US Politics

Nikki Haley calls for ‘new generation’ of leaders in presidential campaign launchHaley, 51, cast herself as an agent of change who could transform a nation inflicted with ‘doubt, division and self-destruction’ Republican Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and a UN ambassador under Donald Trump, formally launched her campaign for president on Wednesday, calling on Americans to reject the “stale ideas and faded names of the past” and to instead put their faith in a “new generation” of political leaders.Appearing publicly for the first time since declaring her candidacy, Haley, 51, cast herself as an agent of generational change who could transform a nation gripped by “doubt, division and self-destruction”.Nikki Haley: video shows Republican candidate saying US states can secedeRead moreSpeaking in Charleston, amid chants of “Nikki”, Haley sketched a vision for a country that was “strong and proud, not weak and woke” as she sought to capitalize on her experience pursuing Trump’s “America first” agenda on the world stage.“America is not past our prime. It’s just that our politicians are past theirs,” Haley said, in one of several references to the age of the nation’s leading politicians. She vowed term limits for members of Congress and “mental competency tests” for politicians over the age of 75, a population that includes both Joe Biden, who is 80, and Trump, who is 76.Haley leaned heavily on her biography as the “proud daughter of Indian immigrants” raised in a small South Carolina town. As a “brown girl growing up in a black and white world,” she forcefully denounced the notion that America was “flawed, rotten and full of hate”.“Take it from me, America is not a racist country,” she said, blaming Biden and vice president Harris for promoting a culture of “self-loathing” that she warned was a “virus more dangerous than any pandemic”.Winning the presidency would also require Americans to do something they’ve never done, she said: “Sending a tough-as nails-woman to the White House.”Even as Haley emphasized her boundary-breaking political career as the first governor of South Carolina who was neither white nor male and the first Indian American member of a presidential cabinet, she attempted to downplay the role of identity politics – a topic Republicans often try to weaponize against Democrats.“This is not about identity politics,” she said. “I don’t believe in that. And I don’t believe in glass ceilings, either.”Before Haley’s launch event, she earned the endorsement of South Carolina congressman Ralph Norman, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus whose candidacy Trump backed in 2022.Speaking in Charleston, Norman hailed the former governor as a defender of “true conservative values” unafraid to take on leaders in both parties.“Nikki and I are Republicans,” he said. “But folks let me tell you something: we are conservatives first.”The invocation was delivered by John Hagee, an evangelical pastor and stalwart ally of Trump who been denounced as homophobic, Islamophobic and antisemitic.Democrats, meanwhile, sought to tie Haley to Trump and his “Maga extremism”. Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, who is from South Carolina, said Haley’s conservative record and allegiance to Trump should alarm voters.“If she says that she wants to do for the nation what she did for South Carolina,” he told reporters on Tuesday, “God bless us all.”But before Haley has a chance at possibly taking on the president, she will have to successfully dethrone Trump, her one-time boss, whose entrenched support poses a threat to any Republican challenger.Haley had initially pledged not to run against Trump if he was a candidate. But she recently let Trump know that she had changed her mind and, in a sign he may benefit from a splintered field, he welcomed her to the race.With her entrance into the race, Haley became the first prominent Republican to challenge the former president, but the field is expected to widen considerably.Florida governor Ron DeSantis is widely expected to run for president, as well as several other former Trump administration officials, including vice-president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Former Maryland governor and vocal Trump critic Larry Hogan has also indicated interest while South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has also been mentioned as a possible contender.In the end, Haley may not even be the only Republican politician from South Carolina to run – Senator Tim Scott is also reportedly weighing a White House bid.Attempting to set herself apart, Haley leaned into her experience as UN ambassador on Wednesday, positioning herself as a champion of American strength on the global stage.She was introduced by the mother of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died in 2017 shortly after being freed from captivity in North Korea. In her remarks, Cindy Warmbier, praised Haley’s persistence as UN ambassador to ensure his release. “We need Nikki Haley fighting for all our children the way she fought for Otto,” she said.Haley continued this theme in her speech. “The dictators, murderers and thieves at the UN didn’t know what hit ’em,” she said, vowing to stand with America’s allies from “Israel to Ukraine”.Amid frequent downings of aerial objects in recent weeks, including a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was downed off the South Carolina coast, Haley condemned China and the administration’s approach to challenging the global superpower.“It is unthinkable that Americans would look at the sky and see a Chinese spy balloon looking back at us,” she said, vowing that under her leadership “communist China will end up on the ash heap of history”.Early polling of the notional Republican primary field suggests she has a long way to climb. She draws the support of less than 4% of Republican primary voters, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average, well behind Trump, DeSantis and even Pence.But Haley’s supporters pointed to her record of come-from-behind victories that saw her take down a 30-year-incumbent to win a seat in the South Carolina state legislature and later defy the odds to become governor.“When you underestimate Nikki Haley, you’re making a mistake,” Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the Republican party, told the crowd.In her remarks, Haley embraced the role of underdog. She noted that Republicans had lost the popular vote in seven of the previous eight presidential elections, declaring it time to elect new conservative messengers. “Our cause is right but we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans,” she said.And to her rivals, Haley said her message was simple: “May the best woman win.”TopicsNikki HaleyUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

Tesla to expand supercharger stations to all electric vehicles, White House saysFunding for the EV charging network comes from the infrastructure bill that allocates $7.5bn to the expansion The White House is partnering with Tesla to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the US, with the company opening at least 7,500 of its chargers to all electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of 2024, the White House announced on Wednesday.Tesla charging stations currently use a certain power connector that require non-Tesla EVs to use an adapter. The White House said that Tesla will work to include at least 3,500 new and existing 250 kW superchargers along highways and level 2 destination chargers at locations like hotels and restaurants across the country. Tesla is also planning to double its network of superchargers.Electric car enthusiasts tantalized by new idea: converting old vehiclesRead moreThe Biden administration in 2021 set goals of having 50% of new vehicle sales in the country to be EVs and 500,000 EV chargers along highways by 2030. The US currently has around 3m EVs on the road and about 60,000 charging stations across the country.The administration’s goals “have spurred network operators to accelerate the buildout of coast-to-coast EV charging networks”, the White House said in a statement. “Public dollars will supplement private investment by filling gaps, serving rural and hard to reach locations and building capacity in communities.”Along with its partnership with Tesla, the White House is working with other companies, including car manufacturers like General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, to build out more chargers. Rental car company Hertz is working with BP to bring chargers to Hertz locations in major cities. Hertz is planning to make one-quarter of its fleet electric by 2024.Funding for the EV charging network expansion comes largely from the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021. The bill allocates $7.5bn for charging infrastructure, including a $2.5bn community grant program. In September, the White House said that all 50 states have plans to build chargers using funding from the bill.The announcement of the White House’s partnership with Tesla comes after reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with White House officials, though not with Biden himself, in late January. The Washington Post reported that Musk met with John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu, top White House aides charged with implementing Biden’s clean infrastructure policies, on 27 January.Musk has clashed with the administration and other Democrats, particularly over labor unions. In the past, Biden praised GM and Ford, both which work with unions, for their EV efforts over Tesla. In a tweet last year, Musk called Biden “a damp [sock] puppet in human form” after Biden praised GM and Ford for “building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before”.Landrieu told reporters that partnerships with companies, including Tesla, took “many, many months” and that Musk was “very open [and] very constructive” in meetings with the administration.TopicsElectric, hybrid and low-emission carsTeslaBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Republicans blocked gun reform laws a year before Michigan State shootingDemocrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers Less than a year before a gunman attacked Michigan State University’s campus on Monday, killing three students and injuring five, Republican legislators in the state rejected an opportunity to change gun regulations.In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Michigan Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers. Six months earlier, a shooting at Oxford high school near Detroit had also reinvigorated Democratic efforts to change Michigan gun laws. But the gun bills were blocked by Republicans, who controlled both chambers of the state legislature. ‘The kids need help’: how young people want adults to tackle gun violenceRead moreAfter years of thwarted efforts, Michigan Democrats may finally be able to act. In November, the party gained majorities in both chambers of the Michigan legislature for the first time in nearly 40 years, giving them a chance to reconsider the gun proposals that languished under Republican control.It remains unclear whether the bills previously considered by the legislature might have prevented the mass shooting at Michigan State. Authorities identified the shooter as 43-year-old Anthony McRae, but they declined to offer details on the weapon used in the attack or a potential motive.For many Michiganders, the shooting stirred up painful memories. Just 15 months earlier, a teenager used a handgun purchased by his father to fatally shoot four students at Oxford high school, outside of Detroit. Local media reports indicate that some survivors of the Oxford shooting, as well as one survivor of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, were on Michigan State’s campus Monday.“We have children in Michigan who are living through their second school shooting in under a year and a half,” Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, said on Tuesday. “If this is not a wake-up call to do something, I don’t know what is.”But Michigan Democrats have faced fierce opposition in their efforts to change state gun laws. Republicans consistently blocked bills aimed at expanding background checks and banning the large-capacity magazines frequently used in mass shootings. Even relatively modest proposals, such as mandating safe storage of firearms or enacting a “red flag law” to allow courts to seize guns from those deemed to be dangerous, failed in the Republican-controlled legislature.Court records show that, in 2019, McRae faced a felony charge for carrying a concealed weapon and a misdemeanor charge for possessing a loaded firearm in or upon a vehicle. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation. The incident raised questions about whether McRae should have been denied access to a firearm prior to the Monday shooting.“We cannot keep living like this,” Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Our children are scared to go to school. People feel unsafe in their houses of worship, or local stores. As parents, we tell our kids it’s going to be OK. But the truth is words are not good enough. We must act and we will.”Whitmer has already indicated that addressing gun violence would be a top priority for her administration, and the Michigan State shooting appears to have added a sense of urgency to Democrats’ efforts. As they mourned the young lives lost on Monday, Democratic legislators pledged that they would move quickly to pass new gun regulations.“Even the basics will make a difference – we need universal background checks, safe storage laws and red flag laws,” Democratic state senator Darrin Camilleri said. “Of course we need more, but let’s start with this … Tomorrow, we go back to the Capitol and get to work to create change.”In a statement offering condolences to the Michigan State community, Joe Biden also reiterated his call to enact a nationwide ban on assault weapons and require background checks for all gun sales. Last year, Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers and provided funding for mental health and violence intervention programs, but he said more must be done to address gun safety. Underscoring the scope of the issue, Biden noted that the Michigan tragedy came one day before the country marked five years since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, when 17 people were killed.“Too many American communities have been devastated by gun violence,” Biden said. “Action is what we owe to those grieving today in Michigan and across America.”Despite the urgent demands for action, Democrats still face significant challenges in changing gun laws. At the federal level, Republicans now control the House of Representatives, making it easier for them to block gun safety bills. In Michigan, Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, so party leaders will have little wiggle room as they attempt to enact new gun regulations.But gun safety advocates remain undaunted, promising that they will keep working until lawmakers act.“No one should have to fear for their life while walking on campus. No one should have to text their loved ones goodbye,” said Annie Heitmeier, a third year student at Michigan State and a volunteer with the gun safety group Students Demand Action.“We won’t stand for any more inaction from our legislators because no one should ever experience the terror and fear that we lived through last night.”TopicsMichiganUS gun controlUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

Nikki Haley must walk a fine line in bid to be next Republican president Former South Carolina governor and daughter of Indian immigrants aims to be standard bearer of party fired by race and gender fights while not alienating Trump supportersAs the Republican governor of South Carolina in 2015, Nikki Haley stood shoulder to shoulder with political leaders from across the state to call for the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. Days before, an avowed white supremacist who posed with the flag in photographs massacred nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston.As her state – and the nation – reeled from the heinous act, Haley argued that the flag embraced by many southerners as a symbol of “noble” traditions was for too many others “a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past”.Nikki Haley to seek Republican nomination for 2024 presidential electionRead moreIt was a defining moment for the governor, one that earned her national attention and cemented her status as a Republican rising star. On Tuesday, Haley, 51, officially entered the race for president, becoming the first and so far only major Republican challenger to former president Donald Trump.In an announcement video, Haley sought to capture some of that early optimism about her political future. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership,” she says.The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley was born in the small town of Bamberg, South Carolina, and raised in the Sikh faith. “Not Black, not white, I was different,” says Haley, who later converted to Christianity.From a young age, Haley was involved with her family’s clothing business, and began helping with the book-keeping at age 13. She began her political career in the state legislature as a small-government disciple who would eventually attract the support of the Tea Party movement. In 2010, she made history when she became the first governor of South Carolina who was neither white nor male. Four years later, she won re-election.Making the case for her candidacy, Haley argued that she has excelled in the gauntlet of South Carolina politics. In a Fox News interview earlier this year, she bragged that she had “never lost a race”.Haley is staunchly conservative. As governor, she refused to expand Medicaid and signed into law a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that did not include exceptions for rape or incest. She also expanded concealed carry laws, despite calls for gun reform in the wake of the Charleston murders.On her campaign website, Haley touts her role in pushing Trump to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal as well as her support for his decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Haley faced backlash and accusations of hypocrisy in 2019, four years after she ordered the Confederate flag to be taken down, for telling the conservative podcast host Glenn Beck that the Confederate battle flag represented “service and sacrifice and heritage” before it was “hijacked” by Dylann Roof, the Charleston gunman. In an op-ed, Haley argued that her views hadn’t changed and blamed the “outrage culture” for stoking the response.The episode underscored the fine line Haley is attempting to walk as she charges into a competition already shaped by cultural fights over race and gender.Though Haley has spoken about the discrimination she and her family faced as an immigrant family in the south, she rejects the notion that systemic racism exists in the US.“Some look at our past as evidence that America’s founding principles are bad,” she says, as her announcement video shows imagery of racial justice protesters and news clips about the 1619 project. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”As she navigates the nascent Republican field, Haley is also contending with her past statements about the former president and her chief primary rival.During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Haley strongly opposed Trump’s presidency, backing the Florida senator Marco Rubio instead. Tapped to deliver the Republican response to Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, she urged Americans to resist the “siren call of the angriest voices”, which many interpreted as an oblique criticism of Trump. (She later insisted that it was not.)Yet Haley quickly overcame what she would describe as her initial “reservations” about Trump and endorsed him as the party’s nominee.In 2017, she joined the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations. During her two-year tenure, she championed Trump’s isolationist foreign policy on the world stage. She notably led the effort to withdraw the US from the UN human rights council, calling it a “protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias”.She also announced sanctions on Russia, drawing criticism from White House aides who said she had gotten ahead of the administration. Top economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested that Haley had “momentary confusion” over the administration’s actions, to which she replied: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”With All Due Respect became the title of her memoir, released after leaving the administration in 2018. Despite her unexpected departure, Haley is one of the rare officials to depart Trump’s administration on relatively good terms with the president.Since then she has treaded carefully with her former boss, praising Trump’s record while offering some criticism that could help her appeal to more moderate conservative voters. “We should embrace the successes of the Trump presidency and recognize the need to attract more support,” she wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last year.In the wake of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Haley condemned Trump’s actions and said he would be “judged harshly by history”. But then she worked to return to his good graces and opposed his impeachment over his role in the Capitol assault.Haley previously pledged she would not run if Trump was a candidate. But Trump said recently that Haley informed him that she was considering running and he encouraged her to do it.His eagerness may reflect polling that shows Trump’s odds of winning the nomination rise in a splintered field of more Republican candidates. Nearly a year before primary voting begins, most early polls show Haley drawing between 1% and 3%, far behind Trump and the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. Though much could change, her standing has prompted some speculation that she may be auditioning for another role, perhaps as a running mate to the Republican nominee.South Carolina has traditionally played an early and decisive role in choosing the parties’ presidential nominees – and this year loyalties among the state’s prominent Republicans are divided.As governor, Haley appointed Tim Scott to replace the retiring South Carolina senator Jim DeMint in 2013. Scott, the Senate’s only current Black Republican, won a special election a year later and is now weighing a presidential bid of his own.The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who praised Haley as a compassionate changemaker in an entry naming her one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2016, has already thrown his weight behind Trump.But Haley exuded confidence in her announcement video on Tuesday, declaring that she was prepared to take on the US’s foreign adversaries – and perhaps her own political ones as well.“They all think we can be bullied, kicked around,” Haley says in the video. “You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels.”TopicsNikki HaleyRepublicansUS elections 2024US politicsprofilesReuse this content More

Kevin Rudd: Australia’s incoming ambassador to US says balloon saga threatens push to ease tensions with ChinaFormer Labor prime minister says incident has created ‘diplomatic clouds’ that may overshadow efforts to stabilise relationship The incoming Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has warned the Chinese balloon saga has created new “diplomatic clouds” that put at risk recent efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.In a speech in Brisbane on Wednesday, Rudd also warned against expecting any “softening in China’s ideological cleavage with the west”.Rudd, a former Labor prime minister who remains as president of the Asia Society until late next month, emphasised that he was offering “personal reflections” which “do not represent the views of the Australian government”.But given he is due to take up his diplomatic posting within weeks, Rudd’s views are likely to attract attention in Washington and Beijing.UK rehearsing economic fallout scenarios if China invades TaiwanRead moreDelivering the inaugural China Matters Oration at the University of Queensland, Rudd reiterated his view that “we are now indeed living in what I have called the decade of living dangerously”.He said the Chinese Communist party appeared to have abruptly changed course on Covid-19 policy because it “feared that not doing so would threaten its unofficial social contract with the Chinese people”.It also worried that a structural slowdown in growth could undermine China’s long-term strategic competition against the US, Rudd said. Those factors made it essential to “return to economic growth at all costs”.“While there has been much internal criticism for how the abrupt change to Chinese Covid policy was made, we should not conclude as a result that Xi Jinping is in real and immediate political danger,” Rudd said.“We should never forget that Xi’s control of the hard levers of power across the party’s security, intelligence and organisational apparatus continues to be near-complete.”Spurred by the “new urgency of its economic growth imperative”, China had attempted to make changes to its international relations in the wake of Xi’s meeting with the US president, Joe Biden, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in November.Rudd said those efforts included Xi’s renewed contact with heads of government around the world, particularly European leaders, to promote Chinese trade and investment opportunities.Xi had also reined in “the polarising practice of ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy seen over the last five years toward US partners and allies around the world, as Beijing embarks on a new approach in the short-to-medium term to accommodate its immediate economic growth agenda”.But Rudd predicted none of those shifts were likely to result in China changing its current military posture regarding the US, Japan and Taiwan.He said China retained its long-term strategic objective of increasing its power relative to the US “to make it possible to secure Taiwan by force at a time of Beijing’s choosing”.He said these structural tensions would “likely manifest in continued and increasing Chinese air force crossings of the median line in the Taiwan Strait; so too with Chinese intercepts of US and allied reconnaissance flights over the South China Sea”.“But nonetheless, prior to recent developments over the interception of the Chinese balloon over the United States, Beijing had begun to moderate its political relationship with Washington.”This was meant to pave the way for a visit to China by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to continue talks on putting in place “protections” or “guardrails” to manage growing strategic competition.But Blinken postponed this month’s trip after the detection over US territory – and later shooting down – of a high-altitude balloon that American officials said was a Chinese surveillance device.What do we know about the four flying objects shot down by the US?Read more“While Beijing’s objectives may have been limited in scope, both sides appeared to have agreed not to allow their relationship to continue to freefall for the near term,” Rudd said.“At least that was the case until the extraordinary events of February. As of today, it remains unclear if and when the diplomatic clouds may clear to the extent they would enable the return of Secretary Blinken to Beijing – and the extent to which bilateral political resolve remains to find new mechanisms to stabilise the relationship as envisaged last November.”Rudd is due to take up his posting as ambassador to the US at a time when Australia is planning the most substantial overhaul of its defence capabilities in decades, even as it tries to “stabilise” its previously frosty relationship with China.On Tuesday the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, received the report of a defence strategic review, which is widely expected to see Australia acquire longer range missiles and attempt to project power further from its shores.Australia is also finalising the details of its plans to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with help from the US and the UK under the Aukus deal.The head of Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine taskforce, V-Adm Jonathan Mead, revealed on Wednesday that he had handed his recommendations to the government “earlier this year”. A joint announcement by Albanese, Biden and the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is expected next month.Australia’s deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, told the ABC the government’s response to the wide-ranging defence review would be released “weeks” after the initial Aukus announcement.Marles also said he planned to introduce legislation to “remove any doubt” that former Australian defence personnel must maintain their country’s secrets. It follows a review into concerns about China’s attempted recruitment of former fighter pilots.TopicsKevin RuddChinaAsia PacificAustralian politicsUS politicsAustralian militaryTaiwannewsReuse this content More

Nikki Haley: video shows presidential candidate saying states can secedeClip released on day of Republican’s announcement that she will challenge Donald Trump for nomination03:32Shortly after Nikki Haley announced her campaign for president on Tuesday, footage was released showing the Republican former South Carolina governor saying states have the right to secede from the union.Nikki Haley to seek Republican nomination for 2024 presidential electionRead more“I think that they do,” Haley said in the footage, which Patriot Takes, an anonymously run social media account and fundraising Pac which claims to “monitor and expos[e] rightwing extremism and other threats to democracy”, said came from 2010 and featured an unnamed neo-Confederate group.“I mean, the constitution says that.”Haley also said she did not think South Carolina should secede.Haley’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor and political scientist at Georgia State University, said on Twitter: “No, Nikki Haley, the constitution does not provide a right for secession. See, Texas v White (1869). See also, the civil war.”In December 1860, South Carolina was the first of 11 southern states to secede over the issue of slavery, prompting civil war. Four bloody years of fighting led to the defeat of those Confederate states.Four years later, Texas v White, a supreme court case, held that states entering the union became part of “an indissoluble relation … as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original states. There [is] no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the states”.In 2010, presidential candidate Nikki Haley told a pro-Confederate group that states have a right to secede.Interviewer: “Do you believe the states of the United States have the right to secede from the Union?”Haley: “I think that they do. I mean, the Constitution says that.” pic.twitter.com/QwJNdhZpDV— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) February 14, 2023
Haley, who is Indian American, ran for governor in South Carolina in 2010 and won a second term in 2014. She came to national prominence in 2015, in the aftermath of a racist mass murder in Charleston, when she ordered a Confederate flag removed from statehouse grounds. The same year, however, she said a statehouse celebration of the anniversary of secession should be allowed to proceed.Four years later, she provoked controversy when she said the Confederate battle flag had represented “service and sacrifice and heritage” before it was “hijacked” by Dylann Roof, the racist gunman who killed nine people at a historic Black church in 2015.Haley opposed Donald Trump’s run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but after he won the White House she resigned as governor to become his United Nations ambassador. She resigned from that post in 2018.Haley originally said she would not challenge Trump for the nomination if he ran in 2024. He did and she changed her mind, announcing her 2024 campaign on Tuesday, ahead of a Wednesday launch in Charleston.Haley does not score highly in polling but one recent survey showed potential for Haley to split the anti-Trump vote and thereby hand the nomination to the former president.Patriot Takes said the footage released on Tuesday had been recorded in 2010, 150 years after the South Carolina secession, in the year Haley first ran for governor.Asked if she would support South Carolina seceding again, Haley said she did not think that would become a possibility, then discussed healthcare policy – a rightwing rallying point in 2010, around the time of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.“I believe that … faith is being lost in Congress,” Haley said in the footage. “And as that happens, they’re gonna look at our governors for good conservative policy.“I’m not just going to say no to Washington, I’m going to make sure we have solutions as to how we can keep them out and keep the states in control. When we do that, not only will it be me as the governor, I think it will be several states and governors that go and take our states back and keep Washington out of the way.“So I’m one of those that’s an optimist by nature that doesn’t think it’s going to get to [secession] because I will fight as long as I need to to prove why DC needs to stay out of it.”Her questioner said he was “positive too … positive it’s going to come to” secession.TopicsUS elections 2024Nikki HaleyRepublicansUS politicsSouth CarolinaAmerican civil warnewsReuse this content More

Biden drops candidate’s nomination to human rights post over Israel remarksProfessor says his selection was dropped for describing Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and accusing Jeffries of being ‘bought’ by Aipac The Biden administration has withdrawn the nomination of a leading law professor to an international human rights post, for describing Israel as an “apartheid state” and accusing the top Democrat in Congress of being “bought” by pro-Israel groups.James Cavallaro, of Wesleyan and Yale universities, said he was told by the US state department on Tuesday it had dropped his selection to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “due to my statements denouncing apartheid in Israel/Palestine”.The withdrawal of his nomination followed an article by a New York Jewish newspaper, the Algemeiner, that also highlighted Cavallaro’s retweeting of a Guardian story about the gratification of pro-Israel groups at the election of the New York Democratic congressman Hakeem Jeffries as House minority leader.Jeffries is closely tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and other hardline pro-Israel lobby groups. One of them, Pro-Israel America, was his largest single donor over the past year.Cavallaro retweeted the Guardian story with the comment: “Bought. Purchased. Controlled.”The state department spokesman, Ned Price, said the administration had not been acquainted with Cavallaro’s views when his nomination was announced on Friday.“We were not aware of the statements and writings,” he said. “His statements clearly do not reflect US policy, they are not a reflection of what we believe and they are inappropriate to say the least.”Cavallaro, who was IACHR president six years ago, said he reminded state department officials that Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the leading Israeli human rights group, BTselem, “have issued reports naming the conditions in Israel/Palestine as apartheid”.“My nomination would not have affected US policy on Israel. What has the withdrawal of my nomination achieved? The removal from the [IACHR] of the potential return of a committed, experienced advocate for human rights in the Americas,” he said on Twitter.Cavallaro described the withdrawal of his nomination as part of broader “censorship of human rights advocates who denounce apartheid in Israel”, making reference to the Harvard Kennedy School’s blocking of a post for the former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth over his criticisms of Israeli policies. The school backed down following a public outcry.Cavallaro, the founder and director of the University Network for Human Rights, said he deleted “many” of his controversial tweets because he was “proactively and in good faith addressing concerns the state department had raised during the vetting process about public expressions of my personal views on US policy”.TopicsBiden administrationUS politicsJoe BidenHakeem JeffriesnewsReuse this content More

Welcome to the 2024 Republican primary field, Nikki Haley! 03:30Here’s who else you will probably be up against in your quest for the White House:First of all, there’s Donald Trump. Not only has he already declared his run, but poll after poll indicate he’s the frontrunner among potential GOP contenders. Consider him the final boss of this election’s Republican primary – but as any video gamer knows, your last adversary isn’t always the most difficult to overcome. The former president, after all, has no shortage of liabilities.There’s also Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is so widely expected to run that Trump has already started attacking him. He’ll campaign on taking his divisive culture wars legislation national, while touting the southern state as an economic success story.Republican senator Tim Scott is expected to soon announce his own bid for the White House, bringing the number of South Carolinians in the GOP’s field to two. And don’t forget about Mike Pence. The former vice-president may have fallen out with Trump, but he’s betting the Republican rank and file will give him a second chance.Who else? Speculation is endless, but other good bets are Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, senator Ted Cruz and perhaps Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin.The ranks of challengers to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024 are growing, with his former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley announcing her candidacy today and other Republicans like former vice-president Mike Pence, senator Tim Scott and Florida governor Ron DeSantis expected to throw their hats in the ring in the weeks or months to come. Meanwhile, a somber Washington is marking five years since the deaths of 17 adults and children in the Parkland, Florida mass shooting, with Democrats reiterating their calls for more stringent gun control.Here’s what else happened today:
Senator Dianne Feinstein said she will not stand for re-election in 2024. The 89-year-old Democrat is the oldest sitting lawmaker in Congress, and several candidates have already emerged for her seat.
Pence plans to challenge a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith with an unusual legal strategy that, if successful, could shield him from having to cooperate with the investigation into Trump’s campaign to undo the 2020 election.
Senators received a classified briefing on the UFOs shot down over North American airspace, but no big revelations emerged.
George Santos insisted (again) that he won’t be going anywhere.
Trump will have to pay $110,000 for defying a subpoena from the New York attorney general, after a judge turned down his challenge to the penalty.
Meanwhile, national security council spokesperson John Kirby has said the objects downed over North America could be “benign” after all, the Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong reports:Three unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets since Friday may turn out to be balloons connected to “benign” commercial or research efforts, a White House official said on Tuesday.The US has not found any evidence to connect the objects to China’s balloon surveillance program nor to any other country’s spy program, national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters.“We haven’t seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the [People’s Republic of China’s] spying program, or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts,” he said.Instead, a “leading explanation” may be that the objects were operated privately for commercial or research purposes, Kirby said, though no one has stepped forward to claim ownership.The unidentified object shot down by a US fighter jet over northern Canada on Saturday was a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it”, according to a Pentagon memo to US lawmakers obtained by CNN.Three objects shot down by US jets may be ‘benign’ balloons, White House saysRead moreEarlier today, senators received a classified briefing on the three UFOs and the Chinese spy balloon shot down recently over North America.According to Punchbowl News, there were no big revelations from the briefing, at least none that the lawmakers would share publicly. The military still isn’t sure what the three objects destroyed by America jets since Friday were doing, other than that it’s possible they were meant for surveillance, and were destroyed because of their potential threat to civilian air traffic.“Nothing is clear at this point — other than that they exist,” said Democratic senator Bob Menendez.As for the downed Chinese spy balloon, the military has already gleaned “very valuable information” from parts recovered so far, Republican senator Thom Tillis said, though he did not reveal what exactly they learned.Republicans are rubbing their hands together with glee at the news that Dianna Feinstein will step down.“Sen. Dianne Feinstein is retiring. She is the second Senate Democrat to retire this year. Who will be next? Joe Manchin? Jon Tester? Bob Casey? Tammy Baldwin?” the National Republican Senatorial Committee wrote in an email shortly after the California lawmaker’s announcement.Democrats are expected to have a tough time maintaining their two-seat Senate majority in the 2024 elections, where lawmakers like Manchin, Tester and Sherrod Brown, all of whom represent red states, will be up for re-election. There’s also a chance the GOP could flip a seat in a swing state, such as Casey’s in Pennsylvania, or Baldwin’s in Wisconsin.But the GOP should know better than to think Feinstein’s retirement has anything to do with all that. At 89 years old, Feinstein is the older person in Congress and the subject of reports of declining health. It’s hard to see her campaigning for another term, even in deep-blue California.The Lincoln Project – a group formed by anti-Trump conservatives in the run-up to the 2020 election and which has maintained a high profile – is out with a statement about Nikki Haley’s run for president.Haley, the statement says, is “a candidate with more ambition than principles. Her once promising career checked the right boxes and seemed to show her willingness to stand on principle. But then Donald Trump came along and exposed the GOP as ideologues willing to break our democratic institutions.“Like all the other power hungry and ambitious politicians who make up the modern GOP, she fell in line.”The release also quotes from a New York Times op ed by the former Republican operative (and author of It Was All a Lie) Stuart Stevens, a senior Lincoln Project adviser: “No political figure better illustrates the tragic collapse of the modern Republican party than Nikki Haley.“There was a time not very long ago when she was everything the party thought it needed to win” – a reference to Haley’s youth (she became a governor at 38 and is still only 51) and background, as a successful Indian American conservative.“Trump has a pattern of breaking opponents who challenge him in a primary. Ms Haley enters the race already broken. Had she remained the Nikki Haley who warned her party about Mr Trump in 2016, she would have been perfectly positioned to run in 2024 as its savior. But as Ms Haley knows all too well, Republicans aren’t looking to be saved.”Here’s an interview with Rick Wilson, a Lincoln Project co-founder, about the Republican primary and the danger Trump still poses:‘They will bend the knee’: Lincoln project cofounder cautions against dismissing TrumpRead moreDianne Feinstein, California’s Democratic senator who is the longest serving female lawmaker in the chamber’s history, has announced she will not seek re-election in 2024:I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends. Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives.— Senator Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) February 14, 2023
Feinstein’s decision had been widely expected, and several Democrats kicked off campaigns to succeed her even before the senator’s announcement. These include Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, both progressive House lawmakers. Barbara Lee is reportedly also planning to toss her hat in the ring for the seat representing the Democratic bastion.At 89, Feinstein is the oldest sitting in Congress, and was first elected in 1992.Lauren Gambino sends in the thoughts of Chairman Harrison – Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, who spoke to reporters earlier about Nikki Haley’s announced presidential run:“There’s a lot of questions about Nikki Haley and about what she really stands for,” said Harrison, who led the South Carolina Democratic party when Haley was governor of the southern state, after Haley pointed to her conservative record on abortion and gun rights and her refusal to expand Medicaid in her state.“If she says that she wants to do for the nation what she did for South Carolina,” Harrison said, “God bless us all.”Speaking of George Santos, as Chris was earlier, our columnist Arwa Mahdawi wonders whether, of all the scandals dogging the New York Republican, it might be the one about dogs that finally brings him to heel. She writes:There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there is George Santos’s CV. In the short time that he has been in the public eye, the 34-year-old has been accused of fabricating almost every facet of his life.During his election campaign, Santos claimed to be a “proud American Jew” whose grandparents “survived the Holocaust”. After being challenged, Santos clarified that he was raised Catholic and argued that he had always said he was “Jew-ish”.His education and work history appear to be fabrications. He has said his mother was working in the World Trade Center on 9/11, yet records show she was in Brazil. He has said that he “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, but the New York Times has not been able to verify these claims. He has claimed to have been a college volleyball star (unlikely) and a producer on Spider-Man (untrue). No one is even sure what Santos’s real name is.I could go on and on with the lies, but I need to get to the scandals. There is the scandal about his former life as a drag queen in Brazil, which he originally denied, then appeared to admit. (To be clear: the only outrageous thing about his alleged drag-queen past is that he is now active in a party that demonises and wants to criminalise drag queens as part of a broader anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.) There is the $365,000 in campaign funds he can’t account for.And then there are the multiple dog-related scandals.Last week, Politico reported allegations that Santos spent 2017 cruising around Pennsylvania’s Amish Country buying puppies from dog breeders with cheques that bounced.A few days after allegedly writing $15,125 in bad cheques to breeders, Santos held an adoption event at a pet store in New York. It’s not clear if he made money from this, but adoption fees can range from $300 to $400. Santos was charged with theft by deception, but those charges were dropped when he claimed his chequebook had been stolen.The other dog-related scandal? The congressman is accused of promising to raise funds for a homeless man’s dying dog in 2016, then taking off with the money.Will George Santos’s dog scandals finally bring him down? | Arwa MahdawiRead moreJoe Biden has released a statement on the shooting at Michigan State, in which three students were killed and five wounded last night. Here it is:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Jill [Biden] and I are praying for the three students killed and the five students fighting for their lives after last night’s shooting at Michigan State University. Our hearts are with these young victims and their families, the broader East Lansing and Lansing communities, and all Americans across the country grieving as the result of gun violence.Last night, I spoke to Governor [Gretchen] Whitmer and directed the deployment of all necessary federal law enforcement to support local and state response efforts. I assured her that we would continue to provide the resources and support needed in the weeks ahead.Too many American communities have been devastated by gun violence. I have taken action to combat this epidemic in America, including a historic number of executive actions and the first significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years, but we must do more.The fact that this shooting took place the night before this country marks five years since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, should cause every American to exclaim “enough” and demand that Congress take action.As I said in my State of the Union address last week, Congress must do something and enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, closing loopholes in our background check system, requiring safe storage of guns, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets. Action is what we owe to those grieving today in Michigan and across America.Here’s our report on the Michigan shooting.And here’s Richard Luscombe on the response from Whitmer:‘We can’t keep living like this’: Michigan governor denounces campus shootingRead moreFollowing Letitia James’s tweet, here’s the New York attorney general’s formal response to the appeals court ruling which said Donald Trump must pay a $110,000 fine for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a fraud investigation of his company and financial affairs:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump is not above the law.
For years, he tried to stall and thwart our lawful investigation into his financial dealings, but today’s decision sends a clear message that there are consequences for abusing the legal system.
We will not be bullied or dissuaded from pursuing justice.”James, a Democrat, began her investigation while Trump was president. Trump and three of his adult children – Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – were all deposed. Last month, footage showed Trump took the fifth amendment more than 400 times.Trump was fined in state court in April last year. He appealed. A judge capped the fine at $110,000. In September, James unveiled a wide-ranging civil lawsuit against the four Trumps, alleging false filings in order to enrich themselves and secure loans.The lawsuit seeks to bar all four Trumps from executive roles in New York, and to stop the Trump Organization acquiring commercial real estate or receiving loans from state-based entities for five years.Trump denies wrongdoing. In November he sued James, claiming a “relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade” which would cause “great harm” to his company, brand and reputation.It was reported that Trump’s lawyers sought to stop him filing the suit. Trump withdrew two suits against James in January, shortly after he and a lawyer were fined $1m for a “frivolous” suit against Hillary Clinton.New York’s attorney general Letitia James announced that a court has ordered Donald Trump to pay $110,000 for defying a subpoena from her office:Today, the court again ruled in our favor and upheld an order that Donald Trump was in contempt of court and must pay my office $110,000. There are consequences for abusing the legal system. https://t.co/ZKbzLduSkJ— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 14, 2023
Last year, James successfully petitioned a judge to charge the former president $10,000 for each day he refuses to comply with a subpoena she sent him for documents related to her investigation of his business practices. We’ll see if Trump pays up this time.The ranks of challengers to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024 are growing, with his former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley announcing her candidacy today and other Republicans like Mike Pence, Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis expected to throw their hats in the ring in the weeks or months to come. Meanwhile, a somber Washington is marking five years since the deaths of 17 adults and children in the Parkland, Florida mass shooting, with Democrats reiterating their calls for more stringent gun control.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Pence plans to challenge a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith with an unusual legal strategy that, if successful, could shield him from having to cooperate with the investigation into Trump’s campaign to undo the 2020 election.
Senators received a classified briefing on the UFOs shot down over North American airspace, but no big revelations have emerged from it yet.
George Santos insisted (again) that he won’t be going anywhere.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis remains coy about his widely expected run for president.Here’s his quip when asked about his plans today:Reporter: “Nikki Haley announced her presidential run today. Do you plan on following suit?”Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), laughing: “Wouldn’t you like to know?” pic.twitter.com/K0pB4DlNpo— The Recount (@therecount) February 14, 2023
In less serious political news, Republican House lawmaker and admitted fabulist George Santos was back on Twitter to reiterate that has isn’t going anywhere:Let me be very clear, I’m not leaving, I’m not hiding and I am NOT backing down.I will continue to work for #NY03 and no amount of Twitter trolling will stop me.I’m looking forward to getting what needs to be done, DONE!— George Santos (@Santos4Congress) February 14, 2023
Many people, including some fellow Republicans, would like him to resign.Joe Biden has called again for banning assault weapons as he marks five years since the Parkland high school shooting:Five years ago, a gunman committed an act of horror at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.Today, we mourn the 17 loved ones lost. And pray for the countless loved ones left behind.For the lives lost and the lives we can save, we must ban assault weapons. pic.twitter.com/CRR4g6oLXK— President Biden (@POTUS) February 14, 2023
Assault weapons were banned in the United States from 1994 to 2004, but Republicans have rejected reimposing the restrictions.Democratic lawmakers in Congress are marking the five-year anniversary of a gunman killing 17 children and adults at a high school in Parkland, Florida with calls for new gun control measures.“My heart aches for the 17 lives stolen five years ago – and for the devastated families, friends, and classmates left to pick up the pieces,” the House Democratic whip Katherine Clark said in a statement. “Summoning strength out of agony, Parkland students and parents have helped lead our nation’s march toward a future free from the scourge of gun violence. They have advanced that fight in the streets and in the halls of power – rallying Americans to action with extraordinary courage.”She connected the attack to yesterday’s shooting at Michigan State University, saying, “As Americans were just reminded by the horrendous shooting in East Lansing, Michigan, there is much more work to do. We are only in the second month of 2023, and our country has already faced the horror of 67 mass shootings. Students, teachers, parents – everyone lives in fear awaiting the next tragedy. And while gun violence terrorizes communities across America, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don assault rifle lapel pins in the halls of Congress, displaying their allegiance to weapons of war over American lives.”Maxwell Frost, a young Democratic gun control activist who was recently elected to the House from Florida, tweeted that he visited the site of the shooting:Today marks 5 years since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland. Last night, MSU also faced the pain of gun violence, a pain that is all too common across this country. My heart today is with Parkland & MSU as they continue & begin this lifelong journey of healing. pic.twitter.com/JtgBcRQvfQ— Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@RepMaxwellFrost) February 14, 2023
Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis called for a moment of silence in remembrance of the victims:Today, I ask all Floridians to pause for a moment of silence at 10:17am to honor the 17 innocent lives lost at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. We will continue to honor their memory in word and in deed and extend our sympathies to the Parkland community.— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 14, 2023
DeSantis’s Republican allies in Florida’s legislature are pushing to allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit in the state. The governor has said he will sign the bill when it passes. More