GOP debate highlights: DeSantis, Haley spar ahead of Iowa caucuses as Trump holds town hall

The final DeSantisLies.com tally from tonight's debate? Twelve.

Haley mentioned the website throughout the evening, saying it rebuts DeSantis' attacks on her.

Say what you will about Haley’s incessant repetition of her website DeSantisLies.com, but it has succeeded in getting people to look it up. 

Google Search Trends shows that the phrase and ones like it make up eight of the top 10 rising searches related to the debate, meaning a lot of people Googling Haley’s and DeSantis’ names are also Googling “DeSantis Lies.”

DeSantis, asked about Trump’s suggestion that he might try to stop violent crime by deploying American troops to Democratic-led states and cities, criticized the former president's response to protests in 2020 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

“He was president during the worst rioting in the modern history of this country,” DeSantis said of Trump. “He sat in the White House and tweeted ‘law and order,’ but he did nothing to ensure law and order. As your president, I will never let our cities burn.”

On a night when Haley was set up for a big boost, aided by Christie’s departure from the race, she didn’t seem to seize the opportunity to put DeSantis away. They appeared to be relatively on par with each other. That’s not to say she won’t beat him in Iowa or compete with Trump in New Hampshire. But there aren’t a lot of big-spotlight moments, and this was a squandered chance to push DeSantis off the stage. She kicked and missed.

Haley turns to the general election in her closing statement to make a case that she’s the electable one because of polling that shows her beating Biden.

Interesting, given the way this debate went, that Haley in her closing said Trump would be “four more years of chaos” but did not say the same of Biden.

Interesting that they both refer to the racial justice movement by the initialism “BLM,” maybe because it’s awkward to be critical of “Black Lives Matter”?

Haley just couldn’t bring herself to say something more than “I think he’s been a good governor” when asked to say something she admires about DeSantis.

That was a long, silent pause that lingered as she made it clear that was the extent of her answer.

Haley is talking a lot about states’ rights tonight, right in the shadow of her failure to cite slavery as a cause — the cause — of the Civil War.

Where does she draw the line on when state law is wrong and should be superseded by the federal government? That’s not clear after months of campaigning on states’ rights and weeks of talking about the surprise issue of the 2024 campaign: the Civil War.

On the rare occasions that DeSantis goes deeper on his military service rather than simply mentioning that he is a veteran, it’s usually on the topic of mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder.

When I saw him at an event in New Hampshire last summer, he talked earnestly — earnestly for DeSantis — about a bill he introduced in Congress to provide federal grants to pair service dogs with veterans living with PTSD.

DeSantis takes an opportunity with a mental health question to yet again tout his record on Covid, an issue he and his team see as a winning one for him.

Haley passed up an easy opportunity to say that as president she’d respect states' rights to expand Medicaid — something that would have been consistent with her earlier support for states’ rights. Instead, she delved into long and winding answers and declined to offer a yes or a no, even when pressed on the issue.

Haley sidestepped twice when asked whether her preferred health care policy would allow the states that have accepted Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion to keep it. Millions of lower-income people have gained coverage under that provision in the dozens of states that have adopted it.

Asked about Trump's arguments at his legal immunity trial yesterday, DeSantis said that "Donald Trump’s going to lose that appeal" and that "he’s going to end up going to trial in front of a stacked left-wing D.C. jury of all Democrats."

He pivoted to his standard campaign lines that Trump's legal problems will be a distraction from the real issues.

For those of us who covered the Democratic primaries in 2020 — and the half-dozen-plus debates that centered on lengthy health care policy debates — it’s wild how little conversation has happened about health care among Republicans.

DeSantis talked about word salad and word vomit tonight. But one of his favorite go-to moves that is hard for voters to follow is alphabet soup.

He talked about bringing a reckoning to the FDA, the NIH and the CDC tonight. His stump speeches are full of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and ESG (environmental, social and governance) — both of which he’s against.

There are a few letters he doesn’t use, but it sometimes feels more like a mash-up of "Sesame Street" sponsorships than a campaign platform.

Haley was asked about part of Trump's argument before an appellate court that a president has broad immunity, including to use the military to kill someone.

Haley called the argument "ridiculous."

But given the opportunity to take apart Trump’s central argument about presidential immunity she ... pivots to saying DeSantis is lying.

DeSantis is going back to his greatest hits with his anti-lockdown message — and gets plenty of applause.

That was the most Haley went at Trump tonight, making a clear distinction between her view of Jan. 6, calling it a “terrible day,” and stating that Biden won the election while Trump won’t let it go.

Haley’s message on abortion is one of asking her party to change its tone on the issue, but she has been light on any details in terms of what the federal policy should look like.

Haley has frequently ducked opportunities to criticize Trump, instead using a familiar line: “That’s why he should be on this debate stage,” or some version of that.

Specifically, she avoided attacking Trump on his abortion legacy, still trying not to betray any hint of a stance on where the week-marker should be on this issue.

“These fellas don’t know how to talk about abortion,” she said in one memorable line.

DeSantis, who has campaigned in Trump’s image and ideology more than Haley has, is more direct in his ability to go at Trump.

Haley has criticized DeSantis' tone several times, using the word "demeaning" four times to describe him.

Worth noting that raising the retirement age for Social Security is a tax increase — because would-be retirees are still working and paying taxes into the Social Security system.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., makes his way into the debate for a second time tonight — “ballistic podiatry” is his line!

The congressman used it in his intro for DeSantis at an event in the Des Moines suburb of Grimes over the weekend. His reference then was to Trump, though, not Haley. 

Still waiting for one candidate or the other to say why they should be president — other than that the other one shouldn’t be or that America stinks right now. Not much of Reagan’s shining city on a hill in this debate.

Haley makes a passing mention of Trump, saying he should be on the debate stage.

But it’s not just the candidates avoiding Trump — they have been asked little about the GOP primary front-runner at tonight's faceoff.

How many times is too many times to mention this website? Asking for a friend.

Since the events started, the Trump Truth Social account has posted three times about DeSantis and eight times about Haley.

Just deleted a sentence because DeSantis said it for me — Haley’s attacks seem incredibly “D.C.” This isn’t a debate in the back room of Cafe Milano. It's in Iowa.

A Trump campaign adviser told NBC News that “nothing is finalized” on Trump’s vice presidential pick, though Trump tonight seemed to suggest he had decided on one. “He’ll announce his final pick when he’s ready to,” the adviser said.

Trump said in the Fox News town hall that he had already chosen his running mate. “I can’t tell you that, really,” Trump said when he was asked who his running mate would be. “I mean, I know who it’s going to be."

I'm not sure Haley seems more relatable to average voters by bragging that she stayed at the Residence Inn.

Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of the conservative evangelical organization The Family Leader, said today on "Top Story with Tom Llamas" that he thinks DeSantis can win Iowa.

“Ron DeSantis has done the Iowa caucuses the old-fashioned way," Vander Plaats said. "He’s gotten a lot of key endorsements. And the most important one is that of Gov. Kim Reynolds. He’s got a bunch of legislative endorsements. He’s got 120 county chairs for 99 counties, 1,600 precinct captains. That’s what it takes to win an Iowa caucus, especially on a cold winter’s night."

Vander Plaats also responded to criticism from Trump, saying: “This is not against Donald Trump. This is for the future of this country and for the next generation. And that’s why I endorsed Ron DeSantis.”

It's somewhat surprising that DeSantis' first mention of the Iowa governor, his top endorser in the state, clocked in at the hour mark of this debate.

This is the closing argument before the Iowa caucuses, but I’m struck by how non-Iowa-centric the focus of the debate is. Does this help any of the undecided Iowans I’ve met these last few weeks make a choice?

Haley brought up the controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's decision not to inform Biden that he was in the hospital for several days.

She criticized Biden, saying, "What bothers me is how does Biden not talk to his secretary of defense every single day?" and saying, "The idea that the secretary of defense would not even be in contact with the president, much less than contact with the staff, is unforgivable."

Haley stressed that the issue was especially personal to her given that her husband is currently deployed.

The “school choice” issue DeSantis is hitting — and hitting Haley on — is a big one for Republicans in Iowa. He’s talking to voters here. It was the centerpiece of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ agenda.

While much of the first 50 minutes of this debate sounded like a throwback to the pre-Trump GOP days in policy terms, DeSantis showed how much the Republican Party has changed with his answer to the question about government leaders' pushing back on companies that don't align with their political views.

DeSantis' fights against Disney have been a staple of his stump speech — and tonight they're again a reminder that such an aggressive stance against private industry is a relatively new feature in a party that relatively recently championed free enterprise without interference.

As we approach the end of this first hour, I wonder whether Haley has lost the forest for the trees. She’s gotten bogged down in parrying DeSantis on every micro point he makes and plugging the website and vanishingly little time attacking Trump or Biden. If she’s the forward-looking candidate with momentum in this race, the last 55 minutes don’t show it.

Abortion has been a tricky issue for Trump. And in an emotional question directed at him by an anti-abortion-rights Iowa voter, it continued to be.

The woman asking the question pointed out that Trump had “blamed” anti-abortion-rights candidates for political losses across the country since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, before she asked Trump to “reassure” her that he could “protect all life without compromise.”

Trump spent several minutes responding and jumped around several topics.

In response to a question from a woman who said abortion was her top issue in the campaign, Trump takes credit for "ending Roe v. Wade."

He refers to abortion as "killing a baby" but then notes that he is for exceptions like rape and incest. He also points out that at five or six weeks, many women don't know they're pregnant.

Trump's critics on the right have attacked him for taking a "softer" approach to abortion.

DeSantis often mentions that he's the only military veteran in the race — a distinguishing factor that could appeal to voters. But the mentions are typically brief and perfunctory, as DeSantis was tonight in discussing his service. He rarely connects the experience to how he would lead as commander in chief, at least not in explicit terms.

In the aggregate, it may not matter, but the DeSantis we’re seeing tonight has come a long way from the first debate, where he was best known for his staid style and awkward smiles.

He’s not only more relaxed on stage; he's also speaking with more urgency.

Haley criticized DeSantis for campaigning with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

Massie has campaigned several times in Iowa and New Hampshire with DeSantis — who has excused Massie’s vote against aid to Israel by saying he votes against all foreign aid, not just this most recent package to the Israelis.

Asked whether he would divest from his businesses during a second term, Trump deflected.

Last week, a report released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee alleged that Trump received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments during two of his four years in the White House.

In a winding reply to the questions about the report, however, Trump remarked that George Washington had been wealthy when he was president and that $8 million was “a small amount of money.”

DeSantis regularly refers to Haley as "ambassador" as opposed to “governor.” Both titles are accurate, though Haley was more recently an ambassador than a governor.

At the same time, it’s less popular to be global than to be domestic in the GOP these days.

Haley hits where DeSantis hurts, attacking him for blowing through tens of millions of dollars in his campaign with what she says is nothing to show for it. “He has blown through $150 million. I don’t know how you do that.”

“If you can’t manage a campaign, how can you manage a country?” she asked.

Baier asks Trump about his calls for retribution at his rallies.

Asked how much of a prospective second term he’d spend on retribution, Trump offered a mixed answer.

He began by saying a “lot of people would say that’s not so bad” before listing a series of “hoaxes.”

But he then added, “I’m not going to have time for retribution."

“Our ultimate retribution is success,” he said.

Credit to Dana Bash, who has twice jumped in to preserve candidates’ speaking time. Despite the heat, we’re getting some light here, because the candidates are not, trampling over each other and are not being allowed to.

Haley’s campaign posted this as she walked onstage, but neither she nor DeSantis are talking about Trump much at all. 

In a debate that’s been a mishmash of topics and attacks, the issue of support for Ukraine is one of the clearest contrasts between these two candidates.

Trump again vows to “end” sanctuary cities” if he’s elected.

“They’re going to be ended,” he said. He added, without providing any context or evidence, that “many of those people” in the U.S. illegally “come from mental institutions and insane asylums, and many of those people are terrorists.”

Haley’s eye rolls when DeSantis says her Ukraine policy is basically Biden’s will surely be a meme. The question is how many times she can roll her eyes at him before it looks rehearsed.

Trump promises “the largest deportation effort in the history of our country” in response to a question about how he would deal with the millions of undocumented immigrants who have entered the country.

Basically, everyone who has asked a question at this Trump town hall is a committed Trump voter. One woman was even a caucus captain for his effort in Iowa.

Trump asked repeatedly about Haley’s and DeSantis’ blasting him for growing the national debt. “You had to inject money” during Covid, he said.

Trump was asked whether his recent comments that he hoped an economic crash would occur now — and not during a prospective second term — meant he was hoping for a crash.

Trump didn’t directly answer the question, saying instead that he felt “the economy is horrible” before reiterating that “when there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to be during the next 12 months, because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover.”

DeSantis has long positioned himself as a federalist ideologically — except when states don’t do what he likes. The latest example: He argues that states shouldn’t be allowed to provide benefits to undocumented immigrants.

Somewhere, Christie is banging his head against the wall as this Haley and DeSantis debate devolves into yet another slugfest between candidates with nearly no mention of the front-runner in the GOP primary campaign.

Haley’s campaign has for at least a week been sitting on the idea for “DeSantislLies.com,” the website she dropped at the beginning of the debate. According to internet registration records, the website was registered on Jan. 3 and then updated again today, presumably when her campaign made it live for the debate.

At a certain point, the “pale pastels” commentary could start to ring a little sexist. None of the male candidates are being taken to task for their bright red ties’ somehow being akin to their policy stances.

Trump has received plenty of good polling news. But he’s also prone to exaggeration. He is not winning every poll that has been released over the last month, which is what he has claimed in his town hall tonight.

A woman who said she’ll be caucusing for Trump asked him whether he’d ever allow a shutdown — due to a public health crisis — in the future.

“No, I wouldn’t,” Trump said. “And I didn’t,” he continued. “I let the governors make their decisions.”

He then used the question to attack DeSantis for imposing a Covid lockdown, although he did so later than other governors did.

DeSantis said he would exempt working-class people from a flat income tax.

He threw out the numbers $40,000 and $50,000, which are several times the current line at which earners pay income taxes.

“Donald Trump deported fewer people than Barack Obama did as a president” is probably the first DeSantis attack against Trump that might resonate with the former president’s base voters.

Haley seemed to want to avoid engaging with DeSantis and frame the night as a two-way contest between her and Trump. But DeSantis’ hitting Haley on taxes in South Carolina is forcing her to defend her record.

It’s not a presidential town hall or debate without TikTok commercials talking about how gosh darn good TikTok is!

DeSantis’ policy of removing tax on baby-related items like diapers is one of the most populist programs he talks about on the campaign trail.

It goes right to the heart of the GOP’s effort to rebrand being “pro-life” as “pro-baby” or “pro-family.”

A teacher who said she would be caucusing for DeSantis asked Trump how he would “convince good people” to take the risk of working in his administration, given that he has criticized and demeaned so many people.

Trump replied by saying, “Everybody wants to come to work for us,” but he didn’t mention any names.

“Two of the very most important people in the military want to come work for me,” he added, but, again, he didn’t mention any names.

We’ve heard so many of these attacks before, but it feels like DeSantis and Haley are almost attacking in buzzwords and shorthand. Can voters even follow along — and are they even hearing anything through this fast barrage of barbs?

A few brief Trump mentions aside, we have a couple of governors (a former governor in Haley's case) debating gas taxes, infrastructure and balanced budgets in the first 20 minutes of a presidential debate. Is it 2012 or 2024?

For example, Haley's mention of tort reform feels like quite the blast from the past. Once a centerpiece of Republican platforms, it's rarely highlighted these days.

Trump said that when it comes to his running mate, “I know who it’s going to be.”

But, he added, “I can’t tell you that.”

He said he could mend fences with presidential rivals, though, adding he already likes Christie more after dropping out, but he says Christie is unlikely to be considered.

DeSantis pushed back on one of Haley’s typical lines about her qualifications for the White House, saying, “We don't need an accountant in the White House. We need a leader in the White House.”

It’s so telling that, at this point in the process, these candidates are still unwilling to make the case for Republican voters to abandon Trump.

To beat him in a primary, a Republican is going to have to convince some share of his voters that they need to walk away from him. They’ve had several debates and now are one-on-one on the stage, and still they just won’t take a crack at Trump.

And Christie’s exit explains why: If you hit Trump in a Republican primary, you don’t get very far. They remain paired in a box canyon, unwilling to do the one thing it would take to beat Trump because the risk that it destroys them is too great.

Trump laments the media writ large — apparently not playing up the nuance of his comment about being a dictator. He complains that media outlets cut off that part of his quote when he said he would be a dictator “for one day” and made it seem as if he would be a dictator for his term.

(Can’t speak for every write-up or discussion of that comment, but much of what I saw — and what appeared on NBCNews.com — included what he said for one day.)

Bret Baier plays a clip of Biden saying political violence is never OK and asks Trump whether he would agree: “Well, of course, that’s right. And I’m the one that had very little of it.”

Trump, who helped incite the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, then transitions to talking about wars that weren’t happening during his administration.

So, different topics.

If DeSantis and Haley continue to unload their prepared opposition research at this rate, they’re going to be out of talking points by the first commercial break.

This is the most aggressive we’ve seen anyone not named Ramaswamy at a debate in this cycle ... and both candidates are doing it tonight.

Haley savagely says Trump “is the one I’m running against” as DeSantis stands next to her.

Trump is reiterating his false claim that the legal investigations into him are “election interference” orchestrated by Biden.

Haley had an opportunity to go harder at Trump, per Christie’s call, but she completely stuck to her script, saying Trump was the right person at the right time, but not now.

Trump is now going after Biden on the economy, claiming that he got no credit for “the greatest economy in history.” That claim is highly questionable.

“We had no inflation,” he says.

Haley came prepared with some strong one-liners locked and loaded.“His campaign is exploding,” she said of DeSantis, adding that Drake University students should not play a drinking game in which they imbibe every time he lies because they’d get too drunk.

Early on, Haley attempts to launch pre-emptive strikes to DeSantis’ hits with her drumbeat that DeSantis is lying about her with each dig. She gets off a memorable line to Drake University: “Every time he lies … don’t turn this into a drinking game, because you will be overserved by the end of the night.”

“The fact that he’s only running in one state” line from Haley is a burn, and it has the advantage of being true. DeSantis’ campaign and super PAC have only narrowed the scope of their ambitions since DeSantis launched his bid. DeSantis has barely a footprint beyond the Hawkeye State.

Trump says Biden “can’t put more than two sentences together” and accuses him and the Democrats of creating far more chaos than occurred during his own presidency.

“I had no wars,” Trump said.

DeSantis’ line saying Trump is running on “his issues” and Haley is running on her “donors’ issues” has been weaved into his stump speech in recent weeks, having been mentioned for the first time in New Hampshire just before the new year. The same message is at the core of a new ad the DeSantis campaign put up on Iowa airwaves this week.

Trump immediately calls out Christie’s hot mic incident, saying Christie said Haley would be “creamed” in the election (it was “smoked”), adding that he agrees with him. Trump also said the hot mic was bigger news than Christie’s dropping out.

DeSantis lands the first punch by calling Haley another “mealy-mouthed politician.” His first answer also included a line from his ads: “Donald Trump is running to pursue his issues. Nikki Haley is running to pursue her donors’ issues. I’m running to pursue your issues.”

With so much on the line for DeSantis next Monday and the narrative behind Haley’s momentum, I’m looking for DeSantis to really try to make a mark tonight — maybe that means he gets more aggressive with Haley than he has gotten to date on the debate stage.

Chris Christie didn’t make the stage tonight — and he has since left the race — but in dropping out today and challenging his rivals to call out Trump as unfit for office, he’s trying (once again!) to force the field on this issue and set the conversational agenda tonight.

The DNC will have a mobile billboard circling the venue of Trump’s town hall with Fox News tonight, slamming him for his recent comments hoping for an economic crash this year.

The text of the billboard will read, “If Donald Trump gets his economic crash, millions of jobs would be lost, retirement savings wiped out, companies and factories shuttered.”

So far this town hall has been a lot of the past without much of the future. The discussion has centered on Jan. 6, the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and riots that took place during Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers

Ramaswamy has leaned into conspiracy theories in recent months. This town hall marks a tight embrace of those conspiracies — most of which center on the idea that the government has been encouraging or bolstering violent actions that took place between the summer of 2020 and the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ramaswamy, Pool and the other guests spent the first seven minutes of the town hall discussing the dictionary definition of the phrase “inside job.”

They’re essentially debating whether it’s an inside job because some Capitol Police officers allowed the rioters into the building. But they're ignoring whether they were summoned to Washington, D.C., and told to go to the Capitol and encourage the stopping of the electoral count by Trump.

The town hall kicks off with Tim Pool launching into a monologue about how the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an inside job.

To give a sense of the vibe of Ramaswamy’s town hall with right-wing YouTuber Tim Pool, Ramaswamy is seated at a round table that features a participant wearing a shirt reading “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself.”

DES MOINES, Iowa — A different kind of political speech is taking center stage at Trump's rallies: the opening prayer.

The invocations have become their own political call to action, sometimes punctuated with applause lines and partisan language, invoking the same falsehoods and vindictiveness that Trump himself spreads.

At a rally last month in Coralville, Iowa, the Rev. Joel Tenney spoke ahead of Trump, telling the several hundred gathered supporters that he wanted to talk to them “as a pastor.” 

“We have witnessed a sitting president weaponize the entire legal system to try and steal an election and imprison his leading opponent, Donald Trump, despite committing no crime,” he said. 

“We must re-elect President Trump for the third time,” Tenney said, echoing Trump’s “big lie” rhetoric. He then said that the coming election “is part of a spiritual battle” with “demonic forces at play.” 

Read the full story here.

Griff, the mascot at Drake University, is ready for tonight's debate.

Trump isn’t wasting any time circulating news of Christie’s getting caught on a hot mic appearing to say Haley was going to get “smoked” in the Republican presidential race.

Less than two hours after Christie made his remarks, Trump posted audio of the comments on his Truth Social platform and lauded Christie for “making a very truthful statement: ‘She’s gonna get smoked.’”

The Write-In Joe Biden campaign in New Hampshire, an effort unsanctioned by the DNC and the campaign but led by prominent establishment New Hampshire Democrats, issued a statement tonight calling for Christie supporters to back the president.

“Joe Biden is the only one running in either party who has beaten Donald Trump before and will beat him again," spokesperson Aaron Jacobs said.

"We welcome any backers of Chris Christie who want to truly stand against Trump to join us in writing-in Joe Biden, rather than supporting a candidate who would sign a national abortion ban, has promised to pardon Trump, and has not ruled out serving as his Vice President. Nikki Haley is not the solution.”

DES MOINES, Iowa — Ramaswamy continued his push against what he calls the “climate change hoax,” appealing to rural Iowans’ disdain toward the impending carbon capture pipeline in the state.

“The next U.S. president absolutely has the power to bring the end of use of eminent domain for private gain,” Ramaswamy told the audience. He singled himself out as the only Republican presidential candidate to speak about the issue, adding that “it comes down to one word: corruption.”

So does Christie’s exit from the 2024 presidential race help Haley — especially in New Hampshire, where she has been gaining ground on Trump?

The answer is yes. But polls also show how it helps Trump if DeSantis ever ends his presidential bid.

This week’s Boston Globe/USA Today/Suffolk University poll of New Hampshire found that among the 12% of likely GOP primary voters who picked Christie as their first choice, nearly half (48%) said Haley was their second choice, versus just 7% who said Trump was their second choice. 

And a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, which also had Christie at 12% in the state, found that 65% of his supporters selected Haley as their second choice.

Before the town hall where he dropped out of the race today, Christie was caught on a hot mic when it appeared he was talking about Haley: “She’s going to get smoked — you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.”

He also said, “DeSantis called me — petrified.”

Trump and DeSantis referred to the "smoked" comment in their reactions to Christie's decision to end his campaign.

"I hear Chris Christie is dropping out of the race today — I might even get to like him again! Anyway, he was just caught on a hot mic making a very truthful statement: 'She’s gonna get smoked…You and I both know it, she’s not up to this,'" Trump posted on Truth Social.

"I agree with Christie that Nikki Haley is 'going to get smoked,'" DeSantis posted on X.

Christie’s departure from the Republican presidential primary campaign served as an undeniable gift to Haley at a crucial moment in the 2024 race, just five days before the Iowa caucuses and while she is attempting to persuade voters that the contest should be a head-to-head matchup between Trump and herself.

Even though Christie hadn’t stepped foot in Iowa, timing his announcement before the caucuses potentially boosts Haley as she crisscrosses the Hawkeye State and adds to her argument that her strong polling in New Hampshire and her background in South Carolina make her the inevitable Trump alternative. 

Haley’s potential momentum boost is another unwelcome turn in the race for DeSantis, who is betting his candidacy on landing at least a strong second-place showing in the caucuses.

Christie’s departure less than two weeks before New Hampshire also was a sobering reality to Never-Trumpers in the 2024 primaries: The most fervent Trump antagonist in the field couldn’t even reach the contest in the state where he devoted his candidacy. Trump has consistently led the field in every early state poll, including in Iowa.  

Read the full story here.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, is at Drake University for tonight’s GOP presidential debate to vouch for Haley.

“I think this is a two-person race between her and Donald Trump, and she has the momentum to win this race,” Hurd said of Haley, whom he endorsed upon suspending his own bid for the presidency in October.

Hurd also reacted in real time to the news of Christie’s dropping out the race.

“It’s a tough decision,” Hurd said, perhaps reflecting on personal experience. “He made the right decision.”

“This just solidifies the fact that Nikki Haley’s momentum is real, and she has a great chance of winning New Hampshire," he added.

Trump’s campaign has long anticipated the possibility Christie would exit the race before New Hampshire, a senior campaign official told NBC News, and the front-runner’s campaign believes Christie’s decision to suspend changes the race only “a tad.” 

“He brings no GOP votes if he were to endorse,” the senior Trump campaign official said. “His numbers in New Hampshire among Republicans are astronomically negative. It changes the race a tad because of what it does with unaffiliated voters who may be Democrats but can vote in a Republican primary.” 

The Trump campaign believes Christie’s negative numbers with Republicans — juiced by his repeated and aggressive attacks on Trump — limit his utility as an endorser of Haley, Trump’s biggest rival in the state. 

DeSantis called Christie earlier today after hearing rumors of his possibly dropping out, a source familiar with the call first shared with NBC News.

DeSantis called to say that regardless of his decision, he appreciated Christie’s role in the race.

Christie went after Haley pretty hard in the conversation, calling her a joke and saying that she has performed terribly and that she’s not up to the task.

WINDHAM, N.H. — Christie announced today that he is getting out of the 2024 presidential campaign — as his main competition for moderate votes in the New Hampshire primary, Haley, gains on Trump in the state.

“It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination,” Christie told voters at an evening event. “Which is why I’m suspending my campaign for president of the United States.”

Read the full story here.

Hours before the head-to-head debate between Haley and DeSantis, the Biden campaign slammed the two Republicans over their records on abortion rights.

“Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis each have their own extreme anti-abortion records,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said on a call with abortion rights groups and reporters.

Roping in Trump, who is not participating in the debate Wednesday, Chavez Rodriguez added that “every single one of these extreme MAGA Republicans pose the same cataclysmic threat to our right to make our own health care decisions.”

She added that the issue of abortion rights “will be on the ballot this November.

“We’re going to continue to make sure that every single voter knows it,” Chavez Rodriguez said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to suspend his long-shot presidential campaign tonight, according to two sources who have knowledge of the plans.

Christie is not expected to make any endorsement at this time, according to one of the sources, who speculated that Christie may want to wait until after the Iowa caucuses on Monday before making any announcement to amplify its effect.

The decision removes the most high-profile and consistent critic of Trump still in the Republican primary, with Christie weathering boos and catcalls at GOP debates when he stuck to his message against the former president. 

But Christie’s departure may also boost Haley, who has also selectively criticized Trump and who has been fighting for a similar group of moderate voters in New Hampshire. Haley and Christie have both overperformed among self-described independents in polls ahead of New Hampshire’s Jan. 23 open primary.

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Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., announced today that he raised $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 as he prepares for a competitive re-election race this year.

His Republican opponent will most likely be businessman David McCormick, who announced he was running in September and has so far avoided any primary challengers.

McCormick’s campaign announced this week that he raised more than $6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, but that figure was bolstered by $1 million of his personal funds.

McCormick narrowly lost the 2022 Senate Republican primary in Pennsylvania to TV personality Mehmet Oz, who was defeated in the general election by Democrat John Fetterman.

Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., is the latest member of Congress to throw his support behind Trump.

Bentz said in a statement that he had reached out to former Cabinet members asking if Trump had the ability to effectively govern, and that they were unequivocal in their support.

Bentz was the only Oregon lawmaker who voted to overturn the 2020 election results and has said publicly that indictments of the former president are politically motivated.

Trump now has the endorsement of at least 103 House members, compared to five for DeSantis and one for Haley.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has raised more than one-third of its $60 million goal for 2024 races and will use some of the cash to target Democratic pickup opportunities in special elections over the coming weeks in Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, according to a memo outlining the group’s strategy this year.

The memo by the national Democratic arm in charge of funding candidates for state legislative races — shared with NBC News ahead of its release this morning — comes after the group announced last year that it would plan to spend $60 million during the 2024 election cycle.

The DLCC said today that it had already raised $21 million, a sum that would allow it to stay on track to fulfill the goals it set in an array of states with competitive legislative races.

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GOP Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa has decided not to endorse a candidate ahead of his state’s caucuses next week, saying today that taking sides in the race would be “disingenuous.”

Feenstra interviewed multiple candidates last month as he considered taking sides, even as the rest of the state’s congressional delegation remained neutral.

“The best thing for me to do is just be an ambassador to Iowa,” Feenstra said in a brief interview at the Capitol. “They’re all in Iowa right now. They’re all working their tail off. And it’d be disingenuous to endorse one over the other. And I’m just thrilled that we get this once once every four years to put Iowa on the map and show everybody what Iowa has to offer.”

The judge overseeing Trump’s civil fraud case will not allow the former president to speak during tomorrow's closing arguments after Trump refused to say that he’d stick to the facts of the case and not engage in any attacks.

Trump had requested to deliver part of the arguments himself, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. But Judge Arthur Engoron denied the request Wednesday after a contentious back-and-forth with Trump’s lawyers about certain preconditions the judge wanted him to meet.

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In a new TV ad from Rep. Katie Porter that hit the California airwaves today, a narrator urges voters to "shake up the Senate with Democrat Katie Porter."

Porter is running in a contentious Senate primary that includes fellow Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee. California's all-party, top-two primary is on March 5 — Super Tuesday.

Porter is well known for using a whiteboard as a prop in congressional committee hearings and on TV.

In the ad, the first of her Senate campaign, a narrator highlights this, calling it "not just any whiteboard," and then adding, "Katie Porter: never taken corporate PAC money, never will. Leading the fight to ban congressional stock trading. And the only Democrat who opposed wasteful earmarks that fund politicians' pet projects." 

Christie rejected calls from New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to drop out of the presidential race, saying that any suggestion that his campaign is on its last breath is simply false.

“It pains me to say this, but Gov. Sununu is a liar,” Christie said in an interview with WMUR, an ABC affiliate.

During an interview on CNN yesterday, Sununu, who has endorsed Haley, had suggested there are ongoing discussions within Christie’s campaign about whether to drop out of the race: “I would say this: I think members of his leadership team here in New Hampshire are having those discussions with him and that’s the right folks to do it there. He has no ground game. He’s not even trying, even in the next two or three days, he could be here doing 10 events a day — he’s doing like two.” 

“There’s no real emphasis of his own campaign here. He’s running out of resources, he’s not campaigning in any other state. I think those discussions are happening,” Sununu added.

Fight Right, a super PAC backing DeSantis, released a new TV ad in Iowa on Wednesday criticizing Haley for comments she made to a New Hampshire crowd last week.

“You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it. And then my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home,” Haley joked.

In Fight Right's ad, a narrator says, “Nikki Haley told New Hampshire what she really thinks about Iowa.”

The narrator adds, “New Hampshire corrects Iowa? Nikki doesn’t respect you. She thinks New England knows better.”

The ad is similar to one that the DeSantis campaign is airing in Iowa with the first-in-the-nation caucuses just days away.

Vivek Ramaswamy is out with a new TV ad that will run in markets across Iowa during tonight’s GOP presidential debate, his campaign said. 

Ramaswamy fell short of the CNN polling requirement to qualify for the stage tonight. In the ad, Ramaswamy claims the “mainstream media is trying to rig the Iowa GOP caucus in favor of the corporate candidates who they can control” and asks viewers to turn it off in remarks that cut off abruptly in dramatic fashion at the end. 

The 2024 GOP hopeful will hold his own debate counter-programming event from his headquarters in Des Moines with conservative podcast hosts Tim Pool and Candace Owens. 

The new ad comes after the Ramaswamy campaign pulled TV ads from the airwaves last month. His team also started airing an ad featuring controversial former Rep. Steve King on Tuesday, who has endorsed him. 

Trump has requested to speak at the closing arguments in his tax fraud trial tomorrow, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. 

The source says Judge Arthur Engoron has discretion and he has “conceptually approved” the request by attorneys for Trump. Engoron has considered it and thinks it would be beneficial, but Trump’s attorneys must meet certain conditions laid out on the scope and timing and what is considered permissible for a closing argument. Their reply to the court is due today. 

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The president's son was on Capitol Hill today attending in person a congressional committee meeting to hold him in contempt of Congress — an unprecedented standoff on live television between Hunter Biden and House Republicans who have long sought his testimony as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father.

Hunter Biden was accompanied by his attorneys Abbe Lowell and Kevin Morris. He did not respond to questions and left around a half-hour after the hearing started.

House Republicans plan to hold a committee vote later today recommending that Hunter Biden be charged with contempt of Congress for defying their subpoena to testify behind closed doors. He said he would testify at a public hearing instead but Republicans insisted that he appear in a private setting first.

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It’s worth remembering that the last three election cycles in Iowa have resulted in controversy on caucus night. 

On the Republican side in 2012, Mitt Romney was named the early winner, but a closer — and later — examination revealed that Rick Santorum had won by a mere 34 votes. 

On the Democratic side in 2016, Hillary Clinton edged Bernie Sanders by just 0.3 percentage points, with Sanders supporters citing counting and reporting irregularities. 

And in 2020, the Democratic infrastructure that counted the caucus votes crumbled, leading to complete uncertainty on caucus night, a delay in the eventual projection that Pete Buttigieg narrowly edged out Sanders and the resignation of the state party chairman. The misstep was the nail in the coffin for the caucuses’ place at the top of the Democratic Party nominating calendar.

This cycle, Trump holds a substantial lead in the Iowa polls, even topping 50% in a multicandidate field. 

Still, that previous Iowa history should give us pause: Controversy and close calls have defined the Iowa caucuses over the last 12 years.

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Biden isn’t competing in Iowa next week, but his campaign will do some counterprogramming in the Hawkeye State as the leading Republican candidates kick off the final five days with nationally televised events.

Democrats continue to be primarily focused on Trump, who will hold a rare, live town hall-style appearance on Fox News Channel in Des Moines tonight. With the prime-time event billed as focusing on women’s issues, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez will hold a press call with the leaders of major reproductive rights groups ahead of the Republican front-runner's remarks.

The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, will be sending mobile billboards around Iowa highlighting Trump’s recent comment that he hoped for a major economic crash this year. And Biden’s campaign says it will have a rapid response war room pushing back both on Trump’s town hall and a CNN debate between DeSantis and Haley, airing at the same time as the Fox News event.

“Donald Trump isn’t hiding the ball on what MAGA Republicans want for America — rooting for an economic crash, dividing our country, and ripping away Americans’ freedoms. Whether on Fox or in Republicans’ junior varsity debate, voters will see MAGA Republicans’ extreme vision plain and clear — and our campaign will be reminding voters that President Biden and Vice President Harris stand for the polar opposite of everything you will hear from Republicans Wednesday night,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

With five days to go until the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis and Haley will meet at Drake University for a head-to-head debate, which will air on CNN starting at 9 p.m. ET. DeSantis will also deliver remarks at an Associated Contractors of America Conference in Des Moines this morning.

Trump is again skipping the debate, opting to participate in a televised town hall on Fox News at the same time.

Ramaswamy, who failed to quality for the debate, will livestream a town hall appearance at 7:30 p.m. ET. He's also scheduled to hold five campaign events in Iowa throughout the day.

Christie will hold two campaign events in New Hampshire after he failed to qualify for the Iowa debate.

After having planted Biden’s flag in South Carolina this week with a direct appeal to Black voters, his campaign will continue its ramp-up this month with visits by the president to Nevada and Michigan, each home to important Democratic constituency groups he needs to firm up ahead of November.

It’s a new phase of the campaign, advisers say, which reflects why Biden felt it was important to overhaul the Democrats’ nominating calendar — to prioritize the party’s more diverse coalition instead of predominantly white states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where Republicans are kicking off their fight.

“For these communities, the message that we have now is that, one, they are the ones that have the most at stake, and two, Joe Biden has done more for these communities than any other president or any other administration,” Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, said in an interview. “It would be foolish for us not to communicate with them out of the gate.”

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