Haley gets under Trump's skin as he wins New Hampshire

Trump backers press Haley to quit GOP race

Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for January 24, 2024:

• Biden wins as a write-in candidate.

• DeSantis worried about GOP voter enthusiasm.

• Another Republican leaving the House.

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CONGRESS. As former President Donald Trump won a comfortable victory in New Hampshire last night, his backers in Congress wasted no time in calling on Nikki Haley to get out of the GOP race. "The Republican primary is over," declared Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY). "At this point, Haley can either drop out or help the Democrats," said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH).

• PALMETTO. While Haley said she wants the chance to run against Trump in her home state of South Carolina, one senior Republican from the Palmetto State said Haley should give up now. "The sooner we unite, the better," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). "As I said after Iowa, for all practical purposes, this race is over."

• UNITY. "Trump will be the GOP nominee," said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). "What we don’t know yet is how much donor money is going to be wasted over the next month," Rubio added, referring to the South Carolina GOP primary, which is February 24.

• MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. Others were much more blunt about Haley's choice to stay in the race. "If Nikki Haley decides to drag this out to South Carolina, her political career will be over," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). "This primary is over tonight here in New Hampshire."

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HALEY. While Trump supporters were telling Haley to get lost, the former South Carolina Governor said last night there was no reason to give up her campaign for the GOP nomination. "This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go," Haley told supporters. “And the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”

• MESSAGE. Knowing that TV's were tuned in from all over the nation, Haley used her speech to jab repeatedly at Trump, starting with his verbal miscue from last week where he repeatedly confused Haley and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, blaming Haley for lax security on Jan. 6. (Haley has never served in Congress.)

• MENTAL ACUITY. "I've long called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75," Haley said to applause. "Trump claims he'd do better than me in one of those tests. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. But if he thinks that, then he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me."

DEBATE. There is no way that Trump is going to agree to any debate with Haley. And it seems very unlikely that she can derail his march to the GOP nomination. But if she wants to - she could throw a lot of elbows at him for the next four weeks. It will all depend on whether she has the money to keep her bid going.

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TRUMP. At his victory party, Trump was clearly aggravated by Haley's primary night remarks. Instead of taking the high road, he let it get under his skin. "She's doing a speech like she won," Trump complained. "Let's not have somebody take a victory lap when she had a very bad night," Trump said. "She had a very bad night."

• AGGRAVATED. Instead of focusing on President Biden and a November rematch, Trump spent most of his remarks registering complaints about Haley. "Who the hell was the imposter that went up on the stage before and like claimed victory?" Trump asked. "We beat her so badly."

• MARGIN. While it certainly wasn't the blowout that Trump had been talking about a day earlier, his lead over Haley was in double digits, as Haley was getting 43 percent of the vote. That's a solid win for Trump, but not the knockout punch he was predicting on Monday.

• FRAUD. On live TV, Trump could not resist getting into his false claims of election fraud from 2020. He claimed he won New Hampshire - he didn't, losing by over 5 percent. And he again made his evidence-free claim that Democrats had been up to no good. "They used COVID to cheat.”

VITO, YOU’RE BLOCKING. At one point, Trump mocked Haley for being 'all dressed up nicely' in a 'fancy dress.' He then took on the air of a mob boss. "I don’t get too angry," Trump said. "I get even,” hinting that he had dirt on Haley.

• DIRT. "Just a little note to Nikki. She's not going to win. But if she did, she would be under investigation (by the feds) in 15 minutes. And I could tell you five reasons why already. Not big reasons. A little stuff that she doesn't want to talk about."

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TRUMP'S WIN. How should we evaluate the GOP results in New Hampshire? It's a strong win for Trump, right? I'm not so sure about that. When I think about Trump's campaign in the Granite State, he is really operating like an incumbent President. So, when looking for historic benchmarks, that would be an appropriate place to start.

• 1992. I would go back to my first New Hampshire Primary in 1992. President George H.W. Bush defeated conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan 58-40 percent. It was a larger margin of victory than Trump won over Haley, and yet it was perceived as a setback for Bush, who lost in November.

• 1968. If you want another comparison, Nikki Haley's 43 percent is much like the 42 percent of the vote won by Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-MN), who took on LBJ in the 1968 New Hampshire Primary. A few weeks after the primary, LBJ dropped his bid for another term.

THIS YEAR. Do I expect Trump to quit? Of course not. But you can't look at the results from last night and say that Trump is a bulletproof candidate for the GOP. There seem to be many Republican voters who have major misgivings about the former President - in a key swing state.

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DEMS. On the Democratic side, New Hampshire Democrats delivered an unconventional victory for President Biden, and avoided a messy and embarrassing outcome. "New Hampshire Democrats made history tonight by electing Joe Biden as our nominee for President in 2024 through a write-in effort," said Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH).

• WRITE-IN. With national Democrats pushing New Hampshire out of the first primary slot - Joe Biden was not on the ballot, leading to a local write-in campaign to make sure he won. "Granite Staters showcased our passion for citizen-led democracy," said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH).

• CHALLENGE. The effort stopped Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who has run a quixotic campaign against Biden. "Congratulations to President Biden, who absolutely won tonight, but by no means like a strong incumbent should," said Phillips - as he twisted the knife against his party's own leader.

DEFEATED. It's still not clear to me why Phillips - who seemed to be going places in the U.S. House for Democrats - decided to basically commit political suicide by pursuing this challenge. Why? To what end? How does it help Phillips move ahead? No one has a real answer at this point.

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CAMPAIGN TRAIL. I really want to thank everyone who chipped in to help support Regular Order coverage of the New Hampshire Primary. I greatly appreciate it! Is a trip down south on I-95 next to South Carolina? We’ll see what Haley does.

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DESANTIS. In his first interview since he dropped out of the GOP race for President, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said he was worried that a big chunk of Republican voters aren't interested in voting for Donald Trump. "I think there's an enthusiasm problem overall," DeSantis said. "It's a huge warning sign for Republicans."

• MESSAGE. Speaking with conservative talk radio host Steve Deace, DeSantis said he had no second thoughts about leaving the GOP race, but he again said Trump faces an uphill fight in November . "There's a lot of our voters who have checked out," said DeSantis. "Iowa showed there are big warning signs."

• NOVEMBER. While DeSantis criticized the news media for saying that Trump is losing GOP votes, DeSantis said it's true. "When I have people come up to me - who voted for Reagan and have been conservative their whole life - saying that they don't want to vote for Trump again, that's a problem."

PARTY UNITY. Trump has a lot of time to win back wayward GOP voters - or to have them ‘fall back’ into the fold. But the danger for him is whether he's driving away independents and moderates. That is not a formula for victory in November.

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ABORTION. In their first joint campaign event of 2022, President Biden and Vice President Harris joined on Tuesday to give voice to their party's arguments on abortion rights - what they termed a 'Restore Roe' rally in the Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C. But the campaign event - and the Biden-Harris message - was hijacked by protesters.

• GAZA. More than a half dozen times, Biden was interrupted by demonstrators angered by the Israeli-Hamas conflict. "How many kids have you killed?" one man who was carrying a Palestinian flag yelled at the President. After he was hauled out, a woman started shouting. "Israel kills two mothers every hour." The crowd chanted 'Four More Years!"

• BIDEN. "This is going to go on for a while," the President said as more people stood up to yell at him. "They've got this planned." This will be an interesting issue to watch, because more progressive Democrats certainly don't see eye to eye with Biden on Israel.

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SENATE. The update on border security talks in the Senate remains the same. Progress has been made, but the deal is not final as yet. "We are at the finish line," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), the lead negotiator for Democrats. "We still have a handful of issues to resolve but there's no reason for us to wait weeks to get this bill on the floor."

• DEBATE. But without actual legislative text, the Senate isn't going to move forward. On the GOP side, the Senate's top Republican is still trying to round up support for the emerging border security plan. "The American people expect us to do something," said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

• ISSUE ONE. With the economy now doing better, the GOP focus on the border has made it a prime item in 2024. "The number one issue now for the American people is our border," said Sen. John Thune (R-SD). "It surpassed even inflation as the issue people care most about."

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JANUARY 6. House Republicans continue to make claims - which have been picked up by former President Donald Trump - that the January 6 committee destroyed evidence before the GOP took charge of the House this year. But those who ran the panel keep saying the charges are nonsense, nothing but an effort by Republicans to help Trump.

• THOMPSON. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) wrote Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) on Tuesday, ridiculing GOP assertions that Democrats deleted important files late last year. "I cannot assist your attempts to keep January 6th conspiracy theories alive," Thompson added.

• QRM. Loudermilk has repeatedly claimed that evidence was destroyed. Thompson said the first claim in June was 'baseless.' Thompson rejected assertions that the panel wrongly gave evidence to prosecutors investigating Trump in Georgia. Now it's supposedly 'secret evidence' that was deleted by Democrats.

• MORE. "It appears now that you and other MAGA extremists in the House are engaged in an effort, possibly urged by the ex-President, to foster unsupported conspiracies about the Select Committee's investigation," Thompson wrote.

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NORTH DAKOTA. A day after Gov. Doug Burgum (R) announced he would not run for reelection, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) said he would leave Congress in a bid to replace Burgum. "I'll take the experience I've gained fighting for North Dakota in DC, to help increase opportunity and success here in our state," Armstrong said in a statement.

• NUMBERS. Armstrong's decision continues a trend of Republicans leaving the House - seven so far in January (to no Democrats). 40 House members - 22 Democrats and 18 Republicans - won't be back after the November elections, and there is still plenty of time for that to grow.

LOUISIANA. Could Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) soon be another Republican not running for reelection in 2024? Gov. Jeff Landry (R) has signed into law a new Congressional district map in Louisiana which throws Graves into the same district as Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA). Graves called the move ‘boneheaded.’

• BAYOU STATE. That new map in Louisiana has a second black-majority district which is expected to be won by Democrats - and hours after it was approved, ex-Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA) announced he would run for Congress again. He served two terms in the U.S. House in the mid-1990's.

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TAX BILL. I told you last week about the new bipartisan tax cut package negotiated by key lawmakers in the House and Senate. It looks like that may be voted on by the full House next week, as the bill was posted last night by Republicans.

• PLAN. The bill has one big policy item for Democrats - an expanded child tax credit. The sweetener for the GOP is the inclusion of expanded business tax breaks. It's a temporary $78 billion plan which is paid for through 2025 - but would cost way more if made permanent.

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VIVA DE LA SANTOS. Ex-Rep. George Santos was in federal court Tuesday for a status conference on his corruption case. He's not due back for another appearance until mid-August. Jury selection is currently scheduled to begin the week after Labor Day. Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 corruption charges.

• LAST NIGHT. Santos did not go home and sulk after his court date. Instead, he showed up in New Hampshire last night - at the Donald Trump victory party. “It’s Trump time baby!” Santos tweeted.

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RAP SHEET. A Louisiana man was arrested Monday on charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors say Edward Richmond Jr. was seen on security tape hitting police officers with a baton. He wore a helmet, goggles, and shoulder pads - and carried a two-way radio.

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MUSE OF HISTORY.  January 24, 1821.  On this date, a bill was laid down in the House to set the location of the capital of Illinois.  The legislation did not pick a city, but used the land survey system set by the Northwest Ordinance: Section 16, Township number six north, range number one, east of the third principal meridian Illinois. That’s about 40 miles east of the current capital of Springfield.

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LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

The House next has votes on Jan. 29.

The Senate convenes at 10 am.

Check President Biden’s schedule.

Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.

Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com

If you want to say ‘thanks’ - you can buy me a cup of coffee.