Category Archives: US elections 2024

AI firm considers banning creation of political images for 2024 elections

Posted on by

Midjourney’s CEO David Holz says company close to ‘hammering’ images of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and others ‘for next 12 months’

The groundbreaking artificial intelligence image-generating company Midjourney is considering banning people from using its software to make political images of Joe Biden and Donald Trump as part of an effort to avoid being used to distract from or misinform about the 2024 US presidential election.

“I don’t know how much I care about political speech for the next year for our platform,” Midjourney’s CEO, David Holz, said last week, adding that the company is close to “hammering” – or banning – political images, including those of the leading presidential candidates, “for the next 12 months”.

Continue reading...

Trump campaign sees boost after boost amid bad week for Biden

Posted on by

As Biden was hit by a brutal special counsel report, Trump seemed set for victory at the supreme court and his only serious Republican rival suffered humiliation

For those campaigning to bring Donald Trump back to the White House, the past week has seen much to celebrate. For those concerned for the health of American democracy, it felt like a disaster.

Joe Biden was hit by a brutal special counsel report that painted him as elderly with a failing memory, fans of Trump eager to see him on the 2024 ballot appeared set for victory at the US supreme court, and Trump’s only remaining serious challenger in the Republican primary race suffered humiliation at the polls.

Continue reading...

Larry Hogan launches Republican Senate bid after saying he lacks ‘burning desire to be a senator’

Posted on by

Ex-Maryland governor who Republicans hope can win in blue state told podcast last year sitting in Senate would be ‘really frustrating’

Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland who on Friday announced a surprise US Senate run, told an interviewer last year he did not “have a burning desire to be a senator”, would find sitting in the Senate “really frustrating”, thought being a senator was “not where my skill set lies”, and said that though he could win a seat, “the problem was I would win and I would have to go be a senator”.

Hogan made the stark remarks, which may now come to haunt him, in an interview last May with Johanna Maska, host of the Press Advance podcast and a former White House aide to Barack Obama.

Continue reading...

‘Gratuitous, inaccurate’: White House disputes special counsel report on Biden

Posted on by

Democrats launch aggressive push back and defend president against Robert Hur’s description in report

Democrats and the White House on Friday launched an aggressive push back against a special counsel report that pushed Joe Biden’s age and memory to the front and center of the presidential election campaign and spurred a series of Republican attacks on the US president.

The special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of confidential documents on Thursday said the US president would not face criminal charges in the case but in a series of remarks characterized Biden as elderly and with a failing memory – triggering a political bombshell on an issue seen as a core weakness of Biden’s re-election campaign.

Continue reading...

Biden mistakes dead European leader for living one – for second time in a week

Posted on by

President’s gaffes stoke concern over his age as election campaign against his presumptive opponent – also advanced in age – picks up

Joe Biden has twice made gaffes this week in which he told anecdotes wrongly identifying dead European leaders as having talked to him about the events of the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

On Wednesday at a campaign fundraiser in New York, Biden reportedly referred to the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as talking to him about European concerns about the attempt to stop the certification of his 2020 election win, when he apparently meant Angela Merkel. Kohl died in 2017.

Continue reading...

Black and Hispanic voters deserting Democratic party in large numbers, poll says

Posted on by

Gallup survey shows big drop in only three years among Black and Hispanic voters, a concern for Biden’s re-election campaign

Black and Hispanic voters are deserting the Democratic party in numbers that will present a concern for Joe Biden’s re-election effort, a poll has found.

Among Black Americans expressing a party preference, the Democratic lead over Republicans has dropped by almost 20% in only three years, according to the Gallup survey.

Continue reading...

Republican National Committee wants Nikki Haley to drop out to boost funds

Posted on by

Exclusive: RNC reported $8m in cash to spend, less than half of what it had in 2016, as it starts preparing for the 2024 election

Top officials at the Republican National Committee want Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, to drop out of the race for the GOP nomination so it can launch a joint fundraising committee with Donald Trump to bolster its finances, according to people familiar with the situation.

The RNC last week reported $8m in cash to spend in its year-end filing, an amount less than half of what it had when Trump was running for the presidency in 2016 and below what it needs to stand up operations as it prepares to take on Joe Biden in the general election.

Continue reading...

Haley loses to ‘none of the candidates’ in Nevada primary as Biden seals easy win

Posted on by

Haley suffers embarrassing result with Trump not on ballot and contesting delegate-selecting caucuses on Thursday instead

Nikki Haley suffered an embarrassing defeat in Nevada’s Republican presidential primary contest, when she was beaten by the “none of these candidates” option, despite Donald Trump’s absence from the ballot.

Joe Biden, meanwhile, secured another primary victory after his nearest challenger, Marianne Williamson, registered only in the low single digits. The AP called the results about two hours after polls closed on a soggy and subdued election day in Nevada.

Continue reading...

Nevada primary: Biden focuses on Black and Latino voters as GOP scheme helps Trump

Posted on by

Election day off to a quiet start with no major candidates in the state and with voters slow to trickle into polling sites

Polls have closed in Nevada, which is holding its first presidential primary contest in the US west, has been damp – and oddly quiet.

None of the major candidates are in the state, and voters have been slow to trickle into polling sites. Only about 12,000 people had opted to vote at polling stations on election day. About 151,000 people voted early, the majority of them by mail.

Continue reading...

House Republican leaders demand Senate reject immigration compromise; Haley joins opposition to deal – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Senate immigration bill, read our most recent report:

In a just-released statement, the top Republicans in the House called on the Senate to vote down the bipartisan immigration policy legislation.

“Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it,” speaker Mike Johnson, majority leader Steve Scalise, whip Tom Emmer and conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik said.

Continue reading...

Nikki Haley: Trump spends more time ‘ranting’ than fighting for American people

Posted on by

Republican candidate attacks Trump for being more concerned with himself than with country ahead of South Carolina primary

Nikki Haley pressed her case on Sunday to become the Republican presidential nominee by launching a sharp attack on her rival Donald Trump as a candidate who is set to spend more time in court than on the campaign trail this year and is intent on ranting about his own supposed victimhood rather than fighting for the American people.

With less than three weeks to go before the Republican primary in her home state of South Carolina, which many observers see as the former governor and UN ambassador’s last stand, Haley attacked Trump for being more concerned with himself than with the future of the country. She told CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning TV show that his multiple court cases, in which he faces 91 charges across four criminal cases, amounted to a “real issue”.

Continue reading...

‘Making Donald Trump a loser again’: Biden wins big in South Carolina

Posted on by

President derided Trump after easily winning first primary contest for Democratic presidential nomination

President Joe Biden won his first official primary election in a season that has become increasingly predictable with each contest.

Biden and the Democratic National Committee had successfully lobbied to thwart tradition and designate South Carolina the first contest for the party’s presidential nomination instead of Iowa and New Hampshire. On Saturday, Biden handily won more than 95% of the vote in the state that had launched his campaign in 2020. Long-shot candidates Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, and Marianne Williamson, a self-help author, trailed far behind.

Continue reading...

‘The weirdest campaign’: South Carolina delivers a win, but Biden still faces an uphill path

Posted on by

The president’s decisive victory in the first Democratic primary belies a difficult campaign ahead with various strikes against him

Surprise! Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina with a high-90s percentage that would make even Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un blush.

But despite the low energy and low turnout, there was a wider narrative on Saturday about representation, the changing face of the US and a rebuke to the white identity politics of Donald Trump.

Continue reading...

Biden hails South Carolina primary win, saying voters put him on path to ‘making Donald Trump a loser again’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed. You can read the full story and see the latest live results below:

In a statement released by his campaign, Joe Biden cast his victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary as an important step in defeating Donald Trump in the November presidential election:

In 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again – and making Donald Trump a loser – again.

When I was elected President, I said the days of the backbone of the Democratic Party being at the back of the line were over. That was a promise made and a promise kept. Now, you are First In The Nation.

Continue reading...

Biden wins South Carolina Democratic primary for presidential nomination

Posted on by

The president easily swept past his opponents Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson to gain the state’s nod for the nomination

President Joe Biden has again won the South Carolina presidential primary, his first formal primary win of the election season.

Amid low voter turnout, the Associated Press projected that Biden also won all 55 of the state’s Democratic delegates. Another seven delegates are pledged by party leaders and elected officials, such as South Carolina’s lone Democratic congressman, Jim Clyburn. Neither Dean Phillips, the congressman from Minnesota, nor author Marianne Williamson received at least 15% of the statewide vote or 15% of the vote in any congressional district, the threshold necessary to win delegates.

Continue reading...

South Carolina Democratic primary 2024: track live results

Posted on by

Follow live as the state’s Democratic voters choose their preferred candidate for the US elections

The South Carolina Democratic primary took place on 3 February, and was chosen by the Democratic National Committee as the first election contest in the 2024 election year. Joe Biden is the clear frontrunner in the primary and hopes to recapture the enthusiasm that launched his campaign in 2020.

The polls closed at 7pm.

Continue reading...

Biden poised for boost as Democratic primaries begin in South Carolina

Posted on by

State holds party’s first official primary under new schedule, with president polling at 70%

Joe Biden aims to build on recent momentum on Saturday, when South Carolina officially launches the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The US president received a boost last month when he won an unsanctioned primary election in New Hampshire without even appearing on the ballot. A grassroots write-in campaign ensured that he brushed aside his challengers Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson.

Continue reading...

What does Biden’s order against Israeli settlers mean and why did he do it now?

Posted on by

Some see the US president’s executive order imposing sanctions on settlers who violently attack Palestinians as a bid to win support

Was Joe Biden’s announcement of unprecedented US sanctions against Israeli settlers in occupied Palestine a sign of political weakness at home, or of a newly found willingness to assert American influence over Israel?

The president signed the executive order imposing financial and travel sanctions on settlers who violently attack Palestinians shortly before a campaign rally in the swing state of Michigan, where the largest Arab American population in the country has rounded on Biden over his largely blanket support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Continue reading...

State department identifies Israeli citizens targeted by US sanctions as Netanyahu rejects them as ‘unnecessary’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For more on the US involvement in the Middle East crisis, you can read:

During the news conference, Austin said the US would have a “multi-tiered response” to the Jordan attacks that killed three US service personnel. He added that the US had the ability to respond a “number of times depending on what the situation is”.

Austin said the deadly attack was carried out by groups funded and trained by Iran, but said it remains unclear how much Tehran knew in advance.

Continue reading...

Arizona Republican says state lawmakers, not voters, should pick president

Posted on by

State senator Anthony Kern, who was a fake pro-Trump elector in 2020, says legislature should choose electors

A proposal from an Arizona lawmaker calls for the state legislature to decide on presidential electors instead of adhering to a popular vote.

The state senator Anthony Kern, a Republican, served as a fake elector in 2020, falsely asserting that Donald Trump won the state. Those involved in the fake electors schemes in several states have been charged. In Arizona, the fake electors are under investigation by the Democratic attorney general, her office has confirmed. Kern also attended the 6 January 2021 rally at the US Capitol.

Continue reading...