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      Nikki Haley must walk a fine line in bid to be next Republican president

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      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

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      Nikki Haley: video shows presidential candidate saying states can secede

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      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

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      Republican 2024 race heats up as Trump rival Nikki Haley announces run – as it happened

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      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

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      Republican senator Tim Scott preparing presidential run – report

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      Republican senator Tim Scott preparing presidential run – reportOnly 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.DeSantis’s corporate donors under fire for ‘hypocrisy’ over Black History MonthRead moreReporting 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”.A stringent conservative but also the only Black Republican in the US Senate, Scott, 57, has worked publicly if unsuccessfully with Democrats on attempts to agree to policing reform.Last August, he appeared to confirm his ambition for a presidential run.His book, America: a Redemption Story, contained small print including a description of “a rising star who sees and understands the importance of bipartisanship to move America forward” and saying “this book is a political memoir that includes his core messages as he prepares to make a presidential bid in 2022”.Scott’s publisher, Thomas Nelson, apologised for what it called an “error … not done at the direction or approval of the senator or his team”.Concrete steps made by Scott have included appointing co-chairs of a fundraising Super Pac and plans to speak in South Carolina and Iowa, two early voting states.The report about Scott’s plans came two days ahead of an expected campaign launch by another South Carolina Republican, Nikki Haley, a former governor who was US ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump.Still the only declared candidate for the 2024 nomination, Trump spoke in New Hampshire and South Carolina last month. He has already secured support from the other South Carolina senator, Lindsey Graham, the governor, Henry McMaster, and US House members.The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, is Trump’s only serious challenger in polling concerning the notional field, in which Scott generally scores 1% or less. Last week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Haley performing better but splitting the anti-Trump vote, thereby handing victory to the former president in a putative three-way race.Trump has begun to attack DeSantis but has not turned his fire on Haley, despite her preparing to renege on a vow not to run if he did.Both Scott and Haley are often mentioned as potential vice-presidential picks, Haley representing youth and diversity (Haley is 51 and Indian American).On Monday, John Barrasso of Wyoming, chair of the Republican Senate conference, told the Journal that Scott “truly believes that God is great and America is great and we are provided with incredible opportunities. So I think a Ronald Reagan ‘Morning in America’ hopeful America vision is one that Tim has, lives and breathes and is really needed in our country.”On the flip side, Ed Kilgore, a Democratic operative turned columnist, suggested Scott might actually have his eye on 2028.Scott, Kilgore wrote for New York Magazine, might really be “engaging in a sort of starter presidential campaign in order to build contacts and positive name ID for a future run … a respectable start, a signature moment or two, and a graceful exit from the 2024 contest may be the real goal”.TopicsUS elections 2024RepublicansUS politicsUS CongressUS SenateSouth CarolinaDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden’s on a winning streak and up for a fight: so why are voters so negative?

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      Biden’s on a winning streak and up for a fight: so why are voters so negative? The president sparred with Republicans at the State of the Union and has won legislative victories but polls show little enthusiasm for a re-election bidIt was the moment that America’s State of the Union address, once a staid affair punctured only by applause, turned into a verbal brawl more akin to Britain’s House of Commons.Joe Biden accused some Republicans of wanting to “take the economy hostage” and slash social welfare entitlements. “Booo!”, “No!” and “Liar!” came the response. US presidents typically ignore hecklers but Biden chose to take them on.Feisty Biden offers bipartisan vision while still triggering RepublicansRead more“So, folks, as we all apparently agree, social security and Medicare is off the books now, right?” he sparred. “They’re not to be touched? All right. All right. We got unanimity!” He gave Republicans an offer they could not refuse: to rise from their seats and stand in support of the elderly.At a stroke, the combative Biden had bested his opponents and at least partially assuaged doubts that, at the age of 80, he has the fight and fortitude for a gruelling re-election campaign next year. It was an important victory at a moment when opinion polls show that even most fellow Democrats hunger for a new generation of leaders.John Zogby, an author and pollster, said: “Like Muhammad Ali, he floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.”Even so, one speech will not be enough to solve the continuing political puzzle of the two Joe Bidens. One is the Biden visibly energised by Republican jeers who found a way to squash them without smugness; the Biden who rallied the west to support Ukraine and helped Democrats defy history in the midterm elections; the Biden who reeled off the most consequential list of legislative accomplishments since President Lyndon Johnson more than half a century ago.But the other Biden has not gone away. He is the one who began his lengthy State of the Union address – which drew the second smallest audience TV audience in at least 30 years – somewhat lethargically, describing Chuck Schumer as Senate minority leader when he should have said majority and saying relatively little about abortion rights. This is the Biden who presided over soaring food and petrol prices, bungled America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and left classified documents in his garage.A survey in late January by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 37% of Democrats say they want Biden to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections. Overall, 41% approve of how Biden is handling his job as president and only 22% say he should run again.Among Democrats aged 45 and over, 49% say Biden should run for re-election, nearly as many as the 58% who said that in October. But among those under age 45, just 23% now say he should run for re-election, after 45% said that before the midterms.Interviews with poll respondents suggest that many voters believe the president’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, gait and gaffes and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger.A separate Washington Post-ABC Newspoll showed that 62% of Americans think Biden has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” during his presidency, while 36% say he has accomplished “a great deal” or “a good amount”. Some 60% say he has not made progress creating more good jobs in their community, even though he has overseen the fastest pace of job growth in US history and unemployment sits at its lowest level since 1969.The disconnect might feel like a kick in the teeth for Biden after notching four big legislative victories with coronavirus relief, a bipartisan infrastructure law, legislation boosting domestic production of computer chips and tax and spending measures that help to address the climate crisis and improve the government’s ability to enforce the tax code.The gap between perception and reality is hard to explain. The chaos of the Donald Trump years, a pandemic that killed more than a million Americans and an ongoing reckoning over racial justice have inevitably left the nation disoriented. But some critics argue that the White House is failing to communicate its achievements.Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “The messaging by the administration has been lacklustre. It has not been well coordinated. It has not been well reinforced by agency heads and cabinet members who can take that work that they’re doing out to the country.”Steele pointed to the $1.2tn infrastructure bill, signed by Biden in late 2021, as an example. “Everybody’s jumping up and down but what they did not explain to the country was, now we’ve got to go put in place the regulations that would correspond to the allocation of those dollars … That part of the conversation never happened so voters are sitting there going, ‘Well, I don’t see any impact from this. They’re not doing anything in my community.”The misstep cost Democrats control of the House of Representatives, Steele added. “I’m now watching commercials of the president delivering on his promises and I would say, yeah, that’s probably about four or five months late.”There have been frustrations for Biden over police reform and votings rights, which could potentially cause disillusionment among Black voters. In his address, he continued to urge reform but did not explicitly call for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to pass.But activists argue that he should call out Republicans and make clear that they are the ones standing in the way.Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, an advocacy group, said: “There’s a reason why we don’t have those pieces of legislation and it’s not President Biden. But if he doesn’t tell a story for people about why we didn’t win those things, who stood in the way of those things, who is profiting from preventing those things, he will be blamed by people.”Biden’s defenders argue that there has been a concerted effort to sell his agenda and accomplishments. A day after his State of the Union address he travelled to Wisconsin, and a day after that he went to Florida, while other top officials are crisscrossing the country to spread the message. It can be effective at a local level but struggles to compete with eye-catching national headlines like the flight of a Chinese spy balloon. Some argue there is no substitute for concrete results that affect people’s everyday lives.Elaine Kamarck, a former official in the Bill Clinton administration, said: “You’ve got to see things happening. You have to see the bridges being built. You have to see the tunnels being fixed. You have to see the airports. That’s the reality. The challenge is to make this real. This is a problem of political timing, which in the term of a president is very short but often getting big things done takes a long time.”Kamarck, now a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, added: “He’s got to get something on the books. He’s got to get something going. He can say it till the cows come home but if there’s no reality on the ground it won’t matter.”Biden’s biggest first-term legislative accomplishments are almost certainly behind him. He must now work with an aggressive Republican majority in the House that wants to cut spending in return for lifting the government’s legal borrowing authority, as well as launching myriad investigations into the pandemic response, Afghanistan withdrawal and business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden.He also faces nagging doubts within his own party. Having first been elected to the Senate from Delaware in 1972, he has been on the national political stage for more than half a century and is the oldest US president in history. His verbal stumbles – he recently called Congressman Don Beyer by the name “Doug” four times – receive more scrutiny than ever.Biden could face another election against Trump, a twice impeached former president who instigated a violent coup attempt on 6 January 2021. Yet in a hypothetical rematch, 48% of registered voters said they would favor Trump compared with 45% who prefer Biden, according to the Washington Post-ABC News poll.Julián Castro, a former housing secretary under President Barack Obama, noted that this finding undermines the general consensus that Democrats are content with Biden taking on Trump. “Two years is forever and it’s just one poll, but if he’s faring this poorly after a string of wins, that should be worrisome,” he tweeted.But Biden, who has not yet officially announced he is running, benefits from a lack of obvious successor. His vice-president, Kamala Harris, has endured similarly low approval ratings and is yet to distinguish herself as the automatic choice. The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, is still only 41 and a promising generation of Democratic governors are widely perceived as not yet ready.Steele, who served as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007, said: “The question I ask those Democrats who like to wax poetically about Biden not being their nominee is this: tell me which Democratic governor or former senator or current elected official is going to challenge an incumbent United States president.“Every time we’ve seen that happen – which is in our lifetime has only been twice – it has not ended spectacularly well for the challenger, so I don’t know what the hell they’re thinking. This is the horse that got you through the storm. This is the horse you’re going to need to ride into the sunset and that’s just how it is.”Joe Biden has steadied the nation – why don’t his polling numbers reflect this? | Robert ReichRead moreMany Republicans acknowledge that Biden had a good night at the State of the Union and quelled doubts about his age. But they believe that he could be vulnerable in the 2024 election if he faces a candidate promising generational change and who does not carry Trump’s political and legal baggage. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Nikki Haley, the ex-governor of South Carolina, are among potential contenders.Ed Rogers, a political consultant who worked in the administration of Ronald Reagan, the oldest man to serve as president until Trump, said: “There would be all this talk about Reagan’s losing it, Reagan’s out of it, Reagan’s not mentally hitting on all cylinders – and then Reagan would do something and people would observe for themselves and it would clear the bar and calm that talk for a while.“Biden certainly did that. The speech was well delivered … It’s not like people see their lives improving because Biden says it is or people are not fearful of crime, the future, the state of the schools because Biden says they’re OK. That’s part of what’s not good about the Biden administration. The speech was a net plus. It wasn’t transformative for the Biden political condition.”Rogers reckons Biden will win the Democratic nomination for 2024 and is well placed in the general election – but nothing is guaranteed. “We re-elect 75% of our presidents. If you had to bet today, you’d bet on the incumbent. But if it’s not Trump, if somebody showed up as an energetic change candidate, Biden could be beat.”TopicsJoe BidenThe ObserverUS elections 2024US politicsDemocratsState of the Union addressfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Biden shakes up Democrats’ primary calendar: Politics Weekly America podcast

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      Last weekend, members of the Democratic National Committee voted through a plan to reshuffle the party’s presidential primary calendar, meaning voters in South Carolina will pick their candidate first, bumping Iowa and New Hampshire off top spot. This was done at the behest of Joe Biden. So why did he want to shake things up?
      Jonathan Freedland is joined by Adam Gabbatt, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire and Joseph Bustos in South Carolina to discuss the ramifications of messing with political tradition

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      Archive: MSNBC, CBS, CNN, BBC Listen to Wednesday’s episode of Politics Weekly UK. Buy tickets for the Bernie Sanders live event here. Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com. Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts. More

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      Nikki Haley presidential run would sink DeSantis and hand Trump victory – poll

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      Nikki Haley presidential run would sink DeSantis and hand Trump victory – pollYahoo News/YouGov survey finds that an additional Republican candidate would split the vote in former president’s favor As the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley prepares to announce a run for president, a new poll found that just one additional candidate in the 2024 Republican primary will be enough to split the vote and keep Donald Trump ahead of Ron DeSantis, his only current close rival.The race for the 2024 election is on. But who will take on Trump?Read moreThe Yahoo News/YouGov poll gave DeSantis, the Florida governor, a 45%-41% lead over Trump head-to-head. Similar scenarios in other polls have prompted increasing attacks on DeSantis by Trump – and deflections by DeSantis.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, DeSantis said: “I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”But the Wednesday poll also produced an alternative scenario involving Haley that may worry DeSantis.Haley was ambassador to the United Nations under Trump before resigning in 2018. Having changed her mind about challenging her former boss, she is due to announce her campaign in her home state next week.Yahoo News reported: “In a hypothetical three-way match-up, Haley effectively plays the spoiler, attracting 11% of Republicans and Republican-leaners while DeSantis’s support falls by roughly the same amount (to 35%), leaving Trump with more votes than either of them” at 38%.When Trump first ran for the Republican nomination, in 2016, he did so in a primary field which was 17 strong come the first debate. Trump won the nomination without winning a majority of votes cast.He ended his presidency twice-impeached and in wide-ranging legal jeopardy but he is still the only declared candidate for the nomination in 2024, having announced shortly after last year’s midterm elections.Defeats for Trump-endorsed candidates cost Republicans dearly in November, particularly as the US Senate remained in Democratic hands, prompting some Republicans to turn against the idea of a third Trump nomination.Haley is due to announce her run on 15 February in Charleston, South Carolina, before heading to New Hampshire, which also has an early slot on the primary calendar.According to the Yahoo/YouGov poll, Haley attracted much more support than other potential candidates including the former vice-president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Larry Hogan, a former governor of Maryland.According to NBC News, Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire and like Hogan a Republican moderate, is also preparing to run.Nikki Haley accuses Pompeo of ‘lies and gossip to sell book’ after vice-president plot claimRead moreThe Yahoo/YouGov poll said the same vote-splitting scenario played out with fields larger than three: the anti-Trump vote split and Trump therefore beat DeSantis. Other polls have returned similar results.Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times in Iowa, the state that will vote first, recently told the Guardian: “These folks must be watching Trump’s poll numbers and that’s why there’s a delay [in announcements].”“Trump and DeSantis are doing this sparring around the ring. Others are watching to see if somebody takes a blow and gives them an opening.”But Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, an anti-Trump conservative website, recently wrote: “Presumably the numerous candidates gearing up to run in the GOP primary understand that a fractured field benefits Donald Trump.”“Are we sure they understand that they’d need to coalesce around a frontrunner by February 2024 to avoid the same scenario that gave us Trump in 2016?”TopicsUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpRon DeSantisNikki HaleynewsReuse this content More

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

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      Buttigieg backs Biden 2024 run but poll says most Americans don’tPoll 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.Biden faces ‘tightrope’ in balancing realism and optimism in State of the UnionRead moreA key member of Biden’s cabinet, however, insisted Biden’s record in office was more important than any “generational argument” for change.Among Americans overall, the poll by the Washington Post and ABC News, released two days before Biden’s State of the Union address, showed that 62% would be “dissatisfied” or “angry” if Biden were re-elected in two years’ time, while 56% said the same about Trump returning to the role he lost in 2020.A little more than a third of all respondents (36%) said they would be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied but not enthusiastic” if Biden were re-elected. For Trump, that total was 43%.Biden’s secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union.Asked if he thought arguments for generational change, such as he advanced in his own presidential run two years ago, might be gaining strength, the 41-year-old said: “Generational arguments can be powerful [but] the most powerful argument of all is results.“I would say you can’t argue with a straight face that it isn’t a good thing that we have had 12 million jobs created under this president. And, by the way, a lot of the jobs are in manufacturing.“As somebody who grew up in the industrial midwest, it’s been so moving to see hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs being created, including in rural areas, small towns in places like Tennessee and Louisiana, and Georgia and Indiana, the kind of growth that benefits the entire American people.”In 2020, a presidential election between Biden and Trump was fought in the shadow of Covid-19 but produced huge turnout, Biden taking more than 81m votes to more than 74m for Trump.Pursuing his lie about voter fraud, Trump sought to overturn his defeat, leading to the deadly Capitol riot and a second impeachment, for inciting that insurrection.Acquitted after sufficient Republicans stayed loyal, Trump is still the only declared candidate for the GOP nomination in two years’ time. Biden has said he intends to run but has not officially declared his candidacy.Already the oldest president inaugurated for the first time, Biden would be 82 when inaugurated for a second term and 86 by the end of his time in office. Trump would be 77 on his return to the White House.On leaving the White House this week, Biden’s first chief of staff gave a heavy hint that Biden will run.“As I did in 1988, 2008 and 2020, I look forward to being on your side when you run for president in 2024,” Ron Klain said, prompting applause from staff and a smile from Biden.Buttigieg said: “I think, when you look at what America was up against when President Biden took office, and what has been delivered just in these first two years of this administration … I think those results are going to continue to accumulate.“People will toss whatever argument they can into the mix that they think is going to benefit them the most. But at the end of the day you can’t argue with the extraordinary accomplishments, more than almost any other modern president, that President Biden has achieved under the toughest of circumstances.”According to the Post-ABC poll, a 2024 match-up between Biden and Trump would land 48%-45% in Biden’s favour: “A gap within the poll’s margin of error”.TopicsUS elections 2024US politicsPete ButtigiegJoe BidenDonald TrumpDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More