Tag: 2024 US presidential election

Trump wins South Carolina, easily beating Haley in her home state and closing in on GOP nomination

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February 25, 2024 09:23 am | Updated 09:23 am IST – CHARLESTON, S.C.

Donald Trump won South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, easily beating former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination.

Mr. Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, adding to previous wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ms. Haley is facing growing pressure to leave the race but says she’s not going anywhere despite losing the state where she was governor from 2011 to 2017.

A 2020 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable. Ms. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Mr. Trump will hamstring him against Biden.

The Associated Press declared Mr. Trump the winner as polls closed statewide at 7 p.m. That race call was based on an analysis of AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of Republican South Carolina primary voters. The survey confirmed the findings of pre-Election Day polls showing Trump far outpacing Haley statewide.

“I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now,” he declared, taking the stage for his victory speech mere moments after polls closed. He added, “You can celebrate for about 15 minutes, but then we have to get back to work.”

South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary has historically been a reliable bellwether for Republicans. In all but one primary since 1980, the Republican winner in South Carolina has gone on to be the party’s nominee. The lone exception was Newt Gingrich in 2012.

Mr. Trump was dominant across the state, even leading in Lexington County, which Ms. Haley represented in the state Legislature. Many Trump-backing South Carolinians, even some who previously supported Haley during her time as governor, weren’t willing to give her a home-state bump.

“She’s done some good things,” Davis Paul, 36, said about Haley as he waited for Trump at a recent rally in Conway. “But I just don’t think she’s ready to tackle a candidate like Trump. I don’t think many people can.”

At Haley headquarters on Saturday night, supporters waved her signs in front of a large projection screen showing Trump’s speech, blocking it from view. That, of course, didn’t make the defeat any less crushing.

About an hour later, Ms. Haley took the stage and said: “What I saw today was South Carolina’s frustration with our country’s direction. I’ve seen that same frustration nationwide.”

“I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden,” she said, later adding: “I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run. I’m a woman of my word.”

She said she plans to head to Michigan for its primary on Tuesday — the last major contest before Super Tuesday. Still, she faces questions about where she might be able to win a contest or be competitive.

Trump and Biden are already behaving like they expect to face off in November.

Trump and his allies argue Biden has made the U.S. weaker and point to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Trump has also repeatedly attacked Biden over high inflation earlier in the president’s term and his handling of record-high migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mr. Trump has questioned — often in harshly personal terms — whether the 81-year-old Biden is too old to serve a second term. Biden’s team in turn has highlighted the 77-year-old Trump’s own flubs on the campaign trail.

President Biden has stepped up his recent fundraising trips around the country and increasingly attacked Trump directly. He’s called Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement dire threats to the nation’s founding principles, and the president’s reelection campaign has lately focused most of its attention on Trump suggesting he’d use the first day of a second presidency as a dictator and that he’d tell Russia to attack NATO allies who fail to keep up with defense spending obligations mandated by the alliance.

Ms. Haley also criticized Trump on his NATO comments and also for questioning why her husband wasn’t on the campaign trail with her — even as former first lady Melania Trump hasn’t appeared with him. Maj. Michael Haley is deployed in the Horn of Africa on a mission with the South Carolina Army National Guard.

But South Carolina’s Republican voters line up with Trump on having lukewarm feelings about NATO and continued U.S. support for Ukraine, according to AP VoteCast data from Saturday’s primary. About 6 in 10 oppose continuing aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Only about a third described America’s participation in NATO as “very good,” with more saying it’s only “somewhat good.”

Ms. Haley has raised copious amounts of campaign money and is scheduled to begin a cross-country campaign swing on Sunday in Michigan ahead of Super Tuesday on March 5, when many delegate-rich states hold primaries.

But it’s unclear how she can stop Mr. Trump from clinching enough delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee for the third time.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., complimented Haley while speaking to reporters at Trump’s election night party in Columbia but suggested it was time for her to drop out.

“I think the sooner she does, the better for her, the better for the party,” Mr. Graham said. Later, the senator was greeted with boos after Trump called him to the stage to address those gathered.

Trump’s political strength has endured despite facing 91 criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, the discovery of classified documents in his Florida residence and allegations that he secretly arranged payoffs to a porn actress.

The former president’s first criminal trial is set to begin on March 25 in New York, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the closing weeks of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden won South Carolina’s Democratic primary earlier this month and faces only one remaining challenger, Dean Phillips. The Minnesota Democratic congressman has continued to campaign in Michigan ahead of the Democratic primary there, despite having little chance of actually beating Biden.

Though Biden is expected to cruise to his party’s renomination, he faces criticism from some Democrats for providing military backing to Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Some in his party support a ceasefire as the death toll in Israel’s war has reached 30,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children. The war could hurt the president’s general election chances in swing states like Michigan, which is home to a large Arab American population.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence files paperwork launching 2024 Presidential bid

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Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork on June 5 declaring his campaign for President in 2024, setting up a challenge to his former boss, Donald Trump, just two years after their time in the White House ended with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and Mr. Pence fleeing for his life.

Mr. Pence, the nation’s 48th Vice President, will formally launch his bid for the Republican nomination with a video and kickoff event in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 7, which is his 64th birthday, according to people familiar with his plans. He made his candidacy official Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

While Mr. Trump is currently leading the early fight for the nomination, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis polling consistently in second, Mr. Pence supporters see a lane for a reliable conservative who espouses many of the previous administration’s policies but without the constant tumult.

While he frequently lauds the accomplishments of the “Trump-Pence administration,” a Mr. Pence nomination in many ways would be a return to positions long associated with the Republican establishment but abandoned as Mr. Trump reshaped the party in his image. Mr. Pence has warned against the growing populist tide in the party, and advisers see him as the only traditional, Reagan-style conservative in the race.

A staunch opponent of abortion rights, Mr. Pence supports a national ban on the procedure and has campaigned against transgender-affirming policies in schools. He has argued that changes to Social Security and Medicare, like raising the age for qualification, should be on the table to keep the programs solvent — which both Trump and DeSantis have opposed — and criticized Mr. DeSantis for his escalating feud with Disney. He also has said the U.S. should offer more support to Ukraine against Russian aggression, while admonishing “Putin apologists” in the party unwilling to stand up to the Russian leader.

Mr. Pence, who describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” has spent months laying the groundwork for an expected run, holding events in early-voting states like Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, visiting churches, delivering policy speeches and courting donors.

Mr. Pence’s team sees Iowa and its evangelical Christian voters as critical to his potential path to victory. Advisers say he plans to campaign aggressively in the state, hitting every one of its 99 counties before its first-in-the-nation caucuses next year.

The campaign is expected to lean heavily on town halls and retail stops aimed at reintroducing Mr. Pence to voters who only know him from his time as Mr. Trump’s second-in-command. Mr. Pence served for more than a decade in Congress and as Indiana’s Governor before he was tapped as Mr. Trump’s running mate in 2016.

As Vice President, Mr. Pence had been an exceeding loyal defender of Mr. Trump until the days leading up to January 6, 2021, when Mr. Trump falsely tried to convince Mr. Pence and his supporters that Mr. Pence had the power to unilaterally overturn the results of the 2020 election.

That day, a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol building after being spurred on by Mr. Trump’s lies that the 2020 election had been stolen. Many in the crowd chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” as Mr. Pence, his staff and his family ran for safety, hiding in a Senate loading dock.

Mr. Pence has called Mr. Trump’s actions dangerous and said the country is looking for a new brand of leadership in the 2024 election.

“I think we’ll have better choices,” he recently told The Associated Press. “The American people want us to return to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, but I think they want to see leadership that reflects more of the character of the American people.”

Mr. Pence has spent the 2 1/2 years since then strategically distancing himself from Mr. Trump. But he faces scepticism from both anti-Trump voters who see him as too close to the former President, as well as Mr. Trump loyalists, many of whom still blame him for failing to heed Mr. Trump’s demands to overturn the pair’s election defeat, even though Mr. Pence’s role overseeing the counting of the Electoral College vote was purely ceremonial and he never had the power to impact the results.

Mr. Pence joins a crowded Republican field that includes Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen Tim Scott of South Carolina, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to launch his own campaign Tuesday evening in New Hampshire, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will announce his bid on June 7 in Fargo.

With Mr. Trump, a thrice-married reality star, facing scepticism among some Republicans during his 2016 run, his pick of Mr. Pence as a running mate assuaged concerns from evangelical Christians and others that he wasn’t sufficiently conservative. As Vice President, Mr. Pence refused to ever criticize the former President publicly and often played the role of emissary, trying to translate Mr. Trump’s unorthodox rhetoric and policy proclamations, particularly on the world stage.

After Mr. Trump’s legal efforts to stave off defeat of the 2020 election were quashed by courts and state officials, he and his team zeroed in on January 6, the date that a joint session of Congress would meet to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory. In the weeks leading up to the session, Mr. Trump engaged in an unprecedented pressure campaign to convince Mr. Pence he had the power to throw out the electoral votes from battleground states won by Mr. Biden, even though he did not.

As the riot was underway and after Mr. Pence and his family were rushed off the Senate floor and into hiding, Mr. Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” Video footage of the attack shows rioters reading Mr. Trump’s words aloud and crowds breaking into chants that Mr. Pence should be hanged. A makeshift gallows was photographed outside the Capitol.

Mr. Pence has said that Trump “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day” and that history will hold him accountable.

Despite his harrowing experience, Mr. Pence opposed efforts to testify in investigations into Mr. Trump’s actions on and in the lead-up to January 6. He refused to appear before the House committee investigating the attack and fought a subpoena issued by the special counsel overseeing numerous Mr. Trump investigations, though he did eventually testify before a grand jury.

Only six former U.S. Vice Presidents have been elected to the White House, including Mr. Biden, who is running for a second term.

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Trump indictment throws 2024 race into uncharted territory

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The historic indictment of former President Donald Trump thrust the 2024 presidential election into uncharted territory, raising the remarkable prospect that the leading contender for the Republican nomination will seek the White House while also facing trial for criminal charges in New York.

In an acknowledgement of the sway the former President holds with the voters who will decide the GOP contest next year, those eyeing a primary challenge to Mr. Trump were quick to criticise the indictment. Without naming Mr. Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the move “un-American.” Former Vice President Mike Pence, whose life was threatened after Mr. Trump incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, told CNN the charges were “outrageous.”

That posture speaks to the short-term incentives for Republicans to avoid anything that might antagonise Mr. Trump’s loyal base. But the indictment raises profound questions for the GOP’s future, particularly as Mr. Trump faces the possibility of additional charges soon in Atlanta and Washington. While that might galvanise his supporters, the turmoil could threaten the GOP’s standing in the very swing-state suburbs that have abandoned the party in three successive elections, eroding its grip on the White House, Congress and key governorships.

Mr. Trump has spent four decades managing to skirt this type of legal jeopardy and expressed confidence again late Thursday, blaming the charges on “Thugs and Radical Left Monsters.”

“THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site.

Mr. Trump is “ready to fight,” his attorney, Joe Tacopina, said on Fox News.

Mr. Trump is expected to surrender to authorities next week on charges connected to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who alleged extramarital sexual encounters. For now, it remains unclear how the development will resonate with voters. Polls show Mr. Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner for the Republican nomination, and his standing has not faltered, even amid widespread reporting on the expected charges.

Mr. Trump’s campaign and his allies have long hoped an indictment would serve as a rallying cry for his supporters, angering his “Make America Great Again” base, drawing small dollar donations and forcing Mr. Trump’s potential rivals into the awkward position of having to defend him — or risk their wrath.

Indeed, Mr. Trump’s campaign began fundraising off the news almost immediately after it broke, firing an email to supporters with the all-caps subject line “BREAKING: PRESIDENT TRUMP INDICTED.”

At Mr. Trump’s first rally of the 2024 campaign, held in Texas over the weekend, supporters expressed widespread disgust with the investigation and insisted the case wouldn’t affect his chances.

“It’s a joke,” said Patti Murphy, 63, of Fort Worth. “It’s just another way of them trying to get him out of their way.”

Others in the crowd said their support for Mr. Trump had been waning since he left the White House, but the looming indictment made them more likely to support him in 2024 because they felt his anger had been justified.

At the same time, there is little chance a criminal trial will help Mr. Trump in a general election, particularly with independents, who have grown tired of his constant chaos. That has provided an opening for alternatives like DeSantis, who are expected to paint themselves as champions of the former President’s policies, but without all his baggage.

But there were no immediate signs the party was ready to use the indictment to move past him. Instead, Republicans, including members of Congress and Mr. Trump’s rivals, rushed to his defence en masse. In addition to DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has already declared her candidacy, blasted the indictment as “more about revenge than it is about justice.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is mulling a run, accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of “undermining America’s confidence in our legal system,” while also sending a fundraising text off the news.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has tried to turn the public against the case. Early on March 18, amid reports that police in New York were preparing for a possible indictment, he fired off a message on his social media site in which he declared that he expected to be arrested within days.

While that never came to pass (and his aides made clear it had not been based on any inside information), Mr. Trump used the time to highlight the case’s widely-discussed weaknesses and to attack Bragg with a barrage of deeply personal — and at times racist — attacks.

Mr. Trump also sought to project an air of strength. The night of his post, he travelled with aides to a college wrestling championship, where he spent hours greeting supporters and posing for photos. On the way home, the assembled entourage watched mixed martial arts cage fighting aboard his plane.

And last weekend, Mr. Trump held a rally in Waco, Texas, where he railed against the case in front of thousands of supporters.

People who have spoken with Mr. Trump in recent weeks have described him as both angry and unbothered about the prospect of charges. Freshman Republican Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri said Mr. was “upbeat” at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago the night before he warned of his arrest.

Indeed, Mr. Trump has at times appeared in denial about the gravity of the situation. He and his aides were caught off-guard by the news Thursday. And during the plane ride home from his Texas rally, Mr. Trump told reporters he believed the case had been dropped.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I can tell you that they have no case. So I think the case is — I think they’ve already dropped the case, from what I understand. I think it’s been dropped,” he said.

Still, Mr. Trump responded with anger when pressed, even as he insisted he was not frustrated.

Beyond the Manhattan case, Mr. Trump is facing several other investigations, including a Georgia inquiry into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and a federal probe into his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

It remains unclear how the public might respond if Mr. Trump ends up facing charges in additional cases, particularly if some lead to convictions and others are dismissed.

An indictment — or even a conviction — would not bar Mr. Trump from running for President or serving as the Republican nominee.

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