Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said on Sunday that the U.S. should provide Israel with “everything that it needs to be able to take whatever actions it needs to take” in the wake of a large-scale attack by the militant group Hamas that shook the country and the region.
Christie, a former New Jersey governor, told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos that his top priorities if he were president would be engaging allies in the region, such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, to keep the conflict from spreading and to serve as a “sounding board” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help him “think through the ramifications of every step they’re going to take to defend themselves and to try to do the best they can to eliminate the leadership of Hamas.”
Christie, a former ABC News contributor, also called out the dysfunction in the U.S. House of Representatives, where a small group of Republican lawmakers last week voted along with the Democratic minority to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy, leaving it without a way to pass legislation, including foreign aid.
“What I would be doing is making sure, one, that Israel has everything that it needs to be able to take whatever actions it needs to take. And this is the problem with not having a speaker right now,” he said.
“The actions taken by some members of my party were wholly irresponsible without this going on,” Christie said. “They’re now even putting a brighter light on the irresponsibility of not having someone in place.”
Christie also dismissed as “sophistry” some GOP members of Congress floating Trump’s name as the next House speaker — despite Republican conference rules that would prohibit that, given the criminal charges Trump faces. (He denies wrongdoing.)
“This is them doing what they know Donald Trump likes, which is kissing his rear end in public,” Christie said.
He declined to endorse either of the two candidates to succeed McCarthy as speaker — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. But he called Scalise a “responsible, good guy.”
Separately, asked by Stephanopoulos about Trump’s “stranglehold” over the conservative base, Christie — a vocal Trump critic who continues to trail him in the polls — slammed the Republican National Committee, which he accused of “carrying Donald Trump’s water” after stopping a Fox News debate between Christie and fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
The party had said candidates aren’t allowed to participate in non-sanctioned debates.
“More information is better than less, and by trying to restrict how much we can interact with each other, just only on those debate stages, I think it’s a mistake for the party, near-term and long-term, to do that,” Christie said.
But he noted that despite the widespread support from the party Trump has seen, he believes progress is being made against the former president in some early primary states. Trump, for his part, has dismissed Christie as a “failed” candidate and governor.
“This is going to take some time. It’s patience and persistence to put forward the message that he cannot win a general election,” Christie said, echoing what has been his case against Trump. “He doesn’t deserve to be the nominee of this party based upon his conduct in office and his conduct after office.”
“I’m making that argument all over the country, but particularly in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and I’m hearing people respond to it,” Christie added. “But we’re not going to see it show up in polls until much later, I suspect, if not as late as election night.”
Two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle on Sunday weighed in on the ongoing disarray in the House of Representatives, after a small group of Republicans last week booted Speaker Kevin McCarthy with Democrats’ help, leaving the chamber leader-less and paralyzing one half of Congress.
Washington is staring down a November deadline to fund the federal government or risk a partial shutdown.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said on ABC’s “This Week” that his party will have to make electing a new speaker a top priority.
Buck was one of the eight Republicans who ousted McCarthy and told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos that their next leader should abide by wherever the conference settles on government spending; after that, Buck will back someone.
“How are you going to get agreement on that before you get agreement on a speaker? Isn’t that what brought McCarthy down?” Stephanopoulos pressed. Buck said no — that it was McCarthy’s inability to deliver on his promises.
Buck also said he wanted the party’s deliberations on a successor to unfold out of the public eye, “where the cameras aren’t on and we don’t have people trying to get attention over certain issues.”
Both House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise are in the running.
Buck said he wanted to avoid the extended and very public conflict that played out in January when it took 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to win the speakership amid Republican hard-liners’ resistance. Stephanopoulos followed up to ask if Republicans will push for consensus before a speaker election, “That means this could play out for some time, doesn’t it?”
Buck said that was still better if it was done privately: “For those folks that think we are projecting a chaotic image, it makes a lot more sense to do this behind closed doors and get it finished before we go to the floor [for a vote].”
When pressed by Stephanopoulos on the potential consequences if picking McCarthy’s successor takes longer than a few days, Buck said, “We’ll agree on a candidate by the end of the week, or we’ll agree on a candidate over the weekend. I think we lock the doors, and we have very limited bathroom breaks and food breaks and make sure we get the job done.”
“We’re going to be able to have a family discussion. When we leave that family discussion, I believe we’re going to be united,” Buck also said.
Pete Aguilar of California, the No. 3 House Democrat, meanwhile panned Republicans over the fiasco, noting Democrats’ support earlier this year for a debt ceiling increase that was negotiated to also lay out spending levels ahead of the funding debate.
“Democrats are the ones leading here. This is a Republican House Conference who has an inability to govern and to lead, but that’s why we’re in this moment. Our constituents didn’t send us here to vacate the chair,” Aguilar said in his own “This Week” appearance, referencing the procedural mechanism used to oust McCarthy. “They sent us to Washington, D.C., to work.”
Lawmakers have until Nov. 17 to pass funding legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown, which would have rippling consequences for millions of employees and recipients of social services.
But Republicans and Democrats, which each hold a chamber of Congress, are currently at odds over how much to spend. Democrats insist that the GOP should abide by caps agreed to in the debt ceiling deal with the White House earlier this year, while House Republicans argue those numbers are only ceilings and that the spending levels should be lower.
Stephanopoulos asked Buck if this impasse indicated a shutdown was likely. Buck played that down.
“I think what we need to do is we need to come up with a good, responsible number, be able to make an argument for it and then go into the Senate negotiation conference with a compromise in mind. But we have to start where we believe the lowest possible number for discretionary spending is,” he said.
Aguilar, however, accused some conservatives of pining for a government shutdown.
“I think there’s an element within the House Republican Conference that is dead-set on shutting down our government, to walking up to breaching the debt limit or not funding government. There were many of them in the public domain who were cheering for us to shut down the government. That’s just terrible for the country, it’s terrible for our governance and it just shows an inability to lead,” Aguilar said.
Responding to criticism from McCarthy and others that Democrats should have voted against the motion to vacate and kept McCarthy in his role, Aguilar said his party’s job was to support their leaders — not Republicans.
“This is somebody who has an inability to govern and to lead his conference,” he said of McCarthy. He went on to criticize Jordan as “dangerous for democracy” if he wins the gavel. Both Jordan and Scalise voted against certifying Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat shortly after the Jan. 6 riot.
Buck said he didn’t feel that was “going to be a very big factor at all,” but he argued that certain elements of the party must move past their election denialism.
“That hurts our ability and credibility to move forward with the American people,” he said.
He said he wants the next speaker to unite the party, be elected in one vote and avoid another messy succession. For the moment, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is serving as interim speaker pro tempore but has said he believes his authority to shepherd legislation is limited.
“We need to unite behind one candidate and stay behind them for the rest of the Congress,” Buck said.
In the wake of brutal and ongoing attacks in Israel by the militant group Hamas — which have already led to the deaths of hundreds — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said that the U.S. had pledged its “full support” to the Israeli government and engaged allies in the region to ensure they are doing everything possible to repel the attackers and prevent the violence from spilling into other parts of the Middle East.
“This is a massive terrorist attack that is gunning down Israeli civilians in their towns, in their homes, and as we’ve seen, so graphically, literally dragging people across the border with Gaza, including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, women and children,” the secretary told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“The world should be revolted at what it’s seen,” he said.
Early Saturday, fighters from Hamas — a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and the European Union and which controls Gaza, the Palestinian territory adjacent to Israel — launched a surprise large-scale assault in southern Israel, indiscriminately attacking soldiers and civilians, according to officials.
On Sunday, fighting continued at multiple flashpoints as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sought to regain control of several sites. Israel had launched numerous retaliatory strikes as well.
Blinken said on “This Week” that of the approximately 1,000 Hamas militants that infiltrated Israel, most had since been killed or retreated into Gaza but that “intense fighting remains.”
So far, Israeli health officials say more than 600 people have been killed in Israel and more than 2,100 have been injured. The Israeli government said Sunday that at least one hundred individuals were also still being held hostage by militants.
More than 370 people in Gaza have been killed and at least 1,700 have been wounded in the strikes carried out by Israel, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Blinken said in other Sunday show appearances that the State Department was “working overtime” to verify reports of Americans killed or held hostage in the Hamas onslaught.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been heightened for months, but Hamas’ attack — unprecedented in both its scale and sophistication — appears to have blindsided Israel, suggesting a massive intelligence failure.
“There’ll be time to look at that and to make determinations about what may have been missed,” Blinken said when pressed on the matter by Stephanopoulos. “Right now, the focus has to be on the effort to repel the aggression by the Hamas terrorists, to push them back and to put Israel in a position where this doesn’t happen again.”
Israel’s security cabinet voted to officially declare war over the weekend for the first time since 1973, nearly 50 years to the day since the start of the Yom Kippur War — a weekslong conflict against a coalition of Arab states where U.S. support for Israel was a decisive factor in the country’s victory.
In response to this weekend’s expansive attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “destroy Hamas” and signaled that the country’s forces will soon go on the offensive as the IDF evacuates civilians living near the border with Gaza.
Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. would stand behind Israel as it did whatever necessary to ensure “this doesn’t repeat itself.”
“I don’t want to get ahead of what Israel may or may not do when it comes to Gaza,” he said when asked whether Israel could control the situation if it invaded. “No country should be expected to live with the fear, the possibility and now the actuality of terrorists crossing a border, coming into people’s homes, gunning them down in the street, dragging them across the border and making hostages of them. That is intolerable for any democracy. It’s intolerable for Israel.”
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration approach toward Iran, Hamas’ largest sponsor, contending that the White House in effect enabled the attack and emboldened the extremists by facilitating Iran’s access to sanctioned finances for humanitarian expenditures as part of a separate deal to free American detainees.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a statement that the money transfer was a sign of “appeasement.” Other critics said it would free up Iran to better financially support Hamas.
Blinken, on “This Week,” pushed back.
“There’s a long relationship between Iran and Hamas. In fact, Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support that it’s gotten over many years from Iran. We haven’t yet seen direct evidence that Iran was behind this particular attack or involved,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that some are, in effect, saying things that may be motivated by politics at a time when so many lives have been lost and Israel remains under attack,” he continued, noting the funds are held in a restricted account monitored by the U.S. Treasury Department.
“By the way, not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date,” Blinken asserted, adding, “So, some who are advancing this false narrative — they’re either misinformed or they’re misinforming. And either way, it’s wrong.”
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are rudderless in Washington as they search for a new leader — leaving one half of Congress in the lurch and freezing key legislative business — but the political ripple effects of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster this week could stretch far beyond Capitol Hill.
By shunting McCarthy, eight GOP lawmakers led by hard-liner Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida demoted one of the party’s most dogged fundraisers just as Republicans are preparing to protect their five-seat majority next year — including several swing-seat incumbents in places like California and New York, where McCarthy was credited by Republicans with beefing up donations and recruitment.
“We won in places no one thought we could win,” McCarthy said on Tuesday night, in remarks to reporters shortly after losing his speakership.
The role won’t be filled on a permanent basis until next week at the earliest, but Republicans who spoke with ABC News are already scratching their heads as to whether McCarthy’s shoes can be filled and how long it’ll be before they even have someone who can try.
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a member of Republican House leadership, said in a speech on Tuesday defending McCarthy ahead of the motion to remove him that he had developed deep ties to his conference: “He’s been to our districts, toasted at our weddings, celebrated the birth of our children and has cheered us when we haven’t believed in ourselves.”
Rob Stutzman, a California GOP strategist who has known McCarthy for years, spoke bluntly of the former speaker’s campaign prowess, telling ABC News: “McCarthy’s without peer … especially in California and New York.”
“I don’t know who else can step into that role. Kevin has been the preeminent fundraiser and strategist in that conference,” Stutzman said. “What is for certain is that Gaetz and the rest of the crew have handed a huge political benefit to the Democrats and have significantly imperiled the odds of the Republicans maintaining a majority by displacing McCarthy.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., McCarthy’s No. 2, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the firebrand chair of the Judiciary Committee and a McCarthy ally, have launched speakership campaigns, while Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, is also thought to be a potential contender.
Sources who spoke for this story said that all three — while notable in the conference — would have their own hills to climb to match McCarthy’s reputation for grueling fundraising schedules.
McCarthy in total helped raise $645 million for his aligned Congressional Leadership Fund and its associated nonprofits, including $215 million for the 2020 election, about $350 million for 2022’s midterm races and roughly $80 million so far this cycle, the group confirmed. The Californian also helped the National Republican Congressional Committee raise tens of millions of dollars for the 2022 midterms which saw the GOP retake the House.
“I don’t think there is somebody who’s his equal. And there is a learning curve. The learning curve is the 13 months until the next election. That’s not enough time,” said California GOP strategist Sal Russo. “We’re definitely handicapped.”
“That’s the foolhardiest thing. The eight didn’t seem to realize that if it wasn’t for Kevin’s extraordinary efforts in fundraising and skills in campaigning and dedication to electing a Republican House, they wouldn’t be in the position they are now,” Russo said. “And they probably won’t be in this position in the next cycle, all things being equal.”
The Republicans sources speculated that Scalise would more easily slide into McCarthy’s shoes, given his public support for his erstwhile boss and reputation as someone who can appeal across the GOP spectrum, versus Jordan.
One Scalise campaign official confirmed that the Louisianan has raised almost $170 million for Republicans over the past decade and that his digital fundraising program worked with almost 80 Republican members, candidates and figures in the 2022 cycle.
Still, Jordan has proven to be a muscular fundraiser in his own right, leaning on his good standing with the GOP grassroots to fuel a small-dollar donor machine. A source familiar with the matter told ABC News that Jordan has already traveled to eight states this year to fundraise for more than a dozen lawmakers and that Scalise’s team has asked Jordan to sign on to fundraising mailers, including as recently as in the past few weeks.
“The type of donors that Kevin has cultivated for over 20 years that trust him, that participate in his programs, someone like Jordan is completely incapable of stepping into that type of role,” Stutzman argued. “If Scalise goes, I think he’s the most likely to be able to maintain some institutional progress in terms of the political operation and fundraising.”
Regardless of who takes the reins, though, some Republicans fear a general sense of chaos could at least curtail the money faucet from the rush it was under McCarthy to more of a drip — an issue that one former House Republican said could be ameliorated if McCarthy, who remains in the House, were to remain involved and “be front and center in handing the baton.”
“I think they’re turned off immensely by the chaos of it all,” said the former lawmaker, who served with McCarthy and asked not to be quoted by name to speak about private conversations. “I’ve heard from some of the donors that they’re like, ‘You know what, they’re gonna have to prove to me that they’re going to stop this circular firing squad before I give to them again.’ So the new speaker’s got his work cut out for him or her. They’re gonna have to convince the donors that it’s not going to be the inmates running the asylum.”
All the while, Republican front-liners have expressed fury.
Rep. Mike Lawler, who flipped a Biden district in New York last year, has floated trying to expel Gaetz from the conference — as Gaetz has defended his campaign against McCarthy — and California Rep. Michelle Steel called McCarthy’s removal “a reckless and unnecessary distraction.”
“I think they’re really, really nervous,” the former House member said of the most endangered incumbents, many of whom represent Biden-friendly parts of the country.
Some GOP strategists downplayed concerns over the void created by McCarthy’s toppling, maintaining that battleground incumbents will still get the resources they need even if there is some shakeup in the party fundraising infrastructure.
“If you’re a top-level target, you’re gonna get funded one way or the other. So the immediate impact, it’s going to cause some angst and some concern, but I’ve yet to be on a top-tier congressional race that didn’t get all the funding that it needed,” said California operative Mike Madrid.
But even these voices believe Republicans will be at a knowledge and fundraising deficit without McCarthy.
“I don’t think anybody can out-California Kevin,” said Doug Heye, a former House leadership aide, who added that he expects the next speaker to be a “strong fundraiser.”
“I think it’s a wait and see,” added a senior New York GOP official. McCarthy “was willing to invest in hardworking candidates … and he’s continued that. He’s been here, he’s done individual fundraisers, he was all in on New York.”
And strategists warned that even once a new speaker is elected and the current disarray ends, donor trust may not be restored without fundamental changes to how House Republicans operate.
Several Republicans have insisted that the next speaker raise the current one-member threshold needed to trigger a vote on a motion to vacate — the procedural tool Gaetz used to boot McCarthy — warning that until that happens, chaos could reign in the House and repel those with money to give.
“There’s no confidence that anybody is in control of this thing,” Madrid said. “Donors want to have a high degree of confidence that if they’re going to make significant investments in your operation, that the operation is going to be there, even just be there in a few months. No one knows who the speaker is going to be, and no one knows how long the next speakership will last. So it does not inspire any confidence in the donor community. How can it?”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday said his administration had no choice but to build about 20 miles more southern border wall — after he’s long dismissed Donald Trump’s wall as a waste of money that doesn’t work to stop illegal immigration.
“Money was appropriated for the border wall,” Biden told reporters, referring to congressional action during the Trump administration. “I tried to get them to reappropriate — to redirect the money. They didn’t, they wouldn’t. And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what is appropriated. I can’t stop that.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could not point to instances when Biden attempted to change the funding designation. The White House also could not immediately explain why the project was moving forward now.
The Biden administration is waiving 26 federal laws to make way for unfinished border wall construction in South Texas, according to documents formally published in the federal register Thursday.
The waivers include ones for the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act allow for border barrier construction in select areas of Starr County, Texas.
In explaining the rationale for the move, made amid a migrant surge, GOP outrage and Democratic criticism, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “there is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers,” even as Biden repeated to ABC Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang Thursday his argument that a wall isn’t effective.
Biden pledged during his 2020 presidential campaign against then-President Trump that his administration would not build “another foot of wall.” But the Department of Homeland Security is required to use the funds appropriated in 2019 on border barrier construction, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
Construction plans from Customs and Border Protection describe an 18-foot portable barrier, different from the 30-foot bollard design used during much of the Trump administration. Trump’s design at times required blowing up land to lay the foundation for his wall, as ABC News reported in 2020.
“CBP remains committed to protecting the nation’s cultural and natural resources and will implement sound environmental practices as part of the project covered by this waiver,” the spokesperson said.
Border officials have said barriers, and the infrastructure that comes with them, can help focus patrols and allow agents to apprehend migrants more efficiently. However, migrants have been known to evade barrier sections, crossing in more dangerous and remote areas.
Further, barriers constructed above the official borderline do not prevent migrants from turning themselves into authorities and initiating an asylum claim. Once a non-citizen crosses the official international boundary – which exists in the middle of the river along much of the Rio Grande Valley region – they are legally allowed to fight deportation proceedings.
The construction authorized under the waivers will span a total of 17 miles in Starr County, Texas, where wall building was left incomplete, and wouldn’t be continuous.
“This is not a new barrier announcement,” Homeland Security spokesperson Luis Miranda said in a statement. “The specific construction in the [Rio Grande Valley] was announced in June, and as made clear then, DHS continues to prioritize deploying technology and other system elements.”
The announcement stirred the ire of environmental advocates who fought the Trump administration’s construction efforts for years.
“It’s disheartening to see President Biden stoop to this level, casting aside our nation’s bedrock environmental laws to build ineffective wildlife-killing border walls,” said Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Starr County is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it. This is a horrific step backwards for the borderlands.”
Legacy landowners and local leaders in the region told ABC News they have not been consulted or informed of plans for barrier construction. Many are committed to “fighting” any new construction.
“What the hell! We can’t catch a break down here,” one Starr County landowner told ABC News. “This feels like what we had to go through 3 years ago. We haven’t been told anything and it’s frustrating.”
The Biden administration announced last year it would work to close gaps in the barriers and fix incomplete construction zones. The work also involved cleaning up abandoned construction sites and finishing gates that agents used on patrols.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is considering attending House Republicans’ candidate forum for speaker next week, multiple sources familiar with his thinking told ABC News.
The sources, however, cautioned that nothing is finalized and his plans could change.
The closed-door candidate forum is scheduled for Tuesday. There, lawmakers will make their pitch for why others should elect them speaker to succeed ousted leader Kevin McCarthy.
If Trump were to make an appearance at the event, it would mark his first time on Capitol Hill since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by a mob of his supporters, who stormed the complex as Congress had gathered to certify Trump’s 2020 election defeat. (Trump denies all wrongdoing related to Jan. 6.)
Trump remains hugely popular with the conservative base and is influential in how some GOP lawmakers act. Some members of the Republican conference have floated his name for speaker — but Trump has maintained publicly that it isn’t his priority.
“I’ll do whatever it is to help. But my focus, my total focus, is being president,” he told reporters earlier this week, also saying: “We have some great people in the Republican Party that could do a great job as speaker.”
The Constitution does not require that the speaker of the House be a sitting representative, but every past speaker has been.
McCarthy was removed from the speakership on Tuesday in a historic vote led by a rebellious faction of his own party, who were joined by the Democratic minority.
An interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., has since been named until an internal election can be held for McCarthy’s replacement. The chamber recessed soon after McCarthy was booted and is in uncharted territory.
Among the Republicans who have said they are seeking to be speaker are House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.
(WASHINGTON) — Progressive activist Cornel West switched parties for the second time as he wages a third-party presidential campaign.
West is planning to run as an independent for president, ditching the Green Party, which has a more formalized infrastructure to gain access to the ballot, shifting the calculus of how much of a threat he poses to snatch votes away from President Joe Biden next year.
Meanwhile, GOP rabble-rouser Rep. Matt Gaetz, Fla., hinted he intends to stay in the House for the while.
Here’s what you need to know from the campaign trail.
Third ticket’s the charm
West, a left-wing academic with a broad following on the Democratic Party’s fringe, said he would run as an independent Thursday rather than compete for the Green Party’s nomination.
West’s campaign explained the switch by pointing to the process for winning the party nod rather than just running as an independent and gaining access to ballots on his own.
“Democracy means more choices, not backroom deals; it means freedom to vote your conscience without being shamed or bullied. As Dr. West’s campaign for president grows, he believes the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics,” West’s campaign said in a statement.
West had previously been running for the nomination of the relatively unknown People’s Party before moving over to the Green Party, a shift he attributed at least in part to the Green Party’s more robust ballot access infrastructure.
Switching to campaign as an independent, though, would appear to run counter to that thinking, given that the Green Party would offer West an easier path to earning a place on several states’ ballots, while running as an independent means he would have to go through the process of qualifying for the ballot in every state and territory on his own.
However, the move is likely welcome news for Democrats, who are biting their nails over whether a third-party bid by someone with West’s name recognition could peel off liberal voters from Biden next year.
Gaetz not moving out of the House
Gaetz, who earned the enmity of many of his GOP colleagues by engineering the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., this week, swatted away speculation that he has his eyes set on the governor’s mansion in Florida in 2026.
“I’m not running for governor,” he told CBS News Miami. “I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
To be sure, lawmakers often say they’re not running for offices that they end up competing for, and there’s a long time for Gaetz to possibly change his mind. But Gaetz’s comments come as speculation reaches a boiling point that his offensive against McCarthy was intended in part to raise his name recognition in an effort to move his office from Washington to Tallahassee.
Current Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, would be barred from running for reelection in 2026 due to term limits.
GOP candidates migrate to new attack line
Republican presidential candidates launched political attacks on the White House after it was announced that the Biden administration would waive 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in Starr County, Texas.
“I will await his apology!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Well, isn’t that interesting?” DeSantis asked an Iowa radio host Thursday before touting his own plan for mass-deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Biden has lambasted a border wall and maintained Thursday that he had no choice but to approve the border wall construction after funds for it were appropriated by Congress.
Pence reaches for 20% — in spending
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is polling in the single digits in the GOP presidential primary, announced Thursday he would work to pass a constitutional amendment limiting spending to one-fifth of the economy.
Under Pence’s proposal, the amendment could only be waived by a declaration of war or by a two-thirds congressional vote.
“Because of Bidenomics, American families are forced to tighten their purse strings. It’s not too much to ask our federal government to do the same,” Pence said in a statement. “As President, I will break this relentless break-the-bank cycle and usher in a new era of fiscal responsibility in our nation’s capital. I will work with Congress to set a cap on federal spending at one-fifth of our nation’s economy. No more runaway spending and no more fiscal freefall.”
It is highly unlikely that the push would go anywhere if Pence ended up in the White House, but the plan appears to be part of an effort to bolster his conservative bona fides.
(NEW YORK) — Nancy Marks, the former treasurer for embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal conspiracy charge.
Marks allegedly filed the names of false donors to Santos’ congressional campaign. Federal prosecutors said she did so to inflate the amount of campaign donations Santos appeared to have amassed so he could qualify for national party support.
The names of Marks’ and Santos’ family members were among those falsely reported to have lent his campaign $500,000, despite not having the financial means to do so, prosecutors said.
“These reports were created to artificially inflate his funds to meet a threshold,” federal prosecutors said Marks told them.
Her attorney, Raymond Perini, said his client does not have a cooperation agreement with the government in place, but “if they subpoena her, she’ll do the right thing.”
“With today’s guilty plea, Marks has admitted that she conspired with a congressional candidate to lie to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of the candidate’s campaign for New York’s Third Congressional District, falsely inflating the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent contributions and loans,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
Marks is scheduled to be sentenced next April.
Marks resigned from Santos’ team in January amid reports of multiple controversies revolving around his campaign finances.
Marks has been a fixture of Republican politics on Long Island for decades. She was a treasurer for Lee Zeldin’s unsuccessful campaign for governor and she worked for several political committees, including God, Guns, Life, Veterans for MAGA and Defend the Constitution.
Santos blamed Marks when questions were raised about the sources of his fundraising and his spending. The Republican congressman pleaded not guilty in May to a 13-count indictment accusing him of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.
(WASHINGTON) — A group of prominent Republican donors is asking representatives for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaigns to travel to Dallas later this month to pitch why they feel their candidates are each the best Republican alternative to Donald Trump.
NBC and The New York Times were first to report details of the meeting.
The event is being coordinated by GOP megadonors Ken Griffin, Harlan Crow and Paul Singer through the American Opportunity Alliance.
Although donors are not expected to lock in support for one of the candidates that day, they can hear from each person’s team on why DeSantis or Haley is the best option to go against the former president to try and win the Republican presidential nomination even as he continues to dominate the primary field, reflecting his enduring popularity with the base despite his numerous legal challenges and other controversies. (He denies all wrongdoing.)
DeSantis remains a distant No. 2 in most national and state-level primary polling, according to 538, with Haley at No. 3.
Trump hasn’t polled at less than 50% in 538’s national average since late August.
The donor summit comes as Haley has seen what she has called gathering momentum after her first primary debate performance, in August. Since then, she said she saw an increase in fundraising and volunteers and some polls have shown her as the only Republican candidate who can beat President Joe Biden in a hypothetical general election.
According to 538, her national poll numbers have also ticked up since the first debate. DeSantis, by contrast, has seen his national poll numbers steadily decline since July, according to 538.
Asked about the upcoming donor meeting, Andrew Romeo, communications director for DeSantis’ campaign, told ABC News in a statement that the primary race is still between him and Trump.
“Ron DeSantis is the only candidate who can stop Donald Trump in Iowa and beyond,” Romeo said. “But don’t just take our word for it, the continuing actions of the Trump campaign confirm they know what we know – that it is a choice of Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump for our party’s nomination.”
The Haley campaign has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
During the third quarter fundraising period, DeSantis brought in $15 million between his presidential campaign committee, leadership PAC and joint fundraising committee. That hefty sum was less than the $20 million he brought in during the second quarter.
Only $5 million of the $15 million he raised can be used in the Republican primary. The rest cannot be touched until the general election.
“Anyone that knows Ron DeSantis knows that he is a fighter, a winner, and a leader,” said James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ campaign manager. “This significant fundraising haul not only provides us with the resources we need in the fight for Iowa and beyond, but it also shuts down the doubters who counted out Ron DeSantis for far too long.”
Haley has not released her fundraising numbers yet, and the deadline to submit those numbers to the Federal Election Commission is not until the middle of October. But her previous fundraising numbers were less than DeSantis’ second quarter haul: Haley’s campaign raised $5.3 million in that period, ending June with $6.8 million in the bank.
In addition to announcing the governor’s fundraising haul, a third of DeSantis’ campaign staff was informed on Wednesday that they would relocate to Iowa — a sign of how much he is betting on the early nominating state. He has repeatedly argued that a successful primary bid against Trump will be won by wooing residents in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor, previously told ABC News that Iowa is where DeSantis “needs to be focused because it’s going to be the first real challenge of his candidacy.”
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s memorial service taking place in San Francisco on Thursday will now be closed to the public, according to officials from the late senator’s office.
“Due to increased security, tomorrow’s memorial service” is no longer open to the public, only guests with invites will be allowed to attend, according to the short press release.
Officials said that those who still wish to view the service are welcome to stream it online.
The service was originally set to be held as a funeral in Herbst Theater in the War Memorial Building on Thursday, but Feinstein’s press office said Monday that a memorial service would instead be held on the front steps of City Hall.
The public was invited to pay their respects on Wednesday and sign a condolence book from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. while the late senator’s body was lying in state inside the Rotunda of City Hall.
According to the city, City Hall will be closed to all in-person services due to the “street closures and reduced access to the building for security purposes,” from Sen. Feinstein’s memorial.
Sen. Feinstein died Thursday night at her home in Washington, according to her office.
She became California’s first female senator and went on to serve six terms, the longest of any woman in Senate history
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Sunday that he would appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Sen. Feinstein’s Senate seat.
Butler is the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the Senate.
She is also only the third Black woman in the chamber, fulfilling a pledge Newsom made to appoint a Black woman to fill Feinstein’s seat. Butler was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris — who was the second Black woman in the Senate. There were no Black women currently serving in the Senate prior to Butler’s swearing-in.
