Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author:

Trump, Haley battle for big donors while Biden campaign sits on massive cash reserve

Trump, Haley battle for big donors while Biden campaign sits on massive cash reserve

President Biden’s reelection campaign ended 2023 with nearly $117 million in its coffers, far ahead of his potential GOP rivals as they seek to woo big Republican donors. Former President Trump’s campaign committee closed out the year with $33 million, and Nikki Haley, Trump’s last major rival for the GOP nomination, ended 2023 with around $15 million. The campaign totals are only a partial picture. Trump donors contributed a total of $188 million in 2023 to support various committees, yet that was offset by paying tens of millions in legal bills of the former president, the Wall Street Journal reported. Across the board, Trump and his outside political groups had around $65 million cash on hand by Jan. 1. Haley, who came in second place in New Hampshire and third place in Iowa, is still buoyed by a steady flow of campaign donations in her uphill fight against Trump. HALEY TRAILS TRUMP IN HOME STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA AHEAD OF STATE’S PRIMARY ELECTION: POLL In the week after the New Hampshire primary, Haley’s campaign raised more than $5 million, according to a source familiar with the fundraising. Her fundraising spree hasn’t let up as she attended 10 fundraisers in a two-week span. At a series of donor meetings in New York and Florida, Haley brought in $2.5 million. Haley’s campaign has pointed out that with Trump as the nominee, down-ballot races for House and Senate could be impacted. At one meeting with high-dollar GOP donors in Florida on Wednesday, both Haley and Trump’s campaigns made their pitches to the meeting of the network known as the American Opportunity Alliance (AOA). Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, told the group that Trump’s former ambassador to the U.N. was the last hope at preventing a Trump vs. Biden rematch in 2024 that a majority of Americans don’t seem to want. “We know the House is gone if Trump is the nominee,” a source familiar with the campaign told Fox News Digital. “There are 18 seats held by Republicans that Joe Biden won in 2020, 10 of them by five points or more,” the source added. “November’s Senate map highly favors Republicans, but that favorability won’t last past this year “Because there are no Democrats up in Trump states in 2026 or 2028.” NIKKI HALEY EXPLAINS COMMENTS ON WHETHER TEXAS CAN SECEDE FROM THE UNITED STATES At the Florida AOA fundraiser, Susie Wiles, a top adviser on the Trump campaign, pitched the former president at the meeting despite his rocky relationship with some GOP donors. The case for Trump, according to reports, centered around the low possibility of Haley’s path to victory. She didn’t win either of the first two nominating contests, and South Carolina — her home state — looks to be no different. “President Trump’s campaign is fueled by small dollar donors across the country from every background who are sick and tired of Crooked Joe Biden’s record-high inflation, wide open border, crime and chaos. President Trump continues to dominate Biden in every single battleground poll, and we are more confident than ever that he will take back the White House in November,” said Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement. Trump has made his legal fights a central theme of his political campaign, accusing Democrats of using “ridiculous” lawsuits and criminal charges to keep him off the ballot. In the early days of the GOP primary last year, he did see a dramatic rise against Republican rivals as he faced more and more indictments. However, the Trump payments to law firms fighting four criminal cases and several civil trials caught Haley’s attention. “He can’t beat Joe Biden if he’s spending all his time and money on court cases and chaos,” Haley posted on X this week. The post-Iowa and New Hampshire fundraising figures for the Trump campaign have not been released, so it’s unclear what boost he may have seen after his commanding victories in the first two contests. Haley did appear to get a boost from donors after Trump said anyone who donated to Haley’s campaign following his initial victories would be “will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp.” Haley’s campaign says it raised half a million dollars from selling more than 15,000 “permanently barred” T-shirts. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Though Trump has had a stormy relationship over the years with some in the GOP donor class, he has been making an effort this cycle to mend fences and court top-dollar contributors. “I think they’re running a much more sophisticated campaign this year than ever before,” a major GOP bundler who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital in a previous interview. “And so, as part of that, they’re looking to consolidate Republican support, both politically and financially.”

House Republicans push Biden to fix border ‘catastrophe’ through executive action

House Republicans push Biden to fix border ‘catastrophe’ through executive action

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans is demanding that President Biden use his executive powers to address the border crisis, a pointed message as White House and Senate negotiators work on a compromise to address the issue. “Speaker Mike Johnson wrote to you in December of 2023, urging you to take executive action to secure the Southern Border. House Republicans have passed H.R.2, legislation that would help stop the flow of illegal immigration and protect our communities,” the letter led by Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, said. “Your actions alone created this catastrophe, and you have the power to fix it. You can choose to direct your administration to vigorously enforce the laws on the books today, thereby stemming the tide of illegal immigration and protecting our communities. ‘SENSE OF HOPELESSNESS’: MICHAEL MCCAUL SOUNDS ALARM ON BORDER PATROL MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS “Or you can choose to perpetuate this national security and humanitarian crisis through your unequivocal failure of leadership for the American people.” It’s a sign of the House Republican conference falling in line behind House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his skepticism of the ongoing bipartisan border security talks. The House passed H.R.2, a strict border security and immigration bill, last summer. It would have revived Trump-era policies like Remain In Mexico, while broadening border agents’ expulsion authority, among other measures. Democrats have panned the bill as a nonstarter. WATCH: MIGRANTS CLAIM ASYLUM ON COLD JANUARY NIGHT AS CBP UNION LEADER TALKS BORDER CRISIS Johnson has held onto H.R.2 as House Republicans’ default position on the border talks. Hinson’s letter makes clear that it’s a sentiment shared by his rank-and-file as well. It puts the eventual border security deal’s fate more into question, even before the bill text is released. In her Friday letter, Hinson accused Biden of having “undermined” border security through administration policies and executive orders. MAYORKAS BLAMES MEXICO, CONGRESS FOR HISTORIC BORDER SURGE; CALLS FOR MORE FUNDING AND ‘REFORM’ “The U.S. Southern Border is being overrun by illegal immigrants. The responsibility for this crisis lies with you. Under your direction, your administration has intentionally and systematically undermined U.S. border security by perpetually refusing to enforce countless laws that have worked to secure our Southern Border and prevent illegal immigration,” she wrote. “On January 20, 2021, – your very first day in office – you immediately took executive action to halt border wall construction and issued a moratorium on deportations and immigration enforcement. Your administration has repeatedly ignored Congress’ authority and issued over immigration and border policies that have clearly signaled to illegal immigrants, traffickers, and cartels that America’s borders are open.”

Dozens of Rohingya refugees flee Malaysian immigration detention centre

Dozens of Rohingya refugees flee Malaysian immigration detention centre

Police blame riot after 115 Rohingya and 16 other people from Myanmar escaped the facility on Thursday night. Malaysia is searching for dozens of Rohingya refugees and other people from Myanmar after they escaped from a temporary immigration detention centre in the country’s north. One man was killed after 131 men escaped from the Bidor facility in the northern state of Perak on Thursday night, the Immigration Department said in a statement. Perak police said the man had been hit by a car when he tried to cross the main north-south highway, and that the men fled following a riot at the camp. Some 115 of the men were Rohingya and the remaining 16 of other Myanmar ethnicities. Immigration Department director-general Ruslin Jusoh said 375 police, soldiers and reservist volunteers had been deployed to look for them. Malaysia is a popular destination for the mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 after a brutal military crackdown that is now the subject of a genocide investigation at the International Court of Justice. Many have sought to escape the grim conditions in Myanmar and the Bangladesh refugee camps by making dangerous journeys by boat to Southeast Asia. Some 569 died or went missing at sea last year, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said last month. People from Myanmar made up 88 percent of the 185,300 people registered with the UNHCR as refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia at the end of 2023. Some 107,670 of those registered with the agency are Rohingya who were stripped of their citizenship by a military government in the 1980s. Other people from Myanmar have sought sanctuary in Malaysia amid a deepening civil war since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi three years ago. Malaysia has no system to process applications for asylum, and refugees are considered undocumented migrants. Most live a precarious existence, at risk of arrest as “illegal migrants” or exploitation in low-paid jobs that Malaysians do not want. The immigration department has accelerated a crackdown on undocumented migrants in recent months, reporting regular raids, but the UNHCR has not been allowed to visit immigration detention centres to verify the status of refugees for a number of years. In April 2022, more than 500 Rohingya refugees, including children, fled a temporary detention centre in Penang state and six were killed trying to cross the highway. That incident was also blamed on a riot. Adblock test (Why?)

At least two dead, hundreds injured in Kenya gas explosion

At least two dead, hundreds injured in Kenya gas explosion

Incident took place in the Embakasi district of Nairobi late on Thursday night and firefighters were still trying to douse the flames at dawn. At least two people have been killed and hundreds injured after a gas explosion triggered a massive fire in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. The fire broke out on Thursday night in the Embakasi neighbourhood, government spokesman Isaac Maigua Mwaura said on social media platform X. “One Lorry [truck] of an unknown registration number that was loaded with gas exploded, igniting a huge ball of fire that spread widely,” he wrote, adding that vehicles, businesses and residential homes had been consumed by the flames. “A good number of residents [were] still inside as it was late at night,” he said. Wesley Kimeto, commander in charge of police in Embakasi, was quoted saying on The Standard newspaper’s X account that at least two people had been confirmed dead in the incident. The Kenyan Red Cross said it had taken some 271 people to health facilities around the capital and 27 were treated on site. Firefighters were still working to bring the fire under control at about 6:30am local time (03:30 GMT), according to the AFP news agency, and large columns of black smoke were seen rising into the air on the outskirts of the city. Adblock test (Why?)