Jimmy Carter turns 99 at home with Rosalynn and other family

ATLANTA — Jimmy Carter has always been a man of discipline and habit. But the former president broke routine Sunday, putting off his practice of quietly watching church services online to instead celebrate his 99th birthday with his wife, Rosalynn, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Plains.

The gathering took place in the same one-story structure where the Carters lived before he was first elected to the Georgia Senate in 1962. As tributes poured in from around the world, it was an opportunity for Carter’s family to honor his personal legacy.

“The remarkable piece to me and I think to my family is that while my grandparents have accomplished so much, they have really remained the same sort of South Georgia couple that lives in a 600-person village where they were born,” said grandson Jason Carter, who chairs the board at The Carter Center, which his grandparents founded in 1982 after leaving the White House a year earlier.

Despite being global figures, the younger Carter said his grandparents have always “made it easy for us, as a family, to be as normal as we can be.”

At The Carter Center in Atlanta, meanwhile, 99 new American citizens, who came from 45 countries, took the oath of allegiance as part of a naturalization ceremony timed for the former president’s birthday.

“This is so impressive, and I’m so happy for it to be here,” said Tania Martinez after the ceremony. A 53-year-old nurse in Roswell, Martinez was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. from Ghana 12 years ago.

“Now, I will be free forever,” she said, tears welling.

Celebrating the longest-lived U.S. president this way was inconceivable not long ago. The Carters announced in February that their patriarch was forgoing further medical treatments and entering home hospice care after a series of hospitalizations. Yet Carter, who overcame cancer diagnosed at age 90 and learned to walk after having his hip replaced at age 94, defied all odds again.

“If Jimmy Carter were a tree, he’d be an towering, old Southern oak,” said Donna Brazile, a former Democratic national chairperson and presidential campaign manager who got her start on Carter’s campaigns. “He’s as good as they come and tough as they come.”

Jill Stuckey, a longtime Plains resident who visits the former first couple regularly, cautioned to “never underestimate Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.”

His latest resilience has allowed Carter a rare privilege even for presidents: He’s been able to enjoy months of accolades typically reserved for when a former White House resident dies. The latest round includes a flood of messages from world leaders and pop culture figures donning “Jimmy Carter 99” hats, with many of them focusing on Carter’s four decades of global humanitarian work after leaving the Oval Office.

Katie Couric, the first woman to anchor a U.S. television network’s evening news broadcast, praised Carter in a social media video for his “relentless effort every day to make the world a better place.”

She pointed to Carter’s work to eradicate Guinea worm disease and river blindness, while advocating for peace and democracy in scores of countries. She noted he has written 32 books and worked for decades with Habitat for Humanity building houses for low-income people.

“Oh, yeah, and you were governor of Georgia. And did I mention president of the United States?” she joked. “When are you going to stop slacking off?”

Bill Clinton, the 42nd president and first Democratic president after Carter’s landslide defeat, showed no signs of the chilly relationship the two fellow Southerners once had.

“Jimmy! Happy birthday,” Clinton said in his video message. “You only get to be 99 once. It’s been a long, good ride, and we thank you for your service and your friendship and the enduring embodiment of the American dream.”

Musician Peter Gabriel led concertgoers at Madison Square Garden in a rendition of “Happy Birthday,” as did the Indigo Girls at a recent concert.

In Atlanta, the Carter Library & Museum and adjacent Carter Center held a weekend of events, including the citizenship ceremony. The museum offered 99-cent admission Saturday. The commemoration there was able to continue Sunday only because Congress came to an agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown at the start of the federal fiscal year, which coincides with Carter’s birthday.

Jason Carter said his grandfather has found it “gratifying” to see reassessments of his presidency. Carter’s term often has been broad-brushed as a failure because of inflation, global fuel shortages and the holding of American hostages in Iran, a confluence that led to Republican Ronald Reagan’s 1980 romp.

Yet Carter’s focus on diplomacy, his emphasis on the environment before the climate crisis was widely acknowledged and his focus on efficient government — his presidency added a relative pittance to the national debt — have garnered second looks from historians.

Indeed, Carter’s longevity offers a frame to illuminate both how much the world has changed over his lifetime while still recognizing that certain political and societal challenges endure.

The Carter Center’s disease-eradication work occurs mostly in developing countries. But Jimmy and Roslaynn Carter were first exposed to river blindness growing up surrounded by the crushing poverty of the rural Deep South during the Great Depression.

The Center’s global democracy advocacy has reached countries that were still part of various European empires when Carter was born in 1924 or were under heavy American influence in the decades after World War II. Yet in recent years, Carter has declared his own country to be more of an “oligarchy” than a well-functioning democracy. And the Center has since become involved in monitoring and tracking U.S. elections.

Carter has lived long enough finally to have a genuine friend in the Oval Office again. President Joe Biden was a young Delaware politician in 1976 and became the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter’s campaign against better-known Washington figures. Now, as Biden seeks reelection in 2024, he faces the headwinds of inflation that Republicans openly compare to Carter’s economy. Biden had a wooden birthday cake display placed on the White House front law to honor Carter.

The year Carter was born, Congress passed sweeping immigration restrictions, sharply curtailing Ellis Island as a portal to the nation. Now, the naturalization ceremony to mark Carter’s 99th birthday comes as Washington continues a decades-long fight over immigration policy. Republicans, especially, have moved well to the right of Reagan, who in 1986 signed a sweeping amnesty policy for millions of immigrants who were in the country illegally or had no sure legal path to citizenship.

Carter also was born into Jim Crow segregation, at a time when the Ku Klux Klan marched openly on state capitols and in Washington. As governor and president, Carter set new marks for appointing Black Americans to top government posts. At 99, Carter’s Sunday online church circuit includes watching Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, preach at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Yet, at the same time, some white state lawmakers in Carter’s native region are defying the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to curtail Black voters’ strength at the ballot box.

Jason Carter said understanding his grandfather’s impact means resisting the urge to assess whether he solved every problem he confronted or won every election. Instead, he said, the takeaway is to recognize a sweeping impact rooted in respecting other people on an individual level and trying to help them.

“You don’t get more out of a life than he got, right?” the younger Carter said. “It is a incredible, full rich life with a long marriage, a wonderful partnership with my grandmother, and the ability to see the world and interact with the world in ways that almost nobody else has ever been able to do.”

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North Dakota state senator, his wife and 2 kids killed in Utah plane crash

BISMARCK, N.D. — A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were traveling in crashed in Utah, a Senate leader said Monday.

Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by The Associated Press.

The plane crashed Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said all four people on board the plane were killed.

“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Hogue wrote in his email. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”

“I’m not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy,” Hogue wrote. “Hold your family close today.”

The crash of the single-engine Piper plane was being investigated, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, the social media website formerly called Twitter.

An NTSB spokesman said a board investigator was expected to arrive at the scene Monday “to begin to document the scene, examine the aircraft, request any air traffic communications, radar data, weather reports and try to contact any witnesses. Also, the investigator will request maintenance records of the aircraft, and medical records and flight history of the pilot.”

It’s not clear who was piloting the plane at the time of the crash. Online FAA information stated, “Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances after takeoff, Moab, UT.”

In a December 2020 Facebook post, Larsen noted his wife had flown “her first flight as a pilot.” The post included a picture of a small, orange plane.

A phone message left with sheriff’s officials seeking additional information wasn’t immediately returned Monday.

Larsen was a Republican first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2020. His district comprises Mandan, the city neighboring Bismarck to the west across the Missouri River. Larsen chaired a Senate panel that handled industry and business legislation.

He was also a lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard. He and his wife, Amy, were business owners.

District Republicans will appoint a successor to fill out the remainder of Larsen’s term, through November 2024. His Senate seat is on the ballot next year. Republicans control North Dakota’s Legislature with supermajorities in the House and Senate.

Moab is a tourism-centered community of about 5,300 people near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

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‘It’s a survival issue’: Ukraine looks to arm itself as Western support slips

In a hotel conference room in Kyiv late last week, Ukrainian leaders huddled with hundreds of defense industry officials and policymakers from allied countries. The message was clear: Ukraine is open for business.

Despite the specter of Russian missile fire in the Ukrainian capital, the International Industries Defense Forum was eerily similar to the panel-laden conferences that pop up many times a year in Washington and London. But the stakes were different for this one, as Ukraine finds its supporters running out of weapons to send while others are increasingly wary of committing more money to the conflict.

With the charm offensive directed at weapons-makers around the world, the country is effectively trying to take matters into its own hands.

“It's a survival issue,” said Pavel Verkhniatskyi, managing partner at COSA Intelligence Solutions in Kyiv, since there is only so long Ukraine can expect to rely on donations from partners whose support can be switched off with a single election.

Kicking off the event, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the audience that co-production deals are “already being negotiated with our partners” and that he has established funding in the national budget to help finance those collaborations. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt also addressed the event, as did NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Ukraine has long been an industrial giant, producing heavy machinery and engines for Russian navy ships and military helicopters, along with armored vehicles, aircraft, and small arms. Many of those production facilities have been damaged in the war. Still, Ukrainian officials are looking to Western defense firms for commitments that they’re willing to invest and build in Ukraine even before the fighting stops.

Two European defense contractors have already said they’re in. Rheinmetall, a German arms giant, has said it would work with Ukraine’s state arms company, Ukroboronprom, to build tanks and armored vehicles. British-based BAE has also announced it is opening an office in Kyiv and is looking into making 105mm guns in Ukraine.

France is one of the countries leaning forward on the co-production idea. Around 20 French business leaders accompanied the minister of the armed forces, Sébastien Lecornu, to Kyiv, joining representatives from over 250 companies spread across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Czechia also flooded the event with a large delegation, reflecting the country’s all-in approach to helping Kyiv beat back the Russian invasion. The largest defense firms in the country, also known as the Czech Republic, have for months employed Ukrainian workers in their factories, which are churning out night vision devices, ammunition, and other weapons in co-production deals with Ukrainian companies. One Czech official who attended the event said the goal is to move that production to Ukraine as soon as possible.

It’s all part of a larger and growing refrain among Ukrainian officials, which is “we will have to become an Israel in Europe — self-sufficient but with help from other countries,” said Daniel Vajdich, president of Yorktown Solutions, which advocates on behalf of Ukraine in Washington. That effort will rely on co-production deals “that will develop capabilities in the region initially and then in-country when possible.”

Leaders in Kyiv want that day to come sooner rather than later, an urgency that’s been bolstered by comments from several Western officials over the past few weeks that weapons are running out and allies haven’t significantly ramped up their production lines to keep up with demand.

“We cannot keep on giving from our own stockpiles,” said one European official, who like others quoted in this story was granted anonymity to speak frankly about a politically sensitive issue.

The official added that there is still robust public and political support for Ukraine’s fight, but “we’ve given everything that will not endanger our own security.”

After 18 months of intense, industrial-scale combat, European stockpiles are running dry, though hope is rising that countries can work together to find more solutions, one Biden administration official said.

“[Dwindling stockpiles are] to be expected, considering the scope of what has been provided to Ukraine,” the official said. “What would concern us is if our partners weren’t doing something about it. But there is eagerness all over the globe to work together, and shore up our industrial bases.”

That eagerness is running into the simple reality of how long it takes companies — and countries — to pump money into existing production lines and set up new ones.

Russian aggression, and China’s breakneck military modernization, has led many of the big Ukraine donor nations to look at what they have and question what they might need. While capitals are willing to supply the Ukrainians in reducing the Russian military machine, they’re also worried about what is left for them, should their own sovereignty be challenged.

“After two years we need now to have another discussion because we cannot give, give, give and see our systems going down for Ukraine,” Gen. Stéphane Mille, chief of staff of the French Air and Space Force, recently told reporters in Washington. “There is an option now to have some discussion between Ukraine [and] companies and then the finance will be a part where France could of course pay,” to help with production.

Adding to the troubles was Poland’s recent declaration that it would pause donations to Ukraine in order to shore up its own capabilities.

Another headache for Kyiv came this weekend, when Congress finally hashed out a deal to temporarily fund the U.S. government but stripped billions in support for Ukraine to help it pass.

The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for U.S.-made weapons systems to be placed under contract, has already run out of money. The Defense Department still has $5.4 billion worth of weapons available to send to Ukraine, but is fast running out of money to replenish its own stockpiles, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.

There are still plenty of questions over how much defense production can happen in Ukraine while Russian missiles and Iranian drones continue to target critical infrastructure, but the war shows no signs of slowing even as partner nations worry about what they have left to give.

The attitude in Kyiv is that there is no choice but to find companies to help them do it themselves.

“Priority number one is that Ukraine will be self-reliant because even if the war finishes today, Ukraine will be a shield for Europe against future attempts by Russia,” to grab territory or destabilize Europe, said Verkhniatskyi from COSA Intelligence Solutions. “It's just going to happen. The Russians are just simply going to be Russians forever.”

Nahal Toosi in Washington and Laura Kayali in Paris contributed to this report.

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Matt Gaetz’s father seeks return to Florida Senate

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Don Gaetz, a former Republican state Senate president and father of MAGA firebrand GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, is seeking a return to the Florida Legislature.

Gaetz, 75, planned to file paperwork on Monday to run for the state Senate seat now held by outgoing Sen. Doug Broxson, who is leaving office next year due to term limits.

Gaetz, who has held a variety of appointed positions since leaving elected office in 2016, said that he has been approached in recent weeks by voters in the Panhandle asking him to run.

“This will sound like maybe it’s not true, but there was a wellspring of support and encouragement and even demands that I run for office from people in Northwest Florida who I know and respect and people in Northwest Florida who I do not know,” Gaetz said.

One of the voices of encouragement to run was state Sen. Ben Albritton, the Polk County Republican in line to become the next Senate president in late 2024. In the last cycle, Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed several candidates to run for the state Senate even though Senate leaders had planned to back other candidates. Gaetz’ return to the Senate could provide a prominent counterweight to the governor.

Gaetz’s decision to enter the race prompted former state Rep. Frank White, a Pensacola Republican, to drop out of the contest even though he was the only candidate for the post.

Gaetz added that he is also concerned that, while Florida is a low-tax state, the rising costs associated with of property insurance, housing and utilities is making it expensive. He said that the Legislature can address the causes and the “political pressure” that are behind how costly the state is getting.

Don Gaetz began his political career as a school board member and later schools superintendent for Okaloosa County. He first ran for state Senate in 2006 and rose to Senate president after the 2012 elections.

During his time in office, Gaetz was more than willing to engage in his fair share of political brawls, including taking on then-Gov. Rick Scott. Scott, currently a U.S. senator, who lined up opposition to Gaetz’s bid to become president of the University of West Florida.

In his farewell note to his constituents when left the Senate, Gaetz wrote: “I cherish the smashmouth fights over matters of principle. I richly earned my opponents, giving, I hope, as good as I got. Politics can be thrilling and noble, just as it can be base and disgusting.”

While he was in office, his son Matt Gaetz ran for the state House and the two served in the Legislature at the same time and even roomed together in Tallahassee. In the Legislature, Don Gaetz became known for his oratory skills — and just like his son — the ability to come up with a snappy comeback or a tartly-worded reply.

And while the younger Gaetz was once in the shadow of his successful father, he has since eclipsed him as a fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump and an enemy of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif), threatening over the weekend to oust McCarthy from his speakership.

Now, Rep. Matt Gaetz is seen as a potential candidate for Florida governor in 2026, but his father said that has nothing to do with his decision to run.

“Matt has encouraged me to run for the Senate, but I know in Washington he is laser focused on the budget issues, trying to control spending, trying to pass term limits,” said Gaetz, who said his son will run for another term in Congress next year. “He is not focused on running for governor. He has no plans to run for governor.”

After Gaetz left office, he held key appointed positions including a spot on Florida’s ethics commission and as the chair of the board of a non-profit corporation responsible for handing out tens of millions of dollars given to the state in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

The elder Gaetz was also drawn into the federal trafficking probe of his son after a Florida businessman tried to extort $25 million from him in exchange for helping Matt Gaetz secure a presidential pardon. The DOJ later closed its investigation into Matt Gaetz without filing charges.

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Barbara Lee on Laphonza Butler: 'I wish her well'

Rep. Barbara Lee said Monday that she’s looking forward to working with Laphonza Butler as California’s newly appointed senator, but she’s still focused on winning the Senate seat in 2024.

“I wish her well and look forward to working with her to deliver for our golden state,” Lee (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday. “I'm very focused on winning this election, though. ... People underestimate what we have going on for us in my campaign.”

POLITICO first reported on Sunday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint Butler to the Senate seat following Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s death last week. Butler is president of EMILY's List and a veteran organizer who is well-known in Newsom’s orbit.

Newsom pledged in 2021 to name a Black woman to Feinstein's seat in the event that she resigned after he faced pressure to fill Kamala Harris' Senate seat with a Black woman after she became vice president but opted to tap Alex Padilla instead. The California governor avoided getting caught up in the 2024 Senate contest between rival Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Lee by appointing Butler.

Lee had spent years aiming for the possible Senate appointment but learned in recent weeks that Newsom was intent on not picking a candidate, prompting her to sharply rebuke his public pronouncement.

“The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election,” Lee said earlier this month.

Newsom made his appointment this week without putting limitations or preconditions on his pick to run for the seat in 2024 — meaning Butler could decide to join the race for a full term. She has not indicated thus far if she plans to do so or not.

“We have been pushing from day one that any African American woman who he appointed should have the right and opportunity to run,” Lee said on CNN. “And so we were glad that he made that decision to open that up and to back off of the restriction that was placed.”

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Garland: I'd resign if Biden asked me to take action on Trump

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. But he doesn’t think he’ll be put in that position.

“I am sure that that will not happen, but I would not do anything in that regard,” he said on CBS “60 Minutes.” “And if necessary, I would resign. But there is no sense that anything like that will happen.”

The Justice Department is at the center of not only indictments against Trump that include an effort to overturn the 2020 election and wrongly keeping classified documents, but also cases involving Biden’s son Hunter, the aftermath of the riot at the U.S. Capitol and investigations into classified documents found in the president’s home and office. Garland has appointed three separate special counsels.

Garland has spoken only sparingly about the cases and reiterated Sunday he would not get into specifics, but dismissed claims by Trump and his supporters that the cases were timed to ruin his chances to be president in 2024.

“Well, that’s absolutely not true. Justice Department prosecutors are nonpartisan. They don’t allow partisan considerations to play any role in their determinations,” Garland said.

Garland said the president has never tried to meddle in the investigations, and he dismissed criticism from Republicans that he was going easy on the president’s son, Hunter, who was recently indicted on a gun charge after a plea deal in his tax case fell apart. Hunter Biden is due in a Delaware court this week.

“We do not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats. We don’t have one rule for foes and another for friends,” he said. ”We have only one rule; and that one rule is that we follow the facts and the law, and we reach the decisions required by the Constitution, and we protect civil liberties.”

Garland choked up when talking about his concerns over violence, particularly as judges and prosecutors assigned to the Trump cases got death threats.

“People can argue with each other as much as they want and as vociferously as they want. But the one thing they may not do is use violence and threats of violence to alter the outcome,” he said. “American people must protect each other. They must ensure that they treat each other with civility and kindness, listen to opposing views, argue as vociferously as they want, but refrain from violence and threats of violence. That’s the only way this democracy will survive.”

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Ramaswamy campaign seeks to cut number of candidates in next GOP debate

Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign is pushing the Republican Party to change the qualifying and debate format rules for the upcoming GOP presidential debate in Miami on Nov. 8, calling for only the top four polling candidates besides Donald Trump to participate and asking for a single moderator, according to a campaign memo obtained by POLITICO.

The third Republican presidential debate will be held Nov. 8 in Miami, and Trump’s rival campaigns face the most difficult qualifying thresholds yet: Candidates need to have 70,000 individual donors and hit 4 percent in either two national polls, or one national poll and two polls from separate early states.

In the Sunday evening letter, Ramaswamy’s campaign CEO Ben Yoho wrote to Republican Chair Ronna McDaniel that “against the backdrop of a chaotic second debate and the reality of a frontrunner who has declined to participate, we respectfully call on the RNC to revise its approach so that Republican voters can focus on serious candidates who have a viable path to beating Joe Biden — or whomever the Democrats put up to replace him.”

With seven candidates on the stage, the second debate last week in Simi Valley, Calif., saw Fox Business’ two moderators alongside Univision's struggle to control the debate at times, with multiple candidates interrupting each other.

“Thank you for speaking while I’m interrupting,” Ramaswamy said at one particularly contentious point during the debate.

In addition to a smaller stage, Ramaswamy’s campaign also calls for “greater time for candidates to respond to their competitors.”

“Another unhelpful debate in November is not an option: Voters deserve a real choice for who will best serve as our party’s nominee,” Yoho wrote in the memo to the RNC, as well as Committee on Arrangements Co-Chairs David Bossie and Anne Hathaway.

“Voters are not well-served when a cacophony of candidates with minimal chance of success talk over each other from the edge of the stage, while the overwhelming frontrunner is absent from the center of that same stage.”

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