Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state during the Nixon and Ford administrations who was said to be one of the most influential and controversial foreign policy framers in postwar United States, has died. He was 100.

The news was confirmed by Kissinger’s consulting company on Wednesday night.

“Dr. Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut,” Kissinger Associates, Inc. said in a statement Wednesday.

Kissinger will be interred at a private family service and there will be a memorial service at a later date in New York City, the company said.

Kissinger remained active in politics in the decades since his time in office and had taken on a respected elder role for some Republicans and Democrats. He met with Alaska’s then-Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008, and Mitt Romney reportedly spoke by phone with Kissinger during the 2012 campaign. Kissinger met with Donald Trump shortly after Trump won the 2016 presidential election and the two later met in the White House in 2017.

Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016, called Kissinger “a friend” and said she “relied on his counsel” when she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Early years

The former secretary of state was born Heinz Kissinger in Fuerth, Germany, on May 27, 1923. His parents, Louis and Paula Kissinger, fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1938, and it was in his newly adopted country that the son of a German Jewish schoolteacher excelled in his studies.

He enrolled in the U.S. Army in 1943 and while stationed in South Carolina at the age of 20, Kissinger became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Kissinger saw combat with the 84th infantry division and volunteered for intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge.

Kissinger later said of his time in the Army, “It was an Americanization process … It was the first time I was not with the German Jewish people, I gained confidence in the Army.”

He went on to receive his BA degree in political science from Harvard University in 1951 and his MA and PhD degrees from the university in the years following.

In 1955, Kissinger was recruited by the Council on Foreign Relations to head a study group examining the implications of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’s call for “massive retaliation” as the U.S. Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union. The strategy, which threatened nuclear destruction on Soviet cities for even minor infractions, was heavily criticized by Kissinger in his report published as “Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy” in 1957, a surprise best-seller.

Kissinger later served as a consultant to several government agencies and think tanks, including the Operations Research Office, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the State Department and the RAND Corporation, before he was appointed as Nixon’s national security adviser in January 1969.

Key role in US foreign policy

As national security adviser from 1969 to 1975 and secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Kissinger provided the conceptual framework through which such bold initiatives as détente (the easing of strained relations) with the Soviet Union and the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) were pursued.

SALT — a series of bilateral conferences and international treaties between the United and the Soviet Union — began in 1969 under Nixon. Two corresponding treaties — signed by the two countries in 1972 and 1979 — set limits on the number of long-range ballistic missiles that each side could possess and manufacture.

Kissinger also sought to open up diplomatic relations with China. In one of his greatest successes, Kissinger arranged a state visit between Nixon and Chinese leader Zhou Enlai in 1972. The efforts resulted in the Shanghai Communique, which provided guidelines on normalizing relations between the two countries.

Kissinger was also instrumental in effecting an end to the Vietnam War. However, one way in which he aimed to settle the conflict was through secret bombings of Cambodia and the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and a ground invasion of Cambodia in 1970 in an apparent effort to pressure North Vietnamese forces operating between the two countries. This campaign brought controversy from those on the left who felt that flexing more military power was not key to ending the conflict, and believed that his policies extended the war and cost more lives.

However, after Kissinger and North Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho met several times in secrecy in Paris, they negotiated a brief truce. This led to the two leaders receiving the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, although Tho declined the award.

A little over two years later, 30 North Vietnamese divisions conquered South Vietnam, effectively ending the conflict, according to the U.S. State Department.

According to a Pentagon report released in 1973, “Henry A. Kissinger approved each of the 3,875 Cambodia bombing raids in 1969 and 1970” as well as “the methods for keeping them out of the newspapers.”

By the end of the bombing campaign, nicknamed “Operation Menu,” the U.S. had dropped over 2 million tons’ worth of bombs, killing between 150,000 and 500,000 civilians, according to U.S. Army data.

Critics of the Nixon administration and Kissinger, then and now, laid blame on the administration for the Khmer Rouge’s invasion of Cambodia in 1975, arguing that U.S. policies in Cambodia had accelerated the ascension of the communist regime, according to historian Walter Isaacson in his biography “Kissinger.” The Khmer Rouge went on to kill an estimated three million people in Cambodia, almost half of the country’s population at the time, through agricultural policies, which created widespread famine, as well as the mass murder of Cambodian minorities and political dissidents.

In testimony to Congress when communist forces were completing their takeover of Cambodia in 1975, Kissinger conceded that the U.S. had callously disregarded Cambodia while trying to achieve its goals in Vietnam, according to Isaacson.

Kissinger said, “Our guilty, responsibility, or whatever you may call it toward the Cambodians is that we conducted our operations in Cambodia primarily to serve our purposes related to Vietnam and that they have now been left in a very difficult circumstance.”

However, Kissinger years later would remark to Time, “Without our incursion, the communists would have taken over Cambodia years earlier.”

Legacy under scrutiny

Toward the end of his life, the call to have Kissinger testify or be made accountable for his decisions when he was in office grew louder.

In 2001, British journalist Christopher Hitchens published The Trial of Henry Kissinger in which he argued that Kissinger gave the go-ahead to brutal politicians allied to the United States to put thousands of innocent civilians to death. By 2002, Kissinger’s past dealings in Latin America while in office seemed determined to haunt him, if not to ruin his reputation.

There were by then summonses out for Kissinger in five countries seeking information about his role in Operation Condor, an alleged conspiracy of murder, torture and kidnappings organized by Latin American dictators in the 1970s that extended across the borders of Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay. As President Nixon’s national security advisor, Kissinger was strongly suspected of having had full knowledge of the operation.

The controversy was reignited in 2010 when a cable, dated Sept. 16, 1976, was declassified and released by news outlets. In the cable, Kissinger seemingly rejected delivering a proposed warning to the government of Uruguay about Condor operations and ordered that “no further action be taken on this matter” by the State Department, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But Kissinger said shortly after the cable’s release that its meaning was “distorted” and it was intended only to disapprove a specific approach to the Uruguayan government, not to cancel the plan to issue warnings to other nations suspected of participating in the Condor network, the LA Times reported.

In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in July 2022, Kissinger commented on the controversy surrounding his time in office.

“Nixon and I, we had a tendency, we were not in favor of escalation. But we felt that if we had to escalate it, we should escalate to a point very close to what the other side would tolerate in order to prevent sliding into a nuclear war through a series of little steps. The last one which turns out to be nuclear,” he said.

Kissinger, when asked in the interview about any key policy decisions he would take back, said, “I have developed no great answer for it. Because I’ve been thinking about these problems all my life. It’s my hobby … it’s my occupation. The recommendations I made were the best I was then capable of.”

Life after government

After leaving government in 1977, Kissinger established a consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, and commanded large fees as a speaker. He was a member of different presidential commissions and continued to write newspaper columns and offer his opinions on television. In 1994, Kissinger was hired as a consultant to the boards of both MGM and Credit Lyonnais.

In addition to his Nobel Peace Prize, Kissinger was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service in 2006. In 1995, he was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander in the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George by Queen Elizabeth II.

Looking back on his life and career, Kissinger told Stephanopoulos, “When I was, say 15, in Germany, it never occurred to me that someday I might be secretary of state of the United States and in a position to do this. It’s an amazing tribute to America that this is possible … I was a member of a discriminated minority, so it did not lend itself to career thinking.”

“It was an extraordinary fate — and therefore obligation — to do the best I was capable of doing,” he added.

Kissinger is survived by his wife, Nancy Maginnes Kissinger, and his children, Elizabeth and David, from a previous marriage.

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(NEW YORK) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday warned about growing antisemitism in the U.S. and the “deep fear” he said Jewish people are experiencing.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in America, called the rise in antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel a “crisis” in a more than 40-minute speech on the Senate floor. The United States has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

“I have noticed a significant disparity between how Jewish people regard the rise of antisemitism, and how many of my non-Jewish friends regard it,” Schumer said. “To us, the Jewish people, the rise of antisemitism is a crisis — a five-alarm fire that must be extinguished. For so many other people of goodwill, it is merely a problem, a matter of concern.”

In the Gaza Strip, more than 15,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry/Government Media Office. In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Schumer’s speech came on the same day an op-ed he wrote ran in The New York Times. In it, as the speech, Schumer pointedly criticized those he said who have used the conflict between Israel and Hamas as an opportunity to target Jewish people.

“The vitriol against Israel in the wake of Oct. 7 is all too often crossing a line into brazen and widespread antisemitism, the likes of which we haven’t seen for generations in this country — if ever,” he said.

He said many Jewish people are feeling alone with antisemitic rhetoric abounding.

“Can you understand why Jewish people feel isolated when we hear some praise Hamas and chant its vicious slogan? Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable only 80 years after Hitler wiped out half of the Jewish population across the world while many countries turned their back? Can you appreciate the deep fear we have about what Hamas might do if left to their own devices?”

He added that criticism of Israel “can sometimes cross‌‌ into something darker, into attacking Jewish people simply for being Jewish.”

Schumer said many Americans — especially those who are younger — “don’t have a full understanding” of the history of oppression against Jews.

Schumer said he, like most Jewish Americans, supports a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine — but said certain calls have gone too far.

“The reason why I invoke this history about the founding of the Israeli State is because forgetting or even deliberately ignoring this vital context is dangerous,” Schumer said. “Some of the most extreme rhetoric against Israel has emboldened antisemites who are attacking Jewish people simply because they are Jewish, independent of anything having to do with Israel.”

Schumer said he is troubled by pro-Palestinian protesters’ signs and chants that include “from the river to the sea” and “by any means necessary.”

“Obviously, many of those marching here in the U.S. do not have any evil intent, but when Jewish people hear chants like ‘From the river to the sea,’ a founding slogan of Hamas, a terrorist group that is not shy about their goal to eradicate the Jewish people, in Israel and around the globe, we are alarmed,” he said.

The House earlier this month voted to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, accusing her of calling for Israel’s destruction, her critics said it was, in part, because she repeated that Palestinian nationalist slogan, “from the river to the sea.”

The level of antisemitism experienced now leaves many Jewish people concerned about the future, Schumer said. Many Jewish people are “worried” about where these actions could lead, he said.

“All Jewish Americans carry in them the scar tissue of this generational trauma, and that directly informs how we are experiencing and processing the rhetoric of today,” Schumer said. “We see and hear things differently from others because we are deeply sensitive to the deprivation and horrors that can follow the targeting of Jewish people — if it is not repudiated.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a resolution Wednesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, marking her second effort this month to impeach Mayorkas due to his handling of the southern border.

“The Guarantee Clause [of the Constitution] clearly dictates that the federal government has a constitutional duty and obligation to protect each of the states from invasion. As secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas has violated his oath to uphold this constitutional duty,” Greene said Wednesday.

Greene filed an earlier so-called privileged resolution against Mayorkas on Nov. 9, accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors related to migrants and drugs crossing at the border. This new resolution comes after eight Republicans voted with Democrats to block the congresswoman’s last impeachment effort — referring it to the House Homeland Security Committee. Greene introduced similar articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in May but House GOP leaders never brought them to a vote.

A spokesperson for DHS dismissed Greene’s latest resolution as a “baseless attack.”

“Every day, the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security work tirelessly to keep America safe. They need Congress to stop wasting time and do its job by reforming our broken immigration system, reauthorizing vital tools for DHS, and passing the Administration’s supplemental request to properly resource the Department’s critical work to stop fentanyl and further secure our borders. Secretary Mayorkas continues to be laser-focused on the safety and security of our nation. This baseless attack is completely without merit and a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson argued that policy differences are not grounds for impeachment and urged members of Congress to work with DHS to find solutions to secure the border.

It is unclear whether any members who helped stymie Greene’s last push to impeach Mayorkas have changed their votes, and Greene said Wednesday that she hasn’t spoken with the eight Republicans who blocked her last impeachment push. Previously, some moderate House Republicans weren’t supportive of impeaching Mayorkas without a full investigation.

Rep. Ken Buck, one of the eight Republicans who voted to squelch the Nov. 9 effort, said earlier this month that while he has “strong disagreement with his handling of our southern border, which puts this country at grave risk,” Mayorkas “did not commit an impeachable offense.”

But some of the other Republicans who voted down the previous effort have signaled openness to impeaching Mayorkas in the future. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who also joined Democrats in killing the earlier impeachment push, told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo last week that he’d consider a modified resolution.

“I’ve said I’m willing to vote for impeachment, but I wanna make sure that it’s written properly and comes out prepared to note just pass the House, but to pass the House in a way in which we’ve at least got a shot to take it to the Senate and convince them to remove the secretary,” he said.

Greene said if the current effort to impeach Mayorkas fails, which appears likely, she will “keep reintroducing it.”

The House of Representatives will have to vote on the new resolution within two legislative days.

There have been 2,475,669 southwest land border encounters in fiscal year 2023 year-to-date, an increase of 96,725 encounters since fiscal year 2022 year-to-date, according to Customs and Border Protection.

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that he has “real reservations” about the upcoming vote to expel Rep. George Santos, citing concerns that removing a member without being convicted would establish a bad precedent.

But despite those reservations, Santos appears poised to become the sixth member in history to be expelled from the House of Representatives.

“I trust that people will make that decision thoughtfully and in good faith,” Johnson said during a news conference at the Capitol Wednesday. “I personally have real reservations about doing this. I’m concerned about a precedent that may be set for that.”

Johnson said the Santos expulsion vote is now likely going to occur on Friday. The plan, which is still fluid, is for the House to debate the resolution on Thursday and then vote on Friday, a source told ABC News.

Santos said he will hold a news conference on the Capitol steps Thursday morning.

Johnson acknowledged one potential justification to expel Santos now — before his day in court — citing the House Ethics Committee’s determination that Santos committed several “infractions” against House rules. The scathing report from the House Ethics Committee alleged the New York congressman “placed his desire for private gain above his duty to uphold the Constitution, federal law, and ethical principles.”

Johnson says members can “vote their conscience” and leadership will not instruct them how to vote — setting up a dramatic vote later this week.

While there is certainly growing momentum to oust Santos, there are a number of Republicans who are openly conflicted about how to vote.

“We should have a system of justice in this country, and until you’re found guilty, that makes it a little tougher in a court of law,” Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told ABC News. “I am on the fence.”

Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds told ABC News he will not vote to expel Santos.

“The bar has to be very high for the other members of Congress to remove a member. And that is, in my view, a conviction in a court of law,” Donalds said.

On Nov. 1, when the House failed a second attempt to expel Santos, just 179 lawmakers voted to remove Santos, while 213 voted to keep him. A vote to expel Santos requires a two-thirds majority — 290 votes if there is perfect attendance. That tally — 45.66 percent for expulsion — did not even reach a simple majority. Nineteen lawmakers, including members of the House Ethics Committee, had voted “present” rather than take a fixed position on expulsion on Nov. 1.

Santos is still defiant as ever, telling ABC News there is no chance he’ll resign.

“I’m not going to be bullied out of this job, out of the House, out of my seat. Now if they want me out, vote me out,” he said.

Now that the House Ethics Committee’s report is public, it’s an open question whether that’s created enough cover for members who have twice voted to protect Santos to now vote to kick him out of Congress.

Johnson has acknowledged the void Santos’ expulsion could create in his narrow GOP majority, but he has urged Santos to consider all options — including resignation — to avoid forcing his colleagues take a tough vote. There are also some Republicans who simply want Santos to keep punching his vote card to aid their majority.

With just 179 lawmakers previously voting to expel Santos, more than 120 more members must join the chorus for expulsion to succeed on Thursday.

Even if all the Democrats who were absent (11), voted against (31) or voted present (15) on Santos’ expulsion on Nov. 1 voted for his expulsion this time around, that would only add 57 more votes to expel – more than 50 votes shy of forcing Santos’ removal.

Additional votes may come from Republicans who are expected to turn against Santos. Just 24 of 222 Republicans have voted on the House floor to expel Santos so far, but after the scathing House Ethics Committee report, dozens are expected to change their tune.

As Santos has acknowledged himself, the votes seem as if they’re there for a history-making moment in the House.

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(WASHINGTON) – The sky is not the limit for these flight attendants.

When they aren’t flying the friendly skies, three flight attendants told ABC News they’re pursuing advanced degrees, meeting celebrities and having other exciting adventures.

Reese Williams initially wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force, following in the footsteps of his dad and brother, who were in the military. When they tested his eyesight, they told him, “Kid, you’re pretty much blind,” he said.

But they still wanted him to enlist — in a different capacity, eventually becoming a congressional flight attendant

Williams, who spent a few years as a communications and navigation specialist while simultaneously working at United Airlines, was one of just two selected out of a pool of 800 applicants to become a part-time congressional flight attendant on Air Force Two, a position that has enabled him to meet first ladies, speakers of the House and several members of Congress, he told ABC News.

“It’s been a roller coaster ride that I would never ever in my life change,” Williams said.

Williams worked as an Air Force flight attendant for over 10 years across four presidential administrations.

Between his work at United and in the Air Force, Williams accomplished his goal of traveling the world. He’s been to 139 countries and all 50 states.

And he didn’t just meet political celebrities, either. His work brought him face-to-face with U2 singer Bono.

Williams said his intensive Air Force training made him a better flight attendant in both jobs. Air Force flight attendants endure 19 days of training during which they go through scenarios like being shot down by a missile over the water during a diplomatic mission. They get dropped into the water, where they need to inflate life rafts, yell out commands and check for injuries as firemen hose them down to simulate splashing waves.

Being a congressional flight attendant comes with additional duties: Williams faxes in passport numbers to clear customs; does security checks and loads bags. The attendants go through culinary training and serve meals.

Some of the training covers how to deal with delicate situations, which flight attendants face whether they’re working on Air Force Two or serving customers on commercial flights.

Williams recently retired from the Air Force but said he plans on working for United as long as they’ll have him.

“Okay, I’ll do this for two or three years and get it out of my system,” Williams said he thought to himself at first.

“But the reality is, it never gets out of your system. Twenty-five years later, here I am,” he added.

While juggling his dual flight attendant roles, Williams collected three degrees, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a concentration in business administration from George Mason University in 2004 and two associate’s degrees years later. Next up, he hopes to obtain a master’s degree.

But pursuing an education while maintaining a career as a flight attendant can come with challenges. Manuel Gallegos, who has been a flight attendant for 17 years, told ABC News he struggled to keep up with his work schedule, his relationship and his classwork while he was pursuing classes at a community college.

Despite the hardships, Gallegos graduated with an associate’s degree in 2018, and he told ABC News there was never a question about his professional goals.

“I just felt like this was a calling for me,” said Gallegos. “To be in a position where I could advocate for somebody and hopefully be part of a change that makes people live a better life.”

Gallegos was then accepted to the sociology program at California State University, Long Beach. As he finished his bachelor’s degree, he decided to pursue his master’s degree in social work.

After over a decade in school, Gallegos says he’s done — for now.

“I’m giving myself five years, just to see where my life is,” he said. “Then, in five years, if I feel like I still need a challenge or feel like I need to grow more, then I’m going to apply for my doctorate in education.”

Gallegos said his sociology degree has been helpful in his career as a flight attendant.

“I’m able to quickly build rapport with people,” he said. “Being a flight attendant, you have to be able to do that when there’s an issue that occurs at 36,000 feet in the air. It’s not like we call the manager to resolve it, or ask the person to leave. We’ve got to try to defuse and deescalate the situation.”

Marisa Cunanan’s career as a flight attendant also allowed her to connect to people — but in her case, it was her family.

While a student at University of California, Berkeley, Cunanan, a divorced single mom who had already been a flight attendant for over 15 years, lived on campus but used flight benefits to fly back and forth on weekends to see her family. She traveled to Mexico to do research for her thesis, focusing on the intersection between Mayan culture and Catholicism in the town of Izamal.

Her kids came to visit her on campus and experienced college life, seeing her dorm and going to football games.

Cunanan was accepted as a first-generation college student, and her father, who died in 2014, had been an international student from Mexico. He sat in on the classes of his Bay Area friends who attended Berkeley.

“When we were younger, he would joke around, how he attended Berkeley,” said Cunanan. “You can always make those jokes, but I think it was something that he actually probably would have wanted to have done.”

For two years, Cunanan juggled a double major in art history and anthropology, her work as a flight attendant and her life as a mom in Los Angeles.

Cunanan graduated in 2022 and she’s currently studying for the LSAT.

“For people out there on the fence of whether they can do it or not, just don’t limit yourself,” Cunanan said. “Believe in yourself.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A group of self-styled political independents filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week to launch a new Super PAC aimed at swinging independent voters to support former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her bid to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

Led by five entrepreneurs — including Jonathan Bush, the cousin of former President George W. Bush, and billionaire CEO Frank Laukien — the PAC, called Independents Moving the Needle, says it will focus its efforts on New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. About 40% of voters in the state are registered as undeclared.

Undeclared voters in New Hampshire can choose to participate in Republican or Democratic primaries in any given year, making them a potentially crucial constituency for 2024 Republicans seeking a breakout moment in their fight against former President Donald Trump.

The PAC is chaired by five relative outsiders to the world of dark money politics. Laukein and his wife, Tamra, who lead companies in life sciences, are joined by Bush, CEO of a healthcare data company, and Bonnie Anderson, CEO of PinkDx, a private cancer-testing company. Robert Fisher, a white-collar attorney and a former federal prosecutor, also helped to found and is now leading the group.

“This seemed like, maybe for the first time for many of us, where we personally felt, ‘Wow, I’ve never been in politics and never intended to, but this time, I could make a positive difference together with my colleagues here,'” Laukein said, explaining why they decided to launch the PAC to support Haley.

FEC filings show Bush has donated the individual maximum of $6,300 to Haley this cycle, while Laukein has made individual donations totaling roughly $3,000 to other GOP contenders, including Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. However, Laukein, who lives in New Hampshire, noted the founders of the new PAC have mostly forgone political participation at this level in the past but were motivated recently by Haley’s momentum and policy positions ranging from national security to school voucher programs.

“We think we’ll have the resources to do what we set out to do, which isn’t some tug of war with another Republican candidate over that one vote that goes to one or the other. This is really for the majority of New Hampshire voters that is independent and unaffiliated,” he said.

Trump is still leading in the polls, with commanding leads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to 538, but only by plurality support.

Pressure is now building on candidates to consolidate support to mount a meaningful head-to-head challenge against the former president, who so far has maintained a formidable grip on GOP voters.

“She’s got momentum on her side. The timing for us was right. And Nikki is going to succeed at becoming the candidate that wins the ’24 election,” Anderson said when asked about the former president’s dominance.

So far, Haley has succeeded where other candidates have struggled, maintaining an edge in donor support and gaining traction after three well-received debate performances that have rocketed her campaign.

In the latest sign of her campaign’s growing salience, Haley secured the endorsement of Americans for Prosperity Action on Tuesday. The influential conservative activist group backed by billionaire Charles Koch — long thought to be a Republican kingmaker — now plans to pour millions of dollars into a ground game supporting her candidacy.

“She has the same sort of conservative ideas that the other guys have; she just has a better way to market those ideas and talk about them. And she’s not nasty,” said Dave Carney, a Republican strategist who worked on several presidential campaigns, adding that those qualities could strengthen her with independent and undeclared voters.

And with several fronts now opened in the war to secure the Republican nomination, the eyes of many political watchers are now locked on New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a popular anti-Trump Republican who for months has held out on announcing a heavily coveted endorsement meant to contest Trump’s supremacy.

“If he were to really put his shoulder to the wheel of the wagon of his candidate, he could get them all to take a second look,” Carney said of the impact Sununu’s endorsement could have on undeclared voters, adding that if Haley were the benefactor, she would get “more undeclared voters in New Hampshire with Sununu supporting her than on her own.”

Jeff Grappone, a veteran Republican strategist in New Hampshire, pointed to former Sen. John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 campaigns in the state, where he bombarded voters with town halls in the hope that independent voters would coalesce around him — and they did, with McCain walking away as the victor of the state in both cycles.

“Independent voters can make a significant difference in the New Hampshire primary, and that’s why these candidates are fighting so hard to get that vote,” he said.

So far, Haley’s message seems to be resonating with independent Granite Staters, having jockeyed to a second-place position in the race, according to 538, albeit still trailing Trump by double digits.

On Tuesday, at a standing-room-only town hall in Derry, New Hampshire, for Haley, New Hampshire resident Lester Reed, 76, an independent voter since he registered 55 years ago, said that while he was still working through his choices, he would hitch his wagon to Haley over Trump.

“If it was between her and Donald Trump, she would have my endorsement,” said Reed. “I like what she says, I think the woman has a backbone and she won’t take any crap from any of us guys.”

But the future for any candidate with aspirations to secure the White House will have to extend far beyond simply performing well in New Hampshire’s primary, Carney noted.

“We’re just a little footpath,” he said of the state’s closely watched contest. “We’re just going up to where the first sign is at the ranger station. The hike ahead is steep and hard after New Hampshire.”

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(ATLANTA) — Rosalynn Carter, who transformed the role of first lady as a trusted political partner to former President Jimmy Carter and carved out her own humanitarian legacy, will be laid to rest on Wednesday at her home in Georgia.

Her funeral, a little more than a week after her death at age 96, will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school for decades, in her hometown of Plains.

The private service will be attended by family members and invited friends.

Her final resting place will be the Carter family residence in Plains, where Jimmy Carter also plans to be buried.

The public can bid the late first lady a final farewell as the hearse carrying her casket departs the church and makes its way through downtown Plains.

Memorial events for Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19, spanned Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. A wreath-laying ceremony was held at Georgia Southwestern State University, her alma mater, and she laid in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library before a public tribute service at Emory University attended by the Bidens, former first ladies and other political leaders.

Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice care for nearly a year, made a rare public appearance to pay tribute to his wife of 77 years at Tuesday’s memorial service. He didn’t speak, but a letter he wrote 75 years ago to Rosalynn Carter was tearfully read aloud by their daughter, Amy Carter.

The couple previously spoke about being buried together at their residence, near the edge of a pond on the property where they fished together.

“We’re going to be buried right there, on that little hill,” Jimmy Carter told The Washington Post back in 2018.

Jimmy Carter was with his wife when she died peacefully at home, the family has said.

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” the former president said in a statement announcing her death. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

The two co-founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing peace and eradicating diseases around the world, and worked with Habitat for Humanity. Rosalynn Carter was also a passionate mental health advocate.

She is survived by her husband, their four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

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(WASHINGTON) — Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos remained defiant Tuesday afternoon ahead of a looming expulsion vote on the House floor — saying he didn’t care about the procedural move that triggered another push to oust him.

Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, filed a privileged resolution on the House floor Tuesday to expel Santos following a scathing report from the House Ethics Committee that alleges the New York congressman “placed his desire for private gain above his duty to uphold the Constitution, federal law, and ethical principles.”

Garcia’s move means House leaders must now schedule a vote on it within two legislative days.

“Look, you all want a soundbite. It’s the third time we are going through this. I don’t care,” Santos said on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon. “I was sent here by the people of the Third District of New York. I represent them. The political class in Washington, D.C., if they want to send me home, if they think this was a fair process, if they think this is how it should be done, and if they’re confident that this is a constitutional way of doing it — God bless their hearts,” Santos said.

Santos, who has survived two other expulsion efforts, said he would not turn to his colleagues for support.

“This is the third time we’ve gone through this. I didn’t do it the first time I didn’t do it the second time. I’m not going to do it the third time. It’s not a good use of my time,” he said.

Garcia spoke on the House floor alongside Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, who joined on as co-lead in the effort.

“The time has finally come to remove George Santos from Congress. If we’re going to restore faith in government, we must start with restoring integrity in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is essential for the American people to have Representatives they can trust and who don’t build their careers on deceit and falsehoods. We have once again forced an expulsion vote on the House floor because enough is enough,” Garcia wrote in a statement.

Goldman wrote in a statement that “Santos is an admitted liar, fraud, and cheat, and the recent Ethics Committee report confirms what we’ve long known: George Santos is wholly unfit for public office.”

This is Garcia’s own resolution — not the same one that House Ethics Committee Chairman and Republican Rep. Michael Guest filed earlier this month. The resolution from Rep. Guest has not been filed yet as privileged.

Rep. Garcia previously forced the House to vote to expel Santos back in the spring. Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy referred Rep. Garcia’s resolution to the House Ethics Committee at the time — avoiding a full floor vote.

Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee released a report that contained damning details about how Santos allegedly used campaign dollars for his own personal enrichment — including things such as Botox treatments, trips to Atlantic City, designer goods and purchases on the website OnlyFans, known for its adult content. Investigators said their monthslong probe of the New York congressman, who is also facing separate federal charges, revealed a “complex web of unlawful activity.”

The threshold to expel a member is high — two thirds of the chamber would have to vote in favor of removal.

A growing number of House Republicans who did not vote to remove Santos earlier this month said they want him expelled following the scathing report from the House Ethics Committee.

Santos himself said he expects to be expelled.

“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” he said last week during a conversation on X Spaces. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.”

On Monday, ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Santos if he is planning to resign amid the expulsion battle.

“I’m not resigning, I have not spoken to anyone [about] resigning,” Santos said.

Santos said Tuesday that members want him to resign.

“They can keep doing this,” Santos said. “But my message to them is: put up or shut up.”

Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges. He called the bipartisan report a “politicized smear” and has said he will not run for reelection in 2024, but plans to finish out the rest of his term.

Santos said Tuesday afternoon that Congress should be focusing on fixing inflation and border security instead of censuring and expelling members.

“If this building, if this city put in the effort to fixing our country the same way that they put on expelling me, we’d be in a better place,” Santos said. “But this place is littered in political theater and the American people are the ones paying the price.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, filed a privileged resolution on the House floor Tuesday to expel Rep. George Santos, officially triggering another push to remove the embattled congressman.

Garcia’s move means House leaders must now schedule a vote on it within two legislative days.

“The time has finally come to remove George Santos from Congress. If we’re going to restore faith in government, we must start with restoring integrity in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is essential for the American people to have Representatives they can trust and who don’t build their careers on deceit and falsehoods. We have once again forced an expulsion vote on the House floor because enough is enough,” said Garcia in a statement.

This is Garcia’s own resolution — not the same one that House Ethics Committee Chairman and Republican Rep. Michael Guest filed earlier this month. The resolution from Rep. Guest has not been filed yet as privileged.

Rep. Garcia previously forced the House to vote to expel Santos back in the spring. Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy referred Rep. Garcia’s resolution to the House Ethics Committee at the time — avoiding a full floor vote.

Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee released a report that contained damning details about how Santos allegedly used campaign dollars for his own personal enrichment — including things such as Botox treatments, trips to Atlantic City, designer goods and purchases on the website OnlyFans, known for its adult content. Investigators said their monthslong probe of the New York congressman, who is also facing separate federal charges, revealed a “complex web of unlawful activity.”

The threshold to expel a member is high — two thirds of the chamber would have to vote in favor of removal.

A growing number of House Republicans who did not vote to remove Santos earlier this month said they want him expelled following the scathing report from the House Ethics Committee.

Santos himself said he expects to be expelled.

“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” he said last week during a conversation on X Spaces. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.”

Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges. He called the bipartisan report a “politicized smear” and has said he will not run for reelection in 2024, but plans to finish out the rest of his term.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ATLANTA) — Former President Jimmy Carter made a rare public appearance when he attended Tuesday’s memorial service for his late wife, Rosalynn Carter, who died earlier this month.

Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice care since February, attended the tribute to his wife — who served as first lady from 1977 to 1981 — at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University in Atlanta. The 99-year-old former president had a new suit made Monday for the occasion, and was accompanied by a physician when he left his home in Plains en route to the church.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married for 77 years, the longest marriage of any first couple in U.S. history, and both built a lasting legacy outside the White House through their humanitarian work. Rosalynn became a champion for mental health advocacy.

Amy Carter, the first couple’s only daughter, tearfully read a letter Jimmy Carter wrote to Rosalynn 75 years ago while he was serving in the Navy. Amy Carter, who was seated next to her father, was often seen holding his hand throughout the service.

“My mom spent most of her life in love with my dad. Their partnership and love story was a defining feature of her life,” she said. “Because he isn’t able to speak to you today, I am going to share some of his words about loving and missing her.”

In the letter, Jimmy Carter wrote, “While I am away, I try to convince myself that you really are not, could not be as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn’t to me.”

A dozen political leaders were present at the the invitation-only tribute service for the former first lady, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sat in the front row along with former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton, as well as former first ladies Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.

The Clintons and Obama traveled to Georgia on Air Force One with the Bidens, according to the White House.

Also in attendance were Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

The service began shortly at 1 p.m. and has featured music from members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearword are set to perform. Remarks will be given by Carter’s personal pastor and readings will be done by some Carter’s children and grandchildren.

President Biden was not slated to speak, the White House said Monday, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters he and first lady Jill Biden look forward to “offering their condolences and participating in the event by attending.”

Biden’s relationship with the Carters spans decades, back to when he endorsed Carter for the presidency while serving as a first-term senator in 1976. Biden said earlier this year that former President Carter has asked him to deliver his eulogy.

After Rosalynn Carter’s passing earlier this month, Biden said the former first couple shared great integrity.

“First Lady Rosalynn Carter walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way,” the Bidens said in a statement.

ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos contributed to this report.

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