Trump says Haley’s Civil War response was 3 paragraphs of bull—
Trump tonight dialed up his criticism of Haley, focusing on her lengthy response on the cause of the Civil War in which she made no mention of slavery.
“I’d say slavery is sort of the obvious answer, as opposed to about three paragraphs of bull—,” the former president said at a campaign event in Iowa.
Haley has since said “of course the Civil War was about slavery.”
Trump has ramped up his criticisms of Haley in recent days. Earlier this week the Trump campaign released its first attack ad aimed squarely against Haley, focusing on the southern border.
DeSantis says Trump put his supporters ‘in jeopardy’ on Jan. 6
On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, DeSantis said that Trump put his supporters “in jeopardy” by inviting them to “a hostile jurisdiction for Republicans.”
“But I think for him to invite all his supporters to DC, the belly of the beast, knowing that it’s a hostile jurisdiction for Republicans if anything would have gone wrong, whatever his intention was, you know, he put those people in jeopardy. And a lot of people have now gotten caught up in that,” DeSantis said in response to a call-in question today on Iowa radio station KCPS.
In the early days of his campaign, DeSantis criticized Trump for his inaction on Jan. 6, saying the former president “didn’t do anything” and “should’ve acted more forcefully.” A few weeks later, in an interview with British comedian Russell Brand, DeSantis said the attack was not an insurrection.
Why Trump can’t use the ‘idiot’ defense other Jan. 6 defendants often lean on
For the past three years, defense lawyers seeking leniency for Jan. 6 rioters have often struck a similar theme in trying to explain to federal judges and Washington juries how their clients fell for thoroughly debunked lies about the 2020 presidential election: They argued that their clients weren’t very smart or that they had conditions that made them vulnerable to disinformation.
In court filings and sentencing memos, lawyers defending Jan. 6 rioters have argued that their clients were duped and manipulated, that they were poorly educated, had low IQs and lacked critical thinking skills. They wanted former President Donald Trump’s “respect” and “approval” and thought they were “following presidential orders,” lawyers argued. Some Jan. 6 defendants have even called themselves idiots, lamenting that they were credulous enough to have fallen for what they now see as obvious lies.
The strategy appears to have had an impact in some cases, with judges agreeing to more lenient sentences, particularly in cases in which defendants appear genuinely remorseful for their conduct and regret that they were so gullible.
But it’s hard to see the same approach working for Trump, who famously called himself a “very stable genius,” as his own Jan. 6 trial nears.
In court filings in connection with special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case, which could go to trial as soon as March, Trump’s lawyers have gone the opposite route, attempting to give an intellectual spit-shine to his lies about mass voter fraud in the 2020 election. Trump’s worries about election fraud were not knowingly false, they’ve written, but “were plausible and maintained in good faith.” Trump, his attorneys wrote, had “reasonable concerns about the integrity of the 2020 election,” and it “was not unreasonable at the time, and certainly not criminal, for President Trump to disagree with officials now favored by the prosecution and to rely instead on the independent judgment that the American people elected him to use.”
Read the full story here.
Biden campaign blames Trump for Supreme Court’s Idaho abortion order
The Biden campaign tonight said that Trump was to blame for the Supreme Court’s decision allowing Idaho to enforce a strict abortion law ahead of arguments in the case.
“Because of Donald Trump, women in Idaho no longer have the freedom to make their own health care decisions, even when their lives are in jeopardy. For Trump, overturning Roe is an accomplishment to brag about on the campaign trail — for women and doctors across America, it’s a nightmare that has become their reality,” said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement.
“This election will determine whether women, including those in states where abortion is currently legal, have more freedoms, or less — only Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will fight back against MAGA Republicans’ assault on women’s rights,” she continued.
Democrats have garnered a string of electoral victories in states where abortion was placed on the ballot.
Christie talks about crossover between his supporters and Haley’s
During town hall tonight in Keene, N.H., a voter told Christie he is worried that Trump will win the state’s primary.
“What gives me a great deal of anxiety is that you and Gov. Haley appeal to the same people. And so my question to you is: Do you think that my anxiety about that is unfounded?”
Christie joked and said, “No, I have the same anxiety.” He then went on to say that while some of the same people are drawn to the two of them, “there are a lot of people who support me who wouldn’t support her because she is not speaking out against Donald Trump.”
Christie also said that if he decides to get out of the race it “has nothing to do with Nikki Haley.”
“I wouldn’t support her at the moment, even if I did get out, because of what she’s failed to do,” he said, including not saying that she would refuse to run as Trump’s VP if he offered it to her.
Trump campaign attacks Haley on immigration in New Hampshire mailer
Trump is again attacking Haley in New Hampshire with a mailer just weeks before the primary.
The mail flier, obtained by NBC News, attacks the former South Carolina governor on immigration and economic issues, arguing the Haley agenda consists of “open borders” and “empty wallets for New Hampshire seniors and working families.” The mailer argues that Haley “will make America less safe” and that “New Hampshire can’t afford” her.
The mailer comes on the heels of a Trump advertisement that targeted Haley over border issues on New Hampshire airwaves.
The Trump campaign’s push against Haley, who had served in the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations, comes as Haley appears to be gaining momentum in polls of the Granite State.
Haley often addresses the Trump campaign’s attacks as evidence that her rival is “nervous.”
Iowa crowd gasps when Ramaswamy says he doesn’t know who Caitlin Clark is
MAQUOKETA, Iowa — Ramaswamy missed an opportunity to put some easy points on the board tonight when he was quizzed about the University of Iowa’s star basketball player Caitlin Clark.
“Do you know the name of the Iowa women’s basketball player who has been setting records?” an audience member asked Ramaswamy in what she prefaced was a “fun” question.
“No, I don’t,” he responded, drawing gasps from the crowd. “I should, I learn something every day,” he added.
Ramaswamy is the second GOP presidential candidate to draw a foul on naming Clark. Haley took a lot of flack recently for calling her “Caitlin Collins.”
Rep. Dean Phillips bashes Biden on day of Jan. 6 democracy speech
In a post on X today, Rep. Dean Phillips, who is running for president as a Democrat, said that Biden was exhibiting “Hypocrisy on democracy.”
He also shared a photo referencing the Florida Democratic Party’s decision to not hold a primary, in contrast with Biden’s campaign focus on protecting democracy.
The Florida Democratic Party said in a statement that it had “voted unanimously to send one name, Joe Biden, to the Secretary of State as a candidate for the party’s nomination for president.” The statement also noted that there wasn’t a primary held in the state when former President Barack Obama was seeking re-election.
Phillips’ criticism of Biden came shortly before the president delivered a speech on the importance of protecting democracy.
Trump addresses Iowa school shooting: ‘We have to move forward’
At an event in Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump delivered his first in-person remarks about yesterday’s deadly shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa.
After extending his condolences, the former president said it’s time to “move forward.”
“I want to send our support and our deepest sympathies to the victims and families touched by the terrible school shooting yesterday in Perry, Iowa. To the entire community, we love you, we pray for you and we ask God to heal and comfort, really the whole, the whole state,” Trump said during a campaign rally.
He added, “It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But have to get over it, we have to move forward. We have to move forward, but to the relatives and to all of the people that are so devastated right now to a point they can’t breathe, they can’t live, we are with you all the way, we’re with you and we love you and cherish you.”
Liz Cheney gives Jan. 6 anniversary speech in N.H., does not say who she will vote for
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., gave a speech at Dartmouth today on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack emphasizing the dangers that she believes Trump poses to democracy calling him” depraved and derelict in his duty”
Cheney, an outspoken critic of Trump, was one of two Republicans who served on the House Jan. 6 committee.
When asked whether she would support Biden or as has widely been speculated, run as a third-party candidate herself, she declined to answer.
“I’m gonna do whatever is most effective to ensure that Donald Trump is not elected,” she said, noting that she would “make a decision about what that is, in the coming months”.
Trump comments on Supreme Court taking up Colorado case
The former president commented for the first time on the Supreme Court taking up the Colorado ballot case by praising the three justices he nominated.
“I fought really hard to get three very, very good people, and they’re great people, very smart people, and I just hope that they’re going to be fair,” Trump said tonight during a campaign rally in Iowa.
“I just hope we get fair treatment. Because if we don’t, our country’s in big, big trouble,” he said. “Does everybody understand what I’m saying? I think so.”
N.H. Gov. Chris Sununu to join Haley on campaign trail in Iowa
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu will campaign with Nikki Haley in Iowa, starting with a Run Gen Z event tonight followed by three town hall events tomorrow.
Since endorsing her last month, Sununu has been by Haley’s side as she has campaigned across New Hampshire, but this will be his first time stumping for her outside his home state.
Sununu’s father, former Gov. John Sununu, traveled to Iowa to campaign for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush during his presidential campaign in 1988. He later became Bush’s chief of staff in the White House.
Supreme Court to hear Trump ballot case on day of Nevada GOP caucus
The Supreme Court’s accelerated schedule for hearing the dispute over whether Trump can be on the ballot in Colorado includes oral arguments on Feb. 8, the same day as the Nevada Republican caucus.
The GOP primary process in Nevada is split into two contests this year, with Trump, Ramaswamy, DeSantis and Christie competing in a caucus run by the state Republican Party, and Haley competing in a primary run by the state government on Feb. 6. Only those participating in the caucus will be awarded delegates.
Supreme Court agrees to weigh whether Trump can be kicked off Colorado ballot
The Supreme Court today agreed to consider whether Trump could be deemed ineligible to run for federal office again because of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — a case that could have a seismic impact on the presidential election.
The justices will review a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that said Trump could be barred from the Republican primary ballot in that state, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruling is likely to have national repercussions, potentially setting guidelines that would determine how every other state would handle the issue.
The brief order said the case would be argued on an accelerated schedule on Feb. 8, indicating that a ruling will follow soon after.
Read the full story here.
Florida abortion rights groups collect enough signatures to advance 2024 ballot measure
A proposed amendment to enshrine access to abortion in Florida’s constitution moved one step closer to appearing on the November 2024 ballot after a coalition of reproductive rights advocates surpassed the required number of validated signatures today.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group leading the ballot effort, collected more than 910,000 validated signatures of registered voters — more than the nearly 892,000 they needed to move forward with the process of getting their proposal on the ballot — according to the Florida Division of Elections, which has tracked the validated signatures.
At least 150,000 of the collected and validated signatures came from registered Republican voters, underscoring the broad support for abortion rights across political lines.
Read the full story here.
Haley, DeSantis and Ramaswamy say they’d pardon Trump but not Hunter Biden if he’s convicted
Haley, DeSantis and Ramaswamy said in interviews with NBC News this week that they would pardon Trump if they were elected president, but none appeared to feel similarly if Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is convicted of the charges he faces.
Asked about pardoning Trump, DeSantis said, “I said I’d be willing to do it in order to move the country forward, because, you know, to send an almost 80-year-old to prison potentially, is that going to help heal the country or is that just going to exacerbate the divisions in the country?”
DeSantis added that when President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon over Watergate, he said that “it was not necessarily the popular thing to do. But in hindsight, it was the right thing to do.”
Similarly, Haley said, “I don’t think that we will move our country forward if we have an 80-year-old president sitting in a jail cell. I think the country will continue to be divided.”
Ramaswamy said, “I think it’s the best decision for this country for two reasons. One is those prosecutions are themselves politicized and using unprecedented legal theories that obviously would never have been levied unless there was a political motivation at issue, which is to eliminate Donald Trump from contention.”
Meanwhile, asked if Hunter Biden should be pardoned, Ramaswamy said he would not. DeSantis seemed not to rule it out, saying that it wouldn’t be the same thing as Trump’s situation. Haley suggested it was premature, saying, “I’m not gonna get into whether we pardon Hunter Biden or not. Let’s wait and see what the charges are.”
Ramaswamy sells millions of shares in his company, teases new campaign spending
According to an SEC filing, Ramaswamy sold 3 million shares in the company he founded, Roivant Sciences, for a total of approximately $33.15 million.
The Ramaswamy campaign confirmed the sale and a spokesperson told NBC News, “You can expect a significant additional investment in the campaign.”
The Ramaswamy campaign halted all TV advertising in December.
Ex-Senate candidate who Trump backed endorses Haley
Retired Brigadier Gen. Don Bolduc, a former Senate candidate, endorsed Haley in a 30-second ad recorded for her campaign, saying that he’s “MAGA all the way. I’ve always been America first. But this time, I’m for Nikki Haley for president.”
Bolduc, who was endorsed by Trump in 2022, said, “With Trump, there are too many distractions, it’s too much risk of losing.”
“Nikki’s a strong conservative. She’ll take Joe Biden to the cleaners and she’ll make our country proud,” he said.
Bolduc served 10 tours in Afghanistan and ran for the Senate twice in New Hampshire. He lost in the primary in 2020 and was defeated by Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in 2022.
Trump targets Obama in fundraising appeal
Trump blasted out a fundraising appeal today that tried to position former President Barack Obama as the target of his ire.
Trump spent years attacking Obama while he was still in office, including leading a quixotic effort to prove he wasn’t born in the U.S., which turned out to be nothing more than a conspiracy theory that was frequently criticized as having racist origins.
The fundraising email read: “Not only is Obama reportedly raising MILLIONS of dollars for Biden… his former campaign manager is now trying to INTERVENE in the Republican primary to SABOTAGE us and install a weak GOP nominee instead.”
In New Hampshire, unaffiliated voters can opt on primary day to participate in the Republican primary, a voting bloc that some have argued could help propel Haley to be competitive against Trump.
Last year, Trump appeared to confuse Obama and Biden, suggesting the former president occupied the White House instead of the current one. He then defended the swap, saying he was being sarcastic.
Biden speech will be attended by young voters motivated by Jan. 6
The Biden campaign says the audience for today’s speech includes young people who were motivated by Jan. 6 to get involved in politics and elected officials who were directly impacted by the insurrection and election denialism.
The sole other speaker today besides Biden will be Justin Douglas, who just was elected to the Dauphin County Commission to a post that includes oversight of elections. He helped give Democrats a majority of seats on the commission for the first time since the Civil War.
Special counsel Jack Smith spent $7.4 million in six months last year
Special counsel Jack Smith’s office spent $7.4 million between April and the end of September investigating Trump, according to new disclosures filed by his office today.
The special counsel’s office, which has brought two indictments against Trump in Florida and Washington, D.C., spent $5.4 million between Nov. 2022 and April of last year, bringing the total spent to $12.8 million.
In the six months between April and September, Robert Hur, the special counsel that has been tasked with investigating classified documents found in Biden’s office and Delaware residence, spent $2.8 million, bringing the total he has spent to $3.4 million.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russian influence on Trump and the 2016 election, spent a total of $32 million on his roughly two-year-long investigation.
Ohio Democrat brings bid to oust Rep. Jim Jordan to Times Square
Tamie Wilson, an Ohio Democrat taking on Rep. Jim Jordan, a top ally of Donald Trump, has taken her campaign to Times Square.
Wilson took out a billboard that went up on New Year’s Day, which says, “Save America” and encourages people to donate to her campaign. It also describes Jordan, who chairs the powerful Judiciary committee, as a “danger to us all.”
“This race just isn’t about Ohio,” Wilson told NBC News. “We’re in this fight together to save democracy and America as we know it.”
Ramaswamy says children would attend public schools if he is elected
AMES, Iowa — Asked by an Iowan what type of school he plans to send his two sons to, multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy indicated they would attend public schools if he’s elected president.
“It is my job to make sure we have fixed the educational system in this country that we can send our kids to whatever the best school is to the public schooling system,” said Ramaswamy at his first campaign stop of the day in Ames.
Ramaswamy indicated that if he were not running for president, he and his wife Apoorva would opt for homeschooling their sons.
“We’re actually strongly inclined in that direction because of what we see in the denigration of our public schools,” Ramaswamy told a crowd of about 50 Iowans.
The 38-year-old businessman recently described his net worth as a “billion on a good day, and, you know, maybe 600 million on a bad day,” in an interview with Piers Morgan.
“As your president, it would feel to me like a failure to say that every other family that doesn’t have that option, that we’re just going to leave them to the, to the wolves, really, of the Department of Education,” Ramaswamy said in Ames.
His plan for an education overhaul includes shutting down the Department of Education.
Colorado GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn announces retirement
In a radio appearance this morning, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., announced that he will not be seeking reelection next year.
“I’m not getting any younger,” he said on KVOR, a local radio station. “I want to spend time with my children, grandchildren, with my wife. I want to look for opportunities to do good. I’m going to finish out strong.”
Lamborn has served in Congress since 2007. He is the second Colorado Republican to announce his retirement after Rep. Ken Buck.
Haley speaks to the ‘hardships’ she faced dealing with racism growing up
Nikki Haley said she personally knows “the hardships, the pain that come with racism” from growing up “in the deep South as a brown girl,” during a joint interview with NBC News and The Des Moines Register Friday.
While addressing the criticism she faced over her omission of slavery as the cause of the Civil War at a New Hampshire town hall in late December, Haley shared her own personal experience, saying she was “teased every day for being brown” while growing up in rural South Carolina.
“If you want to know what it was like growing up, I was disqualified from a beauty pageant because I wasn’t white or Black because they didn’t know where to put me,” she said. “So look, I know the hardships, the pain that comes with racism.”
Haley has been attempting to clarify her Civil War comments, now saying she didn’t include slavery in her answer because she thought it was “automatic.”
Last night at a CNN town hall, when speaking about her experience with race and the comments, Haley said, “I had Black friends growing up.”
When asked about those comments in the interview this morning, Haley said, “Saying that I had Black friends is a source of pride.”
Biden says December jobs report proves ‘2023 was a great year for American workers’
President Joe Biden issued a statement this morning celebrating the monthly jobs report, saying that “2023 was a great year for American workers.”
“This morning’s report confirms that 2023 was a great year for American workers,” he said. “The economy created 2.7 million new jobs in 2023 — a year when the unemployment rate was consistently below 4 percent — more jobs than during any year of the prior Administration.”
The U.S. labor market closed out 2023 in strong shape as the pace of hiring was even more powerful than expected, the Labor Department reported Friday.
December’s jobs report showed employers added 216,000 jobs for the month while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. Payroll growth showed a sizeable gain from November’s downwardly revised 173,000.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for payrolls to increase 170,000 and the unemployment rate to nudge higher to 3.8%.
Trump campaign mailer accuses DeSantis of trying to ‘rig’ the Iowa caucuses
Just because Donald Trump is starting to dump on Nikki Haley in earnest, that doesn’t mean he has forgotten about trying to bury Ron DeSantis’s political career.
Trump’s campaign is filling Iowa mailboxes with an ad that accuses the Florida governor and his wife, Casey, of promoting election fraud in an effort to “rig” the Jan. 15 caucuses. The charge is based on an interview last month in which Casey DeSantis called on supporters to come from all over the country to help “because you do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus.”
That depends on the definition of “participate.” Obviously, out-of-staters aren’t eligible to vote in Iowa. But there’s a long tradition of campaigns importing staff, surrogates and volunteers to the Hawkeye state to boost their efforts. Trump’s son Eric, for example, led a rally for his father in Ankeny, Iowa, Thursday night.
Trump’s campaign, which confirmed the authenticity of a copy of the mailer obtained by NBC News, didn’t stop to appreciate the nuance. “Stop the fraud,” the mailer says in big, capital letters. “Reject DeSantis on January 15th.” Given Trump’s commanding lead in Iowa polling, and recent focus on countering Nikki Haley’s surge in early states, it’s noteworthy that he’s still spending money to go after DeSantis.
So is the particular claim. It pairs DeSantis with the Democrats that Trump falsely accuses of stealing the 2020 election. If that takes hold with Trump’s dominant wing of the party, it could be hard for DeSantis to recover in future years.
Former Capitol Police officer outspoken about Jan. 6 launches run for Congress
Nearly three years ago to the day, then-Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn came face to face with a violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters. Now he hopes to join the ranks of lawmakers he tried to protect on that day and the many since.
On Friday, the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Dunn launched a campaign in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, joining a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Democratic Rep. John Sarbanes.
“Because of Jan. 6 and everything that happened afterwards, it’s clear how much of a threat the extinction of our democracy is — it’s very present right now,” Dunn said in a phone interview Thursday ahead of his announcement.
“I do believe that we’re literally one election cycle away from the extinction of our democracy,” he added.
Read the full story here.
Biden to argue Trump remains a threat to democracy — a case his campaign thinks resonates with voters
PHILADELPHIA — Biden is kicking off the election year by setting his focus squarely on what he sees as the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump — a return to his “home base,” advisers say, that demonstrates the urgency his campaign sees in addressing his likely general election opponent.
Biden will deliver his first campaign speech of the year — at only the third public campaign event since he announced his re-election bid in April — on Friday near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army endured a brutal winter during the fight for American independence.
Invoking Washington’s words about the sacrifices Colonial soldiers were making, Biden plans to say the continued fight for democracy remains a “sacred cause,” a senior adviser said. The speech is intended to mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Biden will call on Americans to join him in rejecting political violence and attacks on fundamental freedoms, the adviser said.
Read the full story here.
GOP candidates barnstorm Iowa
Most of the Republican presidential candidates are stumping in Iowa with the first-in-the-nation caucuses just 10 days away.
Trump is making his first public campaign appearances of the new year, holding rallies in Sioux Center and Mason City later today. He held his last rally on Dec. 19 in Waterloo.
Ramaswamy is set to hold six events in Iowa, while DeSantis will hold three Haley will hold two, and Hutchinson will hold one.
Haley will also sit down for an interview with NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns and Des Moines Register chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel. (Ramaswamy and DeSantis did the same earlier in the week.)
Meanwhile, Christie is staying laser-focused on the second state on the GOP primary calendar with two events in New Hampshire.
