(NEW YORK) — The Powerball is expected to climb to $975 million for Monday night’s drawing after no ticket won the jackpot in Saturday night’s drawing, the lottery said.
The numbers drawn for Saturday’s $935 million Powerball jackpot were: 12, 13, 33, 50, 52 and red Powerball 23. The power play was 3.
If the jackpot had a winner, that person could have choosen a one-time lump sum payment, the value is expected to be $452.3 million, Powerball said.
The estimated cash value for Monday’s drawing is expected to rise to $471.7 million, Powerball said.
Saturday’s estimated jackpot was the fifth-largest in Powerball’s history and Monday’s drawing is expected to climb closer to the fourth-largest, which was a $1.08 billion prize won in California in July 2023.
There have been 38 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. The last winner was on Jan. 1, when a ticket in Michigan won an $842.4 million prize, according to the lottery.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
Chance Perdomo, one of the stars of Prime Video’s The Boys spinoff Gen V, died in a motorcycle accident Friday, his family and representatives announced Saturday.
Perdomo was 27.
“His passion for the arts and insatiable appetite for life was felt by all who knew him, and his warmth will carry on in those who he loved dearest,” his family and representatives said. “We ask to please respect the family’s wish for privacy as they mourn the loss of their beloved son and brother.”
Perdomo played the metal-bending Andre Anderson in Gen V, and the producers of the show posted to Instagram, “We can’t quite wrap our head around this.”
They added, “Chance was always charming and smiling, an enthusiastic force of nature, an incredibly talented performer, and more than anything else, just a very kind, lovely person. Even writing about him in the past tense doesn’t make sense. We are so sorry for Chance’s family, and we are grieving the loss of our friend and colleague.”
The producers added, “Hug your loved ones tonight.”
His Gen V co-star Patrick Schwarzeneggeroffered, “This hurts. A lot. What a young talented actor, and a great friend — gone way too soon.” He adding it “was a pleasure to work with him.”
Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television also posted they were “devastated by the sudden passing” of the star, offering “our heartfelt thoughts and support to Chance’s family and all who loved him at this difficult time.”
In 2019, Perdomo was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for his role in Killed By My Debt, a BBC Studios production.
Perdomo’s other television roles included Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Seven juveniles, including a 12-year-old, were injured when gunfire erupted outside a mall in downtown Indianapolis late Saturday night, authorities said — the third consecutive weekend city police have responded to a mass shooting.
The violence occurred despite more than 25 officers patrolling downtown Indianapolis as part of a scaled-up police presence to control roving bands of juveniles in the area during the evening hours, according to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Chris Bailey.
“My assumption, based on what we know right now, is that there was some sort of disturbance that occurred right before this and someone or persons decided to use a gun to solve that problem, which is never the right answer,” Bailey said during a news conference early Sunday.
The shooting unfolded at 11:36 p.m. local time outside the Circle Centre Mall at the intersection of West Maryland and South Illinois streets in the city’s Mile Square entertainment district and several blocks from the Indiana State Capital building, according to police.
Officers patrolling Mile Square heard the gunshots and raced to the scene, finding six young victims suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, said Deputy Chief Tanya Terry, head of IMPD operations.
A seventh juvenile victim later showed up at a hospital seeking treatment for a bullet wound, Terry said.
She said one victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition but has since been upgraded to stable condition. She said the other victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries and are all in stable condition.
The victims range in age from 12 to 17, Terry said.
No suspects have been identified and no arrests were announced as of Sunday afternoon.
Investigators are asking anyone who witnessed the shooting to contact the police department’s Aggravated Assault Unit. Investigators are combing through security video in the hope of identifying those responsible for the shooting, police said.
Terry said that based on the evidence collected at the scene, investigators believe there was more than one firearm involved.
“It is extremely concerning to us that so many of our young people have been victims of gun violence this evening. Once again we have a situation in which young people are resolving conflict with firearms,” Terry said.
Before Saturday night’s shooting, the IMPD said it had increased the number of police officers deployed to the Mile Square area to control large groups of juveniles circulating in the downtown area.
“Until there is some kind of crime committed, the officers can only observe the crowds and attempt to get them dispersed,” Terry said.
Terry said she had a message for the parents of the victims: “I think everybody sees the messages in the evening at 10 o’clock of ‘Parents do you know where your children are?’
“We would ask our parents to get involved in what their children are out doing, especially at these hours of the evening,” Terry said. “This is 11:30 at night, the evening right before Easter. So, if you don’t know where your 12-year-old is, I think that should be a priority for you.”
Chief Bailey echoed Terry’s statement.
“I’m extremely disappointed that we’re here again talking about mass violence in our city,” Bailey said. “We all have to take a collective look in the mirror and find out what more we can do to try to prevent these things from happening in the first place. But I will say this: It starts at home.”
The shooting came a week after one person was killed and five others were wounded, including a police officer, during an early morning shooting outside a bar east of downtown Indianapolis, police said. Two uniformed police officers, who were moonlighting at the bar as security, engaged in a gunfight with the suspect, who was killed in the March 24 incident, according to police. One of the officers involved in the gunfight was shot in the leg and suffered a shoulder injury when he fell, police said.
On March 16, an early morning shooting inside a bar north of downtown in the Broad Ripple neighborhood left one man dead and six other patrons wounded, police said. A 25-year-old suspect was arrested in the shooting and charged with murder, according to police.
On Feb. 19, a 35-year-old woman was fatally shot and four other people were wounded when gunfire broke out inside a Waffle House restaurant west of downtown Indianapolis, police said. The shooting erupted during an argument between two groups of customers, police said. No arrests have been announced.
Two people were killed as a single-engine plane crashed while attempting to land in Truckee, California, on Saturday, local airport and law enforcement officials said.
The Daher TBM 900 took off from Denver, Colorado, on Saturday afternoon, according to aircraft tracker FlightAware.
The aircraft crashed at about 6:38 p.m. “near the area of Glenshire Drive and Olympic Blvd.,” a crossroads northwest of the Truckee Tahoe Airport, police said in a statement.
“At this time there is no threat to any structures and no road closures,” police said. “There will be a heavy presence of emergency responders in the area for an extended period of time.”
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived at the crash site Sunday morning to begin documentation, according to a statement from the NTSB.
“The wreckage will then be recovered to a secure facility for further evaluation,” the NTSB said. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days of the accident, according to the NTSB.
Its investigation will involve three primary areas — the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment, the agency said.
The NTSB has requested witnesses of the accident or those who have surveillance video or other information that could be relevant to the investigation to contact the agency at witness@ntsb.gov.
The White House is pushing back against top Republicans’ misleading criticism of President Joe Biden for issuing a proclamation in support of transgender people on the same day as Easter.
A spokesman for the president rejected the attacks from the House speaker and others that Biden’s message for the Transgender Day of Visibility goes against Christianity.
“As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement to ABC News.
“Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit,” Bates added.
Biden, who is only America’s second Catholic president and regularly attends Mass, faced mounting conservative criticism over the weekend because of a proclamation he issued on Friday honoring “the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans” for the Transgender Day of Visibility — which occurs annually on March 31.
The date of Easter, which varies, fell on the same day this year.
Biden has issued a proclamation marking March 31 as the Transgender Day of Visibility every year since he took office in 2021.
He also issued a statement on Sunday marking Easter, saying in part that it “reminds us of the power of hope and the promise of Christ’s Resurrection. As we gather with loved ones, we remember Jesus’ sacrifice. We pray for one another and cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities.”
Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday posted on X that the Biden administration “has betrayed the central tenet of Easter–which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
The speaker went on to say it’s “outrageous and abhorrent” that Biden is “proclaiming Easter Sunday as ‘Transgender Day,'” though the president was actually marking a date that has been celebrated since 2009.
ABC News reached out to Johnson’s office for further comment and got no response.
Former 2024 GOP presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy echoed Johnson’s attack in social media posts of his own.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, another former Republican presidential candidate, likewise sent a text to supporters — accompanied by a donation link — saying that Biden had “insulted Christians everywhere.”
Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on Saturday joined the chorus of Republican critics, slamming Biden’s proclamation as “blasphemous.”
“We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only — the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Trump has a history of questioning his opponents’ religious beliefs.
Biden allies are also challenging the attacks.
“This is just one more instance of folks who do not know how to lead us trying to divide us, and this is the opposite of the Christian faith,” Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is also a pastor in Atlanta, said on CNN on Sunday.
Another layer to the criticism of Biden this Easter weekend surrounds an egg art contest for the annual Easter Egg Roll scheduled for Monday at the White House. Trump, Johnson, Scott and Ramaswamy each claimed the administration had banned religious depictions as part of the contest.
The American Egg Board, which works to promote egg farmers, has partnered with the White House for the annual exhibits around Easter for 47 years, including during the Trump administration, a spokesperson told ABC News.
The spokesperson said the board, which was created by Congress, must follow federal guidelines, including one that prohibits them from being favorable to a religion — language they said they’ve included in their promotions for years.
A copy of this year’s flyer calling for submissions to the youth egg art contest lists restrictions including the promotion of discrimination, illegal drugs and firearms or “any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.”
“The American Egg Board has been a supporter of the White House Easter Egg Roll for over 45 years and the guideline language referenced in recent news reports has consistently applied to the board since its founding, across administrations,” the organization said in a statement.
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday tore into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what Van Hollen said was Netanyahu’s refusal to acquiesce to President Joe Biden’s requests for more humanitarian action in Gaza amid the war with Hamas.
Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week,” Van Hollen, a Maryland lawmaker and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also said Biden “needs to back up his ‘no excuses’ language with real action.”
“We have a situation where Netanyahu continues to essentially give the finger to the president of the United States, and we’re sending more bombs,” Van Hollen told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “And that doesn’t make sense.”
The senator has been a vocal proponent of reconsidering sending offensive weapons to Israel out of concern for the situation for civilians in Gaza and Israel’s expected invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where more than 1 million Palestinians are thought to be taking refuge.
“My view, Martha, is until the Netanyahu government allows more assistance into Gaza, to help people who are literally starving to death, we should not be sending more bombs,” Van Hollen said on Sunday.
Biden and other U.S. officials have voiced increasing frustration with Netanyahu and the way the Israeli military is prosecuting its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, given the high death toll overall.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack sparked the war, more than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Still, though the president and his top officials have spoken out about the Palestinians caught in the crossfire and warned that there could be “consequences” if the Israelis move into Rafah without a plan for civilians, the White House so far has declined to condition military aid or take other overt steps to pressure Netanyahu.
Raddatz on Sunday pressed Van Hollen on what additional steps he’d like to see from the administration, given Netanyahu’s resolve to go into Rafah and, in the prime minister’s words, finish dismantling Hamas’ fighting capabilities.
Van Hollen said there needs to be a “two-way street, not a one-way blank check with American taxpayer dollars.”
“I think we need to better use our leverage. We have different parts of leverage and one of them is sending more offensive weapons. So, President Biden needs to be as serious about ensuring more humanitarian assistance gets into Gaza as Netanyahu has been in making his demands,” he said.
The administration has declined to submit new requests for weapons to Congress — opting instead to send packages that were already approved, which Van Hollen dubbed an “end run” around critics on Capitol Hill.
Though Van Hollen said he supports Israel’s ongoing operations against Hamas, specifically — noting the country “has a duty to defend itself” — “you could conduct this with fewer civilian casualties and certainly you could prevent the horror of this humanitarian catastrophe that we’re watching unfold.”
“One-third of the shipments of the humanitarian assistance into northern Gaza have been blocked in the last month. You could open Erez Crossing in the north and get assistance in right now. I mean, kids starve to death,” Van Hollen said.
He dodged, however, when pressed by Raddatz over whether he considers Netanyahu a war criminal after he singled out two hard-line members of the prime minister’s coalition for what he said were steps to block aid into Gaza.
“We’re going to have to make a decision as to what the intent of the full Israel government is … ultimately, that will have to be decided down the road,” he said.
A top Netanyahu adviser, Ophir Falk, insisted to ABC News earlier this month that Israel is doing enough for civilians in the war, saying that “maybe tens of thousands” of aid trucks have gone into Gaza since the beginning of the conflict.
“No other country would do that,” Falk said.
However, he said, Israel must also take steps to “verify it’s not being stolen by Hamas.”
Van Hollen on “This Week” separately also addressed the partial collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge last week. He said the government is dedicated to helping the city recover — including aiding the families of six workers who are believed to have been killed, all of whom had migrated to the U.S.
“It’s a clear example about the contributions and the sacrifices that immigrants make,” he said.
“The other priority right now is to open the channel because this is a thriving port of Baltimore. We have over 15,000 people working directly for the port. Thousands of others — their livelihood depends on the port. So, opening that channel is the priority,” Van Hollen said.
“The Army Corps of Engineers will cover all the cost of clearing the channel … The federal government will pay 90% of the [rebuilding] costs and Sen. [Ben] Cardin and I are planning to introduce legislation to cover the other 10.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo surgery for a hernia on Sunday, his office announced, during which time he’ll be under full anesthesia.
Yariv Levin, deputy prime minister and minister of justice, will fill in as prime minister while Netanyahu is under anesthesia, the office said.
The hernia was discovered Saturday night during a routine checkup, after which it was decided Netanyahu would undergo surgery, the prime minister’s office said.
Christian communities in the U.S. and Canada are holding walks this Easter weekend to advocate for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas.
Members of Vancouver’s Christian community made a 25-mile solidarity march on Saturday, to match the approximate length of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. More than 2,000 miles away, many in Nashville’s Christian community did the same. About 560 miles from there, Pittsburgh Christians made a similar trek. Gaza Cease-fire Pilgrimage walks were also held in San Diego, California; Buffalo, New York, and Spokane, Washington, as well as other cities.
Gaza’s Mediterranean coast ends in the south in Rafah, the city that holds the crossing into Egypt. More than 1 million Palestinians have made this journey to Rafah to leave the heavy fighting in northern Gaza in the hopes of entering Egypt.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign in response to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 253 others hostage, according to Israeli officials, who say roughly 100 hostages may remain alive inside Gaza. Israel maintains its goal is to free the hostages and destroy Hamas.
Holding the public’s attention on the conflict “makes critical movements like this even more consequential,” said Jer Swigart, lead organizer for the walk in Spokane.
The organizers say the purpose of the walks is to draw attention to four main goals, including a cease-fire in the war, the unblocking of humanitarian aid, the end of Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and regional peace through the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian political prisoners. The pilgrimage is overall ecumenical — primarily Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Catholic and Evangelical, according to organizers.
“Jesus was a Palestinian Jew who lived his life serving others and promoting liberation,” said Jonathan Walton, organizer for New York City’s walk that took place Friday. More than 150 people attended the walk, organizers said. The actions of both Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces are “totally outside the call and teachings of Jesus,” Walton said.
Organizers of the walks told ABC News they are against antisemitism and advocate for nonviolent demonstrations, but are critical of Israel’s military actions.
Holding a pilgrimage during Lent is significant as Holy Saturday is traditionally a day of lament within Christianity, according to organizers. Lindsay Acker, an organizer for the Buffalo walk, said this is a time to sit with grief and mourn together as a community amid the rising death toll in Gaza. Some participants say they are even fasting to mirror the Palestinian experience during the religious month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast between dawn and sunset.
Organizers credit peace advocate James Harris for sparking the idea for the walks. At the start of Lent in February, he documented his pilgrimage from Australia’s Byron Bay to Ballina, a similar distance from Gaza City to Rafah. Similar walks advocating for a cease-fire have taken place in dozens of cities across 19 countries, organizers say. Many of the walks are put on by Christian churches, they say.
“We’re utilizing the power of media and experience and access to grow more pro-human understanding of the conflict, with the hyperfocus on U.S. American Christians,” Swigart said. He emphasized his outreach to Evangelical Christians.
As director of Global Immersion, a faith-based peace advocacy organization, Swigart, who holds a doctorate in leadership in global perspectives from Portland Seminary, said he was in Gaza on Oct. 7 doing on-the-ground work as a delegate between his Palestinian colleagues and his Israeli colleagues. When he returned to the U.S., he said, he put his work into overdrive, knowing that the events of Oct. 7 were going to “fundamentally change everything.”
Spokane’s walk began Saturday morning and followed Centennial Trail in six intervals, denoting periodic breaks for prayer. Swigart said more than 200 people attended.
“The essence of this is that this is a pro-human movement. It’s not a pro-Palestinian movement because while it’s wildly pro-Palestinian, to say ‘pro-Palestinian’ suggests that it’s anti-Israeli. That is just not the case,” said Swigart. “Our one-sideism is lethal, and if there’s ever been question on how lethal our one-sideism is on this particular issue, we’re looking at it right now.”
Organizer David Vidmar has worked closely with Swigart and is leading this weekend’s walk in Buffalo. For him, the walk is an entry for Christian involvement in calling for a cease-fire in the war.
“We’re not feeling starvation,” said Acker. We’re not feeling the bombings. We’re not feeling the effects of the genocide, but in this very tiny way, we can feel what it’s like to flee 25 miles.”
Organizers say they will split the proceeds from the walks between several charities. Acker says she has dedicated a third of Buffalo’s proceeds to a Palestinian immigrant in Buffalo who has been trying to get his mom and five sisters out of Gaza.
“Together we channel this into action of the body, action with our money, action in our community, and also action in prayer,” Acker said.
“Eclipse Across America,” will air live Monday, April 8, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on ABC, ABC News Live, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Disney+ and Hulu as well as network social media platforms.
Millions of people across North America will soon be gathering to watch the historic total solar eclipse on April 8.
While it may be enticing to observe the sun slowly covered, and eventually completely blocked, by the moon, doing so with the naked eye can lead to long-lasting, or even permanent, eye damage.
“The sun is a really powerful star,” Debra Ross, co-chair of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Solar Eclipse Task Force, told ABC News. “What that means is our bodies are not conditioned to look at the sun. It causes eye damage if we ever tried to stare fixedly directly at the sun.”
“It’s tempting to try to do that during the partial phases of a total solar eclipse, because you want to see what’s happening,” she continued, adding that looking at the sun without proper glasses will undoubtably cause retinal damage.
Experts explained why viewing an eclipse can damage the eyes, what type of glasses you’ll need to watch the “Great American Eclipse” and when is the only time you can take those glasses off.
What is ‘eclipse blindness’?
Looking at the sun during the eclipse without proper eye protection — even for just a couple of seconds — can lead to “eclipse blindness,” or solar retinopathy.
This refers to the retina, which is the layer at the back of the eye. Photoreceptors, which are cells inside the retina, convert light into electrical signals. Those signals are sent by the optic nerve to the brain to create the image a person sees.
However, staring at the sun during an eclipse can burn the retina. Mild symptoms can include watery eyes, eye soreness, headaches and light sensitivity but more serious symptoms include blurry vision, blind spots, dim vision, distorted vision and eye pain.
“There have been people who have had pictures taken of the retina and you can see a crescent-shaped burn in the retina from where the image of the sun got burned onto it,” he added.
If you believe you have suffered a retinal burn, experts say to immediately visit an eye doctor, such as an ophthalmologist or optometrist, to monitor the condition.
Can I watch the eclipse with sunglasses?
Typically, sunglasses protect the eyes from harmful rays with mirror coating and ultraviolet (UV) coating to protect your eyes from UV light and anti-reflective coating to limit reflections.
However, when it comes to the eclipse, regular sunglasses will not offer proper protection, nor will stacking several pairs of sunglasses on top of each other.
“Unfortunately, sunglasses are not enough, because you need them to actually be 1,000 times darker than regular sunglasses,” Dr. Nicole Bajic, an ophthalmologist and assistant professor at the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute, told ABC News. “So, we are looking specifically for the eclipse glasses, and these have a special filter called the ISO 12312-2.”
ISO 12312-2 is the international safety standard for solar viewers, or products designed for direct viewing of the sun. This does not apply to solar filters that fit on the front of devices such as camera lenses.
Because counterfeit glasses, which claim to be ISO-compliant but actually have not been thoroughly tested, can be easily found online for sale, it is advised to check the AAS website for vetted vendors.
“When you get the eclipse glasses, I want everyone to inspect them just to make sure they’re free of any scratches, holes or tears that would allow direct sunlight through,” Bajic said.
How do I use solar eclipse glasses?
When watching the partial phases of the solar eclipse, when the moon is only partially covering the sun, the experts advise keeping the eclipse glasses on.
Similarly, if you are watching through a camera lens, binoculars or a telescope, make sure it has a special-purpose solar filter according to NASA.
The only time it is safe to take the glasses off is during the brief period of totality, when the sun is completely covered by the moon, which will last at most four-and-a-half minutes.
As soon as the moon starts to move, it’s time to put the glasses on again.
“You will see a bright spike of light coming out from behind the moon,” Ross said. “You know that that is your signal to go and put them back on and then you’ll get to watch the second partial phase of the eclipse.”
Complete totality will occur only along a narrow path, and most of North America will have a partial solar eclipse. As such, most viewers will require special-purpose safe solar filters to view the eclipse, according to the AAS.
What if I don’t have eclipse glasses?
If you don’t have eclipse glasses, there are still creative ways to view the clips. One is through a pinhole viewer.
Poke a hole in a piece of cardboard and look down to see the shadow of the sun in the shape of a crescent projected onto the ground.
“You can also do that with a regular spaghetti strainer,” Ross said. “You’ll see lots and lots of little suns being slowly eclipsed by the moon. We advise doing that instead of ever trying to look at the sun without approved solar filters.”
To use the viewer, position yourself with your back to the sun so that you do not look directly through the pinhole at the sun and use the pinhole viewer at your own risk as these are not officially reviewed for safety.
The Islamic State terror group has a “strong desire” to attack the U.S. and other foreign powers, the former head of U.S. Central Command warned on Sunday, calling it a threat that is only growing.
“We should believe them when they say that. They’re going to try to do it,” retired Gen. Frank McKenzie told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“I think the threat is growing,” McKenzie continued, pointing to the dangers from affiliates like ISIS-K after the broader group took responsibility for a deadly attack in Moscow earlier this month.The group also said it was behind a mass bombing in Iran in January.
“It begun to grow as soon as we left Afghanistan, it took pressure off ISIS-K. So I think we should expect further attempts of this nature against the United States as well as our partners and other nations abroad,” McKenzie said. “I think this is inevitable.”
McKenzie, who is also the author of the upcoming “The Melting Point,” a book about leadership and his time commanding U.S. forces in the Middle East, which included the exit from Afghanistan, said that the U.S. maintains a large enough military presence in Iraq and Syria to counter extremists there.
But he still believes the U.S. should have kept a small troop presence in Afghanistan rather than withdrawing completely in August 2021, bringing an end to America’s longest war.
Though President Joe Biden has previously maintained there would be an “over-the-horizon capability” to “act quickly and decisively” in Afghanistan, even from afar, McKenzie disputed that.
“In Afghanistan, we have almost no ability to see into that country and almost no ability to strike into that country,” he said of the conditions on the ground now.
That is a boon to the Islamic State and similar such militants, he said.
“If you can keep pressure on them … in their homeland and their base, it makes it hard for them to conduct these types of attacks,” he said. “Unfortunately, we no longer place that pressure on them, so they’re free to gain strength, they’re free to plan, they’re free to coordinate.”
Had the U.S. and its allies kept some forces in Afghanistan, prolonging military involvement there, “I have to believe, Martha, that things would be different. … I think we might actually be safer than we are,” McKenzie said.
The attack in Russia on March 22 underscores one of the dangers of militants being able to regroup enough to plan out large-scale operations, McKenzie said. At the same time, such efforts are more easily detectable, he said.
The U.S. has said it alerted the Kremlin to just such a possible terror attack weeks ahead of time, adhering to the “duty to warn” principle.
“I think there was probably good opportunity for the Russians to have averted this attack had they actually listened to the material that was presented to ’em,” McKenzie said on Sunday.
The suspects in the Moscow attack — who have been identified as citizens of Tajikistan — opened fire in one of the largest shopping and entertainment complexes in Russia, which was followed by a fire that engulfed the complex, according to the Russian Foreign Security Service.
McKenzie told Raddatz on “This Week” that militants can become radicalized to fight for groups like ISIS-K through influence campaigns and online methods or through in-person recruitment and training — but that self-radicalization “may be one of the most dangerous methods that ISIS can use to generate attacks.”
“Those attacks are generally not going to be well coordinated, they’re not going to be well planned and they’re not going to be well supported. But they could be very lethal because they’ll be so hard to detect,” he said.
Separately, McKenzie also briefly gave his view on the challenges that the Israeli military is facing as it targets Hamas fighters in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.
The mounting casualties amid the fighting — more than 32,000 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry — have provoked increasing international outcry.
“I think the Israelis are in genuine horns of a dilemma as they try to finish the ground campaign in Gaza,” McKenzie said, “and it’s going to be a very difficult stretch for them.”
