>> ed o'keefe?i'll make the firmer prediction that based on all that chaos, speaker johnson won't be speaker by the end of 2025. did that on paul ryan and it worked. watch out, speaker johnson. >> be careful. be advised. >> look what faces him. the other one, real quick, washington commanders will get a stadium here in the district of columbia because that congressional vote that authorized the land -- >> happened right before congress adjourned. >> it was a great surprise. it will happen this year. >> scott macfarlane? >> long before the next election some people will be departing washington voluntarily. this is a challenging environment to be an elected official. they're getting thousands of threats a year on their lives, on their families. the travel is exhausting, and we're coming into a relatively polarizing moment with trump coming back into office. you're going to see a lot of retirements in odd number years including 2025. >> i think that's one of the reasons you're going to see justice alit

he pardons everyone. >> ed o'keefe?gain, we don't cover the western hemisphere enough, and why it is that people come from the far reaches of south america -- >> what is the gravitational pull of the united states in those particular countries? >> it's going to be more critical than ever in the coming year that we continue to explore and explain why it is they continue to do so despite the threats of being sent back, and watch also the cooperation between a lot of those countries, especially in central america with the united states and the intrigue they have over the first latino secretary of state, the most senior latino ever to serve in an administration and in the presidential line of succession, marco rubio, i heard within days of the election from latin american governments, quite eager to get on the good side of marco rubio because they are thrilled to know there will be more attention paid to the hemisphere has there should be. >> and there will be attention paid in terms of accepting those -- this administratio

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>> norah: ed o'keefe at the white house. thank you, ed.ight, syria's neighbors, lebanon, jordan, and iran are on high alert as rebels event the countries third-largest city. it comes after they took the cities of aleppo and hama, in less than a week. the rebels are gunning for the capital city of damascus in a lightning offensive that caught government forces off guard. cbs's chris livesay has more. >> reporter: in more than 13 years of civil war... this was once unthinkable. rebel forces taking the city of hama, forcing thousands of civilians to flee and syrian military forces to retreat. as power slips from bashar al-assad's once-iron grip. now the rebels make their way south, to homs, and if they are successful, they will control three of syria's five largest cities, leaving no major urban centers between them and the capital, damascus. a lightning offensive that the u.n. warns could soon displace as many as 1.5 billion people. >> [speaking in a global language] >> reporter: "god willing," this fighter tells cbs news, "we will continue

jericka. >> jericka: ed o'keefe at the whte house. you. "60 minutes" got an inside look at how israel pulled off one of the most daring and sophisticated intelligence operations in history. it was the so-called pager plot in which pagers worn by members of the hezbollah militia that were turned into miniature bombs. lesley stahl spoke with two recently retired israeli agents who spent years masterminding the plan. >> reporter: this is the pager that hezbollah was using. so it's very sleek, very shiny. and it certainly can fit in a pocket. so what did you do to change this? to make it into a bomb? >> to make it into a bomb, we have to enlarge it a little bit. >> reporter: in order to put explosives inside, but not too much, using dummies mossad conducted tests with the pager in a padded glove to calibrate the grams of expose needed to be just enough to hurt the fighter but not the person next to him. >> if you push the button, the only one that will get injured is the terrorist himself. even if his wife or his daughter will be just nex

major. >> major: ed o'keefe thank you.another big development president trump has lost a bid to overturn a $5 million judgment against him for sexual abuse and defamation. a federal appeals court today upheld the damages awarded to e. jean carroll. a columnist hailed the decision in an online post writing "2024 ends with a win." carroll accused trump of raping her in a department store dressing room about 30 years ago. a jury found that trump was liable for sexual abuse, but not rape. trump also owes $83 million from a follow-up defamation lawsuit. u.s. investigators are heading to south of korea to help figure out what caused a fiery crash landing of a boeing jet on saturday. all but two of the 181 people on board were killed. more details from cbs's elizabeth waller. >> reporter: jeju air flight was already in trouble on its final approach. the pilot had reported a bird strike and triggered a landing signal. and the landing gear was not down as it raced to the end of the runway and crashed into a concrete wall. all 175 p

>> norah: ed o'keefe at the white house. thank you.ald trump's pick to lead the world's most powerful military is facing new questions tonight. the concerns stem from new reports that former fox news host pete hegseth was forced out at two veterans groups because of alleged financial and sexual misconduct. details from chief white house correspondent nancy cordes. >> talking to all the senators i look forward to those decisions. >> reporter: the newly resurfaced accusations followed pete hegseth to capitol hill today. cbs news has confirmed the army veteran and fox news host was forced to step down as head of the nonprofit concerned veterans for america in 2016. the group's founders billionaire republican donors charles and david koch, pushed hegseth out after staffers accused him of financial mismanagement, sexual misconduct, and repeated intoxication. according to "the new yorker," which first reported about the complaints, hegseth sometimes got drunk to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization's events. >> can you

ed o'keefe, thank you. york city police say they have made a forensic breakthrough in the investigation into the murder of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. the city's police commissioner said the gun found on the 26-year-old suspect matches hell casings from the crime scene that had the words "deny," "delay," and possibly "depose" written on them. tonight, cbs's lilia luciano has learned about fingerprint evidence that allegedly places luigi mangione near the site of that cold-blooded murder in manhattan one week ago today. >> reporter: for the first time, the nypd says forensic evidence places the suspect at the location where unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson was shot and killed. >> we were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in midtown at the scene of the homicide. we were also able, at our crime lab, to match the person of interest's fingerprints with fingerprints that we found on both the water bottle and the kind bar near the scene of the homicide. >> reporter: nypd i

cbs' ed o'keefe has more. >> reporter: fbi directors are supposed to serve tenured terms, overlappingdencies to avoid politics. but chris wray will now be leaving about two years early. president-elect's attacks on him and the bureau taking their toll. >> my goal is to keep the focus on our mission, on the indispensable work each of you is doing every single day. in my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray. >> reporter: trump nominated wray in 2017 after he fired the former director james comey. at the time, he praised wray's credentials. >> i think i've done a great service to the country by choosing him. >> reporter: but trump soured on him after several fbi-led investigations into his ties to russia, attempts to overturn the 2020 elections, and the 2022 raid of his florida home amid the classified documents probe. >> he invaded mar-a-lago. i'm very unhappy with the things he's done. i have a lot of respect for the fbi, but the fbi's respect has gone way down. >> reporter: wray's fate was sealed earlier this month when trump announced plans to