Here’s the latest from the 2024 campaign trail:
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- Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are in Iowa four days out from the caucuses.
- Haley shrugged off comments from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who dropped out of the race, that "she's going to get smoked."
- DeSantis warned Iowans that former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, was "gaslighting" them.
- Trump attended closing arguments on the last day of his New York civil fraud trial and spoke briefly in court.
- NBC News has launched Plan Your Vote, a comprehensive, state-by-state guide on voting rules.
GOP strategist predicts weather will affect caucuses — up to a point
Iowa GOP strategist Dave Kochel predicted tonight that while the worsening weather in the state could affect turnout Monday, it won’t prevent Trump from winning there.
“Trump is a dominant front-runner right now. We’ll see what the polls look like over the weekend. I’m sure we’ll see a big one coming in. I don’t think he’s at risk of not winning the caucuses," Kochel said on NBC News' "Top Story with Tom Llamas."
"But as you know, caucuses are always measured by how you do against your expectations. So if turnout is low, there’s much more likelihood for a surprise, and with the weather being what it is,” he said.
Haley campaign goes virtual with Iowa events over storm concerns
DES MOINES, Iowa— Haley’s campaign is turning to telephone town halls in place of planned campaign events amid forecasts of dangerous blizzards here.
“Stormy weather won’t stop us from ensuring Iowans hear Nikki’s vision for a strong and proud America,” Pat Garrett, a spokesperson for Team Haley Iowa, said in a statement. “With only three days until the caucuses, we’re going to keep telling voters why they should Pick Nikki.”
The tele-town halls are replacing in-person events in Fort Dodge, Le Mars and Council Bluffs. It’s not the first time this week weather has put a chill on the Haley campaign’s plans. A scheduled event in Sioux City was canceled because of snow and ice at the start of the week, a move that Haley’s rivals, like Ramaswamy, criticized not long before they did exactly the same thing for some of their own events.
Republican on Maryland elections board resigns after Jan. 6 arrest
A man arrested by the FBI this week in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has resigned as a Republican member of the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Federal authorities arrested Carlos Ayala on Tuesday and charged him with several misdemeanors and a felony count of civil disorder.
He is accused of joining the mob at the windows to the Capitol, shoving his broken flag through a broken window and waving it around while wearing a stars-and-stripes hoodie, a “Stop the Steal” button and a “grey 3M-style painter’s mask with large filters on each cheek,” according to an FBI affidavit. Ayala’s black flag featured the words “We the People,” an M-16-style rifle and “DEFEND,” court documents said.
Climate protesters dive on stage at DeSantis event and get tackled by security
AMES, Iowa — Protesters confronted DeSantis at an event here tonight.
One of the protesters tried to rush the small platform that DeSantis was standing on speaking to a room of about 150 people. The protester was tackled by a member of the security team and escorted out.
Two other protesters in the room were escorted out for yelling about DeSantis’ lack of climate policies. “Excuse me, excuse me, I’m doing this,” DeSantis said in response to the first protester who started yelling from the audience. He said he didn’t know they were “welcome” to do that.
Three members of the Sunrise Movement tried to rush the stage at DeSantis’ Fox News town hall in Des Moines this week. They told NBC News that they felt they needed to hold him accountable and that “we need to stop the climate crisis now.”
Donald Trump Jr. rallies supporters to brave the cold on caucus night
URBANDALE, Iowa — While hosting a campaign event on his father’s behalf, Donald Trump Jr. said supporters need to treat caucus night like they’re behind to avoid a false narrative about Trump failing.
“We gotta treat Monday as though we’re 10 points back,” Trump Jr. said at a Machine Shed restaurant. “They want that apathy, the consultant class, the media, they’re trying to create the narrative of failure, you can just see it.”
After the event, Trump told NBC News that his father's Trump supporters need to turn out despite the potentially record cold weather on caucus night. Des Moines could face a high of minus-3 degrees Monday, according to the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“I think they’re going to try to design it to get Trump voters to think that there’s such a lead that they don’t, so that they can run the story of there was an underperformance, so that’s why I think people have to turn up," he said.
This cycle, the former president has spent relatively little time in Iowa compared to some of his competitors, like DeSantis and Ramaswamy, who have both completed the “Full Grassley” — local shorthand for visiting all of Iowa’s 99 counties.
Instead, he has mainly relied on surrogates like his two adult sons, former Housing Secretary Ben Carson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to hold smaller campaign events on his behalf to supplement his in-person rallies.
GOP candidates steer clear of the Biden impeachment inquiry
The 2024 GOP candidates are eager to attack an unpopular Biden over a litany of issues, from his management of the southern border to his handling of the economy to accusations of weaponizing government agencies against his political opponents. What rarely comes up in their stump speeches, though, is the impeachment inquiry centered on the Biden family’s business dealings.
Trump, who was impeached twice himself as president, typically floats over the Biden impeachment inquiry at his campaign rallies. DeSantis and Haley also tend to avoid the subject.
The move to hold back punches on Biden about the inquiry is intentional, Republican strategists say. For Trump, discussing a government investigation into the president could weaken his argument about a “two-tiered” system of justice.
For the other Republican candidates, focusing on an open inquiry — which agree should be occurring but that has so far uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden and is outside their control — does little to distinguish themselves from their rivals in a field already crowded out by Trump.
Haley said she was unaware of Christie's hot mic remarks before wishing him well
Haley revealed today that she wasn't aware of Christie’s hot mic comments before she released a statement yesterday commending him on his campaign after he dropped out of the race.
“I didn’t know about the open mic comments, but I do wish Chris well,” Haley said. “Politics is not personal for me,” she added.
After Christie’s announcement yesterday, Haley released a statement saying: “Chris Christie has been a friend for many years. I commend him on a hard fought campaign.”
That came after Christie was captured on audio criticizing DeSantis and Haley, saying that she was “going to get smoked” by Trump in the GOP primary and that she's “not up for this.”
Haley also said she spoke with Christie today but didn’t ask for his endorsement. “I did talk to him this morning and just told him I appreciated his commitment to this race. But no, we don’t ask him for an endorsement.”
First lady Jill Biden sat down with NBC News’ Mika Brzezinski for a discussion about the demands and challenges of another political campaign as her 81-year-old husband seeks re-election.
Plan your vote
NBC News has launched the interactive website tool Plan Your Vote.
Plan Your Vote provides a comprehensive, state-by-state guide to voting rules in every state and major changes since the 2022 midterms, including registration deadlines and mail-in voting, early in-person voting and ID requirements.
It will also provide voters with key information leading up to the 2024 presidential election and the battle for control of the Senate and the House, as well as state and local elections across the country.
House GOP campaign chair: Boebert's move gives party a better chance to keep her seat
Speaking to reporters in Washington today, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson declined to comment on the specifics of Rep. Lauren Boebert's decision to run for re-election in a new district this year. But Hudson did say that he thinks "we have a better shot" at keeping the seat now that the controversial Boebert isn't running in Colorado's 3rd District, which she barely won in 2022.
Hudson said he didn't know Boebert was planning to run in the more heavily Republican 4th District until after it was reported.
Hudson also spoke about the coming special election to replace former GOP Rep. George Santos in New York.
"That’s a tough seat for us," Hudson said of the seat on Long Island. But he added that he's "cautiously optimistic" and that he thinks Democrat Tom Suozzi is vulnerable. "I love our candidate. I think she's fantastic," he said of Republican Mazi Pilip.