Iowa entrance polls show MAGA fans turned out for caucus: Live updates
Donald Trump holds commanding lead over challengers Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy
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The 2024 Republican candidates are eagerly awaiting the results of the Iowa caucuses on Monday – though if polling tells us anything, it’s that Donald Trump has a predictable commanding lead over the other candidates.
In a survey, conducted by The Des Moines Register, NBC News and Medicom, 48 per cent of potential voters said the former president was their first choice of Republican presidential candidates.
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley was behind Mr Trump with 20 per cent support followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 16 per cent.
Vivek Ramaswamy had just 8 per cent while only 5 per cent of potential voters said they were still unsure.
Of the survey respondents more than half said they had their minds made up regarding who they would cast their vote for.
But for the 32 per cent who could still be persuaded to support a candidate, the presidential candidates are fighting hard to convince them to join their teams.
‘The polls would have to change significantly - or be quite wrong - for Biden to win in November'
US completes first airdrop of food supplies into Gaza
The US military has dropped about 38,000 meals into Gaza, two days after more than 100 Palestinians were killed while trying to get aid from a convoy.
Three planes dropped 66 bundles carrying the meals at about 8.30am (eastern time) on Saturday, according to the AP. The Jordanian Air Force also dropped aid parcels over Gaza.
On Friday, President Joe Biden said that he hoped there would be a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas before Ramadan begins later this month.
“I’m hoping so. We’re still working real hard at it. We’re not there yet,” he said as he left the White House for Camp David on Friday.
Mr Biden announced on Friday that the US would start dropping aid into Gaza. The drops will be coordinated with Jordan, and more are expected.
Bob Menendez associate pleads guilty to fresh bribery charges
Kelly Rissman reports:
An associate of embattled New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez pleaded guilty to new bribery charges, changing his previous plea after facing a superseding indictment.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged Jose Uribe, a New Jersey insurance broker, with seven counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
He pleaded guilty to all counts on 1 March, altering his previous not guilty plea.
Uribe had initially faced one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in September, when he was indicted alongside the New Jersey senator, his wife and two other Menendez associates for allegedly committing a “years-long bribery scheme”.
His sentencing is scheduled for 14 June.
Associate of Senator Bob Menendez pleads guilty to fresh bribery charges
Jose Uribe admits charges including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion
What’s going on in Michigan?
While Michigan Republicans took part in a primary on 27 February, most of the delegates will be awarded following congressional district caucuses on Saturday as a leadership dispute infects the Granite State GOP.
Pete Hoekstra has the backing to chair the state’s GOP and will chair one convention in Grand Rapids while the former party chair Kristina Karamo, who was deposed, was planning to chair yet another gathering in Detriot, according to NBC News.
Republican groups in two of the 13 congressional districts were also planning to hold their own conventions this weekend.
But two operatives close to Ms Karamo told NBC News on Friday that her convention was cancelled.
Ms Karamo posted a video on X, telling her backers to “keep fighting” and go “where your district chair recommends”.
Michigan GOP strategist Jason Cabel Roe told NBC: “Delegates have been getting conflicting and confusing emails for weeks — promoting different agendas, different staff, different conventions.”
“You have to pay close attention to even know who is sending what and what the legitimate directions and events are,” he added.
Biden twice mixes up Gaza with Ukraine in aid announcement
Joe Biden mixed up Gaza with Ukraine twice during his announcement that the US will airdrop aid to the territory desperate for humanitarian assistance.
The US president, 81, referred to airdrops to help Volodymyr Zelensky‘s nation in a speech on Friday, 1 March, but White House officials later clarified his comments were referring to Gaza.
“We are going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies into Ukraine and seek to continue to open up other avenues into Ukraine, including the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance,” Mr Biden said.
House GOP won’t blur faces of Jan 6 rioters in surveillance footage
After announcing that the faces of January 6 rioters would be blurred to avoid their prosecution by the US Department of Justice, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to reverse course on Friday, saying that it was taking too long.
Last year, Mr Johnson appeared to admit that House Republicans were protecting people who broke into the US Capitol, telling reporters in December that “we have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems.”
On Friday, with the release of 5,000 hours of raw footage, his office announced that rioters’ faces won’t be blurred “given the significant logistic hurdles involved and the importance of getting this work completed as responsibly and efficiently as possible”.
Alex Woodward reports:
House Republicans won’t blur faces of January 6 rioters in surveillance footage
Mike Johnson previously vowed to keep rioters’ faces away from the Justice Depamrtnet
Haley calls for Trump’s legal woes to be ‘dealt’ with before November
Nikki Haley, the last Republican rival facing Donald Trump in the 2024 primaries, has called for all of his legal battles to be “dealt with” before the November election.
The former South Carolina governor is yet to win a state primary or caucus. On Thursday, days after losing big in Michigan, she appeared on NBC News’ Meet the Press and said: “I think all of the cases should be dealt with before November.”
“We need to know what’s going to happen before it, before the presidency happens, because after that, should he become president, I don’t think any of it’s going to get heard,” she added.
Kelly Rissman reports:
Nikki Haley calls for Trump’s legal woes to be ‘dealt’ with before November
‘I just think a president has to live according to the laws, too,’ the former UN ambassador said
Might North Carolina flip blue in 2024?
Ariana Baio writes:
For the last three presidential election cycles, North Carolina, a red-leaning state, has favoured the Republican presidential candidate. But a January analysis by Moody’s Analytics suggests it could flip in 2024.
It projects that the assumed Democratic nominee President Joe Biden will flip North Carolina in Democrats’ favour by less than a percentage point.
It’s no secret that North Carolina’s red has appeared more purple in recent years. Mr Trump barely secured the state in 2020, winning by a margin of 1.3 per cent. Republicans only narrowly won a Senate seat in the 2022 midterms by 3.2 per cent.
Republicans currently have control over the legislature but the governor is a Democrat. With an electorate that is almost completely split between the two parties, neither one can afford to lose any votes.
Continue reading...
Could North Carolina flip blue in 2024?
The last time North Carolina voted for a Democrat was in 2008 when Barack Obama won the state
Former Obama official says famine in Gaza inevitable without US pressure on Israel to allow aid
A former Obama administration official has warned that famine in Gaza is inevitable unless President Joe Biden immediately changes course and applies pressure on Israel to open the territory to all aid deliveries.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who led USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for three years and worked on famine prevention in Yemen and South Sudan, said the only way to avoid famine would be for Israel to allow “complete access” for aid organisations to enter Gaza, which it has been unwilling to do.
Richard Hall reports:
Famine in Gaza is inevitable without US pressure on Israel, says Obama aid official
Jeremy Konyndyk oversaw famine relief for three years during the Obama adminstration and is now president of Refugees International
Read the full transcript of Hunter Biden’s congressional testimony
The full transcript of Hunter Biden’s evidence to House Republicans has been released, following his six-hour testimony held behind closed doors.
Mr Biden was giving evidence in the Republican impeachment probe into his father, President Joe Biden. House members have accused him of using his father’s influence as leverage in lucrative overseas business deals.
However, so far they have struggled for evidence and have been accused of running a sham investigation in order to smear President Biden ahead of the November election.
Read the full transcript below:
Transcript of Hunter Biden testimony to House committee released
President’s son was giving the evidence in the Republican impeachment probe into his father
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