Category Archives: US elections 2024

More than a quarter of Republicans approve of Capitol attack, poll shows

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Survey also reveals more than half of Republicans think January 6 was a form of legitimate political discourse

More than a quarter of Republicans approve of the January 6 Capitol attack, according to a new poll. More than half think the deadly riot was a form of legitimate political discourse.

The Economist and YouGov survey said 27% of Republicans either strongly or somewhat approved of the riot on 6 January 2021, which Donald Trump incited in an attempt to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden.

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DeSantis opposes US aid to Ukraine as Republican presidential race intensifies – live

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Likely contender’s statement read on air by Fox News host Tucker Carlson aligns him with rival Donald Trump

Here’s Ron DeSantis’s full statement outlining his position on Ukraine, as posted by Tucker Carlson:

Other big Republican names responded to the Fox News commentator’s questionnaire, including Texas governor Greg Abbott, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, former vice president Mike Pence and, of course, Donald Trump.

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Trump should quit 2024 race if indicted in New York, Republican rival says

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Ex-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson: man facing charge over porn star payment should ‘respect institution of the presidency’

Donald Trump should quit the race for the Republican nomination in 2024 if he is indicted in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star during his victorious run in 2016, a prospective rival said.

“It doesn’t mean that he’s guilty of it or he should be charged,” said Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas. “But it’s just such a distraction that would be unnecessary for somebody who’s seeking the highest office in the land.”

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Mike Pence: history will hold Donald Trump accountable over Capitol attack

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Former vice-president, speaking at Gridiron dinner, says it ‘mocks decency’ to portray January 6 as anything other than a ‘disgrace’

Mike Pence has offered a rebuke of his one-time boss Donald Trump, saying history will hold the former president accountable for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Pence, then vice-president, was in the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to stop Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Ron DeSantis visits Iowa as Republican 2024 race heats up – as it happened

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Joe Biden continues his attacks on the GOP’s far right wing. Following his remarks earlier on this month’s strong jobs figures, he’s taken to Twitter.

“Extreme Maga [Make America Great Again] House Republicans are showing us what they value: tax breaks for the rich. They demand the biggest Medicare benefits cut in decades, ship jobs overseas, defund law enforcement, devastate our national and border security. It’s a gut punch to the middle class,” the US president tweeted earlier this afternoon.

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Ron DeSantis visits Iowa as presidential bid speculation intensifies

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Rightwing governor of Florida – and most likely rival to Trump for the 2024 nomination – promotes his book in the early voting state

The Republican Ron DeSantis greeted fans in Iowa on Friday, marking the Florida governor’s first visit this election cycle to the early voting state and intensifying speculation over when he might announce his 2024 presidential bid.

DeSantis delivered remarks to a full crowd at a casino in Davenport on Friday morning, and later appeared in Des Moines with the governor of Iowa, Republican Kim Reynolds, to promote his new book, The Courage to be Free.

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Evangelical Christians flock to Republicans over support for Israel

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Powerful voting bloc looking to back pro-Israel politicians in hopes of dictating policy that fits their theological views

When Israel’s former ambassador to the US said his country should worry less about what American Jews think and concentrate on Christian evangelicals as the “backbone” of support for the Jewish state, he had in mind the Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee.

Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a group that claims 11 million members, who have had a significant influence on Republican party politics and in hardening Washington’s already strong support for Israel.

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Larry Hogan won’t run against Trump but warns party of ‘cult of personality’

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Former Maryland governor says in op-ed he won’t be entering 2024 race and warns Republicans of putting Trump back in White House

A top Republican figure has warned that the party under Donald Trump has become a “cult of personality” and it could not afford to try and put the former US president back in the White House in 2024.

Larry Hogan, a former Maryland governor, had been widely tipped to enter the party’s nomination race but instead used an op-ed in the New York Times on Sunday to announce he would not be running and to warn against Trump’s own 2024 campaign.

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Marianne Williamson says 2024 bid is not a challenge to Biden but to a system

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‘I know how to disrupt’: the two-time aspirant to the Democratic presidential nomination fleshes out her vision for the country

Author Marianne Williamson has said she doesn’t view her very outsider bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination as a direct challenge to Joe Biden but as “challenging a system”.

The self-help writer and speaker, who also ran a nomination challenge in 2020, said voters “have to rise up” to secure an equitable economic future for the US.

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‘I am your retribution’: Trump rules supreme at CPAC as he relaunches bid for White House

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Former president claims Biden is leading America into ‘oblivion’ and that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine

Donald Trump turned back the clock to the darkest elements of his presidency on Saturday with a fiery address that showed the threat to American democracy is far from over.

After a lacklustre start to his campaign, Trump appeared to launch his White House bid in earnest with a vintage display of demagoguery that framed the 2024 election as “the final battle” for America.

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Marianne Williamson officially launches long-shot 2024 presidential campaign

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Self-help author becomes first Democrat to formally challenge Biden for the nomination

Self-help author Marianne Williamson, whose 2020 White House campaign featured more quirky calls for spiritual healing than actual voter support, launched another long-shot bid for the presidency on Saturday, becoming the first Democrat to formally challenge Joe Biden for the 2024 nomination.

“We are upset about this country, we’re worried about this country,” Williamson told a crowd of more than 600 at a kickoff in the nation’s capital. “It is our job to create a vision of justice and love that is so powerful that it will override the forces of hatred and injustice and fear.”

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Sherrod Brown in tough election fight as Ohio crash tests Democrats’ chances

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Leftwing senator has bucked trend of statewide Democratic losses but derailment in East Palestine set to test re-election hopes

US Senator Sherrod Brown has survived a decade of statewide Democratic losses in Ohio by building a reputation as the rare person in his party who can still connect with the white working-class voters who have increasingly shifted to Republicans.

But as he heads into what could be a tough re-election campaign, Brown is facing a critical test in the aftermath of the train derailment in the eastern Ohio village of East Palestine.

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Trump rival Nikki Haley seeks support from Republicans ‘tired of losing’

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Ex-UN ambassador and 2024 contender presents herself as face of ‘new generation’ in pitch to CPAC crowd still wedded to Trump

The Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley ventured on to Donald Trump’s stomping grounds on Friday, seeking support from rank-and-file Republicans who are “tired of losing”.

In remarks to a half-full ballroom at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Haley presented herself as the face of a “new generation” of Republican leaders, making her pitch to a crowd still overwhelmingly loyal to Trump, her 76-year-old former boss and rival for the party’s nomination..

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Joe Biden rallies Democrats in glimpse of possible re-election campaign

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The president celebrated in a speech his party’s successes so far in his first term while House Democrats eye regaining the chamber

Joe Biden delivered a rallying cry to fellow Democrats on Wednesday, offering a glimpse of the president’s likely re-election message as he prepares to officially announce his plans for 2024.

Speaking at House Democrats’ annual issues conference in Baltimore, Maryland, Biden celebrated Democrats’ legislative accomplishments over his first two years in office but told his allies that they still have more work to do.

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Marianne Williamson to run for president again to ‘help repair America’

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Self-help author who brought quirky spiritualism to the 2020 presidential race becomes first Democrat to challenge Biden

Bestselling self-help author Marianne Williamson, who brought quirky spiritualism to the 2020 presidential race, has announced she’s running for the White House again, becoming the first major Democrat to challenge Joe Biden for his party’s nomination in 2024.

Williamson, 70, pulled out of the 2020 presidential election in early January of that year, after failing to gain much traction with primary voters. She then endorsed Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination and he ended up coming in second to Biden, who had been trailing him badly but surged ahead after a crucial win in South Carolina.

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RNC chair: candidates must sign loyalty pledge if they want to join 2024 debates

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Ronna McDaniel says loyalty pledge by primary candidates should be a ‘no-brainer’ for party’s presidential hopefuls

The Republican National Committee’s chairperson has said that all GOP primary candidates should sign a pledge promising to support the eventual party nominee if they wish to participate in the presidential debates.

Ronna McDaniel, the RNC’s leader since 2017, told CNN in an interview Sunday that even though the debate criteria have not yet been released, the loyalty pledge should nevertheless be a “no-brainer” for the party’s presidential hopefuls.

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Larry Hogan: splitting anti-Trump vote ‘pretty good reason’ not to run in 2024

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Ex-Maryland governor tells Meet the Press: ‘I care about making sure we have a future for the Republican party’

The danger of splitting anti-Trump Republicans and helping the former president win the nomination again “would be a pretty good reason to consider not running” for the White House in 2024, the former Maryland governor Larry Hogan said.

“I don’t care that much about my future in the Republican party,” Hogan told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “I care about making sure we have a future for the Republican party.

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US officials say all debris from suspected Chinese spy balloon has been collected – as it happened

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American authorities have retrieved all the wreckage of the Chinese spy balloon a US fighter jet shot down off South Carolina’s coast, the Associated Press reports, which sparked a diplomatic incident with Beijing and kicked off a unusual spate of military action against unidentified objects in North American skies.

According to the AP, “Officials said the US believes that Navy, Coast Guard and FBI personnel collected all of the balloon debris off the ocean floor. US Northern Command said in a statement that the recovery operations ended Thursday and that final pieces are on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis. It said air and maritime restrictions off South Carolina have been lifted.”

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Republican senator Tim Scott preparing presidential run – report

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Only Black Republican in Senate set to challenge Donald Trump for nomination, Wall Street Journal says

South Carolina senator Tim Scott is reportedly taking steps to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Reporting the news, the Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources “familiar with his plans”. Jennifer DeCasper, a senior adviser, said the senator was “excited to share his vision of hope and opportunity and hear the American people’s response”.

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Buttigieg backs Biden 2024 run but poll says most Americans don’t

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Poll shows 60% of Democrats want someone else as 2024 nominee and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Trump

Nearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024, a new poll showed on Sunday.

A key member of Biden’s cabinet, however, insisted Biden’s record in office was more important than any “generational argument” for change.

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