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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:15:41 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Long-shot Democratic candidate Dean Phillips vows to stay in race, despite loss to write-in BidenDean Phillips took the stage at 8.30pm to congratulate Joe Biden, but said that Biden’s margin of victory was “by no means” what should be expected from an incumbent president. “Joe Biden is a good man. He’s a fine man. … But I gotta tell you, everyone, he cannot win. The polls are saying he cannot win, his approval numbers are saying he can’t win,” Phillips said. “And the fact that an unknown congressman from Minnesota, who two weeks before the election [Phillips actually entered the race in October] said: ‘I’m gonna come up here and run for president’ just got 21% that says something, too, my friends.” Flanked by supporters and campaign staff, Phillips gave out high fives from the stage. In the days before the vote, Phillips had suggested that winning 20% in New Hampshire would represent success, and he appeared delighted with the result. “I’ve had so much darn fun I don’t know what to do with myself,” he said. Phillips urged his supporters to “go and have a little fun tonight” – there’s an open bar here. He said he will remain in the Democratic primary race, even though he has missed the filing deadline in states including Florida and North Carolina. “We’re going to go to South Carolina, then we’re going to Michigan then we’re going to 47 other states,” Phillips said.
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:16:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Meanwhile, in Nashua, Donald Trump has taken the stage at his watch party. “God Bless the U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood was playing as he took the stage to chants of “USA! USA! USA!” It looks like senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – both Republicans who withdrew from the race and endorsed him – are by his side.
Donald Trump opened his speech with an attack on Nikki Haley’s claim that she’d be a better candidate against Joe Biden. “We’ve won almost every single poll in the last three months against crooked Joe Biden, almost, and she doesn’t win those polls,” Trump said. Trump is fibbing, as he often does. While some polls have shown him ahead of the president, others have not.
Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to repeat his false claim that he won the 2020 election, and today is no different. “We won in 2016. And if you really remember, if you want to play it straight, we also won in 2020, by more,” he said, to cheers from the crowd. “And we did much better in 2020 than we did in 2016.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:18:56 GMT -5
Current results.... -Donald Trump, 53.6% (12 delegates) -Nikki Haley, 45.0% (10 delegates) -All others, 1.4%
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:20:22 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump is now casting his victory in the race for the GOP nomination as inevitable, pointing to his victory in the Iowa caucuses last week, and tonight in the New Hampshire primaries. “If you win both, they’ve never had a loser. Let me put it that way. When you win Iowa, and you win in New Hampshire, they’ve never had a loss,” he said. Trump is the first Republican since then-president Gerald Ford in 1976 to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Ford indeed went on to win the nomination, but lost in the general election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.
In 2013, then-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley appointed a congressman from the state, Tim Scott, to fill a vacant Senate seat – one he still holds to this day. But the long history between the two Palmetto state politicians has led them on separate paths, and Scott is onstage right now with Trump, who he endorsed after dropping out of the presidential race. The former president remarked on this dynamic, saying to Scott, “You must really hate her.” The senator then came over the podium, to tell Trump, “Oh, I just love you.”
Trump has wrapped up his speech, but before he did, he opined that if Nikki Haley had beaten him, she would find herself under investigation. He, of course, knows a thing or four about that, since he has been indicted twice by federal prosecutors, and once each by district attorneys in Manhattan and Fulton county, Georgia, while also being the defendant in several civil suits. “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 – a little stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about. But she will be under investigation within minutes. And so would Ron have been, but he decided to get out.” It’s unclear what “stuff” he was referring to in relation to Haley.
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:22:02 GMT -5
Current results... -Donald Trump, 53.7% (12 delegates) -Nikki Haley, 44.9% (10 delegates) -All others, 1.4%
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:22:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Nikki Haley has a message for Donald Trump: see ya in South Carolina. In a speech that was part concession, part rallying cry, Haley said her campaign had done what it set out to do: force a one-on-one showdown with the former president. Vowing to stay in the race, she declared: “New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over.” “I’m a fighter and I’m scrappy and now we’re the last one standing next to Donald Trump,” she continued. In her remarks, she was sharper than she had been on the campaign trail. “Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump. The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to win this election,” she said. “I say it should be the Republicans!” She also sounded confident that she could pull off the longed-for upset she sought in New Hampshire in her “sweet state” of South Carolina, which holds its primary on 24 February. “Every time I’ve run for office in South Carolina, I’ve beaten the political establishment,” she said. “They’re lined up against me again. That’s no surprise. But South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation. They want an election.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:24:32 GMT -5
(Associated Press) Trump says Haley voters wanted him to ‘look as bad as possible’-NASHUA, N.H.— If voters were looking for a magnanimous victory speech from Trump, they didn’t get it Tuesday night. “You can’t let people get away with (expletive),” Trump railed as he criticized Haley for failing to exit the race after he won New Hampshire’s GOP primary. From the stage, former candidate and now-Trump backer Vivek Ramaswamy declared the race over. But if Trump is looking to pivot to the general election, he didn’t do so Tuesday. Instead, he repeated lies about the 2020 election and slammed those who voted for Haley, saying they only did so “‘cause they want me to look as bad as possible.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:25:44 GMT -5
Current results... -Donald Trump, 53.9% (12 delegates) -Nikki Haley, 44.6% (10 delegates) -All others, 1.5%
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:26:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Nikki Haley opened her remarks on a conciliatory note, before hitting Trump in a way many Granite Staters wished she had done much sooner on the campaign trail. “I congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it. And I want to acknowledge that,” she said, striking a starkly different tone from Trump, who attacked her right off the bat in his remarks. “With Donald Trump, you have one bout of chaos after another. This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment,” she said, in a reprisal of her stump speech rhetoric. “You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.” She then questioned Trump’s mental fitness. “I’ve long called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75. Trump claims he’d do better than me on one of those tests. Maybe he would, and maybe he wouldn’t,” she said smiling. “But if he thinks that, then he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me!” The crowd erupted in sustained applause. Later this evening, Haley’s campaign sent out a press release accusing Trump of “ranting and raving about Haley” after his primary win, and asking, “If Trump is in such good shape, why is he so angry?”
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:38:08 GMT -5
Current results... -Donald Trump, 54.1% (12 delegates) -Nikki Haley, 44.3% (10 delegates) -All others, 1.6%
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Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 22:55:06 GMT -5
Current results... -Donald Trump, 55.0% (12 delegates) -Nikki Haley, 43.5% (10 delegates) -All others, 1.5%
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Post by Webster on Jan 24, 2024 14:02:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Nikki Haley vows to fight on after Trump's victory in New HampshireDonald 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.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 24, 2024 14:04:12 GMT -5
(The Guardian) David Smith was in Nashua, New Hampshire for the Guardian, and had this analysis of Trump’s speech, saying: 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.
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Post by Webster on Jan 24, 2024 14:05:07 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 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.
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.
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Post by Webster on Jan 24, 2024 14:07:04 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 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.
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