Author:

Haley expects to haul in $1.5 million at Wall Street fundraisers to fuel GOP presidential bid against Trump

It’s a lucrative day for Nikki Haley in New York City. The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump’s administration expects to raise $1.5 million at a trio of top-dollar New York City fundraisers on Tuesday, according to her campaign. The fundraisers are the first of roughly 10 over the next two weeks that will take Haley to donor-rich environments of South Florida, California and Texas. The campaign told Fox News that the three finance events Wednesday in Palm Beach and Miami, Florida, were expected to bring in over $1 million. The fundraisers come amid a surge in small dollar grassroots donations for Haley after she grabbed 43% of the vote in her 11-point loss last week in the New Hampshire primary to Trump, the commanding frontrunner for the Republican nomination. HALEY GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING SOARS, BUT MAJOR DONOR WANTS TO SEE ‘PATH TO VICTORY’ Haley’s campaign highlighted that they raked in $4 million in the days following the New Hampshire primary, which turned into a two-candidate contest between Trump and Haley after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign days ahead of the primary. Tuesday’s high-profile fundraiser is being co-hosted by Wall Street billionaires Leonard Stern, Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ken Langone and Henry Kravis. Contributions – limited by federal law – were expected to range from $3,300 up to $16,600 per person. HALEY RAKES IN CAMPAIGN CASH AFTER TRUMP WARNS TOP DOLLAR DONORS Haley faces a very steep uphill climb for the nomination, and internal polls suggest Trump enjoys a formidable double-digit lead over her in South Carolina, which holds the next GOP primary on Feb. 24. But Haley remains optimistic she can close the gap in her home state. “We had 1,500 people in Greenville, a 1,000 people in Charleston, 800 in Conway,” Haley said in a “Fox and Friends” interview on Tuesday morning as she pointed to rallies in her home state the past couple of days. “I’ve got a 76% approval rating there. They know I was a good governor. Now we’re going to show them I’m going to be a good president.” Despite the tough odds she faces, major Republican donors continue to write checks to Haley. “There’s definitely an appetite,” a Republican strategist with strong ties to the GOP donor class told Fox News. “It’s another example of the wealthy donors who invest with their heart and their emotions and not with their business sense and their head.” REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS MEET AMID TRUMP-HALEY PRIMARY BATTLE  The strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, said, “This is a manifestation of the broader issues with the Republican Party. This is about the elites versus the grassroots. Trump has never been a candidate of the elites. He’s been successful at getting major financial support from them, but he’s not their preferred candidate. He’s the preferred candidate of the working-class, grassroots Republicans, not the big-money elites.” Last week, a day after the New Hampshire primary, Trump warned GOP donors to stop contributing to Haley. “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!” Trump warned on his Truth Social platform. “Birdbrain” is a derogatory nickname Trump repeatedly uses to refer to Haley.  Haley quickly capitalized on Trump’s threat, and her campaign said it raised over $1 million in the ensuing 24 hours. The campaign told Fox News it sold over 15,000 shirts that say “barred permanently” after adding them to a campaign store for $25 following Trump’s warning to donors. “Despite Trump’s unhinged threat to permanently ban anyone who donates to Nikki’s campaign, we’ve seen a surge of support,” a campaign spokesperson said. “We’re energizing the 50% of Republican primary voters who don’t want Trump and are rallying behind Nikki.” The strategist with ties to the donor class told Fox News, “I don’t think anybody’s intimidated by Trump’s bluster. I think everybody realizes that if they do support Nikki, Trump’s going to need all hands on deck and somehow, miraculously, they’ll be welcomed back with open arms with their checkbooks if they’re so inclined when this is all over.” While Haley crisscrosses the country to meet with top contributors, her campaign manager Betsy Ankney is expected to make the case this week with a network of Republican megadonors known as the American Opportunity Alliance.  Also invited to the gathering is Susie Wiles, a top adviser on the Trump campaign. The former president, who has had a stormy relationship over the years with some in the GOP donor class, has been making a concerted 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. “And so, as part of that, they’re looking to consolidate Republican support, both politically and financially.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Iran summons British ambassador as tensions soar

The UK has accused Iran-backed groups of attacking a US base in Jordan, and imposed sanctions on a network linked to Iran. Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran to protest against the “baseless accusations” and sanctions by London. “Following the continuation of the British regime’s accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Simon Shercliff, the British ambassador in Tehran, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs … and was informed of our country’s strong protest”, the IRNA state news agency said on Tuesday. While the statement did not explain the accusation against the United Kingdom, it said the director general of Western Europe at the Iranian foreign ministry, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, criticised the British government and said its actions were another “destructive and unconstructive” act towards Iran. “This is a bitter historical irony that a country that is the founder and supporter of organised terrorist groups, drug trafficking, and criminal gangs wants to make accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its loyal and honest forces, who are at the forefront of fighting organised crimes,” the official, cited by IRNA, said. The summons came after the UK announced sanctions on Iranian officials it said were involved in threats to kill journalists on British soil and others it said were part of international criminal gangs linked to Tehran. The UK has also accused Iranian-linked groups of being behind a deadly attack on US troops in Jordan. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron condemned the “attacks by Iran-aligned militia groups against US forces” and urged “Iran to de-escalate in the region”. However, Iran denied the accusation that it had any links to the Jordan strike that killed three US personnel and that it was not looking for an “expansion” of the tensions in the Middle East. “As we have clearly stated before, the resistance groups in the region are responding [to] the war crimes and genocide of the child-killing Zionist [Israeli] regime and … they do not take orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was cited as saying by IRNA on Monday. “These groups decide and act based on their own principles and priorities, as well as the interests of their country and people.” US President Joe Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he had made a decision on responding to the attacks in Jordan and said he holds Iran “responsible, in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it”. Adblock test (Why?)

Northern Ireland agreement could end deadlock, restore government

Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party has agreed to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a power-sharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of a 25-year-old peace treaty. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days – with Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein holding the post of first minister for the first time. After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said on Tuesday that the party’s executive branch had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the United Kingdom’s government in London “provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions”. “The result was clear. The DUP has been decisive. I have been mandated to move forward,” Donaldson told reporters. The breakthrough after months of inconclusive negotiations came after the UK government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until February 8 to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and the local government or face new elections. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it a “positive step” towards restoring the institutions and “delivering for the people of Northern Ireland,” his spokesman said. Sunak’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told reporters that “all the conditions are now in place for the assembly to return”, with little opposition expected in Westminster. The deal contained “significant changes … to make sure our internal market works properly”, he added, saying he did not believe it would require renegotiations with the European Union. Reporting from Belfast, Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett said that while the deal had not been finalised, it was a major step towards the power-sharing executive at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly. An approved deal would allow the DUP and the nationalist pro-Irish Sinn Fein to elect a speaker for the Assembly as early as next week. It would also see Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill become first minister – the first time a nationalist has held the post after her party overtook the DUP in the last Assembly election in May 2022. Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Fein, said that was of “very great significance” and she was optimistic the Assembly would be back up and running before the February deadline. [embedded content] A key plank of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence over British rule in Northern Ireland, was to keep an open border with EU member the Republic of Ireland. But after the UK decided to leave the EU and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership, Northern Ireland began experiencing a political deadlock. The DUP quit the government in opposition to new trade rules put in place after the UK left the EU in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. The checks were established to maintain an open border between the north and the Republic of Ireland to the south. The DUP, though, says the new east-west customs border undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the UK. In February 2023, the UK and the EU agreed on a deal to ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. But it was not enough for the DUP, which continued its government boycott. The two-year hiatus also put pressure on stretched public services and led to a budget deadlock with London. That triggered the biggest public sector strike in a generation this month after Northern Irish workers failed to receive pay increases given to others across the UK. Steve Baker, a junior Northern Ireland minister, tried to pre-empt concerns that the changes might require the UK again to follow some EU regulations – which would infuriate advocates of Brexit. “There are no commitments of any kind … to align GB (Great Britain) with EU law; prevent GB from diverging from any retained EU law; or increase alignment in Northern Ireland beyond the strictly limited scope parliament has approved,” he said on the social media platform X. The Republic of Ireland’s prime minister, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, said his government and the European Commission still had to see the final deal to be confident it did not have any negative consequences for last year’s reworked post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland or the Good Friday Agreement. But following a “good” phone call with his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, Varadkar told Ireland’s parliament that he hoped a new government would be formed by February 8. Adblock test (Why?)

Remains of dozens of Palestinians released for burial by Israel

NewsFeed A mass burial was held in Rafah for dozens of Palestinians whose remains were returned to Gaza by Israel. Although relatives of missing family arrived at the grave site, a proper burial was not possible for the dead as their bodies cannot be identified. Published On 30 Jan 202430 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

Donald Trump endorses challenger to Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan

Phelan’s reelection campaign has become a referendum on the power of the far-right faction of the state Republican Party.

Pompeo says ‘no one’s held Xi Jinping accountable’ for COVID, blasts CCP as ‘truly evil’ influence in US

Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state in the Trump administration, blasted the Chinese Communist Party as “truly evil” for its infiltration of American institutions during a House select committee hearing on Tuesday – and went on to torch Xi Jinping for never being held accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed on the world.  In a bipartisan show of support, Pompeo and Leon Panetta, former secretary of defense in the Obama administration, together testified Tuesday before the House Select Committee hearing titled, “Authoritarian Alignment: The CCP’s Support for America’s Adversaries.”  “We should never forget this information space on social media and how the Chinese Communist Party has communist-directed entities on every one of our children’s cellphones passing information that is deeply filtered, designed for our young people here to undermine their idea and their understanding of America and our foundational ideas,” Pompeo said. “This is the very Xi Jinping that unleashed a virus upon the world that killed millions of people, including over a million people in the United States. It gets seldom referenced.” “It’s hard to imagine the staggering impact that COVID had on the world, and yet no one’s held Xi Jinping accountable – not for the leak from his lab, which happened,” Pompeo continued. “Not for the fact that once he was aware he had a leak from his lab, of a relatively lethal, relatively contagious virus, he foisted it upon the world. He made a decision to hide the data, hide the information, to off the researchers and to put thousands of people on airplanes and transit them across the world with the death and destruction and the economic harm that followed from that. This is the very same Xi Jinping that’s working here in the United States against us.”   Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., noted how Pompeo warned America’s governors not to get too entwined with the CCP.  “As Washington becomes more aware of the China threat, the CCP has targeted many of our states’ governors – this morning the Washington Post published a story about the CCP’s united front efforts amping up their engagement with our nation’s mayors, including the mayor of Carmel, Indiana, in my state,” Banks said to Pompeo. “The former mayor, he just left office, who went on lavish trips to China and engaged at a high level with Chinese officials in their country. Why should our nation’s mayor’s stray away from these types of entanglements with the Sister Cities projects and other CCP United Front efforts?”  BIDEN’S PENTAGON NOMINEE GRILLED ON SELLING OF BORDER WALL PARTS, CHINESE SPY BALLOON: ‘CAUGHT FLAT-FOOTED’ In Wisconsin, the home state of Chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher, Pompeo noted, “They have made a hard place for your state’s legislative body.”  “They are determined to propagate their efforts. They want to make friends, so that when they are confronted, they can turn to their friends and say we’re not such bad guys after all,” Pompeo said. “The Chinese Communist Party is truly evil, they will work at every level of government, they will work against our private sector, as well. They’ll show up at PTA meetings if that’s what it takes. This is an effort on every level of the Chinese Communist Party.” “When the Chinese Communist Party shows up at your school and offers a free swing set, it is not because they care about the health of your children,” Pompeo added. “That’s maybe the simplest way to articulate Sister Cities programs and the Confucius Institutes. On all of these United Front efforts inside our country, they are – they may show up and give you some temporary lift, but in the end, it is about them, not about us.”  Breaking with the bipartisan nature of the hearing, Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., notably lauded that Jan. 6, 2021, was Xi’s “best day in office” and demanded Pompeo state under oath  “that Joe Biden was duly elected in a free and fair election.”  Pompeo, in response, chided, “Well, so much for bipartisanship of this committee. Well done, sir, you have destroyed that.”   “Of course, President Biden is the duly elected president of the United States,” Pompeo said.  CHINA SEES POTENTIAL 2024 BIDEN-TRUMP REMATCH AS HAVING TO CHOOSE FROM TWO ‘BOWLS OF POISON’: EXPERT “I wish Secretary Clinton would be so clear about her election as well,” he added.  Pompeo went on to say: “We did have a peaceful transition of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. I was present for that.”  “We’ll have partisan disagreements on many things,” Pompeo said. “It is a factual matter that the world was in less conflict three years ago than it is today. Secretary Blinken said just yesterday that not since 1973 has the Middle East been so dangerous. I agree with him on that. It was safer three years ago because we established a deterrence model that was successful in preventing the invasion of Europe, the debacle in Afghanistan, and the good work that we did – you’ll recall that the Trump administration was actually the first administration to provide defense weapons systems to Ukraine when the Obama administration had concluded it could not or would not do so. These were things that kept the American people safe. It wasn’t partisan, it wasn’t political. It was good policy.” Pompeo and Panetta, who both also served as CIA directors, describe themselves as good friends. They both also addressed the conflict in Ukraine.  “The only way to try to avoid war with China, the only way to deal with China, is from strength,” Panetta said. “Both China and Russia became more aggressive when they sensed weakness on the part of the U.S. And for that reason, we must take strong action to arm and train Taiwan to defend itself, to strengthen our force posture, to invest in the next generation of military technology, to bolster our alliances, and to maintain strong export controls on critical technologies.”  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We lost deterrence in Ukraine,”

Cori Bush blames ‘right-wing’ watchdog groups for DOJ probe

Rep. Cori Bush is placing blame on “right-wing” watchdogs after it was revealed Tuesday that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into her alleged misuse of government funds intended to pay for her security.  The probe relates to allegations of federal security money being spent improperly.  Bush notably has spent more than $500,000 on her own private security while publicly advocating for the defund the police movement.  Bush, a Democrat from St. Louis, Missouri, confirmed DOJ’s review of her campaign spending on security services and said her office is “fully cooperating” with the investigation.  “Since before I was sworn into office, I have endured relentless threats to my physical safety and life. As a rank-and-file member of Congress, I am not entitled to personal protection by the House, and instead have used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services,” Bush said in the Tuesday statement.  HOUSE NOTIFIED SERGEANT AT ARMS FACES DOJ SUBPOENA FOR DOCUMENTS AS SPECULATION SWIRLS “I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services,” she said. Bush’s husband and former security guard, Cortney Merritts, whom she married in February 2023, has pocketed more $100,000 in payments since Bush added him to her campaign’s payroll in January 2022 for what they marked as “security” payments before switching their description to “wage expenses” in April, Fox News Digital previously reported.   Bush said that in recent months, “right-wing organizations have lodged baseless complaints against me, peddling notions that I have misused campaign funds to pay for personal security services.” Those allegations she says are “simply not true” and she has “complied with all applicable laws and House rules – and will continue to prioritize the rules that govern us as federal elected officials.” WATCH: CORI BUSH’S HUSBAND CONFRONTED OVER THE THOUSANDS IN CASH HE HAS RECEIVED FROM HER CAMPAIGN “These frivolous complaints have resulted in a number of investigations, some of which are still ongoing. The Federal Election Commission and the House Committee on Ethics are currently reviewing the matter, as is the Department of Justice. We are fully cooperating in all of these pending investigations.” In March 2023, Bush was hit with two FEC complaints over security payments she made to her new husband.  One complaint comes from the Committee to Defeat the President, an anti-Biden super PAC, which alleges Bush has “flouted” federal campaign finance laws by paying Merritts $60,000 for security in 2022. Merritts does not have a license to perform security functions in the congresswoman’s district.  Bush’s campaign also paid $225,281 to the St. Louis-based PEACE Security firm for personal protection throughout 2022. Bush and Merritts have been together since before she entered Congress in 2021, a press release from her office said. The watchdog group, Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), also filed a complaint asking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate whether Bush “used campaign funds for personal use,” citing the $60,000 payment in 2022 for security services provided to Merritts.  ‘SQUAD’ REP. CORI BUSH FACES INCREASED PRESSURE OVER CAMPAIGN PAYMENTS TO HUSBAND FOR SECURITY SERVICES On Monday, a House clerk announced that House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland relayed that his office received a grand jury subpoena for documents issued by the Justice Department and added that the sergeant of arms office would comply with that subpoena.  Bush said Tuesday that in September of last year, after conducting a months-long investigation, the Office of Congressional Ethics “found no wrongdoing and voted unanimously to dismiss the case.”  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I look forward to this same outcome from all pending investigations,” she said.  “I am under no illusion that these right-wing organizations will stop politicizing and pursuing efforts to attack me and the work that the people of St. Louis sent me to Congress to do: to lead boldly, to legislate change my constituents can feel, and to save lives,” she added.

Woman discovers her name was listed on Minnesota presidential primary ballot, but not by her

A woman whose name is listed on the Minnesota presidential primary ballot as third-party candidate says she did not agree to run. Krystal Gabel told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she learned her name is on the March 5 ballot for Minnesota’s Legal Marijuana Now Party from a Google alert. Party leaders told the newspaper in an email that they had been “talking and posting about this in our leadership group on Facebook, which Krystal is a part of,” and “Krystal is a party leader and all indications were that she was ready to be in the MN primary.” MINNESOTA LAWMAKERS INITIATE DEBATE ON PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE BILL They said her name has been withdrawn, though the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office says it remains on the ballot. Early voting has begun. Gabel is encouraging people not to vote for her. “I did not give consent to be on the Minnesota ballot for this race,” Gabel, who lives in Colorado, said in an email to the newspaper. “I was neither approached to run for office by anyone in the LMN Minnesota Party, nor was this candidacy validated by the State of Minnesota.” “People have a common-law right not to be forced to be candidates,” Gabel said. “These actions are absolutely anti-democratic.” State law requires major parties to submit candidate names for the presidential primary 63 days before the election to appear on the party’s ballot. Minnesota allows people to register to vote as late as primary day. A voter must request the ballot of the party of their choice. Once parties submit names, changes are not made to the ballot. That means Republican candidates who have left the race, such as Chris Christie and Ron DeSantis, will appear on the GOP ballot in Minnesota.

Biden claims ‘I’ve done all I can do’ to secure the border

President Biden claimed Tuesday “I’ve done all I can do” to secure the U.S. border, as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is facing an impeachment push by House Republicans over his perceived failure to handle the immigration crisis.  Biden made the comment while speaking to reporters as he was leaving the White House, saying “I’ve done all I can do, just give me the power.”  “I asked them the very day I got into office,” Biden continued. “Give me the Border Patrol. Give me the judges. Give me the people who can stop this.”  The Biden administration has said it has been expanding “lawful pathways” for migrants while increasing consequences for illegal entry into the U.S. since the ending of Title 42 expulsions in May last year. It has pointed to more than 500,000 removals since May, as well as increased cooperation with Mexico to crack down on human smugglers and fentanyl trafficking.  MAYORKAS LASHES OUT AT ‘BASELESS’ GOP ALLEGATIONS AHEAD OF KEY IMPEACHMENT VOTE  The administration also says it has been increasing removal flights — including directly to Venezuela. However, it has stressed that it needs more funding and comprehensive immigration reform to fix what it says is a “broken” system.  House Speaker Mike Johnson shared a video on X of Biden making the remark and said Biden’s comments were “simply untrue” and “He’s either lying or misinformed.”  “Here are just a few of the authorities at his disposal – if only he would use them: Presidential Authority to Restrict Entry 212(f), Expedited Removal 235(b)(1), Discretionary Detention Authority 236(a), Mandatory Detention 236(c). No more excuses,” Johnson added.  The White House requested $14 billion in funding for the border as part of its supplemental funding request to Congress, which also includes aid to Ukraine and Israel. The request is being negotiated in Congress after Republicans demanded more limits on asylum and migrant releases into the interior. Biden has urged Congress to pass the deal, but House Republicans and some conservatives in the Senate have said the reported proposals do not go far enough. TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT CLAIMS BIDEN IS IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW AS BORDER SURGE CONTINUES  National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, when asked on “The Faulkner Focus” Tuesday if Biden was doing everything he could, argued “absolutely not.”  “In fact, I’m very sick of hearing all of his rhetoric. He doesn’t give evidence,” Judd said. “The evidence is incontrovertible [about] what is going on right now. Secretary Mayorkas is complicit in allowing these individuals to violate our laws. Congress would be derelict if they did not hold him accountable.   “When you look at the total number of people that cross our borders illegally and have been released into the United States, the story that doesn’t get told enough is what happens to those people that get released into the United States,” Judd added. “They are never leaving, ICE doesn’t go after them, ICE doesn’t deport them.”  Migrant numbers officially hit 302,000 in December, a new record, after 2.4 million encounters in FY23. Republicans have said that large releases into the interior and a rolling back of Trump-era policies have fueled the crisis and have accused Mayorkas of a “dereliction of duty” in his handling of it.  

RNC averts fireworks at major meeting after scrapping resolution to name Trump the presumptive GOP nominee

What could have ended up being an intra-party fist fight fizzled out. It’s unlikely that Republican National Committee members huddling for their annual winter meeting this week in Las Vegas will see political fireworks over the party’s divisive presidential primary battle. The RNC tells Fox News that they’re aiming for a “productive week” with the goal of “delivering a turn-key infrastructure for our eventual nominee.” And as the RNC gathers for sessions that had long been advertised as closed to the press, a draft resolution that would have declared former President Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive 2024 nominee was quickly pulled late last week after it was introduced by Trump supporters on the committee. CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP RESOLUTION WITHDRAWN AHEAD OF RNC MEETING Trump remains the commanding frontrunner for the GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run. The former president scored double-digit victories the past two weeks in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the first two contests in the Republican nominating calendar. But former U.N. ambassador and former two-term South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – the last remaining major rival to Trump – won 43% of the vote in last week’s New Hampshire primary. Haley’s vowing to continue her uphill fight at least until Super Tuesday in early March. The next major contest in the GOP calendar is Haley’s home state, which holds a primary on Feb. 24. RNC CHAIR MCDANIEL SAYS IN FOX NEWS INTERVIEW ‘WE NEED TO UNITE’ AROUND TRUMP The resolution was introduced by veteran RNC committee member from Maryland David Bossie, a longtime ally of the former president who served as a top official on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Even though Trump continues to hold immense sway over the GOP, there was both public and private opposition to the draft resolution among some of the RNC’s 168 committee members. Among those speaking out publicly was committee member Bill Palatucci from New Jersey. “A silly resolution to say he is the presumptive nominee, insulting to millions of primary voters who wait for the opportunity to get involved in presidential politics every four years,” the Trump critic close to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Fox News Digital last Thursday. “Another example of Trump’s authoritarian streak. ‘We don’t need Super Tuesday or any other primaries, I’ll just have it handed to me,’” he added. Likely sensing the poor optics, Trump hours later knocked down the resolution. “While they have far more votes than necessary to do it, I feel, for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT go forward with this plan,” the former president posted on his social media platform Truth Social.  While the scrapped resolution was never added to the winter meeting’s agenda, it’s clear there will be friction this week about the effort to bring the nomination battle to an early conclusion. A committee member who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News on Tuesday, on the eve of the RNC meeting, that “a lot of people will be quiet on it. You’re not supposed to speak up. At this point, you know it’s going to be Trump. You are just supposed to take it.” But the committee member added: “I’ve got no qualms with Bossie bringing up that resolution. He’s an RNC member. That’s his candidate. He’s trying to help his candidate. I get it.” The RNC, in a statement, made it clear that longtime chair Ronna McDaniel was not behind the introduction of the resolution. “Resolutions, such as this one, are brought forward by members of the RNC. Chairwoman McDaniel doesn’t offer resolutions,” spokesperson Keith Schipper told Fox News last week. But a couple of days earlier, McDaniel made headlines during a Fox News Channel interview in New Hampshire hours after Trump’s primary victory. “I’m looking at the math and the path going forward, and I don’t see it for Nikki Haley,” McDaniel told anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. “I think she’s run a great campaign, but I do think there is a message that’s coming out from the voters, which is very clear,” McDaniel added. She urged that “we need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump, and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden.” When asked by MacCallum if she was suggesting that Haley needed to suspend her campaign, McDaniel would only say that Haley and her team needed to “reflect” about the upcoming contests in Nevada and South Carolina and to consider “what’s the most important thing going forward.” McDaniel’s comments didn’t appear to be sitting well with some national party committee members. “The RNC has to be neutral,” one committee member who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News. “We have a one-on-one competitive race. Is there a favorite? Well, sure there is. But it’s a competitive race. Two states have gone. We’re a long way from anybody having 1,215 delegates to wrap this thing up,” the RNC member said. “So for her to hint that Nikki needs to get of the race is beyond obnoxious and it’s certainly not neutral.” And Palatucci argued on Tuesday that McDaniel’s “never been neutral.” But another RNC member, who also asked for anonymity, told Fox News “I think Ronna has broad support on the committee and that was demonstrated when she was re-elected a year ago. It doesn’t mean that everybody agrees with everything that she does… but she’s the chair.” Haley said in an NBC News interview on Sunday that the RNC was “clearly not” being an honest broker in the nomination race.  “If you’re gonna go in and basically tell the American people that you’re gonna go and decide who the nominee is after only two states have voted?” she emphasized, as she noted that it takes 1,215 delegates to secure the nomination, the vast majority of which have yet to be allocated. The RNC says the national party committee, pointing to this week’s