(NEW YORK) — The Pentagon has ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel to deter Iran or Hezbollah from joining the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to U.S. officials.
A senior US official and a US official told ABC News that the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group will be ordered to the eastern Mediterranean to join the USS Gerald R Ford carrier strike group that arrived there earlier this week and is in international waters off of Israel.
A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately have a comment on the development.
Senior U.S. officials have said publicly this week that the presence of the USS Ford carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean and the addition of more U.S. Air Force fighter jets to the region was intended to show the U.S. commitment to Israel and to serve as a deterrent to Iran and Hezbollah not to get involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“These posture increases were intended to serve as an unequivocal demonstration in deed and not only in words of U.S. support for Israel’s defense and serve as a deterrent signal to Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, and any other proxy across the region who might be considering exploiting the current situation to escalate conflict,” a senior U.S. defense official said Monday. “Those adversaries should think twice.”
Having the Eisenhower joining the Ford will increase the show of force enhancing that message of deterrence.
A third U.S. official told ABC News that the Pentagon is also considering the deployment of the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship closer to Israel to provide additional support if needed. The consideration of the ship and the rotary aircraft it carries while on deployment to the Middle East was first reported by CNN.
The Eisenhower strike group left Norfolk, Virginia, earlier on Saturday bound for a previously scheduled deployment that would take it to the Middle East via the Mediterranean Sea where it was to participate in previously-scheduled exercises in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.
Its pending deployment led to speculation that it might be deployed to the eastern Mediterranean to join the USS Ford, but a Pentagon statement would only say that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would “continue to review both the Eisenhower and Ford’s deployment plans as he considers the appropriate balance of maritime capability across theaters in support of national security priorities.”
The Eisenhower strike group includes the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower and the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58), and the guided missile destroyers USS Laboon (DDG-58), USS Mason (DDG-87) and USS Gravely (DDG-107).
The USS Ford strike group arrived in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday and in addition to the carrier includes the cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60), as well as destroyers USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), USS Ramage (DDG 61), USS Carney (DDG 64), and USS Roosevelt (DDG 80).
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s former lawyer and self-described fixer Michael Cohen is delaying his testimony, which was scheduled to begin as early as Tuesday, in the former president’s ongoing civil fraud trial in a New York state court.
“Unfortunately, I need to attend to a pre-existing medical condition that impedes my ability to testify this upcoming week,” Cohen said in a statement on X on Friday.
He added that he still plans to testify “at the earliest opportunity.”
“I look forward to testifying and correcting the record as to the multiple misstatements and responses by previous witnesses who stated … I don’t recall. Unfortunately for them, I do,” Cohen told ABC News Saturday.
Trump is still expected to attend the trial in person next week, according to sources familiar with his plans.
Cohen’s delay was first reported by The Daily Beast.
Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms.
A lawyer for the New York Attorney General previewed Cohen’s testimony in the state’s opening statement as key evidence of a conspiracy within the Trump Organization to inflate the former president’s net worth.
“Mr. Trump would call Allen [Weisselberg] and I into the office … He wanted to be higher on the Forbes list, and he then said ‘I’m actually not worth $6 billion. I’m worth seven. In fact, I think it’s actually now worth eight with everything that’s going on,'” Cohen said in a portion of his deposition that was played during the state’s opening statement. “Alan and I were tasked with taking the assets, increasing each of those asset classes, in order to accommodate that $8 billion number.”
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Cohen wrote about his ongoing medical issues in his book “Revenge,” describing multiple pulmonary embolisms as a result of deep vein thrombosis as well as high blood pressure, which he said worsened during his 13-month prison sentence.
“I don’t get cold feet. No one has stood up for truth to power more than me. I have a pre-existing medical issue that unfortunately needs to be attended to,” Cohen said on X defending the delay.
(PHILADELPHIA) — President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with the families of 14 missing Americans, saying they are in “agony” as they wait for more information about their loved ones who remain unaccounted for since the Hamas terror attack on Israel this past weekend.
Biden reflected on the Friday morning video call he made from the White House during an afternoon event in Philadelphia, saying that he talked with the families virtually for over an hour. The call was led by the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carson, according to the White House.
“They’re going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons daughters, husbands, wives children are,” Biden said. “You know, it’s gut wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible to return every missing American to their families.”
“We’re working around the clock to secure the release of Americans held by Hamas, in close cooperation with Israel and our partners around the region. We’re not going to stop until we bring them home,” Biden continued.
The White House has said Americans are among the scores of people being held hostage by Hamas.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Thursday the administration believes the number of Americans being held is “less than a handful” but still had no information about their condition or status.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while in Doha on Friday, said the U.S. and Qatar are working “intensively together” to secure the release of the Americans and others taken hostage by Hamas.
“I’m grateful for the urgency that Qatar is bringing to this effort. I had an opportunity to meet yesterday with the families of some of those being held hostage by Hamas,” Blinken said at a press conference alongside Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. “Their anguish is profound. They’re desperate to bring their loved ones home. And we are working urgently on that effort. We’re doing that with Qatar and we’re doing that with allies and partners across the region.”
Al Thani appeared to express some optimism that some of the hostages would eventually be recovered and stressed that Israel should follow international law in all its military operations.
At least 27 Americans have been killed since the fighting began on Saturday when Hamas launched an unprecedented incursion in Israel.
Biden said Friday “the more we learned about the attack, the more horrifying it becomes” and said Hamas “make Al Qaeda look pure.”
“They’re pure evil,” Biden said of Hamas. “As I’ve said from the beginning, the United States, make no mistake about it, stands with Israel.”
The U.S. is providing charter flights to help evacuate Americans in Israel. The first flight left on Friday for Europe.
“The State Department will continue to organize these charter flights for as long as there is a demand from US citizens for departure assistance,” Kirby said on Friday.
For the past several days, Israel has fired airstrikes at Gaza and is currently preparing for a possible ground invasion. Early Friday, the Israel Defense Forces told more than 1 million Gazans to flee south to avoid the fighting.
President Biden on Friday highlighted both Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visits to the region in recent days, again reiterating that the U.S. would make sure Israel had the support it needed.
But Biden also raised concern about the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying it is a “priority” to urgently address it.
“At my direction, our teams are working in the region including communicating directly with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab nations and the United Nations to surge support and humanitarian consequences for Hamas’ attack to help Israel,” Biden said.
“You know, we had to — we can’t lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas, and Hamas’s appalling attacks. And they’re suffering as a result as well,” the president added.
ABC’s Alexandra Hutzler and Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans voted Friday to nominate conservative firebrand Jim Jordan for speaker of the House — the latest twist in a chaotic battle for speakership.
Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, received 124 votes to secure the nomination — still more than 90 votes shy of the 217 he will need to grab the gavel in a vote on the House floor, according to members and aides who were the room. That floor vote has not yet been scheduled.
A secret ballot vote shortly after the nomination showed 55 House Republicans would not support Jordan on the House floor for speaker — complicating his path to becoming speaker.
“I think I can bring our team together,” Jordan, R-Ohio, said to ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott as he walked into the candidate forum Friday afternoon.
Jordan had an opponent in the conference vote for speaker: Rep. Austin Scott, who filed to run for the top spot shortly before the vote went down. Scott received 81 votes in the candidate forum.
Jordan had earlier pulled out of the speaker race, saying he would cast a vote for Rep. Steve Scalise after the majority leader earned the nomination in a similar closed-door session Wednesday. Scalise backed out Thursday night after he failed to secure the votes needed to become speaker.
When Scalise won the nomination earlier this week, he had 113 votes — fewer votes than Jordan received Friday.
It has been a disorderly speaker contest that began after the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy just over a week ago.
McCarthy said he now backs Jordan for the position. Former President Donald Trump endorsed Jordan early in the race for speaker, which could work both for and against his chances.
In the ramp up to the candidate forum, some members said they hadn’t committed to Jordan, signaling that optimism was fading among some of them.
“There’s not a person in America — and that includes the Republican conference — that is going to get 217 votes,” Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., told ABC News’ Scott Friday.
He issued a blistering warning this could have consequences ahead of the 2024 election.
“This is not the place you want to be as you start moving into the election cycle. And 2024 America collectively may indeed say that we handed you the reins of power in the House of Representatives. And this is what we got for it and so it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t demand it back,” he said.
Womack would not say before the vote if he supported Jordan — saying he had some concerns and calling him a “polarizing figure.”
“… I believe our best speaker candidate needs to be able to appeal to the House as a whole,” Womack said.
There are serious questions about whether any Republican can unite the party.
McCarthy insisted the conferences is not fractured, saying that “It’s 4% of the conference … it’s 4% of the conference and all the Democrats that want this chaos.”
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said before the vote that he hadn’t decided if he would support Jordan because he doesn’t want to reward bad behavior — expressing frustration with the Republican rebels that pushed the party to this point.
“We had a lot of members … [say] they’d only vote for Jim. That bothers a lot of us. It’s not really Jim’s fault. But it bothers because you reward bad behavior. And so we pretty much have to grapple with that,” Bacon said.
After two weeks of paralysis in the House, some members are growing frustrated.
“The problem has been consistently that we’ve allowed emotion to get in the way of logic and in a way of the necessity to actually govern,” Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., said. “I did not come here to be emotional. I came here to govern. And the quicker we get past that, the better off we are.”
The pressure is on for Republicans to elect a new speaker so the House can provide aid to Israel after Hamas-led attacks have left more than 1,200 dead — including at least 27 Americans. The new speaker will also come in with a little more than a month to push through funding legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown, which would have rippling consequences for millions of employees and recipients of social services.
ABC News’ John Parkinson and Jay O’Brien contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are casting ballots for the next speaker in a candidate forum Friday afternoon — now with two candidates: Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Austin Scott. It’s the latest in a speakership battle riddled with chaos and uncertainty that is leaving many GOP members pessimistic.
The candidates are working to get enough votes to secure the top spot after Rep. Steve Scalise backed out of the race Thursday night. On Friday afternoon, Scott, R-Ga., a member of the Armed Services Committee who has been close to GOP leaders, filed to run for speaker against Jordan.
“We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people,” Scott posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday.
The candidate forum, which began at 1 p.m. Friday, will show how many House Republicans support the candidates’ quest for the gavel before an official vote on the House floor. Some lawmakers had left town and were called back to cast their votes. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy told ABC News that Jordan has his vote.
Just over a week after McCarthy was ousted from the speakership, Scalise — whom the conference nominated in a closed-door session Wednesday — officially backed out after he didn’t appear to have the 217 votes needed to become speaker. Just hours later, Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee started working the phones, calling members to ask for their support, multiple sources told ABC News.
It’s the latest twist in a disorderly speaker contest. And now optimism is fading among some Republicans.
“There’s not a person in America — and that includes the Republican conference — that is going to get 217 votes,” Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott Friday.
He issued a blistering warning this could have consequences ahead of the 2024 election.
“This is not the place you want to be as you start moving into the election cycle. And 2024 America collectively may indeed say that we handed you the reins of power in the House of Representatives. And this is what we got for it and so it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t demand it back,” he said.
Womack would not say if he plans to support Jordan — signaling he has some concerns, calling him a “polarizing figure.”
“… I believe our best speaker candidate needs to be able to appeal to the House as a whole,” Womack said.
There are serious questions about whether any Republican can unite the party.
McCarthy insisted the conferences is not fractured, telling ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott Thursday night that “It’s 4% of the conference … it’s 4% of the conference and all the Democrats that want this chaos.”
Jordan spoke with ABC News’ Scott as he walked into the candidate forum Friday afternoon, saying he believes he could get the votes.
“I think I can bring our team together,” he said.
ABC News’ John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans will cast ballots in a candidate forum Friday afternoon with just one candidate: Rep. Jim Jordan. It’s the latest in a speakership battle riddled with chaos and uncertainty.
Jordan is working to get enough votes to secure the top spot after Rep. Steve Scalise backed out of the race Thursday night.
The candidate forum, which is slated to happen at 1 p.m. Friday, will show how many House Republicans support Jordan’s quest for the gavel before an official vote on the House floor. Some lawmakers have left town and are being called back to cast their votes. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy told ABC News that Jordan has his vote.
Just over a week after McCarthy was ousted from the speakership, Scalise — whom the conference nominated in a closed-door session Wednesday — officially backed out. Now, Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has made his intentions to run for speaker known. He started working the phones Thursday night, calling members to ask for their support, multiple sources tell ABC News.
It’s the latest twist in a disorderly speaker contest.
House Majority Leader Scalise withdrew his name as a candidate to replace McCarthy after he didn’t appear to have the 217 votes needed to become speaker.
“There were people that told me they were fine with me three days ago who were moving the goalposts,” Scalise said Thursday night. “There were games being played, and I said, I’m not gonna be a part of it.”
Even after Scalise met with holdouts, it became clear he didn’t have the votes. Now, there are serious questions about whether any Republican can unite the party.
McCarthy insisted the conferences is not fractured, telling ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott Thursday night that “It’s 4% of the conference … it’s 4% of the conference and all the Democrats that want this chaos.”
In the Friday morning meeting, Republicans voted down a number of rule changes and proposals to break the speaker logjam behind closed doors.
So, what comes next?
All eyes are on Jordan, R-Ohio, who first challenged Scalise for the nomination. He backed out of the race when he lost the nomination and said he would vote for Scalise for speaker.
“Jim Jordan is the obvious choice for the conference. He’s the only man in the room that can rally 217 votes, and the best thing Republicans can do is get … behind him,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said.
Republicans appear to be coalescing around Jordan, though it’s unclear if he has sufficient support under the current conference rules to seize the speaker’s gavel.
“I think I think Jim should be given a shot,” Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said. “If he can get to 217, he should be given the opportunity to try to get there.”
But Jordan is a conservative firebrand who could face major challenges winning over the moderates. Former President Donald Trump endorsed Jordan early in the race for speaker, which could work both for and against his chances.
Some members said they haven’t committed to Jordan. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he hasn’t decided if he will support Jordan because he doesn’t want to reward bad behavior — expressing frustration with the Republican rebels that pushed the party to this point.
“We had a lot of members … [say] they’d only vote for Jim. That bothers a lot of us. It’s not really Jim’s fault. But it bothers because you reward bad behavior. And so we pretty much have to grapple with that,” Bacon said.
It’s unclear when a vote for speaker will be scheduled.
After two weeks of paralysis in the House, some members are growing frustrated.
“The problem has been consistently that we’ve allowed emotion to get in the way of logic and in a way of the necessity to actually govern,” Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., said. “I did not come here to to be emotional. I came here to govern. And the quicker we get past that, the better off we are.”
Sources say Jordan didn’t say much in a meeting with Republicans Thursday night, but when asked what the key will be for uniting the party, he paused and smiled.
“I think we’ll get there,” he said. “I think we’ll get there.”
ABC News’ John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio residents this week began voting on a constitutional amendment whose fate will ultimately determine abortion access in the state.
Voters are considering two ballot initiatives; ballots began being accepted on Wednesday and go through Election Day on Nov. 7.
The two measures are: Issue 1, the amendment that if approved would add abortion rights to the state constitution; and Issue 2, which would legalize recreational marijuana.
The proposed abortion amendment would establish an “individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment including but not limited to abortion” and then creates legal protections for those individuals, among other guarantees like for contraception and fertility treatment.
The marijuana measure, if passed, would make Ohio the 24th state to legalize cannabis and would allow adults 21 years and older to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of flower and 15 grams of extract.
In August, Ohio voters resoundingly rejected a contentious, Republican-backed ballot measure that would have raised the threshold for future changes to the state constitution — an effort that would have specifically made it more difficult for the abortion amendment to pass.
When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its previous Roe v. Wade ruling, in 2022, the justices returned the question of abortion access to individual states. Since then, while some states have largely ceased abortion access, others have taken up ballot measures that put the question before voters. In those cases — in both red and blue states so far — voters have rejected the potential for abortion restrictions and bans or elected to expand access.
On Sept. 27, the Ohio Supreme Court started hearing arguments about the state’s six-week abortion ban, which was previously put on hold by a lower court.
The success or failure of the abortion ballot measure could render that case moot, if state voters add abortion access to their constitution.
Both sides have built up mobilization efforts over the past few weeks — knocking on doors, canvassing and hosting rallies across the state.
“Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, Issue 1 just goes too far,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said at a recent event at the Ohio GOP’s headquarters.
Ohio Democrats claimed last week to have been inching toward 100,000 doors knocked and more than 100,000 calls made in the time since their win in the August special election.
“We’re not leaving anything behind as we work to protect women’s rights to choose and prevent Ohio’s extreme abortion ban from taking effect,” Ohio Democratic Chairwoman Elizabeth Walters said during a recent press briefing.
There’s also been significant financial investment in the race. According to numbers from AdImpact released last week, $12.3 million had been spent or reserved in advertising around the abortion ballot measure, with anti-amendment groups outspending amendment supporters by about $1.6 million.
The two sides make their arguments
Both Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, a coalition of groups supporting abortion rights, and allied Ohio Democrats have sounded the alarm on what they claim to be foul play by opponents of the abortion amendment.
Last month, the state Supreme Court allowed the Republican-controlled Ohio Ballot Board — which is overseen by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is also running for the U.S. Senate — to use amendment language that includes the phrase “unborn child.”
Democrats on the board had asked for measure’s language to remain what was on the petition that voters originally signed, which did not include that term.
Amendment supporters have argued it was rewritten to confuse voters and is misleading about what the measure would actually do.
“They’re running scared because they know their extreme abortion ban is wildly unpopular, and Ohio voters support a woman’s right to make medical decisions for themselves without interference from politicians,” Walters, with the state Democrats, said during a recent press call.
Abortion opponents have also attempted to broaden the stakes of the proposal, arguing that it “goes far beyond” codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade to potentially affect parents’ rights and “threaten the freedom of conscience of Ohio’s healthcare professionals and preclude … the enactment and enforcement of commonsense, protective laws,” as Protect Women Ohio, one of the leading organizations fighting against the amendment, wrote in a memo.
“The Abortion Amendment victimizes rather than protects and empowers women and girls,” they continued.
LaRose, a leading voice against the measure, said in a statement to ABC News that “as a father and someone who’s always stood up to protect life, I’ll be working to defeat this radical measure.”
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Steve Scalise announced Thursday night he is withdrawing his name as a candidate to replace Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House after he failed to secure enough support from the House Republican conference to take his bid to the floor for a vote.
“I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee,” Scalise, R-La., told reporters following a hastily arranged huddle with fellow Republicans in front of the press.
“If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there’s still work to be done,” Scalise continued. “Our conference still has to come together and is not there.”
Scalise, who announced his bid for the speakership a little more than a week ago after McCarthy’s ouster, seemed to lash out at his opposition, telling reporters that “there are still some people that have their own agendas” — not the country’s.
“This country is counting on us to come back together. This House of Representatives needs a speaker, and we need to open up the House again.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who lost a tight secret ballot to Scalise on Wednesday 113-99, emerged from the closed-door conference meeting Thursday night, predicting that Republicans will come together around one candidate for speaker on Friday.
“I think that’ll happen tomorrow as we go through the process, but that’s tomorrow at 10,” Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters as he left the meeting. “Any type of announcement about what may or may not happen — I think that’s best done tomorrow.”
Scalise’s decision comes just one day after he narrowly won the party’s nomination in a private ballot at the Capitol, besting Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Earlier Thursday, Scalise met with House Republicans in a closed-door session. Following the hourslong meeting, Scalise didn’t appear to have the 217 votes to become speaker and began the process of meeting with holdouts.
On Thursday night, Scalise said, “There’s still schisms that have to get resolved,” but he is content remaining House Majority Leader — the No. 2 Republican in the House.
“I never came here for title,” he said. “I’ve had the challenges. I’ve been tested in ways that really put perspective on life — really, the 2017 shooting — when I didn’t know if I was going to make it out alive, taught me what’s important in life. And that’s my family, my faith, and I’m blessed beyond belief.”
In 2017, Scalise was shot at a practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. He was shot in the hip, and was in critical condition following the shooting.
Although he dropped out of the race Thursday night, Scalise said he is committed to fixing the GOP.
“I have absolutely all the right perspective, and I still have a deep, deep passion for making sure we get our country back on track and get our conference fixed,” he said. “[There are] some folks that really need to look in the mirror over the next couple of days and decide, are we going to get back on track? Are they going to try to pursue their own agenda? You can’t do both.”
When Scalise won the GOP nomination Wednesday, Jordan said he planned to vote for Scalise on the floor and encouraged his colleagues to do the same.
Asked if he’d support Jordan for speaker, Scalise told ABC News he hasn’t cut any deals and hasn’t decided who else to support for speaker.
“No deals with anybody. I’m sure there will be a lot of people that look at it. But it’s got to be people that aren’t doing it for themselves and their own personal interests,” he said.
House Republicans will meet next Friday at 10 a.m. ET to chart a course forward. It’s possible other lawmakers will enter the race alongside Jordan, though it appears that the momentum is now behind the Ohio representative even though he lost the head-to-head race against Scalise.
Asked by ABC News whether he feels like members are lining up behind his bid for speaker, Jordan again said he deferred comment out of respect for Scalise.
(WASHINGTON) — In a rare move, the White House on Thursday publicly pushed back against former President Donald Trump after he labeled Israel’s defense minister a “jerk” and also called the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “very smart.”
Hamas, the Palestinian extremists who control Gaza next to southern Israel, launched a terror attack on the country over the weekend, killing more than 1,200 people, officials have said.
Israel launched a war in response and has so far carried out a number of military strikes and operations on Gaza. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the territory, according to Palestinian officials.
Hezbollah, based out of Lebanon to the north of Israel, has fought with Israel before, underlining the concern that it could open up another front in the conflict. A senior U.S. defense official earlier this week told reporters that the Pentagon was “deeply concerned” about such a possibility. “We are working with Israel and with our partners across the region to contain this to Gaza,” they said.
Trump referred to that in a campaign speech in Florida on Wednesday night.
“Two nights ago I read all of Biden’s security people … they said, ‘Gee, I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack from the north, because that’s the most vulnerable spot.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute. You know, Hezbollah is very smart.’ They’re all very smart,” Trump said, going on to add that “the press doesn’t like when” he says things like that, as he has when praising the effectiveness of China’s authoritarian President Xi Jinping.
Trump swiped at two top Israeli officials, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Trump once appeared to be close.
“They [Israel] have a national defense minister … if you listen to this jerk, you would attack from the north because he said that’s our weak spot,” Trump said.
Gallant’s office reportedly said in response that Trump was making “far-fetched speculation” and attested to the military’s strength.
Of Netanyahu, Trump said he “let us down” while talking about the U.S. killing of Iranian military officer Qassem Soleimani.
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a Thursday statement that what Trump said about Hezbollah was “dangerous and unhinged.”
“It’s completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran-backed terrorist organization as ‘smart.’ … This is a time for all of us to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against ‘unadulterated evil,'” Bates said.
Trump’s comments also drew criticism from his former vice president, Mike Pence, who is challenging him for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“Hezbollah aren’t smart. They’re evil,” Pence said during a New Hampshire radio appearance on Thursday.
He added that Trump, the front-runner for the nomination so far, is “simply not expressing — and his imitators in this primary are not expressing — the same muscular American foreign policy that we lived out every day.”
Another GOP presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said in a statement on social media that “it is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as ‘very smart.’ As President, I will stand with Israel and treat terrorists like the scum that they are.”
In his campaign speech, Trump had touted “how much safer the world was” while he was in office while spending much of his nearly two-hour speech blaming the Biden administration for the Israel-Hamas conflict. He said that if reelected, he would seek to “permanently” destroy Hamas.
“I was … proud to be the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House by far,” he said.
Among other controversial claims, Trump alleged, with no evidence, that the Biden administration has been “inviting” in “terrorists and terrorist sympathizers” because former President Barack Obama is his “boss.”
Trump then repeatedly said Obama’s full name — Barack Hussein Obama — while invoking the “great [conservative radio host] Rush Limbaugh,” who also referred to Obama that way.
It appeared be an incendiary attempt by Trump to link Obama with extremists by repeatedly bringing up Obama’s middle name.
An Obama spokeswoman declined to comment to ABC News when asked for reaction to what Trump said.
In a statement, a Trump spokesman did not address his Obama remark but said, “President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack. Smart does not equal good. It just proves Biden is stupid.”
In his speech, Trump criticized the Biden administration for freeing up $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue in the weeks before Hamas attacked Israel. That money was part of a deal to release five American detainees who were held in Iran.
Trump, as other Republicans have done, urged Biden to freeze the Iranian revenue. Trump called Biden a “dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb person.”
On Thursday, ABC News reported that, according to sources, the fund has since essentially been blocked again.
“We have strict oversight of the funds and we retain the right to freeze them,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said Thursday when asked by reporters about the Iraninan money while visiting Israel.
The Biden administration has responded to criticism over initially freeing up the money by saying it was being closely monitored, hadn’t yet been disbursed and could only be used for humanitarian purposes. Skeptics of that view argue the money nonetheless eases broader financial pressures on Iran, which is a primary sponsor of Hamas.
Referring to the potential security and military failures that may have led up to Hamas’ surprise assault on Israel, Trump said on Wednesday: “You talk about the intelligence or you’re talking about some of the things that went wrong over the last week, they’ve got to straighten it out because they’re fighting potentially a very big force.”
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., another 2024 candidate, on Thursday said the former president’s comments about Netanyahu were “wrong,” and said the new agreement on stopping access to the Iranian assets was insufficient.
In a radio interview on Thursday, amid the criticism, Trump shared his support for Israel. “They’ve been, you know, a part, really a part of this country, the fabric of what we stand for. We have to protect Israel. There’s no choice.”
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Libby Cathey, Hannah Demissie, Fritz Farrow, Luis Martinze and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting Thursday afternoon with little clarity about who will be the next speaker as it appears Majority Leader Steve Scalise doesn’t currently have the votes needed to earn him the top spot — just one day after he won the party’s nomination in a private ballot at the Capitol.
Scalise addressed the conference during the closed-door session Thursday. He left the meeting telling reporters that he will be talking with holdouts to work to flip their votes.
“We’re honing in on, I think, the real concerns and issues that members have. Members want to get the House working again, but they want to get the institution working again. Congress is broken. And we need to fix it,” Scalise told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott. “We need to continue to make the kind of reforms that open this process up again, that address the problems that are facing hardworking families.”
By ABC News’ count, at least 13 Republicans don’t plan to back Scalise — the latest sign that Republicans are still deeply divided and fractured after the removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Scalise would need 217 votes on the House floor to be elected speaker. All Democrats will support Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
The House adjourned Wednesday night with no scheduled floor vote for a new speaker, further complicating Scalise’s path to the gavel. On Wednesday, House Republicans narrowly elected Scalise — pushing aside Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a firebrand and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
McCarthy said while he supports Scalise, the Louisiana congressman has a long road ahead to earn the speakership.
“It’s not an easy task, you’ve got to listen to people … but time is of the essence. There’s not that much time left,” McCarthy told Scott.
When asked if it’s possible for Scalise to get the votes needed to be speaker, McCarthy said “it’s possible.”
“…It’s a big hill though. He told a lot of people who would be at 150 [votes] and he wasn’t there,” McCarthy said.
The latest GOP holdouts come from across the party spectrum — from deep-red rural districts to more moderate suburban regions — and had a range of explanations for why they wouldn’t back Scalise.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., suggested she won’t back Scalise because he has cancer. The Louisiana congressman is currently undergoing aggressive treatment for blood cancer.
“We need a speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the communist Democrats and save America,” Greene wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who, like Greene, still plans to vote for Jordan on the floor, says she can’t vote for Scalise after learning that Scalise attended an event linked to a white supremacist group in 2002.
“Especially given what’s happening in Israel right now, I just cannot support someone who’s associated with anything that divisive, whether it’s race or religion,” Mace said to reporters.
In 2015, Scalise came under fire for attending and speaking at a workshop organized by an alleged white supremacist group in 2002. A Scalise spokesperson told ABC News at the time that he didn’t remember attending the event, at which he reportedly gave a conventional stump speech, and he may not have been aware of its affiliation. A local blogger once said Scalise described himself as “David Duke without the baggage,” but it’s not clear that Scalise ever described himself that way publicly.
Others said the process has been rushed, which is giving them pause.
“What unfolded over the last 24 hours was not the way I think we should do things,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who accused Scalise of trying to rush to the floor after winning the GOP vote for speaker.
Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said Wednesday that this was an “unprecedented moment.”
“This is the fastest speaker’s election in modern history,” he said.
While Scalise has won over some of McCarthy’s critics, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., he may have alienated some of McCarthy’s loyal allies, such as Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., and Lloyd Smucker, R-Penn.
“He’s going to have to give us a message or an understanding of how he’s going to bridge that gap and make certain that he brings Congress together and not divide the Republican conference more,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said on CNN.
Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who had earlier supported Scalise as speaker, posted to X that she changed her mind.
“There is no consensus candidate for speaker. We need to stay in Washington till we figure this out. I will no longer be voting for scalise. I don’t even think we make it to the floor,” she wrote.
Jordan, who was the first to officially launch a bid to become speaker, said he plans to vote for Scalise on the floor and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same.
“We need to come together behind Steve,” Jordan said Thursday afternoon.
Some lawmakers who said they supported Scalise doubt he’ll reach the 217 threshold to secure the speaker’s gavel.
“You have two great candidates. I don’t think either one of them can get to the 217. I just don’t,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said Thursday. “How do we do it? I would love to see us come to find a way to do that. I don’t think we will.”
Nehls — who has urged former President Donald Trump to become speaker — said if the process drags into the weekend, it may be time to “try to nominate someone else.”
The pressure is on for Republicans to elect a new speaker so the House can provide aid to Israel after Hamas-led attacks have left at least 1,200 dead — including at least 27 Americans. The new speaker will also come in with a little more than a month to push through funding legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown, which would have rippling consequences for millions of employees and recipients of social services.
It’s not yet clear when a speaker vote will be set.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said each passing day without a speaker creates a more “dangerous” landscape.
“I just made the conference aware that we’re living in a dangerous world. The world is on fire. Our adversaries are watching what we do. And quite frankly, they like it … Every day that goes by it gets more dangerous,” McCaul said. “One of the biggest threats I see is in that room because we can’t unify as a conference and put the speaker in the chair together.”
Meanwhile, Jeffries is calling on Republicans to “get their act together.”
“House Republican need to end the GOP civil war — now. What is the problem? They’ve had an election. They designated someone to be brought to the floor,” he told Scott Thursday afternoon.
“Why is that so complicated? Particularly during such a difficult time for the American people, for Israel for the Ukrainian people and for the free world,” he added.
ABC News’ Jay O’Brien, John Parkinson, Lalee Ibssa, Katherine Faulders and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
