i can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me. i have not been

charged with a crime and i am confident that i will not be charged with a crime because i am innocent. >> oakland mayor chen tao breaks her silence. today, she makes her first public comments about thursday's fbi raid of her home. as you heard, she pledged her innocence and made an emotional vow to remain in office. you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us. in her first statement on the stunning story, mayor tao struck a defiant and skeptical tone. she questioned the timing of the raid, coming just days after a petition to recall her from office was verified. she insists she's innocent and that when she gets information from the fbi and the us attorney's office, she'll share more when she's authorized to do so. meantime, her opponents wasted no time taking a stand. members of the group oakland united to recall shantelle, rallied outside oakland city hall while she was speaking, calling on tao to just resign. now, others have

joined the call, including the naacp. joining us live now to discuss today's developments is abc seven news insider phil matier. phil, great to have you on today. >> well, it certainly has been an interesting morning. one like we never seen before in the bay area. >> i think that's true. and you and i have both been here a long, long time before we dissect what she said and how she said it, you do have some breaking news about her legal representation. >> well, what she said and how she said it directly impacted her, her case. right now. uh- mayor xing tao's attorney, tony brass, a very competent and experienced former federal prosecutor. i talked with him and basically it appears that he is terminating his relationship with the mayor. that just began and the reasoning, she said, yes . yes it was. it appears to be, first of all, that she held the press conference without giving him a heads up about what she was going to say. and that's one of the first things you don't do if you're someone's client, if somebody's representing you, you don't go out on your own. the

second thing, i think he was not at all comfortable with her uh- sort of insinuations that the fbi was out to get her, that the fbi was somehow in collusion or timing this deliberately after the recalled petitions qualified, putting a recall of her on the ballot, that somehow that this was a conspiracy that involves everyone from the fbi to san francisco billionaires. i do not think he was comfortable with that and having to deal with the us attorney's office going forward. >> you're right. that was pretty surprising that she mentioned that. in fact, we cut a clip from that. so let's listen. this the one about the billionaires, i want to know more about the handful of billionaires from san francisco and from piedmont who are hell bent on running me out of office. >> i want to know why. the day following the qualification of a recall election funded by some of the richest people in the bay area, seemed like the right day to execute a warrant. i want to know how the tv cameras knew to

show up on my sleepy residential street so early in the morning to capture footage of the raid. >> i can answer the first that last question. the reason we showed up with cameras early morning is because the neighbor called us and said, the fbi is going in and out of the mayor's hops house. not necessarily nefarious, right? so it wasn't like the fbi leaked it or put it out there. second of all, as for the timing, i think that that's a little it'd be a first if a recall drives a qualifying, triggered an fbi raid. i've never heard of that before. as for the billionaires that are behind it, yes, one of them. one of them is san francisco tech angel investor ron conway and his sons chris and ronnie. that, according to oaklandside, a news site in oakland, they put in some of the seed money. the others are uh- not named. we don't know exactly who they are. she is not naming anyone. she's just putting it out there. yeah, but it's also the naacp and a

group of other people as well that are involved in this. and that is kind of a coalition, right wing republican cabal. no, because that's who she says. she said we heard the same thing from san francisco district attorney chesa boudin when he was the subject of a recall that it's these right wing and multi billionaires that were behind it. so it's a tactic i don't know if it works, but it's something to get out there. >> i mean she definitely did try to point the finger elsewhere. you know we kind of expect the i'm innocent the i'm cooperating. that was expected. what i didn't really expect today though was the level of emotion she showed. let's go ahead and listen to another clip . >> well guess what. i'm not going down like that. we're not going down like that. >> the people who voted for me deserve to have their voices heard and communities prioritized. i'm seeking the truth right now just as much as

you all are. but i will not be bullied, and i will not be disparaged, and i will not be threatened out of this office. >> well, that answers the question about whether she plans to resign. exactly. okay, that's sort of the ones who are rallying outside. >> yeah, exactly. >> so that's it. you know, oakland is in the midst of a number of problems, and they've become more severe in the last couple of years. we had a mass shooting, 15 people wounded on the juneteenth celebration that was at the same time that this was going on. they have a tens of millions of dollars of the budget is out of whack. that could possibly, in the next week or so, lead to announcements of further cuts. there is a sale of the oakland coliseum property, or the city's share of that that is supposedly going through, yet nobody has seen details of it. yeah, there are a lot of things going on in oakland right now. and she is right. and the question is, she doesn't want to be a distraction. so she could have been quiet about it. instead, she is throwing down the gantlet. >> yeah. and don't forget there's the police chief. she

fired, who is now running for city council, who's going to be using every bit of this against her as well, and also for himself. >> and it all comes together in one ongoing, drama that has become oakland. and this one is the mayor has has clearly added to a new chapter on that today. >> yeah. so she's trying to make it sound like it's going to be business as usual for her. >> but you and i both know at the same time, she's making it sound like it's business as usual. she's accusing the fbi or intimating that the fbi is somehow behind it, or in with the recall people, and that there's this vast conspiracy i we will wait to see what the reaction of others so far other other city council people have been quiet on this. nobody from the much of the oakland establishment is saying anything at this point. no allies speaking up, right and no allies speaking up. so there's sort of quiet across the board. we haven't seen any on either side. >> she finds herself in a lonely place, that is for sure. but look, it cannot be ribbon cutting as usual for her at this point. the rest of her, you know, mayoralship until whenever the. >> what happens is right now is the fbi. she's not going to get

from the call from the fbi with updates on this. that's not how they operate. they either are going to indict or they don't indict. and they don't give you the heads that say you're not going to. so she has to go on with these other challenges that we've talked about earlier, the crime, the financial problems, the empty downtown, all the schools, all of that is going to that's not going to go away. so she has to concentrate on that. all right. >> abc7 news insider phil matier , thank you so much. i still ahead on getting answers. today marks the two year anniversary of the day the supreme court overturned roe v wade and took away the constitutional right to an abortion. what's changed since then in terms of access, health care and politics? and this sunday is the san francisco pride parade. but celebration events are all this week. details from the executive di

in dobbs v jackson womens health organization, it effectively overturned roe v wade and took away the constitutional right to an abortion, something that had been guaranteed since 1973. the decision sparked protests by abortion rights advocates as well as celebrations by anti-abortion activists. driving these sharp divisions are americans political views and religious views, which are often intertwined now. but one thing is clear the ruling has had the effect of creating more abortion rights. supporters the latest gallup poll from last month shows 60% say overturning roe was a bad thing, while 36% called it a good thing. joining us live now is doctor ushma upadhyay, professor and public health scientist at ucsf. thank you so much for joining us. thanks for having me. lets start

here. how has the overturning of roe affected access to abortion across the country? >> well, the most immediate impact is that 14 states banned abortion and currently three states have bans at six weeks, which is a point where many people do not even know they're pregnant. so the most immediate impact is that so many people across the country who want an abortion uh- have to go to really extreme lengths to be able to get an abortion. >> yeah, i want to circle back on what people have to do now to get an abortion. but since you brought it up in terms of the six weeks, i also want to show another part of that may gallup poll that i referred to that showed increasing support for abortion rights, look, you know, this is what people are saying in terms of when they think abortion should be legal, 35% now say legal under any circumstance and 16% say in most, 33% say in a few, and 12%

say it should never be legal. but the point is, most majority, the majority of americans say it should either be legal no matter what or under circumstances. and thats where i want you to come in, okay? when people say legal under circumstances, are they talking about like first trimester, for example, right. because a lot of the laws now that you referred to ban it after six weeks, like the fetal heartbeat kind of standard, talk about why that's challenging and doesnt seem to match what people are saying they want. >> sure. so yes, six weeks, actually, fetal heartbeat is a myth. what it is, is electric activity, electrocardiogram activity coming from the fetus, and so the issue is, i think that more americans are seeing that pregnancy is so complex, you can't draw a line in the sand. people understand that there are complications that

arise from pregnancy all throughout in every trimester of pregnancy, all trimesters. and so what people are realizing is that this is a complex medical issue that needs to be decided by the pregnant person and herself, and with the advice of a physician. and so i think that more people are hearing about these horror stories, people who are having miscarriages and unable to get care, people who are having, extreme circumstances and even in emergency situations, there's a supreme court ruling that we're expecting in this week or in the coming weeks that will decide on that, whether a state can ban abortion, even in cases of when an emergency abortion is needed. and so i think that, hearing more and more about these extreme cases where, people do

need this care, i think it's pushing voters into realizing that they, they need, that every pregnancy is unique. >> right. so from what i'm hearing from you is that this is not just about an abortion. it's really about pregnancies. it's really about women's health in general. what about mental health? what about the broader implications? have we tracked, you know, the developments in the last two years to see the overall health care on women and whether there's been a negative impact, there has been there has been research that has found the increased burdens from having to navigate traveling for abortion care, having to figure out the legality in their own state has increased mental health burdens, just because it is such a difficult situation for people who really need access to this care, we know that last year alone, in 2023, 170,000 people had to travel outside their

state for abortion care. so that means they have to take time off of work, find, transportation often, pay for that transportation and boarding, as well as for the abortion itself. because often when you're accessing care out of state, you can't use your health insurance. and even many people's health insurance doesn't even cover abortion. >> so the point that you're making about people traveling gets me to this question, which is, of course, those who advance this. their main goal in the end is to prevent abortions, right? and to ensure more pregnancies carried to term. is that has this actually had that effect or are people just scrambling and traveling to get the abortions? that is, do we think the number of abortions has actually gone down because of the dobbs ruling ? >> that's a great question. and actually, no, we're finding in our research that more people are able to access this care, they're traveling and then the new, new development in abortion access now is shield laws. seven

states, including california, now have shield laws that reduce the legal risks, of physicians and clinicians to offer abortion care to people living in banned states. so what we're seeing is that a lot of the unmet need for abortion in both states that allow abortion, as well as states that ban abortion, people are now being able to access care through telehealth. >> yeah. all right. doctor ushma upadhyay from ucsf, thank you so much for joining us today for the conversation. up next, celebrating sf pride. we'll look ahead to all the excitement happening this week when get

we're less than a week away from the 54th annual san francisco pride parade on sunday morning, and abc seven is your official sf pride station with full coverage of sunday's parade. sf

pride's executive director susanne ford, was on abc seven at seven this morning to talk about some of the events happening this week leading up to the parade. >> there's so many exciting things to talk about and to celebrate. i want to begin, though, on a more serious note. as you know, the supreme court just announced this this morning that they are going to hear a case in the fall. that will be the first time that they will make a judgment regarding medical care for trans youth. i just wanted to get your take on this. obviously, you are the head of san francisco pride. you are a trans woman. so when you saw this information come out this week, what were your thoughts? >> well, it's scary. it's scary. reggie i think that points to it more important than ever to come and be with the resistance contingent where we will be protesting for trans rights. but i do think we have the science on our side. we have more sound legal arguments. i'm hoping that this will put this to bed and stop those red states from these legislative acts.

>> you are dealing with a conservative majority in the supreme court. that is no secret that frightens me. >> but i do know that the science is on our side. real scientists, real doctors agree that health care for trans children gives them a better life and a better chance at a fulfilling life. >> okay, that takes us right into pride this week because as we all know, pride started as a protest. it did. so we are here to uh- the community is here together to make a statement about the rights of lgbtq plus people, and also to have a good time doing it right. >> we can do a couple of things at the same time. we're going to protest these legislative acts in red states, but we're also going to declare that we live authentic, fulfilled lives here in san francisco. we're not just tolerated, we're celebrated. >> yeah. okay. so of course we have the parade. so let's start with the parade on sunday. i will be there as i will be there of the anchor team, you know, on abc seven. and we'll have the floats lined up. drew will be out on the streets. i know interviewing the people. what are you looking forward to most

this year in the parade? >> well, we have like 225 contingents. so more contingents even than last year. i'm looking for over a million people on the side of the streets. my favorite thing is to go over and find those families that are holding trans flags and find trans kids, and i love to walk over and say, i see you. so that's that's really important to me. >> yeah. and i think it's really important that people who are not able to be out there on market street, for whatever reason, are able to see this on television or see it streaming. >> yeah, see the streaming, see our beautiful broadcast that you'll be leading. and when fam is going to be a new addition with carolyn wysinger and pearl t. so that's like an all star cast. >> yeah, it's really a beautiful time. so if you're unable to join us live in person on market street, please watch us on abc seven or everywhere you stream abc seven on your app, on your phone, on your app, on the tv. we will be there for you sunday morning. there are also other events going on around the big pride event on sunday. tell us about that wednesday. >> we'll have our press preview

for our grand marshals and that will be at the lgbt center at 2 p.m. on thursday. we'll have the second annual human rights summit, and that's in conjunction with the commonwealth club and led by michelle meow. and we're really excited. honey, mahogany is going to be the speaker in the morning, and that will be an all day event followed by reception on the roof of the commonwealth club. and that will get us into the weekend. you know, the people over at the trans march will be holding the trans march at dolores park on friday afternoon. saturday. we'd love for you to come out to pride. we've got a great lineup on the main stage, and this is a civic center. yeah, the civic center will have the trans stage. we'll have the hip hop stage, the. so please come over to and we need more people out there on saturday. reggie what time does stuff start on saturday? you know, we have the first ever breakfast at pride at 7:30 a.m. at the civic center this year. so come out for that. and then at 11 a.m, they'll open up to the public, and they'll start the stages at 11 a.m. on saturday until 6 p.m. that night. >> and you can see i'm excited

that you have adore delano. so people might remember adore delano from a couple of things. one, originally american idol and two, drag race. and adore is a great performer there, but also just a fun personality. so i'm happy to have a door, but you could see and cheer. sf is always a fave, always, always. so that's saturday. sunday, of course, is a parade, and then after the parade you can go over to civic center again because they have a lineup of great acts there, the headliner being mister billy porter. >> that's right. i saw him last week in washington, dc. yeah, i was at the vice president's residence, and he sang there for, oh, you were at the vice president's residence? >> i was, i suzanne phan i just went there real quick and came right back. >> i promise, i promise. >> okay, so t please spill what was this like? >> it was beautiful. it was out by the pool, massive amount of people, all lgbtq luminaries, except for you. i don't know why you and drew weren't there, but i really can't. >> you know, drew and i must have been busy. >> i think you know why?

>> because constantly the white house sending us invites. >> i understand, and i was just at the vice president's. >> i didn't get invited to the white house. >> true. >> yeah. we're waiting for the big one. >> yeah, that's friday though. >> you didn't get. >> i didn't get the invite either, drew, did we look at our, maybe look at the junk folder. oh, yeah. >> the spam slash other biden. let me see at gmail.com. >> yeah. >> from the white house. oh yeah. >> so i opened the link. >> yeah. open. >> okay. for sure. for sure. >> that's good. >> and so were you able to chat at all with billy? >> yeah, briefly. briefly. i informed him, hey, i'm suzanne, i'm going to write a big check for you in a few weeks. >> and he said, as long as the check clears, i'll be there. >> yeah, he wasn't that impressed, really. but, you know, i think you will be when i give him the check, though. >> i saw some of the clips from the performance and it looked great. >> it did look great. so. and i love the new hair. right. the new look. >> yeah. oh, totally. we're in for a treat. i think on sunday i think billy porter and of course billy porter is not only performing but is also a celebrity grand marshal of the parade. right. and i think we

also have, a full screen that shows you who the other grand marshals are. we're going to have them a couple of them on this week. yeah, on abc seven and seven. so we're looking forward to that. what have i missed suzanne. is there anything that i've. >> yeah there's a few things. we have the first cannabis activation ever called hotbox at the event saturday and sunday. so brand new brand new hotbox. do you like that. and then also there's an enhanced viewing area at the at the main stage over on the left, if you're facing the main stage, they're going to have tables, nice bathrooms, a full service bar. and you can go to sf pride.org to get tickets for that. well, you know around here we love a good vip. yes of course. so we'll make sure that you too you'll get invited to that. oh but the big thing on sunday. then sunday afternoon we are bringing back the city hall party from 1 to 5. and you can go to sf pride. org we still have tickets. i think people don't know that we're doing it again. so i want to get the word out. it's going to be a fabulous party and billy porter is going to stop by over there. and this is inside city hall. it sure is. >> and that was something that was done years ago, right. the last time we did it was 2019.

>> we haven't done it since. since the pandemic. >> oh great. wow. you're you're really packing it in with all kinds of stuff. we're going for a few days. we're going we're really going for it. good for you. yeah, yeah, yeah. well, suzanne, first of all, good luck. thank you. i mean, thank you. >> we're going to need it. >> you're. this is like. it's like santa claus is to christmas. what suzanne ford is to pride is. so it's like, it's your week. it's your time to shine. >> it's our week. it's our staff's week. it's our board's week. it's our community's week, but really, the staff, reggie, i have four queer people working for me now. we have more people than we've had. we've we've just built the staff this year. and chris and i are so excited to work with everybody. they've worked so hard. reggie and i just want thank you to them. >> awesome. well, let me be very queer. we are ready. yes. all right, all right. and i will see you sunday, if not before. all right. i'll see you. >> drew. >> all right. you can join reggie, drew and the rest of the abc seven team on sunday for our exclusive live coverage of the

54th annual san francisco pride parade. tune in here starting at 1030 sunday morning or stream us wherever you watch abc seven news. we'll be right back

after the game, followed by a wheel of fortune and jeopardy! and a special edition of abc seven news at ten and 11. thanks tonight, several developing headlines as we come on the air. the extreme heat. severe storms. and the major dam here in the u.s. at imminent risk for failure. also, the deadly shark attack. the victim acted