DALTON, Ga. (AP) — President Donald Trump says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a traitor. But for Jackie Harling, who chairs the local Republican Party in Greene’s northwestern corner of Georgia, she’s still “mama bear.”

“Every thought that we had in our minds, she seemed to be very good at verbalizing,” Harling said.

Saying things that no one else would say may be Greene’s most durable legacy as she steps down on Monday, resigning halfway through her third term in Congress. First, it was her embrace of conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric, turning her into a national symbol of a political culture without guardrails. Then it was her willingness to criticize Trump, a schism that made her position in Washington untenable.

In interviews in Greene’s district, constituents described her over and over as a “fighter.” For Republicans like Harling, that was enough.

“We got a lot of satisfaction,” Harling said. “She was our voice.”

It was less satisfying for an independent like Heath Patterson, who struggled to think of ways that Greene’s fame and notoriety made a difference for her district during her time in the U.S. Capitol.

“I don’t know of anything that she did do here except, certainly, got her voice heard. But where did we, how did we benefit from that?” he said. “I don’t think we did.”

From MAGA warrior to exile

Greene began clashing with Trump last year, criticizing his focus on foreign policy and his reluctance to release documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. The president eventually had enough, saying he would support a primary challenge against her. Greene announced a week later that she would resign.

She has kept up the criticism since then, including over Trump’s decision to strike Venezuela this weekend.

“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” Greene wrote on social media on Saturday. “Boy were we wrong.”

The split was surprising because, until that point, Greene’s trajectory had mirrored Trump’s own rise to power. She didn’t become politically involved until his presidential campaign in 2016 and first ran for Congress in 2020. Greene considered trying to represent Georgia’s 6th congressional district, which includes the Atlanta suburbs, before relocating to the 14th, where the Republican incumbent was retiring.

She remained loyal to Trump after he lost to President Joe Biden, promoting his falsehoods about a stolen election. When Trump ran again in 2024, she toured the country with him and spoke at his rallies while wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.

Her Georgia district is one of the most Republican-leaning in the state, although it wasn’t always that way. The region once backed Democrats like Zell Miller, a governor and U.S. senator who spearheaded Georgia’s lottery program that still bankrolls college scholarships and early childhood education programs.

But residents have felt left behind by years of change, said Jan Pourquoi, a Belgian native who emigrated in 1987, became a U.S. citizen and later won local office in Whitfield County.

His county’s population has grown by roughly by 32% since 1990, which pales in comparison to statewide growth of 74%. As the U.S. becomes more urban, secular, and diverse, Pourquoi said residents believe they’re “culturally oppressed.”

“They see themselves as great Americans, proud Americans, Christian Americans, and that doesn’t fit the American model anymore as they see it,” said Pourquoi, who said he left the Republican Party because of Trump. Greene exemplified the political backlash, which he summarized as “stick it to them — any possible way you can.”

Georgia leaders, like those in many other states, have spent years drawing congressional districts to pack like-minded voters together. That means in red areas, whoever wins the Republican primary is virtually guaranteed to come out on top in the general election, incentivizing candidates like Greene with more hardline views.

The political landscape means former Republicans like Pourquoi or independents like Patterson say they have no shot at helping a centrist win.

“I’m kind of square in the middle,” said Patterson, adding that it sometimes feels like he’s “the only one around here who’s that way.”

Republicans plan their path forward

Whitfield County Republicans gathered at a local restaurant last month for their annual Christmas party, where seasonal decor and a visit from Santa Claus were intermingled with the red, white and blue regalia and a smattering of MAGA paraphernalia.

There was still deep affection for Greene and plenty of talk about the cultural issues she championed.

“I think it’s just the fact that she was unwavering in ‘America First,’” said Gavin Swafford, who worked on Greene’s initial campaign.

Swafford called her “an accountability representative” because of her clashes with Republican leaders.

Lisa Adams, a party volunteer, called Greene “our stand-up person.”

“Look at her stance on transgenderism. That’s a big one,” she said. “Abortion. That’s a big one.”

None of Greene’s inconsistencies — real or perceived — were a problem, they said.

For example, Greene has praised the Korean-owned solar panel factories in the district even after voting against Biden-era policies intended to boost production. She broke with Republicans, Trump included, and sided with Democrats who wanted to extend premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance customers.

None of the Republicans at the Christmas party expressed any interest in taking sides between Trump and Greene.

“I think it’s inevitable when you have two firebrands that are both stubborn,” Swafford said.

Asked whether the district missed having a more traditional lawmaker, the kind who might cut bipartisan deals and bring as much federal money as possible back home, Swafford was unconcerned.

“The biggest thing that Marjorie contributed wasn’t even in legislation,” he said.

Still, there was also a sense among some that Greene, for all her bare-knuckle politics, could have gone further.

Star Black, a Republican who is running to replace Greene, was already planning a primary challenge before she announced her resignation.

“You had a great representative who was a fighter. Well, you know what? I want to take it one step further,” Black said.

“Not only do you need a fighter,” Black said, “you need someone who is going to listen. You need someone who is going to represent you.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A newly unsealed U.S. Justice Department indictment accuses captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S. with thousands of tons of cocaine.

The arrest of Maduro and his wife in a stunning military operation early Saturday in Venezuela sets the stage for a major test for U.S. prosecutors as they seek to secure a conviction in a Manhattan courtroom against the longtime leader of the oil-rich South American nation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and his wife “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Here’s a look at the accusations against Maduro and the charges he faces.

Maduro faces drugs and weapons charges

Maduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Maduro is facing the same charges as in an earlier indictment brought against him in Manhattan federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency. The new indictment unsealed on Saturday, which adds charges against Maduro’s wife, was filed under seal in the Southern District of New York just before Christmas.

It was not immediately clear when Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would make their first appearance at the courthouse in Manhattan. A video posted Saturday night on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York by two federal agents grasping his arms. He was expected to be detained while awaiting trial at a federal jail in Brooklyn.

Maduro allowed ‘cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish,’ US says

The indictment accuses Maduro of partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to allow for the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Authorities allege powerful and violent drug-trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.

Maduro allowed “cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members,” the indictment alleges.

U.S. authorities allege that Maduro and his family “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support” to cartels moving drugs throughout the region, resulting in as much as 250 tons of cocaine trafficked through Venezuela annually by 2020, according to the indictment. Drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or on planes from clandestine airstrips, the indictment says.

“This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment says.

Allegations of bribes and orders of kidnappings and murders

The U.S. accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.” That includes the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.

Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office. In a corrupt deal, the drug trafficker then agreed to pay a monthly bribe to the director of the anti-drug office as well as about $100,000 for each cocaine-carrying flight “to ensure the flight’s safe passage.” Some of that money then went to Maduro’s wife, the indictment says.

Nephews of Maduro’s wife were heard during recorded meetings with confidential U.S. government sources in 2015 agreeing to send “multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments” from Maduro’s “presidential hanger” at a Venezuelan airport. The nephews during the recorded meetings explained “that they were at ‘war’ with the United States,” the indictment alleges. They were both sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for conspiring to send tons of cocaine into the U.S. before being released in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for seven imprisoned Americans.

Operation to capture Maduro was a ‘law enforcement function,’ Rubio says

During a news conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cast the military raid that captured Maduro and his wife as an action carried out on behalf of the Department of Justice. Caine said the operation was made “at the request of the Justice Department.”

Rubio, as he responded to a question about whether Congress had been notified, said the U.S. raid to get the couple was “basically a law enforcement function,” adding that it was an instance in which the “Department of War supported the Department of Justice.” He called Maduro “a fugitive of American justice with a $50 million reward” over his head.

___

Richer reported from Washington.

TEL AVIV (AP) — Israel’s decision to revoke the licenses of more than three dozen humanitarian organizations this week has aid groups scrambling to grapple with what this means for their operations in Gaza and their ability to help tens of thousands of struggling Palestinians.

The 37 groups represent some of the most prominent of the more than 100 independent nongovernmental organizations working in Gaza, alongside United Nations agencies. Those banned include Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Medical Aid for Palestinians.

The groups do everything from providing tents and water to supporting clinics and medical facilities. The overall impact, however, remains unclear.

The most immediate impact of the license revocation is that Israel will no longer allow the groups to bring supplies into the Gaza Strip or send international staffers into the territory. Israel says all suspended groups have to halt their operations by March 1.

Some groups have already been barred from bringing in aid. The Norwegian Refugee Council, for example, said it has not been allowed to bring in supplies in 10 months, leaving it distributing tents and aid brought in by other groups.

Israel says the banned groups make up only a small part of aid operations in Gaza.

But aid officials say they fulfill crucial specific functions. In a joint statement Tuesday, the U.N. and leading NGOs said the organizations that are still licensed by Israel “are nowhere near the number required just to meet immediate and basic needs” in Gaza.

The ban further strains aid operations even as Gaza’s over 2 million Palestinians still face a humanitarian crisis more than 12 weeks into a ceasefire. The U.N. says that although famine has been staved off, more than a quarter of families still eat only one meal a day and food prices remain out of reach for many; more than 1 million people need better tents as winter storms lash the territory.

Why were their licenses revoked?

Earlier this year, Israel introduced strict new registration requirements for aid agencies working in Gaza. Most notably, it required groups to provide the names and personal details of local and international staff and said it would ban groups for a long list of criticisms of Israel.

The registration process is overseen by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, led by a far-right member of the ruling Likud party.

Israel says the rules aim to prevent Hamas and other militants from infiltrating the groups, something it has said was happening throughout the 2-year-old war. The U.N., which leads the massive aid program in Gaza, and independent groups deny the allegations and Israeli claims of major diversion of aid supplies by Hamas.

Aid organizations say they did not comply, in part, because they feared that handing over staff information could endanger them. More than 500 aid workers have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the United Nations.

Israel denies targeting aid workers. But the group say Israel has been vague about how it would use the data.

The groups also said Israel was vague about how it would use the data.

“Demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach,” Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said Friday. It said Israeli officials had refused its attempts to find alternatives.

A December report on MSF issued by an Israeli government team recommended rejection of the group’s license. It pointed primarily to statements by the group criticizing Israel, including referring to its campaign in Gaza as genocide and calling its monthslong ban on food entering the territory earlier this year as “a starvation tactic.” It said the statements violated neutrality and constituted “delegitimization of Israel.”

The report also repeated claims that an MSF employee killed in by an Israeli airstrike in 2024 was an operative with the Islamic Jihad militant group. That, it said, suggested MSF “maintains connections with a terrorist group.”

MSF on Friday denied the allegations, saying it would “never knowingly employ anyone involved in military activities.” It said that its statements cited by Israel simply described the destruction its teams witnessed in Gaza.

“The fault lies with those committing these atrocities, not with those who speak of them,” it said.

Aid groups have a week from Dec. 31 to appeal the process.

Medical services could see biggest impact

Independent NGOs play a major role in propping up Gaza’s health sector, devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment and restrictions on supplies.

MSF said Israel’s decision would have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides funding and international staff for six hospitals as well as running two field hospitals and eight primary health centers, clinics and medical points. It also runs two of Gaza’s five stabilization centers helping children with severe malnutrition.

Its teams treated 100,000 trauma cases, performed surgeries on 10,000 patients and handled a third of Gaza’s births, the group says. It has 60 international staffers in the West Bank and Gaza and more than 1,200 local staff — most medical professionals.

Since the ceasefire began in early October, MSF has brought in about 7% of the 2,239 tons (2,032 metric tonnes) of medical supplies that Israel has allowed into Gaza, according to a U.N. tracking dashboard. That makes it the largest provider of medical supplies after U.N. agencies and the Red Cross, according to the dashboard.

Medecins du Monde, another group whose license is being halted, runs another four primary health clinics.

Overburdened Palestinian staff

Aid groups say the most immediate impact will likely be the inability to send international staff into Gaza.

Foreign staff provide key technical expertise and emotional support for their Palestinian colleagues.

“Having international presence in Gaza is a morale booster for our staff who are already feeling isolated,” said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is one of the main NGOs providing shelter supplies and fresh water to displaced people.

NRC has roughly 30 international staff who rotate in and out of Gaza working alongside some 70 Palestinians.

While any operations by the 37 groups in the West Bank will likely remain open, those with offices in east Jerusalem, which Israel considers its territory, might have to close.

Halt on supplies

Many of the 37 groups already had been blocked from bringing supplies into Gaza since March, said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

What changes with the formal license revocation is “that these practices are now formalized, giving Israel full impunity to restrict operations and shut out organizations it disagrees with,” she said.

Some of the groups have turned to buying supplies within Gaza rather than bringing them in, but that is slower and more expensive, she said. Other groups dug into reserve stocks, pared down distribution and had to work with broken or heavily repaired equipment because they couldn’t bring in new ones.

Amed Khan, an American humanitarian philanthropist who has been privately donating medicine and emergency nutrition for children to Gaza, said the impact extends beyond the aid groups.

He relies on NGOs to receive and distribute the supplies, but the fewer groups that Israel approves, the harder it is to find one.

“It’s death by bureaucracy,” he said.