and bound for Netflix on Dec. 5.
Knightley co-stars with Ben Whishaw in the spy series, in which she plays Heleb Webb, "a quick-witted, down-to-earth, dedicated wife and mother — and professional spy," according to the streamer.
She's been passing her politician husband's secrets to her spy organization, called the Black Doves, for a decade, but when her secret lover, Jason, is assassinated, she's teamed up with Wishaw's assassin, Sam, to uncover the truth.
"As his past threatens to catch up with him, his task is to protect Helen as she investigates who killed Jason and why," Netflix continues. "Together they uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy linking the murky London underworld to a looming geopolitical crisis."
Knightley's character is shown taking out enemies hand-to-hand and leaping from an exploding building. She later looks shocked when a mysterious voice over the phone reveals her cover is blown, meaning her family is in danger.
The series will also star Sarah Lancashire, Ella Lily Hyland and Andrew Buchan.
On Thursday's installment of The Jennifer Hudson show, Emmy winner Courtney B. Vancetalked about his anticipation of receiving one of the biggest honors in showbiz, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Vance is following in the Walk of Fame footsteps of his award-winning wife, Angela Bassett.
"Angela got hers I think back in '07, and the [children] were 2," he said of their fraternal twins, Bronwyn Golden Vance and Slater Josiah Vance, who are now 18.
"Aw, they were babies!" J. Hud gushed to a throwback photo of the family at Bassett's ceremony.
Grotesquerie star and executive producer Vance said they still need to schedule his ceremony, but added, "It's such a blessing to be in the class of '24-'25."
Vance will be in good company: When the next slate of nominees was announced back in June, it was revealed that some of the actor's "class" will include actress Nia Long, actor-director Bill Duke, Sherri Shepherd, Fantasia, Colin Farrell and Jane Fonda.
According to the organization's website, upcoming star ceremonies are usually announced 10 days prior to dedication.
PANOLA COUNTY – A multi-county box truck pursuit ended Thursday morning when a deputy hit the truck, preventing it from entering a school zone. The Panola County Sheriff’s Office said the driver has been arrested with additional charges expected. According to our news partner KETK, at around 7:19 a.m. the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office notified Panola County Dispatch that a Tatum officer was pursuing a box truck on Highway 149 and was headed toward Panola County.
“The Tatum officer was monitoring traffic on Hwy 149 on the north side of Tatum, when the truck passed him in the oncoming traffic lanes,” the Panola County Sheriff’s Office said.
The sheriff’s office said deputies, constables and Department of Public Safety troopers responded and some joined the pursuit as the truck continued to travel into the oncoming lanes. A constable used his patrol vehicle to hit and disable the truck at around 7:25 a.m. before it entered a nearby Beckville school zone, PCSO said. Continue reading Truck driver arrested following multi-county pursuit
(WASHINGTON) -- Former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz announced Thursday he is withdrawing his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general.
"I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday," Gaetz wrote in a post on X. "I appreciate their thoughtful feedback - and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I'll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump's DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1."
"I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history," Gaetz added. "I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I'm certain he will Save America."
Gaetz informed Trump late Thursday morning that he'd be withdrawing, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Trump, who had been personally calling lawmakers to shore up support for Gaetz, issued a statement saying he appreciated Gaetz's "recent efforts" to seek Senate approval and that withdrawing was his choice.
"He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect," Trump wrote. "Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!"
Trump announced last Wednesday he was tapping Gaetz to serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer. Gaetz, a conservative firebrand in Congress, resigned his seat shortly after.
The choice shocked many Republicans on Capitol Hill and raised eyebrows within the Justice Department.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., expressed "relief" after Gaetz's announcement.
"I know enough people that were a “hell no” in the conference to know that the path would have been very, very difficult, if possible, and I doubt it was," Cramer said.
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he thinks it was the "right decision" even though Gaetz sounded so "optimistic" during their meeting on Capitol Hill.
Republican senators thought to be opposed to Gaetz because of obstacles to confirmation openly praised the decision he step aside.
"I think that was an excellent move on behalf of the incoming president," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
"I think it was a sound decision. I think it was important," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who had been among those publicly voicing serious concerns.
Asked if she were relieved, Murkowski said "I am. I think it was the right decision."
Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who also had expressed concerns, said withdrawing was the "right decision to make."
"There was perhaps some information out there that the president was not aware of when he made the original recommendation. Part of this process is, the information comes out, and then at that point, as people re-evaluate or evaluate, you know, the president or the individual candidate may decide it's not the right time to pursue the nomination," Rounds said. "It may very well have been because of advice from the Senate rather than consent from the Senate."
Not all senators were as open on their views.
“That’s obviously a decision he came to, and I think everybody had to make a decision that’s good for them and their family. And for whatever reason he decided not to pursue it," Sen. John Thune, the incoming Republican leader, said.
When pressed on whether he felt it was the right choice: "We respect his decision," Thune said.
Gaetz has been under scrutiny amid sexual misconduct allegations, including accusations he had sex with a minor, which he's long denied.
The House Ethics Committee was in the final stages of its probe into Gaetz when he was tapped to be attorney general, ABC News reported. Fiery debate has transpired on Capitol Hill since then on whether the panel should release its report.
Many senators said they believed the information that would be in the report would become public during his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. John Cornyn, who met with Gaetz on Wednesday, said his hearing had the potential to be "Kavanaugh on steroids."
Sources told ABC News in the last few days it became clear to the Trump team that Gaetz was not going to have enough votes for a Senate confirmation with sources close to the president-elect telling ABC News "no path to 50" senators.
Karoline Leavitt, the spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition, said on Thursday Trump "remains committed to choosing a leader for the Department of Justice who will strongly defend the Constitution and end the weaponization of our justice system."
"President Trump will announce his new decision when it is made," Leavitt said.
Trump has announced who he intends to install his top defense attorneys to the high-level roles at the Justice Department. Todd Blanche has been picked to be the deputy attorney general and Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.
ABC News' Kelsey Walsh and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out former Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying about a 2019 hate crime.
Smollett was found guilty in 2021 for faking a racist and homophobic attack and lying to the police. His lawyers said this violated his Fifth Amendment rights because, in 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had already agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.
In its decision, filed on Thursday, the court stated they are resolving a "question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants."
The court stated it did not find that the state could bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement and the actor performed the terms of the agreement, noting that Illinois case law establishes that it is "fundamentally unfair to allow the prosecution to renege on a deal with a defendant when the defendant has relied on the agreement to his detriment."
"We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust. Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied," it said.
The Illinois Supreme Court's decision cancels earlier rulings by Cook County and appellate courts. The court has now sent the case back to the lower court to officially dismiss the charges.
A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from him filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.
He was sentenced to 150 days in county jail, ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, fined $25,000 and ordered to serve 30 months of felony probation.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) -- As controversy continues to cloud some of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, his team has an ominous warning for Republicans who don't fall in line behind his nominees.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that one senior Trump adviser said the message to lawmakers is, "If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you're buying yourself a primary."
"That is all," the adviser told Karl. "And there's a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it."
"The president gets to decide his Cabinet. No one else," the adviser added.
The threat came as Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth (tapped for attorney general and defense secretary, respectively) made the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to shore up support. They were escorted by Vice President-elect JD Vance, the junior senator from Ohio.
Gaetz announced Thursday afternoon he was withdrawing his name from consideration, stating his confirmation bid was "unfairly becoming a distraction."
Gaetz faces allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, which he's long denied, that was the subject of a federal investigation and a House Ethics Committee probe. Hegseth has been accused of sexual assaulting a woman in 2017, an encounter Hegseth told police was consensual.
Trump stood firm with the selections, which also raised eyebrows for their relative lack of experience to lead the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense. Trump said it was ultimately Gaetz's choice to withdraw.
Some of the president-elect's other picks have similarly faced scrutiny over their qualifications, including Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump previously made a demand for Republican leadership to back so-called "recess appointments" to skirt the traditional confirmation process. That route would require lawmakers to adjourn and for senators to give up the "advice and consent" role they play in nominations, as laid out in the Constitution.
But his demand is being met with some resistance from some Senate Republicans.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a senior Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said recess appointments for Cabinet posts should be "absolutely off the table."
"And quite honestly, any serious candidate for Cabinet-level position, I would really have to wonder if they would want it or be willing to accept it under a recess," Tillis said. "These positions are too important. They carry too much weight internationally to take a short cut."
Several senators have said they want the full "process" and vetting of candidates to play out.
Sen. Josh Hawley said on Wednesday his intention to vote for all nominees.
"The Constitution gives us a role in personnel called advice and consent. My view is that's exactly what will unfold here when these nominees are actually sent forward, and we'll treat them like we've treated all others with the proper vetting," said longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who recently stepped down from the role.
(NEW YORK) -- Important bodies of water that supply water to populated regions in the Northeast have dried up due to drought conditions in recent months, according to experts.
Water levels at reservoirs in the region have decreased to the point of concern for water supply managers, hydrologists told ABC News.
Over the past three months, there has been a significant lack of precipitation all over the Northeast, Elizabeth Carter, an assistant professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Syracuse University, told ABC News.
Data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows rivers and channels throughout the Northeast region are at extremely low levels. Fall is the time of year when rivers and streams are typically near full capacity, refilling from the summer months when usage is at the all-time high, said Brian Rahm, director of the New York State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University.
"This would be a low level that we would expect to see less than once every 100 years," Carter said.
The heavy rain soaking the Northeast on Thursday will help ease the drought but will not be enough to refill the reservoirs to normal levels, experts say.
Current water data from the USGS show extremely low streamflow conditions, which indicate that the groundwater table has dropped in tandem to the lack of precipitation -- as the groundwater continues to flow out of perennial streams without any replenishment, Carter said.
Water levels in the Wanaque Reservoir in New Jersey, the second-largest in the state with a capacity of 29 billion gallons, is currently at just 44% capacity, according to the USGS. Before-and-after satellite images show how much the body of water has shrunk since November 2023. Surface levels are currently at 16 feet below where it was at this time last year.
In New York City, the water system was at 63% capacity as of Monday, according to the city.
But the Northeast is home to many small towns that manage their own water. Water levels in smaller reservoirs have likely decreased at much more dramatic rates than the larger ones, Anita Milman, a professor in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told ABC News. Smaller reservoirs are more severely impacted by the drought, Gardner Bent, information specialist at the USGS New England Water Science Center, told ABC News.
The Cambridge Reservoir in Massachusetts, which has a capacity of 1.5 billion gallons, is below 50% capacity, Bent said.
"Those are the places that I would be the most concerned about, because they have a limited amount of water and storage, and they need that water," she said.
Reservoirs all over the U.S. are experiencing declines, according to a paper published in August in Geophysical Research Letters. Major reservoirs -- including the Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the largest in the U.S. -- are experiencing longer, more severe and more variable periods of low storage than several decades ago, the study, led by the USGS, found.
The Northeast has been in a rain deficit since September. Since last week, drought conditions have continued to worsen across New Jersey, with 100% of the state now in a severe drought, and extreme drought conditions expanding across parts of South Jersey, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The state of New Jersey issued a drought warning for the first time since 2016. This is also the first time a drought warning has been issued for New York City since 2002, according to officials.
Will the Northeast receive more rain in the coming weeks?
Looking ahead, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says that odds favor above average precipitation for a large swath of the nation through the end of November, including much of the Plains, the Midwest, and East Coast.
In the Northeast, a much-needed stretch of wet weather began impacting the region on Wednesday night and is expected to continue through Friday.
A large swath of the region, including northern New Jersey, New York City, and New York's Hudson Valley, is expected to receive more than 2 inches of rain over that time.
The soaking rain will effectively end the elevated wildfire danger that has been plaguing much of the region in recent weeks.
For cities like New York and Newark, New Jersey, more than 2 inches of rain would completely erase the rainfall deficit for November and cut the current fall season deficit by around 25%.
However, even after this drenching rainfall, much of the Northeast, including the I-95 corridor, would still need to receive several inches of rain in the coming weeks to significantly improve drought conditions. More than a half-foot of rain would need to fall to completely wipe out the current rainfall deficit that many large cities have been experiencing since September.
Recent rounds of significant precipitation have been alleviating drought conditions across portions of the Plains, Midwest and South over the past seven days. For the contiguous U.S., overall drought coverage decreased from 49.84% to 45.48% week over week, according to an update released on Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The soaking rain currently sweeping across the Northeast will not be factored into the drought monitor until next week's update.
But it will take months for dry conditions to recuperate, the experts said.
"We're really looking for sustained seasonal precipitation to slowly bring these systems back to, you know, to where we expect them to be," Rahm said.
The current drought situation took months to evolve, and it will likely take several more rounds of significant rainfall over the span of weeks or even months to completely eliminate the widespread drought in the region, Bent said.
What will happen if drought conditions don't improve?
Every state in the U.S. has a drought contingency plan in the event that water levels dwindle to alarming levels, which include steps to deal with increasingly restricted supply availability, the experts said. Once drought conditions worsen to a "warning," water managers begin to implement actions that wouldn't necessarily be triggered by a "watch," Rahm said.
If dry conditions persist in the Northeast, the first step will be voluntary restrictions, Milman said. Then, legal mandates would be issued to reduce water use, she added.
One saving grace for the extremely dry conditions in the Northeast is that the fall is not the time of year when water usage is at its highest, the experts said. During the summer, people are often expending a lot of water for their lawns and gardens, but those plants will soon go into dormant mode, Milman said.
Conversely, it means that drought protection measures that are intended to be implemented during the summer, when all levels are low, may not make as much of a difference, Milman said. Outdoor water and the times people are permitted to water their lawns -- when sunlight isn't at its highest -- are typically targeted first.
"We recognize that indoor water use is essential for most human needs," Milman said.
The Northeast is typically considered a "water rich" region, and the infrastructure is set up based on expectations of average seasonal precipitation, Rahm said.
"The infrastructure that we have established to use that water is reliant -- in some ways -- on our expectations of how that water will fall," he said.
In other countries with arid climates, cutbacks can involve rationing, such as differing segments of a town getting a certain amount of water pressure during certain times a week, which has proved successful, Milman said.
"I've never seen this in the eastern United States," she said. "... But this is what other countries do all the time when they don't have enough supply."
(NEW YORK) -- Bitcoin vaulted to a record high on Thursday, surging more than 3% in early trading and hurtling toward investors' long-sought milestone of $100,000.
The price of bitcoin briefly exceeded $98,000 for the first time on Thursday morning, before retreating to about $97,600.
The value of the world's most popular cryptocurrency has soared 31% since the reelection of former President Donald Trump, who is widely viewed as friendly toward digital currency.
By comparison, the S&P 500 has climbed 2.4% since Election Day, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has increased 2.6%.
The run-up of bitcoin extended to other parts of the crypto industry. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, jumped 8% in early trading on Thursday. Lesser-known litecoin rose nearly 6%, and dogecoin ticked up more than 2%.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to bolster the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations enforced by the Biden administration. Trump also promised to establish the federal government's first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Trump said he would replace Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whom many crypto proponents dislike for what they perceive as a robust approach to crypto regulation.
In July, Trump told the audience at a cryptocurrency conference in Nashville, Tennessee, that he wanted to turn the U.S. into the "crypto capital of the planet."
"I'm calling it the 'election dividend,'" James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset management firm CoinShares, told ABC News. "We went from being worried about a Democrat getting elected to what we've got: a Republican clean sweep."
The recent rise follows a period of stellar returns that stretches back to last year. The price of bitcoin has soared more than 150% since November 2023. Over that period, the S&P 500 has climbed about 30%.
Those gains have been propelled, in part, by U.S. approval in January of bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Bitcoin ETFs allow investors to buy into an asset that tracks the price movement of bitcoin, while avoiding the inconvenience and risk of purchasing the crypto coin itself.
Options trading for bitcoin ETFs
On Tuesday, options on BlackRock's popular iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) were made available for trading on the Nasdaq. The options, which provide a new avenue for bitcoin investors, allow individuals to commit to buy or sell the ETF at a given price by a specific date. While such investments typically come with additional risk, they can also make large payouts.
The price of IBIT jumped 3.1% on Thursday.
The newly available options may account for some of the rise in the price of bitcoin over recent days, Bryan Armour, the director of passive strategies research at financial firm Morningstar, told ABC News.
"The options add volatility on top of volatility, which has interested some of the crypto investors," Armour said.
The crypto industry entered this year bruised after a series of high-profile collapses and company scandals.
FTX, a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, collapsed in November 2022. The implosion set off a 17-month legal saga that resulted in the conviction of Bankman-Fried for fraud. In April, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The surge of bitcoin since Election Day may continue for the foreseeable future, since past periods of momentum have been shown to propel the cryptocurrency, Armour said. But crypto investments remain highly volatile, he added, recommending that the asset make up no more than 5% of a person's portfolio.
"It's notoriously difficult to provide a value for bitcoin's price," Armour said. "It can go up; it can go down."
"I would continue to keep any allocation small," Armour added.
(WASHINGTON) -- Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill Thursday to accompany President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick to be secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, where they met with Republican senators in hopes of helping his nomination process amid new details about a 2017 sexual assault claim against him.
Hegseth met with several Republican senators Thursday morning including Sens. John Barrasso, Roger Wicker, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Hegseth emerged from his final meeting with the Republicans and thanked Trump, Vance and the senators, for the "incredible opportunity" to be nominated as the secretary of the Department of Defense. He said he takes the senate's advice and consent for this nomination "very seriously."
"It's an Incredible opportunity that I do not take lightly," Hegseth said.
Barrasso met with Hegseth Thursday morning and called the former Fox News host a "strong nominee."
"Pete pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power -- not the current administration's woke political agenda," Barrasso said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee -- which will manage the secretary of defense nomination and eventual hearing, met with Hegseth and Vance Thursday morning for about an hour.
After the meeting, Wicker said Hegseth would be in "pretty good shape" during his confirmation process.
Hegseth, an Army veteran, could face a challenging road to confirmation and is speaking with Republican senators to in hopes of helping his nomination process.
Hegseth's visit to Capitol Hill comes after new details emerged on the 2017 sexual assault claim against him.
The woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault in 2017 told police at the time that he took her phone and blocked her from leaving the room the night of the incident, according to a 22-page police report posted online overnight. Hegseth told police the encounter was consensual.
The woman told police she had drank "much more than normal" and could not remembers many details of the evening, but remembered saying "no" a lot during her encounter with Hegseth, according to the report.
On Thursday, Hegseth responded to a question about the sexual assault claim, saying "the matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared and that's where I am going to leave it."
Asked if the Hegseth allegations and police report came up in their conversation, Wicker said they didn't get into specifics.
"We weren't specific, but, ya know, since no charges were brought by the authorities, we have only press reports," Wicker said.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said she believes an FBI background check into Hegseth would be "helpful" in knowing more about Trump's pick.
Ernst, a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services committee, also said "there's a lot floating around out there, we need to actually be able to visit with him face to face, and I know the committee will do a thorough vetting."
Hegseth has been involved in other controversies as well. He has said in interviews before being named that he advocated a "frontal assault" on the DOD, including firing what he called "woke" generals and eliminating the Pentagon's diversity goals. He also argued that the United States "should not have women in combat roles."
Hegseth's Capitol Hill visit comes just one day after Vance and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's nominee to be attorney general, met with senators to make his case for the role. Gaetz announced Thursday that he is withdrawing his name from consideration to be Trump's attorney general.
Gaetz's meetings with senators took place the same day the House Ethics Committee decided against releasing the report into him over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
-ABC News' Arthur Jones and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
Matthew McConaughey says it took turning down a $14.5 million payday for Hollywood to take him seriously in dramatic roles.
The actor appeared on tennis pro Nick Kyrgios' Good Trouble podcast and revealed he left Hollywood for Texas because he kept getting scripts for romantic comedies.
After a string of successful ones, like How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Wedding Planner, he wanted more.
"When I was rolling with the rom-coms, and I was the 'rom-com dude,' that was my lane and I liked that lane. That lane paid well ... I was so strong in that lane that anything outside that lane – dramas and stuff that I want[ed] to do ... Hollywood said, 'No, no, no. You should stay there.'"
He added, "So, since I couldn't do what I wanted to do, I ... moved down to the ranch in Texas."
He reportedly told his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, "I'm not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do."
The actor and author says he stuck to his guns even after studios sweetened the deal with a potential paycheck as high as $14.5 million. "That was probably seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me because it really sent the signal, 'He ain’t f****** bluffing,'" McConaughey recalled, noting the gambit worked.
He insists, "The devil's in the infinite yeses, not the no's. 'No' becomes more important than 'yes.'"
McConaughey says N-O is even more important if you've become successful. "We can all look around and see we've over-leveraged our life with yeses and going, 'I'm making C-minuses and all this s*** in my life because I said yes to too many things.'"
(WASHINGTON) -- President-elect Donald Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 on the campaign trail but has since nominated several authors or contributors from the controversial conservative presidential wishlist to his administration.
Trump called the Project 2025 policy proposals -- which include restrictions on abortion pills, birth control pills and Medicare access, as well as eliminating a couple of federal agencies -- "extreme, seriously extreme" in a July 20 rally.
"I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it," he previously said, despite having many connections to its authors and contributors.
Democrats pounced on Trump for Project 2025 during the election season, calling it a warning of what is to come under a second Trump term.
"Project 2025 is the plan by Donald Trump's MAGA Republican allies to give Trump more power over your daily life, gut democratic checks and balances, and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins," the Biden campaign stated.
Project 2025 is an over 900-page playbook of policy proposals created by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation intended to guide the next conservative administration. The organization behind the document told ABC News in a past statement that it was not intended to speak for any candidate during the election.
Project 2025 and Trump's Agenda47 share similarities -- including proposals to eliminate the Department of Education, increase fossil fuel energy production, and begin mass deportations.
At the ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump reiterated his earlier sentiment on the project. "This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do [with it]."
Now, several Project 2025 authors and contributors are not just connected to Trump, but also nominated for roles in his administration.
Russ Vought, who authored a chapter on "Executive Office of the President" for Project 2025's "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise," is also under consideration for a cabinet-level position in the next administration and has been vetted by Trump's transition team, sources told ABC News. He was also the RNC platform committee's policy director.
Here's a look at which Project 2025 contributors may have a place in the incoming Trump administration:
Brendan Carr
Brendan Carr, Trump's nomination for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is credited as the author of Project 2025's FCC recommendations which include: a ban on TikTok, restrictions on social media moderation, and more.
Carr would be tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Trump has suggested that he would expand the White House's influence over the FCC and potentially punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn't like.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC's general counsel and as the senior Republican for the FCC. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
John Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe, listed as a contributor who assisted "in the development and writing" of Project 2025, has been nominated to serve as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ratcliffe is a three-term Republican congressman from Texas and served as the director of national intelligence from mid-2020 until the end of Trump's first term.
Project 2025's Intelligence Community chapter, credited to The Heritage Foundation's intelligence research fellow Dustin J. Carmack, notes that the "CIA's success depends on firm direction from the President and solid internal CIA Director–appointed leadership. Decisive senior leaders must commit to carrying out the President's agenda and be willing to take calculated risks."
Tom Homan
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan has been designated as Trump's "border czar" -- which is not an official Cabinet position.
Homan, who is expected to be in charge of the mass deportations promised by the Trump campaign, is listed as a contributor to Project 2025 who assisted in its "development and writing."
Project 2025's Department of Homeland Security chapter, credited to Trump's former Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli, calls for full use of ICE's "expedited removal" authority and further development of immigrant detention spaces. This all aligns with Trump's immigration proposals on mass deportations and funds for the construction of detention centers.
Other links to Project 2025
Christopher Miller is credited with the project's Department of Defense recommendations. Miller served as Acting Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the President under Trump from November 2020 to January 2021.
Ben Carson is credited with the project's Housing and Urban Development recommendations. He served as the Secretary of HUD under Trump's first administration.
Adam Candeub is credited with the project's Federal Trade Commission recommendations. He served under the Trump administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information.
Bernard L. McNamee is credited with recommendations on the Department of Energy and Related Commissions. He was nominated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Trump in October 2018.
Cuccinelli -- who wrote the Department of Homeland Security section -- was also part of Trump's former administration as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
The RNC platform committee's Deputy Policy Director Ed Martin is also president of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, which is listed on the project's advisory board.
Others connected to Trump, including Trump's United Nations Commission on the Status of Women appointee Lisa Correnti, are listed among the contributors.
While at Disney's APAC Content Showcase Wednesday at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Anthony Mackie shed a little light on his upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, Captain America: Brave New World.
The movie, which debuts in theaters Feb. 14, will be Mackie's first after his character Sam Wilson took on the mantle of Captain America in the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
According to Deadline, Mackie said his character — which fans met as a veteran counselor in Captain America: The Winter Soldier — is staying true to his roots.
"He's still a [counselor]. He's still serving soldiers, but at the same time, now he's a leader of his community in the country," Mackie reportedly said.
Unlike Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, however, Wilson never took the super soldier cocktail that gave Steve's Cap his superior strength.
"When you don't have the serum, you have to be smart and engineer different ways of [fighting]," the actor said, explaining that "he uses more of his brains than brawn. He uses more of his wit than his fist."
That said, the trailer to the movie shows him going toe-to-toe with Harrison Ford's Red Hulk.
The trade also reports head Kevin Feige made a virtual appearance and revealed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is about to wrap, and with its debut in July, "Marvel's First Family ... [goes] right into the next Avengers movies."
