Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event, Jan. 17, 2023, in Portsmouth, N.H. (Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump, who has been campaigning for a return to White House while defending himself in numerous criminal and civil court cases, narrowly avoided a potentially costly collision of his legal and political calendars on Tuesday after a judge delayed his defamation damages trial until the day after the New Hampshire primary.
On trial for defaming former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in 2019, Trump was originally scheduled to testify in his own defense Monday in New York City, but the timeline for his testimony was upended when a juror called in sick on Monday morning, pushing Trump’s testimony to Tuesday — the same time when Trump was scheduled to be vying for last-minute primary votes in the Granite State.
Late Monday afternoon, the judge in the case announced that the trial would instead resume on Wednesday, saving Trump from having to miss any of his primary day obligations.
Trump’s court dates have been piling up as the presidential campaign picks up steam; ahead of Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary, he has spent 15 days campaigning in New Hampshire and 13 days in New York attending both his defamation trial and his civil fraud trial, in which he’s accused of inflating his net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. Trump has denied all wrongdoing in both cases.
On the campaign trail, the former president has used his courtroom obligations to reinforce his unsubstantiated claims of election interference — while also garnering outsized attention for his in-court appearances beyond what his GOP rivals have received through their traditional campaign stops.
“Tomorrow, I go to that, I do the court thing,” Trump told supporters Sunday in Rochester, New Hampshire, regarding his campaigning while on trial. “Then I come back, and I make a speech tomorrow night. And hopefully that should wrap it up because we are so far ahead.”
Trump has also used his court appearances to fundraise off his legal troubles. After his mug shot was taken in the Georgia election interference case, Trump’s campaign said it raised more than $9.4 million in the following week through the sale of tens of thousands of coffee mugs, shirts, and posters featuring the photo.
“I WAS IN TWO DIFFERENT COURTROOMS THIS WEEK,” another campaign fundraising email, signed by Trump, said on Jan. 12. “This is just DAYS before the Iowa caucuses. Do you see what they’re doing?”
Though the former president’s court appearances to this point have largely been voluntary, Trump and his campaign have stressed that the former president believes it is imperative he attend his trials to defend himself.
“I want to go to all my trials,” said Trump earlier this month after attending closing arguments in his New York civil fraud trial.
Last Monday, Trump flew to New York immediately after winning the Iowa caucuses to attend the first day of the defamation trial the next morning, then went to New Hampshire in the afternoon for a campaign event. He again used his private jet to return to the New York courtroom before jetting to a New Hampshire campaign event the following day.
After Monday’s short day in court, Trump again flew back to New Hampshire a day before primary day.
“It is what it is, and I will do what I have to do, all I ask for is fair Judges and Juries, and I will win every one of them,” Trump posted on his social media platform after leaving court for the day.
Last fall, as Trump repeatedly made court appearances at his New York civil fraud trial, he often opted for private fundraisers, or dialing into interviews with friendly conservative radio shows, in lieu of public rallies. His campaign has also opted to send surrogates, like his son Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Matt Gaetz and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, to maintain his presence in battleground states.
During these events, the surrogates often stress how Trump’s legal schedule has forced him off the campaign trail.
Trump’s clash of calendars is only likely to intensify in the spring, with the possible start of his federal election interference trial the day before Super Tuesday in March, followed by the scheduled start of his New York hush money trial later that month in New York City, his classified documents trial in Florida in May, and his Georgia election interference trial in August. In all cases, Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has embraced tactics, often successfully, to delay his trial dates.
Trump supporters ABC News spoke with said they aren’t concerned if his legal commitments sometimes keep him off the campaign trail.
“I know what he’s about,” said Jennifer Gagne from Tilton, New Hampshire, while waiting to go into Trump’s campaign event in Laconia Monday night. “I listen to him and everything he believes in, what he stands for. It’s why I’m here today.”
“I believe if he wasn’t running for president, 99% of these indictments probably wouldn’t even exist,” said New Hampshire voter Terese Bastarache — who added that she plans to vote for Trump even if he’s convicted.
President Joe Biden speaks on his economic plan for the country at Abbot’s Creek Community Center on Jan. 18, 2024 in Raleigh, N.C. (Eros Hoagland/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A robocall appearing to impersonate the voice of President Joe Biden has been circulating and encouraging recipients of the call to “save your vote” for the November general election, rather than participate in New Hampshire’s upcoming primary on Tuesday, according to audio obtained by ABC News.
“Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” the robocall message said.
“That call was indeed fake and not recorded by the president. I can confirm that,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.
“More broadly,” Biden “has been clear that there are risks associated with deep fakes,” she added.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office said it is conducting an “active and ongoing” investigation into these “spoofed” messages, which “appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election and to suppress New Hampshire voters.”
Its Election Law Unit “works closely with our local, state, and federal partners,” a spokesperson with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office added.
Though “the voice in the robocall sounds like the voice of President Biden, this message appears to be artificially generated based on initial indications,” the NHAG’s office said.
Who is behind the robocalls is still unclear, as is how many people have received the message, officials said.
The state attorney general spokesperson told ABC that at this time, they do know “approximately a dozen” people took the step of calling to request being removed from future calls, and “approximately half a dozen” people sent a complaint to either the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office or the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office.
The robocall ends with a phone number belonging to Kathy Sullivan, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair, who now runs a super PAC supporting the effort urging Granite State Democrats to write in Biden’s name this primary.
In an interview with ABC on Monday, Sullivan said she does not know who is responsible for the robocalls, or how many people have been impacted — and doesn’t feel comfortable speculating — but hopes the investigation will yield results.
“Hopefully, who’s been doing this won’t be able to do this in the future,” she said. “You shouldn’t be telling people you shouldn’t go and vote. That’s crazy. That undermines our democracy. It’s just not right. I’ve been calling it an unpardonable sin.”
Sullivan said she hasn’t heard directly from the White House or the re-election campaigns, since, she notes, she’s involved with efforts to get Biden written in on the ballot Tuesday evening.
ABC has previously reported on how authorities are mapping out potential threats to the New Hampshire primary – and strategizing to stop them. The new confidential analysis by the New Hampshire Information and Analysis Center (NHIAC), obtained by ABC, warned of those who “have the ability to disrupt, suppress, or discourage voters from participating” in New Hampshire — including concerns about the use of artificial intelligence to “spread false narratives and influence public perception about candidates or campaigns.”
(WASHINGTON) — When New Hampshire Democrats head to the polls on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s name won’t be listed on their ballots.
That’s the biggest indication of how little the primary, technically, will matter to the Democrats’ nominating process.
Instead, a highly unusual competition is playing out in the state where Democrats either hope to show up for Biden via a write-in campaign, back one of his two long shot challengers or show that he was wrong to spurn the small Northeastern state that has gone first on the calendar for decades.
The conflict — and, to some, confusion — began when the Democratic National Committee shook up its 2024 presidential nominating calendar, selecting South Carolina as the first-in-the-nation primary, a move backed by Biden but contrary to state law, which New Hampshire officials, led by Republicans, declined to change.
This rendered Tuesday’s contest non-compliant with the national party’s rules and led the DNC to call the primary “meaningless.”
Biden declined to put his name on the ballot, and no delegates to earn the Democratic nomination, which are usually won based on voters’ preferences in each primary or caucus, will be awarded based on Tuesday’s results.
Delegates aside, Biden’s performance on Tuesday is nonetheless seen by some Democrats as influential in showing that he is a popular competitor in a state that’s historically swung between both parties, said Gates MacPherson, a former political strategist with ties to New Hampshire.
“It will set a tone for the rest of the cycle,” MacPherson told ABC News. “It’s really, really important that President Biden can show support and momentum in a state like New Hampshire.”
Biden’s challengers in the primary, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, have poured significant resources into campaigning and blasted Biden for not doing the same. Biden’s allies, meanwhile, have rallied around a rare push to see him succeed despite not being an official candidate — via write-in.
What is ‘write in Biden’?
A passionate grassroots group of Democrats who say they are wholly unaffiliated from the official reelection campaign, aptly called “write in Biden,” are encouraging voters to pen the president’s name on Tuesday’s ballot, hoping to deliver the incumbent a win despite the beaurucratic sparring between the local and national party.
These efforts first began in October and amassed more than 1,000 volunteers within seven days of launching. The write-in group is aiming to send volunteers to every polling place come Tuesday, prioritizing the sites with the highest population densities as part of a push to educate voters on how to still pick Biden.
Jim Demers, one of the lead organizers, said this weekend at a get-out-the-vote event that the efforts have “continued morphing every single week” and that the group had achieved its budget goals.
New Hampshire’s swingy voter history also ups the ante. Hillary Clinton eked out a squeaker victory in the 2016 presidential race, besting Donald Trump by less than 1 point. Biden widened that margin in 2020, yet still only won by single digits.
Tuesday’s results will be especially important for what it says about the state’s independent (or “undeclared”) voters, who outnumber registered Republicans or Democrats and who are allowed to also cast ballots in the primary.
“If President Biden comes out on Tuesday and wins, that’s a huge accomplishment for the campaign and a really good sign for what’s to come,” said MacPherson, the strategist.
Terie Norelli, another organizer for the write-in campaign, said that their efforts were meant to depict as much — that a strong showing from Biden on Tuesday could prove he is in a good position in the battleground state, despite his primary rivals and despite his poor or mediocre polling.
“President Biden’s name will not be on the ballot, but we do know what is on the ballot. We know that democracy is on the ballot on Tuesday and in November. … And this is clearly too critical an election to sit on the sidelines,” Norelli said at a gathering of write-in Biden supporters on Saturday in Portsmouth.
Write-in ballots are qualified based on the voter’s intent rather than pure accuracy, according to Secretary of State David Scanlan. Potential variations such as Biden, J. Biden, Joseph Biden and POTUS would all be classified as a vote for Biden because the voter’s intention would be to nominate him.
Yet less clear votes, such as those cast under “cease-fire,” for example — as urged by a smaller grassroots movement pushing Democrats to pencil that in protest of the White House’s position on the Israel-Hamas war — would instead be counted as “scatter” votes.
Write-in campaign draws Biden surrogates but not Biden
Although the Biden campaign is not officially affiliated with the write-in efforts, several prominent Democratic mayors and congressmen have traveled to New Hampshire on the president’s behalf.
And big-name surrogates for Biden such as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker virtually joined press conferences mobilizing voters.
Others including New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hasson and New Hampshire Gov. Maura Healey have joined the effort on the ground in its final weeks, illustrating the fact that, although the results may not matter in terms of the delegates who select the nominee, Biden’s performance matters to Democrats.
Those who are quasi-stumping for the president have set murky expectations, repeating that Biden must win while emphasizing the challenges of a write-in campaign.
“A win is a win, it means getting the most votes,” California Rep. Ro Khanna said on Saturday at another write-in event, in Portsmouth. He avoided setting any numerical benchmark for Tuesday.
Phillips, for his part, said this week that getting a vote share “somewhere in the 20s would be pretty awesome.”
The congressman, a former member of Democratic leadership in the House, has not yet gained much traction in polling tracked by 538. He has indicated he wants to show Biden is a weak candidate to run against Trump and force him from the race — a possibility dismissed by Biden allies.
Williamson, for her part, has defended New Hampshire’s role in the primary, saying, “You don’t protect democracy by suppressing democracy.” She told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl last year that “I don’t see myself as running against Joe Biden. I see this campaign as challenging a system.”
One Democratic veteran of numerous New Hampshire primaries, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the state of the race, calculated what could be a potential outcome for party results based on historical results.
The bar for Democratic incumbent success in New Hampshire is then-President Bill Clinton in 1996, who won the primary with 84%. The last candidate to win a write-in campaign in New Hampshire was President Lyndon B. Johnson, who got 48% and defeated Eugene McCarthy in 1968’s Democratic primary — but, as Phillips has noted, ultimately dropped out of the Democratic race just weeks later.
“Given the difficulty and mechanics of a write-in, if he gets over 65[%], that’s a resounding victory to me,” the Democratic source said of Biden. “And if he falls below 50, then I think he’s in Lyndon Johnson territory, and it’s a problem.”
More recent (if inexact) precedent for a successful write-in campaign is in 2010’s senate race in Alaska, when Lisa Murkowski won out after she lost her Republican primary to tea party candidate Joe Miller. Murkowski received just shy of 40% of the vote after an active campaign. However, she was also facing two other prominent candidates.
Biden has done the opposite, remaining fervently out of New Hampshire so far this cycle, in deferrence to the national party’s position on the calendar.
“It’s a hard thing to do in a write-in campaign. It’s not easy. There are a lot of ways to be disqualified, so what I would say doing well is to win — and in a state that you haven’t campaigned in, in a state where you’re not on the ballot,” Khanna said this weekend.
Khanna struck a delicate tone, speaking in a room full of state residents, about the president’s reasoning for elevating South Carolina instead, which many locals consider an insult to their cherished — if sometimes controversial — position at the front of the line.
The state, as some other Democrats will note, is not demographically representative of the country and has a relatively poor track record of predicting the president.
“The president’s motives of wanting to elevate the voices of Black and brown communities was correct,” Khanna told reporters. “But it has to be done also with recognizing that history and tradition of New Hampshire so that no one’s delegates get disqualified, and I think that we will work towards that outcome.”
But Biden’s challengers aren’t buying it.
“If he wrote you off, why would you write him in?” Phillips asked at an event in Nashua on Saturday. “Seems like the president is taking the Granite State for granted.”
What New Hampshire voters are saying
Almost a dozen New Hampshire Democrats or undeclared voters expressed disappointment to ABC News about both the DNC stripping its contest of delegates and the Biden campaign for not choosing to participate in the primary.
Marie Mulroy of Manchester, an undeclared voter, said she voted for Biden in the last two presidential elections but plans to vote for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary come Tuesday, scoffing when asked about the write-in effort for the president.
“I find that it’s very disrespectful to our state,” Mulroy said last week at Maryann’s Diner in Derry. “Not only does he write it in, it’s going to hold up the election because they have to hire people to hand count them, so it really is disrespectful.”
Scanlan, the secretary of state, has said he’s not concerned with the write-in effort holding up results and that the state has a process in place.
“I respect Biden, but he said he didn’t want to be here. He shouldn’t be here,” Mulroy added.
“I think he would do better not being on the ballot at all. I think I would have more respect for him if he wasn’t,” she said.
Gayle Taylor of Concord, also undeclared, said she plans to write-in Biden but is disappointed that she won’t see his name.
“There’s a lot of blame going around. Did Joe Biden direct the DNC to do this? Did the DNC do it on their own? And then that letter saying that our votes would essentially be wasteful, that really hurt,” she told ABC News at a write-in Biden event in Concord.
“That was not a good thing for the Democrats,” Taylor said, “but I think we’re getting beyond it, trying to figure out the right thing to do. Really, it’s not about that. It’s about making sure we elect the right president.”
(WASHINGTON) — Republican critics of Donald Trump have always said that getting the 2024 primary down to a one-on-one race would be key for any of his challengers to try to defeat him with voters.
That race is now here — and by Tuesday night, it’ll start to become clear whether it matters.
The former president will face off against just former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie bowed out in recent days. (Technically, Trump and Haley are also running against pastor Ryan Binkley, but he has failed to register in polling and never qualified for the debates.)
The head-to-head, combined with New Hampshire allowing independent voters to participate in the Republican race, is seen as offering Haley her best shot at throwing a blockade in front of Trump’s campaign before it becomes a runaway train.
If Haley can pull off a strong showing in the state, she has indicated, she can use that momentum to argue in other states that a Trump win is not inevitable and voters can go with someone else.
“We’re going home to South Carolina. The goal is we wanted to be strong … stronger in New Hampshire and then even stronger than that in South Carolina,” Haley told ABC News’ Rachel Scott, referring to her home state’s Feb. 24 primary. “We have saved our money. We’ve got it ready. We’ve got the big ad buy that we’re going to do for South Carolina and we’re going to crisscross the state that I love so much so we’re not we’re not backing out anytime soon.”
But Republican strategists in New Hampshire estimated to ABC News that while Haley is likely vacuuming up former Christie supporters, many DeSantis and Ramaswamy backers are now swarming to Trump, because his policies and approach are more similar to theirs, dampening anti-Trump Republicans’ hopes that there is a large enough vote to consolidate against him.
And polling offers a dour outlook for Haley, with only one major survey in 538’s database showing her within single digits of Trump — and none showing her near the lead, though she is running closer to Trump in New Hampshire than elsewhere in the country.
“I think President Trump ends up basically locking up the nomination tomorrow night around nine o’clock,” predicted New Hampshire GOP strategist Dave Carney.
“No other state in the country do you have this high of independents in the mix,” Carney added. “And if you can’t beat Trump here, you can’t beat him anywhere. He’s going to get over 50%, and there’s no pathway for anyone else to move forward, and the race will be over. There’s nobody siphoning off Trump voters from Trump now that it’s a two-way race. It’s going to be a beatdown.”
Such a result would mark a significant blow for Haley, who is looking for a win or a strong second-place showing to catapult her to next month’s primary in her home state of South Carolina, though that state’s soil is even more fertile for a Trump win, according to 538’s polling average.
Trump is currently leading Haley in South Carolina by more than 30 points, per 538.
Haley and her campaign surrogates have boasted of her chances in New Hampshire. And while they have moderated expectations more recently, going from predicting an outright win to saying that running narrowly behind Trump would be enough to keep her going, the former governor is still sounding a bullish note on the trail.
“It’s now one fella and one lady left,” she said at a campaign stop on Sunday after DeSantis suspended his campaign. “May the best woman win.”
Republican and nonpartisan operatives in the state said that to win, Haley would need to overperform recent polling on how she fares with undeclared voters — who make up the plurality of voters in the state. But she’d also need for those voters to turn out at virtually historic levels, given Trump’s continued popularity with registered Republicans.
“Undeclareds always vote at lower rates than do registered Republicans, and no candidate’s ever won the primary without winning the plurality of the party registered voters. Nobody’s ever won with independent voters,” said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire’s survey center, referencing possible turnout.
“It could happen,” Smith said, “but she would need to have that be 55% undeclared, 45% registered Republicans [in the turnout]. The highest it’s ever been has been 40% undeclared in 2012. And she’d have to get 65% of the undeclareds.”
Carney said that kind of turnout for independents in the GOP primary may be particularly difficult to achieve given competing activity on the Democratic side. President Joe Biden’s allies are working to gin up support for a write-in campaign in the party’s unsanctioned primary, which is also featuring two long shot challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson.
“Some undeclared voters are gonna say, ‘I can’t stop Trump, Trump’s gonna win, I’m gonna go vote against the president or … I’m gonna go vote for Biden.’ We are historically late deciders, and undeclared voters have the luxury of voting where they can have the most fun, the most impact, cause the most trouble,” Carney said. “If Biden was on the ballot and he was getting 92 [or] 82% of the vote, there’s no reason to vote in the Democrat primary. I think it would help Haley much more.”
Ensuring strong support from undeclared voters is expected to be even more important for Haley after Ramaswamy and DeSantis dropped out, strategists said. The two were seen as largely competing with Trump for votes, given their similar platforms, and their departures could add to his already hefty advantage, some experts said.
“That’s why I say I think Trump could push 60[%] because what Haley needed to have happen in this last week — she needed Vivek to stay in the race and she needed DeSantis to stay in the race to split the Republican vote,” said New Hampshire GOP strategist Mike Dennehy. “Both of those candidates dropping out has boosted Donald Trump up 7 to 10 points.”
Indeed, 538’s polling advantage has seen Haley gain support in recent days — but Trump gaining even more.
Dennehy also said he felt Haley played it too safe and “sat on the fence too long” in New Hampshire, possibly dampening her support.
While she has been blitzing the state with retail stops — dozens more than Trump — Haley refrained from many media interviews and town hall events where reporters and voters could press her on the issues and refused to debate DeSantis while he was still in the race.
She has ramped up her pointed attacks on Trump, though for months she spoke more ambivalently, casting him as the “right” president while in office but also an agent of chaos. She’s said she would pardon him if she were elected and he were convicted of a crime (he denies wrongdoing), and she would support him if he is the ultimate GOP presidential nominee.
“When you come in here from Iowa, you have five, six solid days of campaigning [after the caucuses], you need to use every single resource available, every tool in your belt. And it’s like she was fighting with two hands tied behind her back,” Dennehy said. “You’re not going to motivate and influence independent voters by having supporter rallies. … She’s not acting like the insurgent candidate that she is.”
Haley’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News about the race. And not every operative had similar nitpicks with the way she’s run the race, arguing that not alienating Trump voters, who are a significant part of the Republican base, is a valid strategy.
But every person who spoke to ABC News for this story pointed to one overarching theme: Strategy aside, Trump seems to remain the most popular politician in the Republican Party, and ousting him in a primary is a tall task, even with independent votes in one state.
“I think she ran an excellent race,” Smith said. “I think she played her cards as best as could be played. But they just weren’t high enough cards.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is defending his recent mangling of GOP primary challenger Nikki Haley’s birth name — saying he’s just having “fun” and he echoed, once again, a false birther claim that Haley is not eligible to run for president because she wasn’t born in the United States, saying “wherever she may come from.”
In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that aired Sunday, Baier asked Trump why he called the former U.N. ambassador “Nimbra” — a butchering of her birth name — in a social media post on Friday. Trump also called her “Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley” in a social media post last week.
“I do that with a lot of people, like Hutchinson. I mean, he was polling at zero for about one year, and I called him rather than Asa, I called him Ada Hutchinson, and it just felt good to me,” Trump told Baier. “And with her, it’s just something that came. It’s a little bit of a takeoff on her name. You know, her name, wherever she may come from.”
Haley was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa to Punjabi Sikh parents who were living in South Carolina after emigrating from India in the 1960s. She has said that early on she adopted her middle name as her first name and later took her husband’s last name when they married.
Trump’s campaign shot down that his latest comments about Haley were racist.
“There are no racist undertones, as some suggest,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. “Sounds like those who take offense are engaging in fake outrage. They should get a life and live in the real world.”
To Trump, the nicknames he bestows are a point of pride and enjoyment, he told Baier.
“Some people say I’m very good at that,” Trump said of coming up with nicknames. “But, uh, I can’t get into too many because many of those people that I named like that are Republicans, and we don’t want to bring that up, but, uh, no, it’s just, uh, it’s a takeoff. I have fun with it. And sometimes, to tell you the truth, it’s a very effective tool.”
Both Trump and Haley’s campaigns are working to appeal to voters ahead of the New Hampshire GOP primary on Tuesday. It’s a major test for Haley — Trump’s last remaining GOP primary challenger — who is still polling behind the former president, according to the latest polling averages from 538.
Trump has elevated false conspiracy theories on far-right online forums that Haley is not eligible to run for president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born. His latest false birther claims to Baier are another racist dog whistle in a history of such language.
Trump’s false claims about Haley’s birthplace are reminiscent of the false birther conspiracy theories he once pushed against Barack Obama in 2011 and Kamala Harris in 2020.
Last week, Haley said at CNN’s town hall that Trump is engaging in name-calling because he feels “threatened” and that it doesn’t bother her. Haley told ABC News that Trump, who touted her accomplishments when she served as U.N. ambassador under him, is “insecure.”
“I think about what he said about me when I was the U.N. ambassador, he said that I was the best U.N. ambassador that America had ever seen. He said I was I was killer. He said I was tough. He said dictators were scared of me,” Haley told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
“… This is what he does. When he starts to feel insecure. This is what he does when he feels threatened. I worked with him every day — he starts lashing out at people that he’s fearful of. That’s OK. That’s a good sign to me that shows that we’re moving it shows that he sees what we’re seeing.”
Asked about Trump’s false birther claims, several former GOP presidential candidates — who have since endorsed Trump for president — declined to denounce the comments.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum tried to downplay Trump’s comments on ABC’s “This Week” chalking it up to modern politics.
“I think it’s politics,” Burgum said, adding, “That’s politics around the world, and it’s politics in America.”
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott deflected a direct question from CNN’s Dana Bash about Trump’s nicknames and false birther claims, saying he’s “watching rhetoric on all sides of the issues facing, becoming president.”
Scott, who endorsed Trump Friday, did not directly criticize Trump.
“I would like for all politicians to comport themselves in a way that is consistent with the highest office,” Scott said to Bash.
Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, said the party, instead of giving the matter attention, should focus on the issues that voters really care about such as a better future with good-paying jobs.
ABC News spoke with voters outside a Trump rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday — and they had mixed responses when asked about Trump mocking Haley’s name.
Max Abramson, a former New Hampshire state representative, said he didn’t like Trump’s name-calling.
“I don’t agree with that,” Abramson said to ABC News. “… I think it’s a negative thing in American politics, and it tends to go to the lowest common denominator.”
Cam Whale from Manchester said he accepts that comments like these are just part of Trump’s personality.
“I don’t take that stuff really too seriously. It’s kind of one part of his personality,” Whale said.
“I care more about actions than what he’s saying,” Whale later said.
Last week, Haley told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that America is “not a racist country.”
“We’ve never been a racist country,” she repeated.
But Haley — who has not directly called Trump’s recent comments racist — acknowledged that she had faced racism.
“I’m a Brown girl that grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina who became the first female minority governor in history, who became a U.N. ambassador and who is now running for president,” Haley said. “If that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is.”
ABC News reached out to the Haley campaign for comment. They did not respond by the time of publication.
(WASHINGTON) — Last week’s Iowa caucuses posed something of a Rorschach test for one of the biggest questions of the 2024 cycle: Will Donald Trump’s GOP continue to shed suburban support — or will enough of them return to the Republican base when faced, again, with choosing him or Joe Biden?
The history of Trump’s problems in the suburbs came back into the spotlight after the Republican nominating race kicked off with Iowa’s caucuses on Jan. 15, where Trump’s margins of victory in many suburban counties were smaller than in rural counties.
Those results followed years of Republican atrophy in such areas, culminating in 2020 losses in key swing states fueled by defections from voters living near major cities like Atlanta, Phoenix and beyond.
But Trump still ended up winning 98 out of 99 counties in Iowa — only losing the last county to Nikki Haley by one vote — including many he failed to take in 2016, the last time there was an open GOP race and before he was bogged down by Jan. 6, two impeachments and four indictments. (He denies all wrongdoing.)
That had GOP allies as well as skeptics and critics of the former president telling ABC News they believe President Biden’s reputation (evidenced by his weak approval rating) and record on inflation and the cost of living are problematic enough to give Trump a chance to win back some of the suburbanites who’ve been voting against Republicans since he first ran for president.
“He actually did a little better in the suburbs than I thought he would. I think Nikki Haley underperformed somewhat. Rubio won those counties, Nikki came closer but didn’t win them,” veteran Iowa GOP strategist David Kochel, who has been critical of Trump, told ABC News, referencing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 GOP campaign.
Teresa Horton Bumgarner, the chair of the Republican Party in Johnson County just outside Cedar Rapids, considered Iowa’s most liberal enclave and where Trump lost to Haley, estimated that he still has “very strong” appeal in the suburbs and that “coming in and only losing by one vote is a huge victory.”
To be certain, Republican boasts of Trump’s strength in the suburbs run counter to the party’s performances in the cycles after he first emerged as a major candidate in 2015.
Democrats retook the House two years into Trump’s term and then Republicans lost both the White House and the Senate in 2020. All three defeats were fueled, in part, by Trump or the GOP losing votes in key suburban areas.
For instance, Trump lost Johnson County by more than 43 points in 2020, the largest margin of defeat for a Republican in a presidential race there in decades.
He also fell short in 2020 in swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin after underperforming around major cities like Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee and Phoenix.
But now, Republicans told ABC News, Trump, if and when he wins the 2024 nomination, is expected to face off against a president with a record marred by negative perceptions of the economy and worries over his age and fitness.
Biden had just a 33% approval rating in an ABC News/Ipsos poll from this month — with only 31% of adults approving of how the president is handling the economy.
Some surveys also show Trump ahead by healthy margins in key battlegrounds like Arizona and Georgia, according to 538’s averages.
“You don’t win those states without doing well in the suburbs,” said Robert Blizzard, a GOP pollster whose firm worked for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ now-ended presidential campaign.
“If you look at ’20, the swing voters in ’20 that decided to pull the lever for Biden and not for Trump, they were thinking much more with their hearts than they were with their heads or with their wallets,” Blizzard added. “And I think now as you head into ’24, I think a lot of those voters are now thinking with their heads and with their wallets.”
Even some of the 49% of Iowa Republicans who rejected Trump in the caucuses last week are expected to find their way home to their party’s nominee come November, strategists said.
“It’s a binary choice … and I can’t imagine many choosing Biden,” said Terry Sullivan, a GOP strategist who worked on Rubio’s 2016 campaign.
Nonpartisan pollster Mike Noble noted some suburbanites could choose Trump due to economic “pain points.”
“Certain people think it’s unfathomable that they would vote for Trump, and I have to always explain to them is that it’s not that they’re voting for it, it’s that they have realistically an A/B choice. And of the A/B choice, it’s kind of saying, ‘Hey, would you like anthrax or Ebola?’ And it’s like, both are pretty crappy, but they got to pick one,” Noble said.
Still, some of the Republicans who spoke with ABC News warned not to underestimate the headwinds Trump has and could continue to face in appealing to suburban voters.
These experts pointed to signs suggesting the public still largely rejects what happened on Jan. 6 — and disapproves of Trump’s conduct around the U.S. Capitol attack — as well as the ongoing electoral backlash to the elimination of federal abortion protections.
“People just don’t have confidence in Biden,” said Sam DeMarco, the GOP chair in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. “But I don’t know that that repels people. I think with some … they have a visceral reaction to Trump.”
In 2020, Biden notched a 20-point win in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh and some of its suburbs. That was the biggest win for a Democratic presidential candidate there in more than 20 years.
“I’m worried about me being able to raise money for a county party because I have people that will not give if they believe any of it will be used to help [Trump],” DeMarco said. “While I believe that the Biden administration is an unmitigated disaster, I’m concerned that we may not have learned from 2020 and the elections since, and we are headed down a road to ruin here if we don’t get it together.”
Democrats, meanwhile, said they feel more sure-footed in the suburbs — as does Biden’s campaign — despite the many polls that portend problems for his reelection bid.
“The broad, diverse coalition that sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House has only grown with the strong wins of the Biden-Harris Administration — delivering for the voters who will decide this election on the issues that matter most, while Donald Trump triples down on a losing agenda of ripping away abortion rights and cutting taxes for the ultra-wealthy while the middle class bears the cost,” campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said. “Like we’ve seen election after election, Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda is a losing agenda, and November 2024 will be no different.”
Democratic pollsters who spoke to ABC News also expressed confidence that Biden will have a chance for a clear one-on-one contrast with Trump based on a potent issue set of abortion rights and democratic norms.
With more than 10 months to go until Election Day, Biden has already been trying to spotlight both — as the GOP hammers him over his stamina and inflation, immigration and foreign affairs.
“Biden needs to needs to rehabilitate himself some with those voters, but unlike Trump, who those voters have been voting against three-plus straight elections, I think Biden has more ability to get a fair hearing to communicate with those voters as to what Biden has done and will do a president, compared to Trump, who I think really the ship has sailed in a lot of ways for,” Democratic pollster Zac McCrary said.
“If non-Trump Republicans in 2022 were not able to make meaningful headway, by and large, in a lot of these races, then Trump himself is much more of a flawed vessel for that,” McCrary said.
Another Democratic pollster, who requested anonymity to discuss the race because of professional concerns, insisted there’s a path for Biden to preserve his standing with suburbanites through a “two-step dance” of touting economic progress while making clear “there is still a long way to go” and underscoring the danger Biden believes Trump poses to the nation’s societal fabric.
But, when asked about Biden’s ability to pull that off, this pollster said: “Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?”
The pollster was “very, very cautiously optimistic,” they said — but added this: “Underline very and cautiously.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Navy has identified the two SEALs lost in the waters of the Gulf of Aden during a risky nighttime mission to board a boat carrying Iranian-made missile parts to Yemen.
On Sunday, U.S. Central Command announced the end of an exhaustive 10-day search and rescue operation involving multiple aircraft and surface ships to look for the two missing SEALs over a 21,000 square mile area.
The military is now conducting recovery operations for the two service members, CENTCOM said Sunday night.
The two SEALS were aboard a small Navy craft that was approaching the smuggling boat on the night of Jan. 11, when one of the SEALs fell into rough waters and, following protocol, a second SEAL dove into the water in a rescue attempt, according to officials.
The incident remains under investigation the Navy said Monday.
The two missing SEALs were identified as Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram, both of whom were serving with a U.S. West Coast-based SEAL team.
Chambers, aged 37, enlisted in the Navy on May 17, 2012, and graduated from boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Ill., in July 2012. He had served with west coast-based SEAL units since graduating from SEAL qualification training in Coronado, Calif., in 2014.
Chambers’ awards and decorations include the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat “C,” three Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medals, Army Achievement Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and other personal and unit awards.
Ingram, aged 27, enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 25, 2019, and graduated from boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Ill., in November 2019. Ingram and had also served with West Coast-based SEAL units since graduating from SEAL qualification training in Coronado, Calif., in 2021. His awards and decorations include various personal and unit awards.
“We extend our condolences to Chris and Gage’s families, friends, and teammates during this incredibly challenging time. They were exceptional warriors, cherished teammates, and dear friends to many within the Naval Special Warfare community,” said Capt. Blake L. Chaney, the commander, of Naval Special Warfare Group 1.
“Chris and Gage selflessly served their country with unwavering professionalism and exceptional capabilities,” said Chaney. “This loss is devastating for NSW, our families, the special operations community, and across the nation.”
On Monday, President Biden also issued a statement praising the two Navy sailors.
“Jill and I are mourning the tragic deaths of two of America’s finest—Navy SEALs who were lost at sea while executing a mission off the coast of East Africa last week,” said the statement.
Over ten days, the United States military conducted an extensive search and rescue mission. Recovery efforts are still continuing as we grieve this profound loss for our country.,” said Biden.
“These SEALs represented the very best of our country, pledging their lives to protect their fellow Americans,” he added. “Our hearts go out to the family members, loved ones, friends, and shipmates who are grieving for these two brave Americans. Our entire country stands with you. We will never fail to honor their service, their legacy, and their sacrifice.”
(WASHINGTON) — A narrowly divided Supreme Court on Monday sided with the Biden administration in a tense dispute over the Texas-Mexico border and razor wire fencing installed by the state that had prohibited federal border agents from performing their duties.
The court, by a vote of 5-4, cleared the way for federal agents to remove the wire, which administration officials and immigration advocates had called dangerous and inhumane.
The Department of Homeland Security has also argued that the state’s activities interfered with clear federal supremacy in setting border enforcement policy.
The Supreme Court’s order did not elaborate on the decision. It means federal border agents can resume full control of the contested border area while litigation continues.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have denied the administration’s request to lift a lower court injunction that was blocking removal of the wire.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — New Hampshire voters will choose between former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary on Tuesday. However, it’s still unclear whether their neighbors to the north, in Maine, will have a similar set of options when it comes time for them to vote. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled that Trump could not appear on Maine’s primary ballot due to a 14th Amendment ban on those who have engaged in insurrection from holding office.
The Supreme Court will weigh in on the matter in early February, but in the meantime we asked Granite Staters about their thoughts. According to a University of New Hampshire poll, 50 percent of New Hampshirites support Bellows’s decision, while 42 percent oppose it. Thirty-five percent said they understand the 14th Amendment provision very well, while 42 percent said they understand it only somewhat well.
The reasons New Hampshire residents gave for their views on Trump’s removal from Maine’s primary ballot ran the gamut. Those who opposed it said that Trump did not engage in insurrection, was not responsible for Jan. 6 and at the very least was not convicted of anything. Those who supported it still expressed some hesitation about the precedent set by taking a candidate off the ballot, but said the 14th Amendment outweighed those concerns.
Voters in New Hampshire will head to the polls and cast their ballots on Tuesday, weighing in on what looks to be the most competitive Republican primary race in the country.
According to 538’s polling averages, former President Donald Trump leads the pack with 49% support, former Amb. Nikki Haley follows with 34%, and before his exit on Sunday afternoon, Gov. Ron DeSantis had 5%. Trump has a double-digit lead in the Granite State, but it’s still a far closer race than what national polls show.
Haley’s competitiveness in the state comes down in large part to New Hampshire’s large population of politically unaffiliated voters who are allowed to cast a ballot in the Republican Primary. She performs better with that group than strictly Republican voters and also performs well with groups that make up a large segment of Granite State voters: people with a four-year college degree, older voters and moderates.
Ahead of the contest, ABC News sat down with Trump, DeSantis and Haley supporters to understand why they’re voting for their chosen candidate. A Haley supporter, who voted for Biden in 2020, said that if Haley does not win the primary, they will vote for President Joe Biden or independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A Trump supporter said they were committed to voting for Trump in a hypothetical general election, even if he were convicted of a felony before Election Day.
Immigration was the number one issue for some of the voters in the election, while another said leadership qualities were most important to them. Though there were clear disagreements among the voters, they agreed they want what’s best for the country even if they disagree about how to get there.
Editor’s note: The interviews were conducted prior to DeSantis leaving the race on Sunday.
