OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Federal officials are resolved never to allow a terrorist attack like the Oklahoma City bombing happen again, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Caitlin Durkovich told survivors and loved ones of the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing Friday.
“What happened here in Oklahoma still rests heavy in our hearts; ... what transpired here 29 years years ago remains the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in U.S. history,” Durkovich said in front of a field of 168 bronze chairs, each engraved with the name of a bombing victim, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
“Our collective resolve to never let this happen is how we bear witness to the memory and the legacy of those who were killed and those who survived” the bombing, Durkovich told the crowd of more than 100 people as a woman in the crowd wiped tears from her face.
The nearly hour-and-half long ceremony began with 168 seconds of silence for each of those killed and ended with the reading of the names of each of the victims.
Durkovich was joined by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt for the ceremony on a partly sunny, cool and windy morning for the 29th anniversary of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building downtown.
“This is a place where Americans killed Americans,” and the lessons learned after the bombing should be used to address the “political vitriol” of today, Holt said.
“We don't want more places, and more days of remembrance. This should be enough,” Holt said.
The motives of the bombers included hate, intolerance, ignorance, bigotry, conspiracy theories, misinformation and “extreme political views,” Holt said.
Hatred of the federal government motivated former Army soldier Timothy McVeigh and co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, to commit the attack.
McVeigh’s hatred was specifically fueled by the government’s raid on the Branch Davidian religious sect near Waco, Texas, that left 76 people dead and a standoff in the mountains of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that left a 14-year-old boy, his mother and a federal agent dead. He picked April 19 because it was the second anniversary of the Waco siege’s fiery end.
McVeigh was convicted, sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in 2001. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.
Stitt ordered American and state flags on state property to be flown at half-staff until 5 p.m. Friday in remembrance of those killed and injured in the bombing.
“As the world watched, Oklahomans banded together in a community-wide display of noble humanity,” Stitt said in a statement announcing the order.
FILE - Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt speaks Sept. 1, 2021, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
FILE - In this April 19, 1995, file photo, Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and FBI agents survey the damage to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, following a car bomb blast in Oklahoma City, Okla. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Member of the Department of Homeland Security Caitlin A. Durkovich speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. Durkovich said federal officials are resolved never to allow a terrorist attack like the Oklahoma City bombing happen again, deputy Homeland Security Advisor Caitlin Durkovich told survivors and loved ones of the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing Friday, April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - This April 19, 1995 file photo shows the north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, after it was destroyed by a domestic terrorist's bomb killing 168 people. (AP Photo/File)
A day before a potential government shutdown, the House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling, as Democrats and dozens of Republicans refused to accommodate his sudden demands.
Here's the latest:
President Joe Biden has discussed the potential shutdown with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.
“There’s still time,” Jean-Pierre said, to avoid a partial government shutdown.
She said Republicans created the situation and are responsible for fixing it.
“Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this,” Jean-Pierre said.
That could involve splitting up the previous efforts — government funding, disaster and agricultural aid into separate votes — with a debt ceiling vote potentially later.
They’re meeting privately during the lunch hour to discuss next steps, with a shutdown less than 12 hours away.
That’s according to multiple people who received an update in a closed door Democratic Caucus meeting.
But there was no discussion in the meeting on whether a deal is being discussed or the details of legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to return to a stopgap funding agreement he had negotiated with Democrats.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, called that agreement in a floor speech Friday morning “the quickest, simplest, and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the American people.”
Johnson abandoned that legislation earlier this week after first Elon Musk, then President-elect Donald Trump opposed it. But the Republican speaker is facing few options to avert a government shutdown at the end of the day while also appeasing the demands of his fellow Republicans.
Democratic leaders so far have demanded that he stick to their deal in order to gain their support to pass it through Congress.
Friday morning, Trump continued his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — and if not, let the closures “begin now.”
He issued his latest demand as Speaker Johnson arrived early at the Capitol, instantly holing up with Vice President-elect JD Vance and some of the most conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus who helped sink Trump’s bill in a spectacular Thursday evening flop.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump does not fear government shutdowns the way Johnson and the lawmakers see federal closures as political losers that harm the livelihoods of Americans. The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees. Trump himself sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries laid blame for the failure of a package to fund the federal government on Republican donors and the GOP’s economic agenda.
“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.
The House Democrat’s leader further predicted a government shutdown “will crash the economy, hurt working class Americans and likely be the longest in history.”
“Welcome back to the MAGA swamp,” he concluded.
Before 9 a.m., a number of the speaker’s biggest critics brought their grievances to a private meeting as a shutdown deadline looms over Capitol Hill. Reps. Chip Roy, Andy Biggs, Bob Good and others, all who voted against the Trump-backed plan Thursday, met with Johnson as Republicans look for a way forward on a short-term spending deal that includes a suspension of the nation’s debt limit.
Good of Virginia came out and said he would surprised if there was a vote Friday on any path forward. Moments later, Rep. Lauren Boebert said Republicans were making progress and having Vice President-elect JD Vance in the room is helping move things toward a resolution that can get a majority on the floor.
“I think President Trump was possibly, sold a bad bill yesterday,” the Colorado lawmaker said. “I did not want to see a failure on the House floor for the first demand that President Trump is making.”
But, she added, the failure on the floor has forced many of her colleagues to come together Friday.
As the speaker twisted Thursday in Washington, his peril was on display at Turning Point USA’s conservative AmericaFest confab, where Trump ally and 2016 campaign architect Steven Bannon stirred thousands with a takedown of the Louisiana Republican.
“Clearly, Johnson is not up to the task. He’s gotta go. He’s gotta go,” Bannon said, drawing cheers and whistles.
Bannon, both a bellwether of and influencer on the mood among Trump’s core supporters, wasn’t done.
“He doesn’t have what we call the right stuff — that combination of guts and moxie and savvy and toughness,” he said, comparing Johnson, a reserved, polite lawyer, to the gleeful brutishness of the president-elect and his populist backers. “You can punch MAGA in the face and they’re going to get up off the canvas, and they’re going to punch you back three times harder.”
Bannon didn’t float a replacement for Johnson but emphasized that the job description for any speaker — and every other Republican in Washington — is simple: “We have nothing to discuss. It’s only about the execution of President Trump’s plan.”
And he called Thursday’s proposed deal “laughable.”
“It’s not a serious proposal,” Jeffries said as he walked to Democrats’ own closed-door caucus meeting. Inside, Democrats were chanting, “Hell, no!”
Coming and going outside Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday night, House Republicans offered little clarity on a path forward for a budget deal after a Trump-endorsed proposal failed to pass.
Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican who voted against the bill, told reporters that “this was not an easy vote for constitutional conservatives.” She added, “We’re going to work through the night and figure out a plan.”
“We are still working diligently. and we are still making progress,” Rep. Lisa McClain said, without offering further details.
“We tried several things today most of our members went for, but the Democrats decided that they want to try and shut it down, but we’re going to keep working,” Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader, told reporters. Nearly three dozen Republicans joined Democrats in voting down the resolution.
Vice President Kamala Harris cancelled a planned trip to Los Angeles with Washington on the verge of a government shutdown.
She had been scheduled to travel to her home state late Thursday, but instead will remain in the capital, the White House said, after Republicans backed away from a bipartisan compromise to fund the government.
The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling.
In a hastily convened evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to reassess, before Friday’s midnight deadline.
“We’re going to regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned,” Johnson said after the vote. The cobbled-together plan didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.
The outcome proved a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who rampaged against Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.
▶ Read more about the vote and where things stand
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the damage and federal response to Hurricane Helene, in Swannanoa, N.C., Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an interim spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
