Here's the latest from the 2024 campaign trail:
- The member of the Republican National Committee who introduced a resolution that would have declared former President Donald Trump the “presumptive 2024 nominee” has withdrawn the measure, a source familiar with the resolution told NBC News on Thursday evening.
- Trump gave brief testimony in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him in New York.
- President Joe Biden visited Superior, Wisconsin, for a White House event focused on infrastructure.
- A super PAC backing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley says it outraised a pro-Trump super PAC in the second half of 2023.
Alabama GOP congressman disagrees with Haley's racism comments
A Republican congressman from Alabama said yesterday that “everyone has some racist in them,” pushing back against Haley’s assertion that the U.S. has never been a racist country.
Rep. Jerry Carl made the remarks during a GOP primary debate against fellow Rep. Barry Moore. The two congressmen are squaring off against each other in Alabama’s March 5 primary after redistricting in the state overlapped their current congressional districts. A federal court ordered Alabama last year to adopt a new congressional map with a second Black opportunity district.
“I used to work a lot with ministers, and I had some very private conversations. Everyone has some type of racist in them,” Carl said.
“My mother, who [after] Pearl Harbor — she couldn’t stand the Japanese. She couldn’t stand them. And it used to just eat her from the inside out. So it’s there,” he added.
New Hampshire primary highlights the GOP’s problem on abortion
In New Hampshire on Tuesday, a whopping 67% of Republican primary voters said they opposed a federal law to ban most or all abortions nationwide, according to the NBC News exit poll.
That’s in a Republican primary — not a Democratic one (though a sizable share of independents and moderates participated).
And it only underscores the general election problem the Republican Party faces on the issues.
Yes, this is New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” state, where the GOP governor, Chris Sununu, supports some access to abortion rights. (Indeed, compare that with the 61% of Republican caucusgoers in Iowa who said they supported an abortion ban, per that contest’s entrance poll.)
Yes, neither Trump nor Haley has called for a federal abortion ban. (Trump has said he wanted to “negotiate” in a post-Dobbs world, while Haley has said such a ban can’t pass the Senate.)
Still, when 67% of Republican New Hampshire primary voters say they oppose a federal abortion ban, that speaks volumes about the power of the abortion issue in a quasi-battleground state like New Hampshire, as well as other states, where abortion bans and Roe v. Wade’s overturning remain unpopular.
Some Republicans rebuke efforts to kill immigration deal to help Trump
Tempers flared today as Republicans battled among themselves over whether to accept or reject a deal for tougher immigration laws, with some pushing back against colleagues who want to bow to Trump’s wishes and kill it.
“The border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem — because he wants to blame Biden for it — is really appalling,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters.
Michigan GOP descends into chaos amid an escalating leadership battle
After weeks of infighting, no one knows who’s in charge of the Michigan Republican Party.
Kristina Karamo, who was elected chairwoman last year, insists she still has the job, even after a sizable group of state party committee members voted to oust her this month. She refuses to leave the post, even as the opposition’s pick to replace her, former Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, issues statements under the state party logo declaring himself the chairman.
The leadership crisis has resulted in chaos and confusion in what’s expected to be a top battleground state for control of the White House and the Senate in 2024.
The anti-Karamo faction has asked a court to settle the matter, and on Wednesday it got some validation from Republican National Committee lawyers, who said an initial review had determined that Karamo had been “properly removed.” But the RNC stopped short of recognizing Hoekstra as the new chair, saying neither he nor Karamo would be credentialed as voting members at the national party’s winter meeting next week in Las Vegas.
Boebert answers questions about why she switched districts
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., was repeatedly pressed during a primary debate tonight about her decision to seek election in a different district.
Boebert did not squarely address criticism about her decision to switch from running in the state's competitive 3rd Congressional District to the solidly Republican 4th Congressional District, saying only that her family needed a "fresh start" after her divorce from her ex-husband.
"I have moved into the 4th District. My boys and I needed a fresh start," Boebert said. "I've tried to put it into a very pretty package and bring my ex-husband lots of honor. But since there is nothing private about my personal life, it is out there, and my boys need some freedom from what has been going on, and this move is the right move for me and for them."
Boebert said she and her children now live in an area of Weld County that is part of the district where she is seeking election. Trump won 57.6% of the vote in that county in 2020.
Boebert scraped by in the 2022 midterms, prevailing over her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member, by just 546 votes.
Pennsylvania Republicans sue Biden over executive order aimed at boosting voter registration
A group of 24 Pennsylvania state lawmakers is suing Biden over a 2021 executive order he issued titled "Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting."
The Republicans alleged in their complaint — which seeks a declaratory judgment that the executive order is unconstitutional — that Biden's order "contradicts Pennsylvania state election laws" and "usurps the state legislature’s powers and violates the state legislators’ federal civil rights."
The White House has not publicly responded to the lawsuit.
The state GOP lawmakers also challenged Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's recent introduction of automatic voter registration in the commonwealth — an action they alleged was "not legally authorized by any state law."
"Governor Shapiro’s edict is an abusive and capricious exercise of executive power which usurps the function of the Pennsylvania legislature," the complaint said.
Shapiro also has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. Yesterday he tweeted, "We’re protecting the right to vote, the right to choose, and the right be who you are."
RNC member drops resolution to name Trump the GOP’s ‘presumptive’ nominee
A Republican National Committee member floated, and then withdrew, a resolution to declare Trump the party’s “presumptive” presidential nominee, a source familiar with the resolution said this evening.
The draft resolution from David Bossie, a Maryland national committee member and longtime Trump ally, had been circulating among RNC members ahead of the party’s winter meeting in Las Vegas. NBC News obtained the draft from two sources today.
NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reports on the candidates’ process for receiving their parties’ presidential nominations. He breaks down what a delegate is and how they are acquired by candidates in each party.
Cheney calls on Haley to stay in race through Super Tuesday
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in an interview set to be released tomorrow that she hopes Haley will remain in the GOP presidential primary race through Super Tuesday.
"I hope she stays in the race, you know, as long as she has to. I think certainly, you know, through Super Tuesday," Cheney said in a clip from an interview with "Pod Save America" that was published tonight.
"In a general election, surely, Nikki Haley fares much better than Donald Trump does," Cheney continued, noting the race in November is going to center on a candidate's ability to win over independent voters.
Cheney has frequently criticized Trump's actions leading up to the Capitol riot as a threat to democracy. She suggested on the podcast that Trump's presidential bid "presents an existential threat."
"We need to make sure that we're challenging him and working to defeat him at every step of the way. And right now, Nikki Haley is in this fight, and I think she ought to stay in it," Cheney added.
25 Republican governors sign letter backing Abbott in border legal fight
More than two dozen Republican governors issued a statement today backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after the Supreme Court ruled this week that Border Patrol agents could remove razor wire installed along the Mexican border.
The group of 25 governors criticized Biden over his administration’s border policies, which Republicans have highlighted as a failure ahead of the presidential election.
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border," they wrote. "We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally. "
The statement was signed by all Republican governors from across the 50 states except for Abbott and Phil Scott of Vermont.