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.
Haley uses McConnell retirement news to bolster call for new generation of leaders
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has pounced on the new of Mitch McConnell’s upcoming retirement to underline her call for a new generation of leadership in US politics.
The former UN ambassador has called both Donald Trump and Joe Biden too old to be president.
Ms Haley posted on X: “I respect Sen. McConnell's decision. Serving at that level for that long is not easy. He did many good things, but he is right that we do need a new generation, not just in Congress but also in the White House.
“I'm fighting to get the Republican Party back to its principles of fiscal discipline and national security. Republicans need to get back to winning. It's what our children deserve.”
In depth: The 2024 election will be the oldest presidential fight in history. How do young voters feel?
Ariana Baio spoke with Gen-Z voters in North Carolina about how Joe Biden’s age factors into their feelings about the upcoming presidential election and what is on the line...
How young Democrats and young Republicans really feel about 2024
With two candidates nearly 60 years older than them, Gen Z voters tell Ariana Baio how they’re choosing to cast their ballot this election
Watch: Raskin says McConnell didn’t show the ‘ultimate courage’ and vote to convict Trump
“He didn’t show the ultimate courage which would have been to vote to convict and to find enough other Senators so we that wouldn’t be back in this nightmare again with Donald Trump,” says Rep Jamie Raskin on the news of Mitch McConnell’s upcoming retirement from the Senate.
House Speaker Johnson salutes historic contribution of McConnell
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson released the following statement regarding the upcoming retirement of Senator Mitch McConnell:
Mitch McConnell rose from humble beginnings overcoming polio to become one of the most consequential Senate Leaders in history. He started his Senate career as a legislative aide and ended up in charge of the upper chamber.
No Member of Congress has played a greater role in reshaping the federal judiciary than Mitch. I join my colleagues in saluting his historic contributions to the Republican Party and to the Congress.
Biden comments on Mitch McConnell decision to retire
Speaking at an event on crime prevention, Joe Biden made his first remarks regarding the coming retirement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at the White House this lunchtime.
President Biden said he’s “sorry to hear” Mr McConnell is stepping down from Senate leadership: “I trusted him, we had a great relationship, we fought like hell. But he never, never, never misrepresented anything. I’m sorry to hear he’s stepping down.”
Watch: Reporter calls out Comer over impeachment argument
Rep Jim Comer was called out by a reporter over spurious reasoning behind the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Full story: Biden undergoes annual physical as his age remains campaign issue
President Joe Biden is undergoing his annual physical today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, at a time when his age continues to be a major concern among voters heading into the November election.
The White House said that Mr Biden travelled to the Navy-operated facility in Bethesda, Maryland on Wednesday, departing by helicopter at 9.06am and landing at the hospital’s helipad nine minutes later.
A White House official said Mr Biden’s visit to the hospital was “for his routine annual physical” and promised that his physician would release a written summary of the findings afterwards.
Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC:
Biden undergoes annual physical as his age remains campaign issue
After last year’s physical, doctor said Biden ‘remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency’
‘Like being Charlie Sheen’s understudy in a Broadway play’
Jimmy Kimmel sheds some light on why Republican candidate Nikki Haley, despite losing her home state, would want to stay in the race – and it may have something to do with criminal proceedings against a certain Donald Trump.
Calls for Ms Haley, the final challenger to Mr Trump, to drop out of the presidential race have been incessantly ringing throughout the GOP, with many Trump allies applying pressure for her to bow out ever since other Republican contenders did the same.
However, she has steadfastly refused to do so despite being defeated time and time again, most recently in her home state.
Amelia Neath has the story:
Kimmel on Haley: ‘Like being Charlie Sheen’s understudy in a Broadway play’
Nikki Haley says she is a woman of her word, and Jimmy Kimmel says ‘that word is denial’
Haley asked to name ‘single state she can win’ by reporter
This was a fairly brutal question from the Republican challenger but she managed to spin it to her advantage, even as her campaign looks ever-more hopeless heading into Super Tuesday.
Watch: Nikki Haley asked to name ‘single state she can win’ by reporter
Nikki Haley was asked by a reporter to name a “single state” she believes she can win. The former South Carolina governor has refused to drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, despite defeat to Donald Trump in her home state’s primary over the weekend. “Whether it is here in Michigan or any of the upcoming states that you are campaigning in, today, which state can you tell us that you can definitively win?” a journalist asked her before a rally in Grand Rapids. Ms Haley responded: “We have 21 states and territories that are getting ready. Why don’t we wait and see what happens? We don’t have to have a crystal ball and say this is going to happen or that’s going to happen.”
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