Category Archives: US elections 2024

Nikki Haley was swatted twice within days amid ‘spike’ in threats to officials

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Police responded to fake calls targeting Republican presidential candidate, along with several other high-profile politicians

Nikki Haley was targeted by a second “swatting” attempt on New Year’s Day – just two days after authorities responded to a similar call regarding Haley, according to Reuters.

This time, the call was made by someone who said Haley’s daughter had been shot and was lying in a pool of blood. The caller, who told police her name was Rose, also said she was on the phone with Haley, who was threatening to shoot herself.

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The search for Trump’s running mate: ‘like auditions for The Apprentice’

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At issue is whether potential vice-presidents, from Elise Stefanik to Tim Scott, could assume control – and whether Trump cares

The last person who occupied the job of US vice-president ended up the target of a violent mob calling for him to be hanged. Even so, as Donald Trump closes in on the Republican nomination for 2024, there is no shortage of contenders eager to be his deputy.

It is safe to assume that Mike Pence, who was Trump’s running mate in 2016 and 2020, will not get the job this time. His refusal to comply with his boss’s demand to overturn the last election caused a permanent rift and made Pence a perceived traitor and target of the January 6 insurrectionists.

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Mike Johnson warns Ukraine-border deal likely ‘dead on arrival’ in House – live

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House speaker warns that the deal being considered in the Senate may not be feasible while also vowing to impeach homeland security secretary Mayorkas

In her closing arguments, Donald Trump’s lead attorney Alina Habba said the former president was the real victim, because of the backlash caused by E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit.

Carroll, she said, wasn’t “accepting any responsibility for the media and the press frenzy and the public profile that she wanted and still enjoys.”

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Border deal ‘really close’, says Kyrsten Sinema amid Democrats’ anger over reports of Trump meddling – as it happened

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Shifting to federal court in Washington DC, the judge Amit Mehta is on the verge of sentencing the former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 committee, Politico reports.

He was convicted of contempt of Congress charges last September:

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Tim Scott’s behaviour around Trump is ‘humiliating’, says the Rev Al Sharpton

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‘It was humiliating to watch,’ civil rights leader tells MSNBC after senator appeared with ex-president in New Hampshire

The South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott’s behaviour around Donald Trump is “humiliating”, the civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton said.

“It was humiliating to watch what Tim Scott did as a sitting senator,” Sharpton told MSNBC, for which he hosts a show, after Scott appeared with Trump in New Hampshire, where the former president won the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.

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Nikki Haley vows to fight on after Trump’s victory in New Hampshire – US politics live

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Donald Trump double digit win makes November rematch with Joe Biden more likely, but Haley says ‘this race is far from over’

Eric Bradner at CNN writes that it is difficult to see where a Nikki Haley victory is coming from, despite them promising big spending. He said:

What is not clear is where Haley could actually notch a victory against Trump. She isn’t participating in the Nevada caucuses on 8 February (she will instead be on the state’s primary ballot, which won’t lead to her winning any delegates), and polls in her home state of South Carolina – where the 24 February primary will be the next major showdown – show Trump with a huge lead.

Haley is likely to face immense pressure to depart the race in coming days. She’ll face questions about whether she’ll follow a path similar to Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who vowed to continue on after his second-place finish in last week’s Iowa caucuses – and then he dropped out days later.

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Trump-Biden rematch increasingly inevitable after New Hampshire primary

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Ex-president in strong position to seize Republican nomination after sweeping first two contests of 2024 primary season

A sweep of the first two nominating contests on the 2024 primary season left Donald Trump in a strong position to seize the Republican party nomination, and made a rematch with Joe Biden even more inevitable.

Trump’s Republican rival, Nikki Haley, vowed to fight on despite her second place finish in New Hampshire, a state where she had hoped for an upset, and her third place finish in the Iowa caucuses. But she faces long odds. There is no precedent for a candidate winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and losing their party’s nomination.

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Trump turns into sinister playground bully in New Hampshire victory lap

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Ex-president follows up his Iowa win with victory over Nikki Haley – and makes threats against his last Republican primary rival

The cruelty is the point.

As Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday night, Donald Trump now has the Republican presidential nomination sewn up. But like a Roman emperor or mob boss, Trump used his victory speech in New Hampshire to humiliate his former opponents – and make sinister threats against his last primary rival.

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Joe Biden wins New Hampshire’s Democratic primary with write-in votes

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Incumbent refused to campaign in the state and had to rely on write-in campaign powered by his allies and surrogates

Joe Biden has won New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary, even though the incumbent refused to campaign in the state and had to rely on a write-in campaign powered by his allies and surrogates to secure a victory.

Leading up to election day in New Hampshire, much more attention was paid to the Republican presidential primary, in which Donald Trump easily defeated Nikki Haley. But the results of the Democratic primary could provide additional clues about the general election in November.

Trump wins Republican primary in New Hampshire

Key dates for the 2024 election

Who’s running for president? The full list of candidates

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Nikki Haley chases upset in bitter New Hampshire face-off with Trump

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Polls open in state’s primary in what may be last chance Republicans have to stop ex-president from securing nomination

New Hampshire held its primary on Tuesday, seen by many as the last chance for Republicans to stop Donald Trump seizing their presidential nomination for a third time, as Nikki Haley chased an upset.

Would New Hampshire voters stand by Trump, the winner in Iowa last week, or would they put Haley in striking distance or even hand her a win?

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New Hampshire primary: Biden warns US democracy at stake as Trump races closer to Republican presidential nomination – as it happened

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We are a ways out from the 5 November election itself, but after today’s primary in New Hampshire the election events start coming thick and fast until we reach Super Tuesday on 5 March. If you need it, here is a handy timeline of how the process unfolds throughout the year.

Former US secretary of labor Robert Reich has written for the Guardian today, and is scathing about what he says is the way that the media are making a big deal of Trump’s performance in the campaign so far:

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OpenAI bans bot impersonating US presidential candidate Dean Phillips

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Company removes account of developer saying ChatGPT bot violated policies on political campaigning

OpenAI has removed the account of the developer behind an artificial intelligence-powered bot impersonating the US presidential candidate Dean Phillips, saying it violated company policy.

Phillips, who is challenging Joe Biden for the Democratic party candidacy, was impersonated by a ChatGPT-powered bot on the dean.bot site.

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Ron DeSantis put nearly all his eggs in the basket of a ‘war on woke’

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The Florida governor, once billed as Trump without the baggage, ended up making a series of bad gambles

It began in a glitch-filled disaster on Twitter. It ended with a misattributed quotation on X. Just like Elon Musk’s social media platform, efforts to rebrand Ron DeSantis’s US presidential election campaign could not mask its fundamental flaws.

When in May the Florida governor announced his run during a chat with Musk on Twitter Spaces, the platform’s audio streaming feature, there were technical breakdowns that drew comparisons with one of Musk’s space rockets blowing up on the launchpad.

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Ron DeSantis drops out of Republican presidential race

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Hard-right Florida governor at one point thought to be future of party ends campaign to be GOP nominee

Ron DeSantis, the hard-right governor of Florida, has ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsed Donald Trump.

“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” he said in a statement posted on X. “He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

Adam Gabbatt contributed reporting from New Hampshire

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Trump gains backing of Tim Scott as New Hampshire primary nears

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Haley needs a strong showing after Trump’s Iowa victory, but ex-president is running strong after picking up new endorsement

The New Hampshire primary campaign has entered its final days with an increasingly nasty tone as Nikki Haley and Donald Trump attacked each other amid yet more signs that Republicans are consolidating their support around the former US president as he secured a vital endorsement.

On Friday night in New Hampshire, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and a former presidential hopeful himself, said he was throwing his weight behind Trump amid rumors that he is in the running to become Trump’s running mate.

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Ron DeSantis says Republicans will lose if Donald Trump becomes presidential nominee – US politics live

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Florida governor says former president’s mounting legal issues will be a distraction in US 2024 elections

When E Jean Carroll first took the stand, Trump could be seen whispering to his lead attorney, Alina Habba. He sat with slightly hunched shoulders as Carroll testified.

Following Carroll’s initial remarks, one of her attorneys, Roberta Kaplan, asked the former Elle columnist questions about her career. Jurors heard how Carroll ascended from writing articles for high-profile publications to landing the columnist position, as well as a talkshow and authoring multiple books.

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Ron DeSantis insists US is ‘not a racist country’, echoing claim by Nikki Haley

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Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate concedes country has faced ‘challenges’ over dealing with race

The hard-right Florida governor Ron DeSantis says the US is “not a racist country”, echoing a controversial claim by Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is also trying to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.

“Well, the US is not a racist country,” DeSantis told a CNN town hall this week in New Hampshire. “And we’ve overcome things in our history. You know, I think the founding fathers – they established a set of principles that are universal.”

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Iowa caucuses: Asa Hutchinson suspends campaign; Haley says she’s ‘better choice for America’ – US politics live

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Hutchinson, who came sixth in caucuses, congratulates Trump on win; Haley tries to regain momentum with attack ad on Biden and Trump

Nikki Haley has said in a new campaign advert attacking Donald Trump and Joe Biden that she is the “better choice” for America, as the former South Carolina governor tries to regain momentum after narrowly losing to Ron DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses.

Haley puts herself forward as the better choice than Biden and Trump, whom the narrator in the ad suggests “are the two most-disliked politicians in America”.

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Trump’s 30-point Iowa lead boosts his confidence for New Hampshire win

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Trump’s victory in Iowa intensifies skepticism that any of his opponents will be able to overtake him in the Republican primary

Donald Trump will continue on to the New Hampshire primaries more confident than ever about capturing the Republican nomination after the former president secured a 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

Trump won 51% of the vote in Iowa, giving him the largest margin of victory in the history of the state’s Republican caucuses, further securing his position as the Republican frontrunner who will face President Joe Biden in November. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, secured a distant second-place finish with 21% of the vote, while Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, trailed in third place with 19%. The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came in fourth, dropped out of the race following his disappointing performance, as did the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson.

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Asa Hutchinson drops out of race for Republican presidential nomination

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Former Arkansas governor, a stalwart conservative, was willing to sharply criticize Donald Trump

The former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, a stalwart conservative willing to sharply criticize Donald Trump, has suspended his beleaguered bid for the White House the day after the Iowa caucuses.

“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa,” he said in a statement. “I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”

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