Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Just days ahead of the rematch between former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, this time in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday, two of Trump’s top aides say he’s already well on his way to securing the Republican nomination at least by March 19.

In a memo sent out to reporters on Tuesday morning, shortly before Haley gave a speech in which she vowed to continuing running against Trump, his advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote that under what they consider “the most-generous model” for her, Trump is still expected to clinch the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination by March 19 — two weeks after Super Tuesday, when 15 states vote at once.

If not accounting for “the most-generous model” for Haley, the advisers said that Trump is expected to win the nomination one week earlier, by March 12.

To do that, he’ll need to earn 1,215 of the total 2,429 delegates available.

Trump’s advisers also urged the Republican National Committee to rally behind him to begin their general election campaign against President Joe Biden and Democrats, even with Haley remaining in the race.

Still, Haley during her speech in South Carolina on Tuesday said she’s not dropping out soon because she believes her message is important and more voters deserve to be “heard” beyond the three states to cast ballots so far.

“Of course, many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him,” Haley told supporters in Greenville. “They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud.”

“Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud,” Haley continued, drawing applause. “I feel no need to kiss the ring. And I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him. My own political future is of zero concern.”

Trump has already secured 63 delegates from Iowa, New Hampshire, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Nevada and Haley has just 17 delegates — and 50 delegates are up for grabs in the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary.

The following week, Trump and Haley will be competing for 189 delegates from Michigan, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington, D.C., and on Super Tuesday on March 5, they’ll compete for 874 from 16 states and U.S. territories.

Trump is ahead of Haley in nearly all of these states, according to 538’s polling averages, though that includes states that don’t have up-to-date polls and 538 isn’t tracking every state.

LaCivita and Wiles in their memo claimed that under the “the most-generous model” for Haley, they expect Trump to earn 114 delegates in the week following the South Carolina primary, 773 delegates from Super Tuesday and an additional 192 delegates the two weeks after that, when primary contests in key states like Georgia, Arizona and Florida take place.

The next step for the Trump campaign, they wrote, is to claim Haley is “not newsworthy” and for the RNC to become “one with the Donald J. Trump for President campaign,” a position that Haley has pushed back on as anti-democratic.

“We don’t anoint kings in this country,” she said on Tuesday. “We have elections.”

LaCivita and Wiles claimed the campaign and the RNC should begin coordinating “convention planning, fundraising, strategy, and state party tactics” with the other campaign arms of the national party as soon as possible.

LaCivita and Wiles also attacked Haley for courting non-Republican voters in primaries where that is allowed, likening it to “hijack[ing] GOP contests.”

“The results of 5 elections overwhelmingly sent an unmistaken message: Nikki Haley doesn’t represent Republicans any more than Joe Biden does,” they wrote.

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(GREENVILLE, S.C.) — Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is vowing to stay in the 2024 Republican primary race despite being rejected by voters in the few early states so far and trailing rival Donald Trump in numerous polls.

As Haley said in a speech on Tuesday in South Carolina, her home state, she will be continuing her campaign because she believes her anti-Trump message is important and more voters elsewhere in the country deserve to be “heard.”

“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud,” Haley told supporters in Greenville.

“Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud. I feel no need to kiss the ring. And I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him,” she continued, drawing applause. “My own political future is of zero concern.”

She went on to make clear that, regardless of the outside chatter, she isn’t seeking to be Trump’s running mate or “trying to set up a future presidential run.”

At the same time, Haley suggested she would not keep running against the former president for the GOP nomination just to run against him. 

“My purpose has never been to stop Trump at all costs,” she said.

A Trump campaign spokesman responded to Haley on social media with a lewd retort: “She’s going to drop down to kiss a– when she quits, like she always does,” he wrote.

South Carolina will hold its Republican primary, the next big race in the nomination fight, on Saturday. 

“But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,” Haley said.

According to 538’s polling average, she trails Trump by more than 30 points in South Carolina.

She is behind by similar margins in other states.

Haley has repeatedly pointed to the fact that only three states have voted so far in this year’s GOP nominating race, though she has lost in every one of those elections — including in Nevada, to “none of these candidates.”

Voters “deserve a real choice. … We don’t anoint kings in this country,” Haley said. “We have elections.”

In her speech, she said she’d heard from “the American people” — a mother who “just wants a return to normalcy,” a high school student who “finally has hope that America will make it” — and they fueled her determination.

“They see the same polls as me. But more importantly, they have the same belief as me. They believe in America. They believe America can do so much better — that we must do better. And they know when the country’s future is on the line, you don’t drop out. You keep fighting,” Haley said. “In fact, you fight harder than ever.”

“Dropping out would be the easy route,” she continued. “I’ve never taken the easy route.”

Haley made a similar case for herself during a campaign stop in Greer, South Carolina, on Monday night, telling her supporters she would stay in the GOP primary through Super Tuesday on March 5 and beyond.

“Go tell your family and friends that America’s depending on what they do on Saturday,” Haley said. “I promise you this, on Sunday, I’m headed to Michigan and then we’re going to Super Tuesday states and we’re going to keep on going.”

During her remarks on Tuesday, Haley continued to blast both Trump and President Joe Biden.

“The truth is, Americans already know what Joe Biden and Donald Trump will do,” she said. “But we’re just as concerned with who they are. They’re dividers at a time when America desperately, urgently needs a uniter. All they do is turn us against each other. Trump calls his fellow Americans vermin. These are dangerous times.”

“The majority of Americans don’t just dislike one candidate. They dislike both,” she said. “As a country, we’ve never seen such dissatisfaction with the leading candidates. We’ve never had so many Americans mired in pessimism and division. We still have a chance to restore their faith. I will fight as long as that chance exists.”

Haley, as she has done often on the trail, again cited Biden and Trump’s ages — at 81 and 77.

“We’re talking about the most demanding job in human history. … You give it to someone who is disciplined, someone who can work day and night for eight years straight,” she said. “No vendettas. No drama. Just results.”

But whatever her “serious concerns” about Trump, she said, she was not “Never Trump” and “never [has] been.”

“Like most Americans, I have a handful of serious concerns about the former president,” she said. “But I have countless serious concerns about the current president.”

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(EAGLE PASS, Texas) — Texas is building a new military base for National Guard members deployed to the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas — where state and federal authorities have been in a tense conflict over dealing with immigration — Gov. Greg Abbott said.

At a news conference on Friday, Abbott announced the construction of what he said would a new “base camp” that could house up to 2,300 soldiers.

“As opposed to being scattered around many different places across this region, they will be operating out of one place. It will amass a large army in a very strategic area. It will increase the speed and flexibility of the Texas National Guard to be able to respond to crossings,” Abbott said.

Officials expect that by mid-April they’ll have a 300-bed capacity and will add another 300 each month until completion, Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, Abbott’s top military adviser, said at the Friday press conference. The camp will include several features like large dining halls, individual rooms for soldiers and medical care facilities.

The move may also deepen the tension between the state and federal governments as Abbott continues to implement his own strategies to deter migrants from crossing in between ports of entry at the southern border.

Against the city’s wishes, Texas seized full control of a Shelby Park on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande in January, enclosing a 2.5-mile area with barriers and concertina wire and staffing it with Texas National Guard troops.

It has been the epicenter of state and federal government showdown as Abbott continues to restrict Border Patrol’s access to the area, preventing them from apprehending migrants crossing in one of the region’s major hotspots.

The Biden administration has sued the state of Texas over a law that would give new authority to local police to crack down on those suspected of entering the country illegally.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened in the state-federal dispute and issued an order allowing federal authorities to cut down the razor wire installed by Texas in areas where it was otherwise difficult to help migrants in distress.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been critical of the Texas governor, calling Abbott’s unilateral actions on the border “unconscionable.”

“It is unconscionable for a public official, to deliberately refuse to communicate, coordinate, collaborate with other public officials in the service of our nation’s interests, and to refuse to do so with the hope of creating disorder for others,” Mayorkas said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

At the Friday press conference, Texas Maj. Gen. Suelzer said that in the coming weeks the Texas National Guard will be expanding operations and installing new barriers north and south of Eagle Pass, an indication that the state continues to build barriers despite the Supreme Court ruling last month that Border Patrol agents are allowed to remove or destroy razor wire fencing to apprehend migrants attempting to enter the United States. Suelzer did not specify if the expansion of those efforts means they will also restrict access to federal agents in those areas.

Without providing any evidence, Abbott claimed his efforts at Shelby Park and in other parts of the border are responsible for the number of crossings in the area dropping in recent weeks and increasing in Arizona and other parts of the border. The state’s operations at Shelby Park cover roughly 1% of the entire southern border. But the governor did acknowledge that the number of migrant encounters in the region might once again climb in the coming months.

“As we all know, come springtime, there’s going to be additional caravans that are making their way through the southern and central part of Mexico deciding where they are going to be going,” Abbott said. “We want to make sure that when they come to the crossroad about, ‘Are they going to go to Texas? Are they going to go elsewhere?’ They will know the wrong place to go is the state of Texas.”

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(WASHINGTON) — During a South Carolina speech Tuesday where former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley vowed to stay in the 2024 Republican primary race, she grew emotional speaking about her husband — recently the subject of jabs from former President Donald Trump — who is deployed to Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard.

At times holding back tears, Haley reflected on her husband, Maj. Michael Haley, and his second deployment. Haley said he left to keep not only his family safe, but also the country.

“The kids and I know Michael … stepped up to defend our nation’s freedom and our way of life,” Haley said at the event in Greenville, South Carolina.

“They have made their stand because America is worth fighting and even dying for,” Haley said. “Now, I will continue to make my stand because America is worth living for.”

Haley told the audience that as she prepares for what could come in the future, her husband remains on her mind.

“As I prepare for what lies ahead, Michael is at the forefront of my mind,” Haley said. “I wish Michael was here today, and I wish our children and I could see him tonight, but we can’t. He’s serving on the other side of the world where conflict is the norm, where terrorists hide among the innocent.”

Haley’s husband, who was deployed last year to Africa, was recently mocked by Trump, who implied during a campaign event in Conway, South Carolina, that he’s in Africa to get away from his marriage.

After initially questioning why Haley’s husband was not on the campaign trail, Trump took to social media last week to say that he should return from his deployment to “come back home to help save her [Haley’s] dying campaign.”

Haley blasted Trump for the comments, saying that anyone who disrespects military families can’t be president.

“Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about,” Haley wrote on X. “Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”

Michael Haley also responded to the insult made by the former president. In a post on X, he tagged the former president as well as multiple news outlets and shared a meme: a portrait of a wolf with bold white text overlaid that read, “The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest ones to lead the pack.”

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(WASHINGTON) — An American MQ-9 Reaper flying near Yemen has been shot down by Houthi militants, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News and the Pentagon later said on Tuesday.

The Houthis said they had targeted the Reaper as well as two American ships in the Gulf of Aden in a statement Monday.

This is their second downing of a Reaper, having shot one down one in international airspace near Yemen in November.

The U.S. has designated the Houthis as a global terrorist organization amid rising regional tensions and a consistent deployment of missiles and drones against each other since war in Gaza broke out.

The Pentagon says the drone, taken down by a surface-to-air missile, has not been recovered and that an investigation is ongoing.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh conceded that Houthi “attacks are getting more sophisticated,” but she insisted “our dynamic strikes or coalition strikes absolutely have an impact.”

Singh noted an “uptick” over the weekend of activity by the Houthis, who are backed by Iran.

“If Iran does have a role to play with the Houthis, it’s not doing it,” she said, urging the Iranians to exert influence over the Houthis to tame tensions.

The U.S. conducted what it calls five self-defense strikes Sunday against the Houthis, one of which targeted an unmanned underwater vessel, the first submarine the U.S. says the Houthis have employed since tensions began to flare in October.

The Coast Guard reported an interdiction this month that seized the components of the underwater drone that U.S. forces targeted Sunday.

The remotely-operated Reaper is charged primarily with intelligence gathering and costs more than $50 million, according to the Air Force.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — American diplomats are preparing to present a resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for a temporary cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages held inside the enclave and making several other demands related to the impact of Israel’s campaign on Palestinian civilians, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

While the draft resolution is markedly more critical of Israel’s siege of Gaza than prior public statements expressed before the council by Biden administration officials, it also condemns Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 — a censure the Security Council has so far failed to pass.

The U.S., Qatar and Egypt are working to broker such an agreement between Israel and Hamas. While talks have stalled in recent weeks, negotiators are still optimistic a deal can be reached.

“The differences between the parties, they have been narrowed. They haven’t been sufficiently narrowed to get us to a deal, but we are still hopeful, and we are confident that there is the basis for an agreement between the parties,” one U.S. official said.

On Tuesday, the U.S. vetoed a resolution introduced by Algeria calling for an immediate pause in the conflict, marking the third time the Biden administration has rejected demands for a cease-fire in the chamber.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield explained that she voted against the measure because it did not condition the cease-fire on the release of hostages, arguing that it would derail ongoing talks that would accomplish both goals.

“While we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share,” she said.

Beyond demanding the release of hostages for a cease-fire, senior administration officials say the U.S. resolution makes clear that Israel’s planned ground offensive into Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering, should not proceed “under current circumstances.”

Additionally, officials say the draft states that there can be no reduction in territory in the Gaza Strip or any forced displacement of Palestinians — demands that run counter to public statements expressed by the most conservative members of Netanyahu’s government.

The measure also calls on Israel “to lift all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance, open additional humanitarian routes, and to keep current crossings open,” one official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that his country would not be dissuaded from its mission by any form of international pressure.

“We are committed to continuing the war until we achieve all of its goals, which means the elimination of Hamas, the release of all the abductees and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said. “There is no pressure–no pressure — that can change that.”

While the language in the draft resolution is markedly more critical of Israel’s campaign than prior public statements by American representatives at the U.N., it also condemns Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 — a censure the council has so far failed to pass.

U.S. officials signaled that they would not rush to bring their proposal to a vote in the chamber, saying they anticipated allowing ample “time for negotiations.”

But it’s unclear whether any amount of time will allow diplomats to break through gridlock in the council.

In late October, a U.S.-led effort to pass a resolution calling for extended humanitarian pauses was rejected by Russia and China, two other permanent members of the body with veto power.

After torpedoing the U.S. text, representatives from both countries hastily submitted their own proposal calling for an immediate cease-fire, which, in turn, was quashed by the U.S.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House will announce a new “major sanctions” package on Friday “to hold Russia accountable” for the death of Alexei Navalny, the longtime Russian opposition politician and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby.

“Whatever story the Russian government decides to tell the world, it’s clear that President Putin and his government are responsible for Mr. Navalny’s death,” Kirby said Tuesday morning. “In response and at President [Joe] Biden’s direction, we will be announcing a major sanctions package on Friday of this week to hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny.”

Kirby did not go into detail about what the new sanctions package would include, but noted the sanctions will also work to hold Russia accountable for its ongoing war with Ukraine.

“I think what you’ll see in this package that we’re going to be announcing Friday is a set of sanctions — a regime that not only is designed to hold Mr. Putin accountable for now two years of war in Ukraine, but also specifically supplemented with additional sanctions regarding Mr. Navalny’s death,” Kirby said.

Later Tuesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan shed more light on the U.S. move, noting that the administration is timing them to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the start of the conflict.

Asked about what impact the sanctions would have, Sullivan said the upcoming package was “substantial,” and covers “a range of different elements of the Russian defense industrial base, and sources of revenue for the Russian economy” that he said power their war machine and ongoing aggression and repression.

“We believe that will have an impact,” he said.

” … This is another turn of the crank, another turn of the wheel and it is a range of targets a significant range of targets that we have worked persistently and diligently to identify, to continue to impose costs for what Russia has done for what it’s done to the army for what it’s done to Ukraine, and for the threat that it represents to international peace and security,” Sullivan added.

Last week, Navalny died in prison at age 47. Shortly after news of Navalny’s death, Biden placed the blame directly on Putin.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was the result of something that Putin and his friends did,” Biden said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that “Russia is responsible for this.”

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, on Tuesday called for the remains to be returned so they could be “buried with dignity.”

She released a video in which she alleged that Navalny’s body was being kept from the family because he had been murdered, perhaps by poison.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, on Tuesday said those allegations were “unfounded, unsupported and borish.”

Russia is already heavily sanctioned: sanctions signed by Biden in December went after financial institutions that indirectly allowed Russia to keep building its war arsenal amid its aggression against Ukraine.

ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The White House will announce a new “major sanctions” package on Friday “to hold Russia accountable” in response to Alexei Navalny’s death, said National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Supreme Court will allow one of the nation’s top public schools to move forward with a new admissions policy that critics say has “racial balancing” at its core.

The closely watched case from Fairfax County in northern Virginia involves Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

For years, it’s student body — drawn from a race-blind process relying heavily on standardized tests — was more than 70% Asian American. In 2020, school board officials shifted to a more holistic approach that has resulted in greater numbers of white, Hispanic and Black students enrolled. While fewer Asian American students were admitted, they still made up more than half the incoming class.

A district court struck the policy because of alleged racial motivations of officials, but a narrowly divided appeals court reversed the decision and said it was permissible.

A majority of Supreme Court justices voted to let that ruling stand; they did not explain their decision.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision, saying it violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and is “indefensible.”

“The holding below effectively licenses official actors to discriminate against any racial group with impunity as long as that group continues to perform at a higher rate than other groups,” Thomas and Alito wrote.

“Today, the American Dream was dealt a blow, but we remain committed to protecting the values of merit, equality, and justice — and we will prevail for the future of our children and for the nation we love and embrace,” said Asra Nomani, co-founder of Coalition for TJ, which brought the suit against the school district.

“For the courageous families who have tirelessly fought for the principles that our nation holds dear, this decision is a setback but not a death blow to our commitment to the American Dream, which promises equal opportunity and justice for all,” Nomani said.

 

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(NEW YORK) — After Speaker Mike Johnson rejected the Senate-passed national security supplemental, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers unveiled a new proposal late last week to provide defense-only aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and funds for the U.S. southern border — however, it’s not yet clear if GOP leadership will consider it.

The $66.3 billion bipartisan package, titled the “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act,” would provide the aid for one year after enactment. The biggest chunk of the money — $47.69 billion — would go to supporting the defense of Ukraine.

To address the surge of migrants at the southern border, the legislation would require the suspension of entry of inadmissible aliens and require immigration officers to detain and immediately expel inadmissible aliens.

“Securing one’s borders is necessary to preserving one’s democracy and, therefore, necessary to maintaining world order and world peace,” Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said in a news release about the proposal.

“As the world’s oldest and strongest democracy, the United States’ primary responsibility must be to secure its own borders. But we also have an obligation to assist our allies in securing their borders, especially when they come under assault by dictators, terrorists, and totalitarians. Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan are all freedom-loving democracies, they are our allies, and we must assist them in protecting their borders just as we must protect our own. We can, and must, achieve all of the above.”

Fitzpatrick told ABC New last week that House members “all have the ability to find a way to navigate a bill to get to the floor and you know, all options are on the table but there are plenty of us that are not going to allow Ukraine to fail on our watch. It’s too existential.” He worked with several other lawmakers — fellow Republicans as well as Democrats — to craft the proposal.

This proposal will certainly put pressure on Johnson, but it’s not yet clear if GOP leadership would consider it. Fitzpatrick said he is going to try to push the proposal forward.

“We’re going to talk to [Johnson] about it. You know, our job is to legislate … Hopefully … we can win this support,” Fitzpatrick said.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made it clear last week that he wants a vote only on the Senate-passed supplemental that Johnson said he was opposed to because it didn’t include any border changes.

“Mike Johnson simply needs to put the bipartisan national security bill on the House floor for an up-or-down vote, and it will pass,” Jeffries said last week at a news conference.

ABC News reached out to Johnson’s office for comment, but hadn’t heard back by the time of publication.

The proposal may lose some momentum given the timing of its release — just before the House embarked on a nearly two-week recess. The House returns to session on Feb. 28.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he could support the new bipartisan proposal out of the House.

“Yes, I’m saying that the House proposal, it depends on how it’s written, makes perfect sense to me,” Graham said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Graham said he has not spoken to former President Donald Trump about this new House proposal, but said border funding cannot wait. Previously, Trump had called on Republicans to oppose the Senate’s bipartisan national security package — contributing to its tanking.

“President Trump says let’s wait on the border. With all due respect, we cannot wait,” Graham said. “It’s a national security nightmare.”

ABC News’ Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.

 

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