In a new interview with Fox News, Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel called on Nikki Haley to drop her 2024 presidential bid.
McDaniel, who urged Republicans to unite behind Donald Trump, said:
“Looking at the math and the path going forward…I don’t see it for Nikki Haley. I think she’s run a great campaign but I do think there is a message that’s coming out from the voters which is very clear: We need to unite our eventual nominee which is going to be Donald Trump and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden. It is 10 months away till the November election and we can’t wait any longer to put our foot on the gas, to beat the worst president…”
During his victory speech last night, Donald Trump apppeared to imply that New Hampshire’s Republican governor Chris Sununu is on drugs.
Speaking to a crowd that began to boo upon hearing about Sununu, Trump said:
“You have the now very unpopular governor of this state. This guy, he’s gotta be on something. I’ve never seen anybody with energy. He’s like hopscotch.”
Sununu and Trump have exchanged insults with each other, with Sununu telling Trump on Tuesday to watch TV “with subtitles next time,” as “it’s tough keeping up with the conversation given your advanced age.”
With Donald Trump’s primary victory on Tuesday night in New Hampshire, Joe Biden is setting his sights on the ex-president as his likely 2024 opponent.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Joe Biden appears to have set his sights on an almost inevitable rematch with Donald Trump for the White House in November’s election, after the former president’s decisive win in the New Hampshire primary, on his sprint to the Republican nomination.
Biden’s campaign believes the presidential election has officially begun, Politico reported, with Trump’s victory over Nikki Haley in New Hampshire on Tuesday officially kicking off what the outlet described as “the longest and most grueling general election campaign in modern American political history”.
It’s a dynamic that underscores the unusual nature of the 2024 campaign. Usually, the results from the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary have marked just the beginning of the nominating contest, with a long slog of an intra-party fight into the spring.
For the full story, click here:
Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential race, has responded to Trump’s boast of “we won New Hampshire three times now… We win the primary, we win the generals.”
In a post on X, Clinton posted side-by-side screenshots of the 2016 and 2020 general presidential results from New Hampshire in which both she and Joe Biden won four electoral votes over Trump, who received 0.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said South Carolina voters will not turn out for Nikki Haley in her home state’s open primaries next month, tweeting:
“[South Carolina] Democrats know Nikki Haley very well & as the former chair of the state Democratic party, I can tell you that we haven’t forgotten her voter suppressing, abortion banning, Medicaid expansion blocking, union busting, rural hospital closing, confederate flag apologizing leadership. So not a no, but a Hell No!”
Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race earlier this month, took another swipe at Nikki Haley last night as he appeared on stage last night alongside Donald Trump in New Hampshire.
“What we see right now with her continuing in this race is the ugly underbelly of American politics – where the mega donors are trying to do one thing when we the people say another,” Trump’s former rival said.
Throughout the campaign trail, Ramaswamy repeatedly attacked Haley, at one point calling her a “fascist neocon” with lipstick.
In a new interview with Fox News, Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel called on Nikki Haley to drop her 2024 presidential bid.
McDaniel, who urged Republicans to unite behind Donald Trump, said:
“Looking at the math and the path going forward…I don’t see it for Nikki Haley. I think she’s run a great campaign but I do think there is a message that’s coming out from the voters which is very clear: We need to unite our eventual nominee which is going to be Donald Trump and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden. It is 10 months away till the November election and we can’t wait any longer to put our foot on the gas, to beat the worst president…”
Nate Cohn’s analysis in the New York Times is that Nikki Haley has now missed her best shot to change the trajectory of the Republican contest. He writes:
Trump’s 12-point margin of victory is not extraordinarily impressive in its own right. In fact, he won by a smaller margin than many pre-election polls suggested.
What makes Trump’s victory so important – and what raises the question about whether the race is over – is that New Hampshire was Haley’s best opportunity to change the trajectory of the race. It was arguably her best opportunity to win a state, period. If she couldn’t win here, she might not be able to win anywhere.
In the Washington Post, Maeve Reston and Ashley Parker write that Trump’s juggernaut has rolled on, despite Haley’s campaign insisting they live to fight another day. They write:
The New Hampshire voters who could have lifted Haley to victory instead chose Trump and made her long-shot bid even longer. Haley had performed better than predicted by some pre-election polling, but it was a decisive loss nonetheless.
Haley’s campaign insists that as many as a dozen remaining states – including Michigan and many of those that cast ballots in the Super Tuesday contests 5 March – offer “fertile ground” for Haley, because they are open or semi-open primaries where independents are allowed to vote.
Nikki Haley is set to continue her campaign later today by visiting the US Virgin Islands and South Carolina later today. Donald Trump flew back to Florida after his victory speech last night.
Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, and Marianne Williamson, an author and self-help guru who ran for president in 2020, were among the potential challengers to Joe Biden on the Democratic primary ticket in New Hampshire. Biden took the vote after a write-in campaign, and neither Phillips nor Williamson made significant in-roads.
Jared Gans writes this for the Hill about Phillips:
Phillips centered his long-shot attempt to oppose Biden’s renomination on New Hampshire, having filed there first when launching his candidacy. If there was anywhere for Phillips to see the most success, the Granite State was likely to be it.
Phillips had the opportunity to repeatedly criticize Biden for not campaigning for the support of New Hampshire voters and emphasize his electability argument.
But those arguments seemed to have fallen mostly flat. Phillips barely received more than 20% of the vote, while the other notable longshot, Williamson, received less than 5%.
Ahead of the primary, Phillips declared that reaching the 20s would be “quite extraordinary”. But he was only able to get a fraction of Biden’s percentage even with the incumbent not on the ballot – and he is about to experience a more contested primary starting in about 10 days.
Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, argues today that the New Hampshire result ultimately doesn’t present good news for Donald Trump. He writes:
Trump lost a stunning two-thirds of New Hampshire voters who are not in either political party, according to initial results from a CNN exit poll. In Iowa, 43% of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s supporters said they would vote for President Joe Biden against Trump.
Where Reagan-Bush Republicans stood for limited government, strong national defense, and traditional family values, Trump added about $8tn to the national debt, disdains Nato, and has been found by a jury of his peers to be civilly liable for sexual abuse (which he has denied).
Trump’s challenge, now that the nomination fight is effectively over, will be to appeal to voters who are turned off by his cult of personality. His angry, bitter speech Tuesday night was a terrible beginning for the general election. Did the grievance-filled rant against Haley sound like a winner to you? No, it sounded like a guy who is in deep doo-doo with independents. This is a potential disaster for Trump.
While Nikki Haley’s home state of South Carolina on 24 February is the next big date on the horizon, the campaign does have a slightly odd detour into Nevada first.
For the Democratic party, it is quite straightforward. There is a primary on 6 February, and Joe Biden is expected to win it.
For Republicans, it is more complicated. A state-run primary happens on 6 February, but it is non-binding. Instead, a subsequent Republican caucus organised by the party on 8 February will choose who gets the state’s 26 delegates.
Why?
Because Nevada passed a law in 2021 requiring that the state organise primaries, but the Republicans have chosen to stick to organising a caucus. Nevada’s Republicans also made it a rule that anybody participating in the primary cannot participate in the caucus.
The outcome of that is Nikki Haley’s name will be on the ballot for the 6 February primary, and will receive no delegates for her campaigning efforts. Donald Trump will participate in the caucus, essentially without any opposition, and will be awarded the delegates.
Eric Bradner at CNN writes that it is difficult to see where a Nikki Haley victory is coming from, despite them promising big spending. He said:
What is not clear is where Haley could actually notch a victory against Trump. She isn’t participating in the Nevada caucuses on 8 February (she will instead be on the state’s primary ballot, which won’t lead to her winning any delegates), and polls in her home state of South Carolina – where the 24 February primary will be the next major showdown – show Trump with a huge lead.
Haley is likely to face immense pressure to depart the race in coming days. She’ll face questions about whether she’ll follow a path similar to Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who vowed to continue on after his second-place finish in last week’s Iowa caucuses – and then he dropped out days later.
Haley’s campaign said Tuesday it is placing $4m in television advertising reservations in South Carolina. She has also scheduled a rally Wednesday night in North Charleston.
Mark Harris, executive director of the pro-Haley Super Pac SFA Fund, told CNN the group is “on to South Carolina” and plan to spend millions on ads, mail and more.
We do have a handy timeline of how the US election process will unfold this year – however you can’t help but think the section between South Carolina on 24 February and election day on 5 November may all turn out to be superfluous, as by the end of next month we may well find ourselves fully into a Trump v Biden rematch campaign.
If you’d like to listen to something about the campaign, in the final episode of our special three-part podcast series from New Hampshire, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Lauren Gambino and Semafor’s David Weigel about whether or not Haley actually has reason to be positive.
In the New York Times’ opinion columns overnight, despite her protestations, Frank Bruni can’t see anything but the end of the road for the Nikki Haley campaign. He writes:
A wishful narrative took shape: New Hampshire’s quirky voters would buck Iowans and back Haley. Independents would overwhelm the Maga minions. She’d notch an upset victory and then, all across a Trump-pummeled land, voters would suddenly realize that they had an alternative, suddenly recognize polls that showed Haley with a better chance in a one-on-one contest against President Biden than Trump had. They would come to their senses. And on the far side of that epiphany gleamed Haley, her youth, ethnic background and gender giving the Republican Party a new vitality. A new image. A fresh start. What a lovely illusion. It just shattered.
Here is our video report with a clip of Donald Trump making his victory speech last night after the New Hampshire primary.
The former US president had followed up his record win in the Iowa caucuses with victory over Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the UN, with a double-digit triumph in less favourable political territory. As Republican politicians and donors scramble to jump aboard the Trump train, it is clearly game over for the Never Trumpers.
Trump could have been magnanimous in victory and congratulated Haley on a race well run. Instead, he was palpably irked by her refusal to drop out of the race. Petty and vindictive, he became a playground bully punching down for the benefit of an audience that glories in metaphorical violence.
Addressing a crowded hotel ballroom in Nashua, he gave Haley a dark warning: “Just a little note to Nikki. She’s not going to win. But if she did, she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes, and I could tell you five reasons why already. Not big reasons, little stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about.”
David Smith also had this to say on Nikki Haley’s campaign:
Haley now stands alone in a Republican party that belongs to him. Did she ever have a chance? Perhaps she could have done more to make it a choice rather than a coronation.
Haley could have emphasised her spouse’s military record and gone after Trump on his description of fallen solders as “losers” and “suckers”. She could have celebrated her identity as a daughter of Indian immigrants to contrast herself with Trump’s bigotry, nativism and racism. She could have played up her gender and what masterstroke it would be for Republicans, not Democrats, to produce America’s first female president after nearly 250 years.
But none of these are deemed viable in today’s party. Instead, when Haley did go bold and against the grain, it was on foreign policy, ardently pro-Israel and anti-Russia, and constantly bashing China. It was never going to win many extra votes but it was sure to alienate the isolationist “America First” wing of the party.
Joe Biden has won New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary, even though the incumbent refused to campaign in the state and had to rely on a write-in campaign powered by his allies and surrogates to secure a victory.
In a statement celebrating his win, Biden expressed gratitude toward his many supporters who wrote in his name and underscored the crucial importance of the general election, as it looks increasingly likely that Trump will win his party’s nomination.
“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher,” Biden said. “I want to thank all those who wrote my name in this evening in New Hampshire. It was a historic demonstration of commitment to our democratic process. And I want to say to all those Independents and Republicans who share our commitment to core values of our nation – our Democracy, our personal freedoms, an economy that gives everyone a fair shot – to join us as Americans.”
When the Associated Press called the race shortly after the last remaining polling places in New Hampshire closed at 8pm ET, it appeared that a clear majority of voters had cast ballots for write-in candidates. Most of those votes were expected to go to Biden, although some New Hampshire Democrats had planned to write in “ceasefire” to register their outrage over the war in Gaza and criticize US support for Israel’s military.
Donald Trump’s only serious contender for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, has vowed to carry on her campaign despite losing the New Hampshire primary by a significant margin.
In her speech after the race was called, Haley, who has previously called Trump a “chaos” candidate, said:
New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.
Haley served as the governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, and improved on her third place in the Iowa caucus, but was not able to pull off the shock result her campaign probably needed.
“With Donald Trump, you have one bout of chaos after another – this court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment,” Haley said on Tuesday night. “You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.”
Haley had opened her speech with an acknowledgment of Trump’s success, rather more graciously than Trump gave her credit for. She said “I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it. And I want to acknowledge that.”
She also had some words for “the political class”, saying “you’ve all heard the chatter among the political class. They are falling all over themselves, saying this race is over … this race is far from over.”
After months of heavy campaigning in the state, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley came in second place in the Republican primary. Securing a double-digit win over Haley, Donald Trump nabbed his second decisive victory after the Iowa caucuses a week before.
Despite her third-place finish in Iowa and her double-digit loss in New Hampshire, Haley still insists that she will continue on in the Republican primary. As she addressed supporters in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Haley expressed optimism about her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its Republican primary on 24 February.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” Haley said. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
But polls show Haley trailing far behind Trump in South Carolina, so it remains unclear how the state might shake the fundamental dynamics of the race.
Addressing supporters in Nashua, Trump took a victory lap with a combative speech that included sharp criticism of Haley. “She had a very bad night,” Trump said. “She came in third [in Iowa], and she’s still hanging around.”
Trump derided Haley’s efforts to downplay her loss in New Hampshire, saying: “Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night.”
Donald Trump took another stride towards becoming the Republican nominee for the 2024 US presidential election with an expected victory in the New Hampshire primary, but Nikki Haley probably did just enough to keep her campaign rolling on, at least until the South Carolina primary next month. She certainly vowed to continue on the night. Here are the headlines …
Trump’s Republican rival, Nikki Haley, vowed to fight on despite her second place finish in New Hampshire, a state where she had hoped for an upset, and her third place finish in the Iowa caucuses. But she faces long odds. There is no precedent for a candidate winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and losing their party’s nomination.
In his victory night speech, Trump previewed the crudeness of the campaign rhetoric to come if Haley does not accede to his calls for her to drop out. In his remarks, which were more angry than celebratory, Trump suggested that Haley would find herself under investigation if she became the nominee.
Haley’s campaign dismissed Trump’s speech as a “furious and rambling rant” and asked: “If Trump is in such good shape, why is he so angry? This is why so many voters want to move on from Trump’s chaos and are rallying to Nikki Haley’s new generation of conservative leadership.”
Although independent voters were not able to lift Haley to victory, their support for her could create a problem down the road for Trump. According to an NBC News exit poll, Haley won 73% of Republican primary voters who described themselves as moderate. If Trump wants to defeat Biden in November, he will need to sway some of those moderate Republicans.
Because of the strange circumstances of the Democratic primary, Joe Biden’s name was not on the ballot, but the president cruised to an easy victory thanks to the help of a write-in campaign led by his most loyal supporters.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
