Happening this Friday: Donald Trump attends closing arguments in the E. Jean Carroll defamation damages trial, per NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard… Nikki Haley ramps up attacks on Trump ahead of South Carolina primary… And RNC drops resolution to name Trump GOP’s “presumptive" nominee.
But FIRST… We remember, back in 2016, when Donald Trump accused the Democratic National Committee of “rigging” the ’16 Dem presidential race in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Bernie Sanders.
“I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. He never had a chance,” Trump said at his convention speech.
That past Trump rhetoric makes what’s happening just two contests into the 2024 Republican presidential race absolutely jaw dropping, because the Republican National Committee is putting its thumb on the scale in favor of Trump.
It all started when RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said that it was time for the party to unite around Trump after his victory in the New Hampshire primary.
“I’m looking at the math and the path going forward, and I don’t see it for Nikki Haley,” McDaniel said Tuesday night. “We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump, and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden.”
While Trump won both Iowa and New Hampshire and while Haley’s upcoming path in South Carolina and beyond remains difficult for her, here’s the current delegate count: Trump 32, Nikki Haley 17 — with 1,215 needed for the nomination.
Then came the news of a proposed RNC resolution, floated by longtime Trump ally David Bossie, calling the former president the party’s “presumptive” nominee.
Bossie later withdrew the resolution.
And late Thursday, Trump said he supported the resolution’s withdrawal, although he appreciated its intent.
“While I greatly appreciate the Republican National Committee (RNC) wanting to make me their PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE, and while they have far more votes than necessary to do it, I feel, for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT go forward with this plan, but that I should do it the “Old Fashioned” way, and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX,” he said on his social-media platform.
Back in 2016, there were some legitimate complaints about the DNC’s nominating process — which included too few debates, plus those WikiLeaks emails showing DNC officials criticizing Bernie Sanders.
But these current actions — with the RNC chair already calling for the party to unite behind Trump and with a discussion (albeit tabled for now) about moving to rhetorically dispatch with the nominating contest — risk going well beyond what happened in 2016.
Headline of the day
The number of the day is … 324,372
That’s how many votes were cast in the New Hampshire Republican primary, with virtually all the votes in, per the NBC News Decision Desk.
The total is right in line with the 322,000 GOP primary votes New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan predicted would be cast, and it smashes the GOP’s best turnout in recent years — in 2016, more than 285,000 voted.
Democratic turnout appears to have beaten Scanlan’s expectations — there are 121,312 votes in as of Friday morning. That’s about 33,000 fewer than the number of Republican votes during 2020’s largely uncontested GOP presidential primary, but significantly more than the almost 61,000 votes in the 2012 Democratic primary when President Barack Obama ran for a second term.
Eyes on November: Haley ramps up attacks and fundraising
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is stepping up her attacks on Trump — as well as her fundraising — as she continues her presidential campaign.
NBC’s Sarah Dean writes from South Carolina that Haley started her Wednesday rally there by “dispensing with her usual stump speech introduction to go directly after the former president at the top of her own remarks,” saying of Trump as she called on him to debate her, “Bring it, Donald.”
Dean also reports that Haley’s campaign for the first time sought to leverage Trump’s attacks on her, selling T-shirts referencing Trump’s social media post that Haley donors would be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp.”
Haley’s campaign also announced on Thursday that it had raised $2.6 million since the New Hampshire primary, including $1.2 million in grassroots and online contributions after that social media post from Trump.
Haley’s attacks on Trump have also caused one of her super PAC’s major donors, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, to reconsider his decision to stop helping to fund a pro-Haley group, per Reuters.
The super PAC, SFA Fund Inc., also announced that it raised $50.1 million during the last six months of 2023, per NBC’s Ali Vitali, while the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc pulled in $46 million, per Politico. Fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 31.
In other campaign news …
A big dig: Trumpeting infrastructure projects that have occurred during his presidency, Biden poked at Trump by declaring that “on my watch, instead of infrastructure week, America is having an infrastructure decade.”
Not making the trip: The Arizona GOP’s “freedom fest” event on Friday has been canceled after Trump, the event’s headliner, pulled out of the event, NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard reports. The news came the day after the state party chairman resigned amid revelations he offered Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake job opportunities in exchange for her sitting out the 2024 cycle.
Deep dive: The New York Times dives into how the Trump campaign secured decisive wins in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Trump court update: The former president briefly took to the witness stand Thursday in the damages trial in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him. He’s expected to appear in court Friday for closing arguments. And in Georgia, Trump’s team is calling for the charges against him to be dropped over allegations of an improper romantic relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and a special prosecutor.
On to the next ones: NBC’s Natasha Korecki reports the Democratic National Committee is launching new ads in South Carolina and Nevada aimed at targeting communities of color, rural areas and potential younger adults ahead of Democratic nominating contests there.
Will he, won’t he: The New York Times reports on the monthslong saga of the Montana GOP Senate primary, where Rep. Matt Rosendale is moving closer to a bid that would pit him against party favorite Tim Sheehy. Sheehy and the Senate GOP campaign arm dropped a new ad Thursday that links Democratic Sen. Jon Tester to the Biden administration, while a super PAC linked to Democrats is up with a new ad attacking Sheehy, per AdImpact.
Taking sides: Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., took sides in the GOP primary in Ohio’s 9th District, backing GOP state Rep. Derek Merrin, per Politico.
Between the lines: A deadline for New York’s new congressional map is fast approaching, and questions persist about whether the process has stalled, per Politico. In Florida, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the state’s congressional map.
Party time: The Michigan Republican Party is grappling with a leadership crisis, with chairwoman Kristina Karamo refusing to step down even though she was ousted earlier this month, per NBC’s Henry Gomez.
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world:
CIA Director William Burns is headed to Europe this weekend to try to broker a deal regarding the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Alabama conducted the first execution using nitrogen gas Thursday evening after the Supreme Court declined a final request to block the execution.
State lawmakers are grappling with whether to regulate artificial intelligence and deepfakes when it comes to the 2024 elections, per NBC’s Adam Edelman.
A federal judge sentenced Peter Navarro, who served as an adviser in the Trump administration, to four months in prison for failing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
