Haley warns country ‘won’t survive’ another Trump administration, DeSantis says he ‘didn’t deliver’ as rivals pile on ahead of Iowa caucus
We are 10 days away from the Iowa Republican caucuses, where we will find out if Donald Trump’s persistent lead in polls will translate into votes. But his main rivals for the GOP presidential nomination aren’t letting his momentum deter them, and dialed up their attacks in two separate town halls hosted by CNN on Thursday evening. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s United Nation ambassador, said of her former boss that “chaos follows him” and warned “we won’t survive” another four years of him in office. Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, responded “of course not” when asked if he thought Trump was “pro-life” and said the former president “didn’t deliver” during his administration.
Earlier in the campaign, most of Trump’s Republican rivals hesitated to criticize him, wary of infuriating his substantial group of dedicated supporters. That dam appears to have broken for the two politicians seen as having the best chance, if anyone does, of beating him in Iowa on 15 January, and then in the New Hampshire primary set for 23 January.
Here’s what else is going on today:
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Joe Biden will mark the start of his re-election campaigning with a speech in Pennsylvania that is expected to lean heavily on the anniversary of January 6 to warn voters of the perils of electing Trump again. The event is set for 3.15pm eastern time.
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Democratic House lawmakers will also mark the January 6 attack with a press conference at 11am.
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Employment grew by a greater-than-expected 216,000 jobs last month, defying expectations of a slowdown, according to just-released US government data.
Key events
Donald Trump allies who took part in the legal strategy to block Joe Biden from taking office despite his 2020 election victory now hold key positions in Congress, where they are working to impeach the president, the Guardian’s David Smith reports, based on a watchdog report:
The attempted US coup of 6 January 2021, never ended, according to a watchdog report, since the same Donald Trump allies behind that insurrection are now leading a sham impeachment effort against Joe Biden.
The report, marking three years since a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the US Capitol in a bid to overturn his election defeat, was produced by the Congressional Integrity Project and obtained by the Guardian.
It argues that scores of Trump loyalists in the House of Representatives have continued to push the former president’s election lies and are ready to go further in a bid to put him back in the White House.
“In fact, the key players involved in Trump’s scheme to overturn the election in 2020 are the very same Republicans leading the bogus impeachment effort against President Biden,” it says.
These include Mike Johnson, the House speaker; Jim Jordan, the chair of the House judiciary committee; and James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee, all of whom continue to push Trump’s debunked conspiracy theories and wage a crusade to impeach Biden.
Last month, the House voted along party lines to officially authorise an impeachment inquiry into Biden after months of claiming that he and his son, Hunter, engaged in an influence-peddling scheme. Even some Republicans, such as Utah senator Mitt Romney, pointed out that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden himself.
A police officer who defended the Capitol on January 6 has announced he is running to represent a solid-blue Maryland district in Congress, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:
Harry Dunn, a former police officer who defended the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, will run for US Congress in Maryland.
On Friday, a day ahead of the third anniversary of the deadly riot, Dunn said via X, formerly known as Twitter: “On January 6, I defended our democracy from insurrectionists as a Capitol police officer. After, President Biden honoured me with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
“Today, I’m running for Congress, to stop Trump’s Maga extremists and ensure it never happens again.”
“Maga” is short for Trump’s campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.
Nine deaths have been linked to the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021, which happened when Donald Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” to block certification of his election defeat by Joe Biden.
The attack failed. But one police officer, Brian Sicknick, died the next day. Other officers killed themselves.
Dunn – a commanding presence at 6ft 7in and 325lbs, once an offensive lineman in college football – was one of a group of officers who acquired a public profile after the riot, testifying before the House January 6 committee, appearing on television and releasing an autobiography, Standing My Ground.
He will now run for Congress in Maryland’s third district, a solidly Democratic seat north-east of Washington represented by John Sarbanes, re-elected eight times but not running this year. The primary, which Dunn now joins, will be held on 14 May.
We are going to hear a lot about January 6 at 3.15pm today, when Joe Biden marks the third anniversary of the deadly attack on the Capitol with a speech that doubles as the start of his presidential campaigning in 2024.
Republican presidential contenders, by contrast, tend to have little to say about the insurrection, even when asked directly. A questioner at CNN’s town hall in Iowa last night asked Ron DeSantis for his views on the attack, and the Florida governor responded with a brief condemnation, then changed the subject. Here’s the moment:
Town hall audience member: “Did the Jan. 6th insurrectionists display patriotism?”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL): “No, of course not…I think the media has taken that, and I think the left has taken that, and really tried to politicize it, but it was not a good day for the country.” pic.twitter.com/cRG12bo0rI
— The Recount (@therecount) January 5, 2024
Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie, among others, are campaigning fervently in an effort to knock Donald Trump from his position as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
Yet poll after poll shows the former president dominating the field, and the trend has remained the same for months; just look at poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
For the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol about whether any of Trump’s challengers have a chance:
Haley says she ‘had Black friends growing up’ in response to slavery criticism
At her CNN town hall last night, Nikki Haley was asked if she wanted to answer criticisms she received after declining last month to say that slavery caused the US civil war. Haley has already backtracked from her remark after strong criticism, including from Republican presidential campaign rival Chris Christie, who accused the former UN ambassador of being afraid to offend people.
Haley responded by acknowledging she should have mentioned slavery’s role in sparking the worst war in American history, and also pointing out that she had Black friends while growing up. Here’s video of her remarks:
“In South Carolina … you grow up … you know, I had Black friends growing up. It is a very talked-about thing.”
— Nikki Haley at a CNN town hall says she “should have said slavery” in her viral response to a question about the Civil War, but said in her mind, “that’s a given” pic.twitter.com/lPCkRAbPLL
— The Recount (@therecount) January 5, 2024
Speaking of Joe Biden, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly has a preview of the speech the president plans to give later today marking the third anniversary of the January 6 attack, and also kicking off his re-election campaigning in 2024:
Joe Biden will on Friday mark the third anniversary of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress, delivering his first presidential election campaign speech of 2024 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania – a site replete with historical meaning.
A day before the anniversary, due to a bad weather forecast, Biden will speak where George Washington’s army endured another dark moment: the bitter winter of 1777-78, an ordeal key to winning American independence from Britain.
Biden will also speak about the January 6 attack on Monday at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, where in June 2015 a gunman shot dead nine Black people in an attempt to start a race war.
Donald Trump’s nearest challenger for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, was governor of South Carolina at the time and subsequently oversaw the removal of the Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds.
Haley has since struggled to define her position on the flag and the interests it represented, last week in New Hampshire failing to say slavery caused the civil war.
But the Biden campaign is focusing on Trump, who refused to accept his conclusive defeat in 2020, spreading the lie that he was denied by electoral fraud and ultimately encouraging supporters to attempt to stop certification of Biden’s win by Congress.
The attack on the Capitol delayed certification but the process was completed in the early hours of 7 January. Biden was inaugurated two weeks later.
Biden knocks Trump as new data confirms strong hiring throughout 2023
After the release of government data that showed employment grew steadily in the United States throughout last year, Joe Biden released a statement that took both credit for the healthy labor market and a swipe at Donald Trump.
“This morning’s report confirms that 2023 was a great year for American workers. The economy created 2.7 million new jobs in 2023 – a year when the unemployment rate was consistently below 4 percent – more jobs than during any year of the prior Administration,” the president said.
He also went after Trump’s Republican allies in Congress:
I won’t stop fighting for American workers and American families. I know that some prices are still too high for too many Americans, and I am doing everything in my power to lower everyday costs for hard-working Americans – from bringing down the price of insulin, prescription drugs, and energy, to addressing hidden junk fees companies use to rip you off, to calling on large corporations to pass on savings to consumers as their costs moderate. And I will continue opposing efforts by Congressional Republicans to shower massive giveaways on the wealthy and big corporations, cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and block us from lowering costs for American families.
Here’s more from the Guardian’s Callum Jones on what the December employment data reported by the labor department showed about the state of American workers in 2023:
House Republicans announce hearings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress
House Republicans will convene hearings next week to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena and appear for a behind-closed-doors deposition.
Joe Biden’s son is facing federal criminal charges over failing to pay taxes and unlawfully obtaining a gun. Republicans claim he is part of a larger corruption plot involving the president, but they have not made public any proof that the older Biden illegally benefited from his son’s overseas business dealings. In November, the House oversight committee issued a subpoena to Hunter Biden ordering him to appear for a deposition, but he insisted he would only testify publicly.
On 13 December, the day the subpoena told him to appear, Biden gave a speech outside the Capitol, and said: “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry or hear what I have to say.” He departed without attending the deposition.
In announcing the hearing to hold Biden in contempt, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer said:
We planned to question Hunter Biden about this record of evidence, but he blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas, choosing to read a prepared statement outside of the Capitol instead of appearing for testimony as required. Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States attorney’s office for prosecution. We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name.
Both the House oversight and judiciary committees will hold their hearings beginning at 10am on Wednesday, 10 December.
Donald Trump responded to Ron DeSantis’s and Nikki Haley’s attacks against him with his customary volley of accusations and insults published on his Truth Social network:
Ron DeSanctimonious has one minor flaw against the Democrats — He has ZERO personality. If I didn’t endorse him, he would have finished, during the Primary, at 3%. NO LOYALTY! Bobblehead is now in third place, Jeff Roe has taken all of his money and quit, and he should get on a plane and go back to Florida today. He never told the people, during the Florida Governor campaign, that they would be abandoned. Just like Sloppy Chris Christie did to New Jersey (He finished up at an 8% approval rating!). Birdbrain said, over and over again, that she would NEVER run against the President, “He was a GREAT President” – and then she ran. Two very unreliable and disloyal people! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
But the former president appeared much more cheerful about the day’s travel plans:
Heading out to the Great State of Iowa today. A TWO WAY LOVE FEST!!!
DeSantis casts doubt on Trump’s abortion opposition, says country needs to move on
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor whose once-promising presidential campaign has hit multiple speed bumps in recent months, used his CNN town hall in Iowa last night to cast doubt on Donald Trump’s commitment to banning abortion.
As president, Trump appointed three of the supreme court justices who voted to overturn Roe v Wade and allow states to cut off access to the procedure entirely, but at the event, DeSantis said Trump was insincere about the issue:
DeSantis also cast himself as the candidate that can move the Republican party beyond Trump, and reminded viewers that, if elected, he could serve two four-year terms in office, while Trump is limited to just one more stint:
We don’t want the 2024 election to be a referendum on Trump and the past.
We want it to be a referendum on Biden’s failures and our positive vision for the country.
I offer that. pic.twitter.com/p0yTQgYg04
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 5, 2024
Haley keeps up attacks on former boss Trump after saying ‘chaos follows him’
Nikki Haley is not backing down from attacking Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination whom she served as his United Nations ambassador.
The rivalry picked up on Thursday evening at a CNN town hall, where Haley said:
I personally think President Trump was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies. But, the reality is, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And we all know that’s true. Chaos follows him. And we can’t have a country in disarray, and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won’t survive it. And you don’t defeat Democrat chaos with Republican chaos.
The comments weren’t made in passing. Shortly after the town hall ended, Haley tweeted this:
My differences with Donald Trump:
-He grew the debt by $8 trillion in 4 years.
-He praises dictators. He picked a fight with Israel’s prime minister after Oct. 7.
We need to put the chaos and the drama of the past behind us.— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 5, 2024
Haley warns country ‘won’t survive’ another Trump administration, DeSantis says he ‘didn’t deliver’ as rivals pile on ahead of Iowa caucus
We are 10 days away from the Iowa Republican caucuses, where we will find out if Donald Trump’s persistent lead in polls will translate into votes. But his main rivals for the GOP presidential nomination aren’t letting his momentum deter them, and dialed up their attacks in two separate town halls hosted by CNN on Thursday evening. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s United Nation ambassador, said of her former boss that “chaos follows him” and warned “we won’t survive” another four years of him in office. Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, responded “of course not” when asked if he thought Trump was “pro-life” and said the former president “didn’t deliver” during his administration.
Earlier in the campaign, most of Trump’s Republican rivals hesitated to criticize him, wary of infuriating his substantial group of dedicated supporters. That dam appears to have broken for the two politicians seen as having the best chance, if anyone does, of beating him in Iowa on 15 January, and then in the New Hampshire primary set for 23 January.
Here’s what else is going on today:
-
Joe Biden will mark the start of his re-election campaigning with a speech in Pennsylvania that is expected to lean heavily on the anniversary of January 6 to warn voters of the perils of electing Trump again. The event is set for 3.15pm eastern time.
-
Democratic House lawmakers will also mark the January 6 attack with a press conference at 11am.
-
Employment grew by a greater-than-expected 216,000 jobs last month, defying expectations of a slowdown, according to just-released US government data.