Texas’ border standoff with feds continues, despite U.S. Supreme Court order
Texas officers are still erecting border wire and some Republicans are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to defy the high court.
Biden’s Pentagon nominee grilled on selling of border wall parts, Chinese spy balloon: ‘Caught flat-footed’
President Biden’s nominee for second-highest civilian position in the U.S. Air Force was grilled by Congress on Tuesday regarding the Department of Defense’s selling off of border wall parts, as well as the handling of the Chinese spy balloon, among other issues impacting national security. Melissa Dalton, who has served as the Pentagon’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs since 2022, appeared before the Senate Committee on Armed Services on Tuesday as she’s being considered for a second time for the role of Under Secretary of the Air Force. Biden nominated her for the Air Force’s No. 2 civilian role in September, but because the Senate didn’t act before the end of the year, the White House renominated Dalton this month. In his opening statement, Ranking Member Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., raised concern that Dalton “has virtually no experience with the Air Force.” “Ms. Dalton, the Air Force and Space Force both possess insufficient capacity and capability to meet their growing mission sets. This is the case even as we march toward a state of maximum vulnerability in the Pacific. The last confirmed appointee to the post that Ms. Dalton has been appointed for was not focused on this challenge. She created division in our military instead of prioritizing readiness and modernization,” he said. “If Ms. Dalton is confirmed, I hope that she will not do the same. Regrettably, her performance in her current position gives me pause.” While Dalton has been at her post, Wicker charged, the “Department of Defense was caught flat-footed as a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the continental United States and flew over military sites,” and “when Congress sought more information, she, along with others at the Department, evaded Constitutionally-authorized oversight.” BIDEN ADMIN’S TOP OFFICIALS ATTEMPTED TO ‘CONCEAL’ CHINESE SPY BALLOON FROM PUBLIC, CONGRESS EXPOSED: REPORT Wicker also raised concern over Dalton’s handling of the Pentagon’s responsibilities at the southwestern border. “At one point, the Department of Defense was spending $130,000 every single day to store, instead of use, border wall construction materials,” he said. “They were already manufactured, they were ready, and yet we were spending $130,000 to store them. Meanwhile, illegal migration broke records. Later, we found out that the Department of Defense had initiated a process in which these panels would be auctioned for pennies on the dollar — a clear effort to circumvent emerging Congressional intent as the FINISH IT Act was being added to the NDAA. That act was added to the NDAA; it is now the law of the land.” Specifically, Wicker took issue with Dalton failing to deliver the Homeland Defense Planning Guidance until the end of 2023 — over a year after the release of the National Defense Strategy. “This track record casts a shadow on this nomination,” he said. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was also among the Republicans to challenge Dalton about the border, as well as the Chinese spy balloon, which entered U.S. airspace over Alaska, crossed through Canada and then over the continental United States, reportedly gathering key intelligence about U.S. military sites, before it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina. “This was under your watch. Were you in the direct chain of command in regards to the decision not to shoot the balloon down until after it had left American airspace?” Rounds demanded. Dalton admitted she was one of the officials advising Austin, adding that “the best military advice to not shoot down over U.S. territory came from our U.S. senior military officials.” BIDEN QUIETLY AUCTIONS OFF BORDER WALL PARTS TO STUNT REPUBLICAN EFFORT TO RESTART CONSTRUCTION: REPORT Noting that at the time Dalton’s nomination to hold her current role passed the same committee in 2022, she was “not controversial,” Rounds said that since then, “two items have happened that now call into question that confidence.” Regarding the spy balloon, Rounds warned, “This is an area you will be challenged on this particular one because it’s a question of judgment and recommendations being made. I think that between now and the time that a vote is held on your nomination, I think you’ve got some work to do to regain the confidence of a lot of the members on this committee.” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., also pressed Dalton on when she first was made aware of the spy balloon. Dalton testified she first heard of the balloon on Jan. 27, 2023, the same day as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “My initial advice was that we absolutely needed to understand what capabilities were on the PRC high altitude balloon. NORAD NORTHCOM was tracking it and characterizing it, but we needed to get to the bottom of what it was doing, what its intentions were,” she said. Cramer pressed Dalton on why it was not “instinctive” for her to ever initiate an internal review of all the policies and processes, including the siloing of various intelligence agencies, in the aftermath of the incident, adding that it took the Senate Armed Service Committee to do so. “Did it ever occur to you, ‘Gee, this is something we should maybe dig into a little bit and see where our failings are’?” Cramer posed. After insisting the department had incorporated the “lessons learned” in the development of the homeland defense policy guidance over the last year that was signed by Austin in December, Dalton was again grilled on what she would have done differently in the event of the crisis itself. “We as a community could have had better national level integration at the local level — what I saw in the early days of the PRC HAB was that we were very well wired for responding to hurricanes, to wildfires, and that is the day-to-day existence for defense supported civil authorities, but it hadn’t been since World War II that we had an incursion over U.S. territory from a foreign adversary, and so getting that national to federal to state and local integration happened, but I think in real time we
4th graders in New Hampshire designed ‘I Voted’ stickers for the primary elections
New Hampshire voters from across the state were handed a unique “I Voted” sticker after casting their ballots on Tuesday, thanks to creative fourth grade students. Voters across the country are accustomed to receiving some version of a red, white and blue sticker with the phrase “I Voted” across the front at the polls. New Hampshire put a twist on an old idea by creating colorful new stickers designed by students. The New Hampshire Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of State ran the first “I Voted” Sticker Contest during this 2024 election cycle. FOX NEWS VOTER ANALYSIS: WHAT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTERS WANT IN A GOP NOMINEE Over 1,000 fourth graders from across the state sent in their designs, and three were chosen to be given out during the state’s primary election. “We were thrilled by the number of submissions we received from highly engaged fourth graders across New Hampshire,” said Deputy Secretary of State Erin Hennessey in a statement. “Their designs showed a high level of talent, home state pride, and engagement in our election process. It was difficult to pick just three winners!” The rules for the contest were simple. The phrase “I Voted” was required to be somewhere on the sticker. Additionally, designs had to be drawn on a two-inch wide template. The stickers had to capture the spirit of the state while also encouraging people to get out and vote in the presidential primaries. TRUMP ‘HONORED’ BY NEW HAMPSHIRE WIN, SAYS REPUBLICAN PARTY IS ‘VERY UNITED’ Grace of Milton, Jacob of Auburn and Rilynn of Mount Vernon, created unique designs it onto the final selection of voting stickers. Grace’s “I Voted” sticker features the Old Man of the Mountain, a beloved symbol of the Granite State. The Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation that resembled the side profile of a man’s face, crumbled on May 3, 2003. Even though the rock formation no longer exists on Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire, the former landmark still serves as a symbol of the state. On Grace’s sticker, the Old Man of the Mountain rests against an American flag. Jacob also incorporated an American flag into his design, on the upper half of the sticker. Below, a fisher, shaped like the state of New Hampshire, casts a line into the blue water. Rilynn decided to make the letter “O” in the phrase “I Voted” into the shape of New Hampshire. This sticker encompasses the fall foliage New Hampshire offers, with mountains in the background and a moose in the foreground. These unique stickers were given out at polling stations around the state. The winners were also invited to lunch with Hennessy and Secretary of State David Scanlan.
First lady Jill Biden invites Texas woman who sought illegal abortion to State of the Union address
A Texas mother who went to court to obtain an illegal abortion will attend the State of the Union address in March as a guest of first lady Jill Biden. President Biden and the first lady spoke to Kate Cox on the phone Sunday as Biden seeks to make abortion rights a signature issue of his re-election effort. Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two, made national headlines after she asked the Texas Supreme Court for permission to obtain an abortion when her unborn child was diagnosed with a fatal condition. She was denied and later left the state to abort her baby elsewhere. The Bidens “thanked [Cox] for her courage in sharing her story and speaking out about the impact of the extreme abortion ban in Texas,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. “The first lady invited Kate to join her as a guest at the State of the Union and Kate accepted,” she said. TEXAS SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST PREGNANT WOMAN HOURS AFTER SHE LEAVES STATE TO OBTAIN ABORTION The Biden campaign put abortion in the spotlight this week with a “Reproductive Freedom” rally in Virginia to commemorate what would have been the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. The court overturned Roe in 2022, ending federal protections for abortion and permitting states to regulate the procedure as lawmakers see fit. Since then, 14 states, including Texas, have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, and two others have banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around six weeks of gestation. Cox’s baby had a condition known as trisomy 18, which is when a baby has an extra copy of chromosome 18. The diagnosis has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth, and a low survival rate. Cox’s lawsuit against Texas, which cited doctors, argued that continuing the pregnancy jeopardized both her health and her ability to have more children. BIDEN CALLS TRUMP ‘MOST RESPONSIBLE’ FOR ‘STRIPPING AWAY’ ABORTION, VOWS TO VETO ANY NATIONWIDE BAN Trisomy 18 occurs in approximately 1 in 2,500 diagnosed pregnancies, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. There is no live birth in about 70% of pregnancies involving the diagnosis that proceeds past 12 weeks gestational age, according to a legal filing that the two groups submitted to the court. Texas’ abortion ban makes narrow exceptions when the life of the mother is in danger, but not for fetal anomalies. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox had not shown that any of the complications in her pregnancy rose to the level of threatening her life. The court battle and Cox’s defeat have become a rallying cry for Democrats nationally, who say Republican-backed abortion restrictions deny women health care and take away their rights. At his rally in Manassas, Virginia, on Tuesday, President Biden said former President Trump is “most responsible” for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed his predecessor (and likely general election opponent) for “stripping away” abortion rights. BIDEN CALLS ON CONGRESS TO RESTORE ROE V. WADE ABORTION PROTECTIONS AS FEDERAL LAW: ‘THIS IS NOT OVER’ The president said women are “being turned away from our emergency rooms, forced to travel hundreds of miles to get basic health care, forced to go to court to plead to help to protect themselves, and the ability to often have children in the future.” “The cruelty is astounding and it’s a direct affront to a woman’s dignity to be told by extreme politicians and judges to wait to get sicker and sicker before anything can happen, even to the point where, as you heard your life had been determined to be in danger, or the idea that a woman should have to carry a fetus after she’d been raped or the victim of incest,” Biden said. “It’s outrageous.” “Or the idea a woman receives competent medical advice that the fetus she’s carrying won’t live and will impact on her ability to have children in the future and she still can’t get medical care,” he continued in apparent reference to Cox’s story. “I think it’s unconscionable that anyone thinks that this is where America is going in 2024.” “Let there be no mistake: the person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,” he said. “Trump says he’s proud that he overturned Roe v. Wade.” The White House said Biden will continue to share the stories of women who have been impacted by abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade was undone. “The Biden-Harris administration is standing with a majority of Americans on this. With a majority of Americans. And Republican elected officials are just not,” she added. Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Bradford Betz and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Suspect arrested over South Africa building fire that killed 77
A 29-year-old man told an inquiry of his involvement in starting the fire on August 31, 2023. South African police have arrested a man suspected of starting the fire that killed dozens of people in a building in downtown Johannesburg last year. Police confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, a day after the 29-year-old suspect told an inquiry into the fire that he was involved in starting it. The man is expected to appear before a Johannesburg court “soon” on charges of arson, 77 counts of murder and 120 counts of attempted murder, police said in a statement cited by the Reuters news agency. The blaze on August 31, 2023, ripped through the five-storey Usindiso building in Marshalltown in Johannesburg’s inner city. The building, which was once an apartheid-era “pass laws” office and later a women’s shelter, was then “hijacked”, or taken over, and used for illegal housing. Many of the victims of August’s blaze, including migrants from neighbouring countries, were burned beyond recognition. Emergency services officials said at the time that most of the fire escapes in the building had been locked or chained closed that night, making the blaze even deadlier. Many people jumped out of windows to escape the inferno, according to witnesses and health officials. Some said they had to throw their babies and children out, hoping they would be caught by people below. It was one of the deadliest building fires worldwide in recent years. The fire drew the world’s attention to downtown Johannesburg’s long-running problem with ‘hijacked’ buildings [File: Michele Spatari/AFP] ‘Hijacked’ building In the aftermath of the fire, a commission of inquiry was established to investigate the tragedy. During a hearing of the inquiry on Tuesday, the suspect – who spoke as a witness – admitted to his involvement in starting the fire, local media reported. The suspect said he had started a fire in the crowded housing block to cover up a murder he had committed, which triggered the bigger blaze, South Africa’s Eyewitness News reported. Andy Chinnah, a rights activist with Amnesty International who was present at the inquiry, told the AFP news agency that the man confessed to being a drug user who had befriended a dealer in the building. The man reportedly said he was high on drugs at the time the fire was started, and only later realised the extent of the blaze. He also broke down in tears when telling the inquiry about his actions on the night of the fire, witnesses said. According to Eyewitness News, the inquiry’s evidence leader said the statements made by the man before the inquiry may not necessarily be admissible against him in court. The man also testified that the building was a haven of criminality and was effectively run by drug dealers. The fire drew the world’s attention to downtown Johannesburg’s long-running problem with “hijacked” buildings, structures that have become rundown and taken over by criminal groups who charge fees for staying there. There are hundreds of such buildings in the old centre of the city, officials say. Adblock test (Why?)
Several killed in Israeli attack on UN shelter housing 800 in southern Gaza
UNRWA official fears ‘mass casualties’ after Israeli tank shelling on one of its facilities in Khan Younis. Several people have been killed after a United Nations shelter in Gaza‘s southern city of Khan Younis was shelled by Israeli forces, the Gaza head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. “Two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people – reports now 9 dead and 75 injured,” Thomas White, the Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on the social media platform X. Update – attack on Khan Younis Training Centre this afternoon – two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people – reports now 9 dead and 75 injured@UNRWA and @WHO team trying to reach the centre – agreed upon route with Israeli Army blocked with earth bank #Gaza — Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) January 24, 2024 In a separate post earlier on Wednesday, White said the training centre sheltering displaced families had been set ablaze. The number of victims is expected to rise, as the UN official said the incident had likely caused “mass casualties”. UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna, based in Rafah, told Al Jazeera the UN has been trying to send ambulances to the site in coordination with the Israeli army. He said no warning had been issued by the Israeli military prior to the attack. The agency has not been able to access the compound for the past 48 hours due to the presence of Israeli tanks in the area, Abu Hasna said, describing the situation as “very dangerous”. “We tried to coordinate the exit of the IDPs [internally displaced persons] there but did not succeed unfortunately,” he added. Israel has continued intense attacks on Khan Younis, targeting medical facilities, among others. Some 660 attacks on health institutions have been recorded in Gaza. ‘Fire everywhere’ Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday said the Israeli army isolated the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis after it was encircled and ground troops engaged in close-quarter combat with Hamas fighters. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also wrote on X that the Israeli army surrounded its headquarters and the El Amal Hospital in the southern city, enforcing restrictions on movement to and from the medical facility. Khan Younis was once designated a “safe zone” for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who evacuated from the northern parts and Gaza City at the start of the war. Israeli soldiers on Monday advanced for the first time into al-Mawasi district near the Mediterranean coast west of Khan Younis. Asmaa Abu Khudair, a Palestinian woman displaced from al-Mawasi to Rafah, said she fled the intense bombardment in the area after the building next to hers was attacked by the Israeli military. “Their aircraft started firing. All of a sudden, balls of fire started to fall on us,” she told Al Jazeera. “The whole area was in flames, fire everywhere. We started running, I pulled out one of my daughters, but my other daughter I couldn’t find.” Abu Khudair said the flames grew bigger and she had to flee without her missing daughter. “Do you understand when I say fire?”, she said in tears. “I lost my daughter. My husband was in his brother’s tent.” “The following day, their bodies were recovered, totally charred,” she added. At least 25,700 people have been killed and 63,740 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the war began on October 7. Adblock test (Why?)
Argentines take to the streets to protest against new austerity measures
The president has said that the austerity measures are due to years of overspending that have resulted in huge debts. Argentine unions have begun a 12-hour strike in the capital to protest against tough economic reforms by President Javier Milei. Wednesday’s demonstration is the most significant show of opposition to Milei’s spending cuts and privatisation plans since he took office last month and pledged to fix an economy dealing with 211 percent inflation. The strike, coordinated by the umbrella union, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), comes amid scrutiny of Milei’s two significant reforms: the “omnibus” bill going through Congress and a “mega-decree” deregulating the economy. “Milei wants a country where poverty and informal work reaches 90 percent,” union member and national opposition deputy Hugo Yasky said on local radio station Radio Con Vos. “Now there is no job creation. What there is now is widespread misery, people’s desperation, there are no measures to mitigate the damage they are causing.” Demonstrators hold a placard that reads ‘down with the decree’ as they protest near the Pueyrredon Bridge during a one-day national strike, in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters] Earlier on Wednesday, the omnibus bill was approved by a committee in the lower congressional house, the Chamber of Deputies. The mass strikes began at 12pm (15:00 GMT) and affected transportation, banks, hospitals, and public services. Local airlines said they had been forced to cancel hundreds of fights due to the demonstration. Protesters held placards that read “The homeland is not for sale” and “Eating is not a privilege” as some others held a giant puppet of Milei. Another poster said, “Today’s retirees are yesterday’s workers, stop robbing them!” Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Buenos Aires, said it was “impossible” to determine the number of people attending the protest due to its scale. “There seems to be a kind of unofficial agreement with the strikers and the security minister to allow these huge numbers of people to be here but only if they cannot disrupt traffic,” Newman said. “It’s still very, very tense, and it’s an ongoing situation here, but it’s a huge turnout so far.” Milei’s government said that the austerity measures are due to years of overspending that have left the South American country with huge debts to local and international creditors, including a $44bn deal with the International Monetary Fund. “There is no strike that stops us, there is no threat that intimidates us,” Milei’s security minister and former presidential election rival Patricia Bullrich wrote on X. “It’s mafia unionists, poverty managers, complicit judges and corrupt politicians, all defending their privileges, resisting the change that society chose democratically.” Milei, an economist and former TV pundit, assumed the presidency after a shock win in last year’s general election. Adblock test (Why?)
After Fuentes scandal, Texas billionaires fund new PAC to support conservative candidates
In the wake of a scandal tying them to white supremacists, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks started a new PAC to support far-right candidates
Hawley raises alarm after border gotaways exceed Kansas City, St Louis populations combined last fiscal year
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is raising the alarm about a massive number of “gotaways” at the southern border last year, after a new Congressional Budget Office report found that the number last fiscal year exceeded the population of Missouri’s two largest cities combined. Hawley, in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, cited the new CBO report which found that there were a record-setting 860,000 illegal immigrants who evaded Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2023. “These “gotaways” outnumber the combined populations of Kansas City and St. Louis, the two largest cities in Missouri,” Hawley said. “At the very least, you owe the American people full transparency into what your Department knows about illegal immigrants who have entered our nation without being stopped or tracked.” BORDER PATROL OFFICIALS SAY THREAT POSED BY ‘GOTAWAYS’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER ‘KEEPS US UP AT NIGHT’ The CBO report had found that DHS had not released official estimates for FY 23, but Mayorkas himself had testified that there had been over 600,000 gotaways. It then cited media reporting that the number was over 770,000. “To account for the second group, people who crossed the border but were not observed or detected by CBP officials, CBO then adjusted the estimate of 750,000 people upward by 15 percent (or 110,000 people), to 860,000 people, following testimony by the Chief of the Border Patrol, who said that the estimated number probably undercounted those people by 10 percent to 20 percent,” the report said. The gotaways came amid a record fiscal year that saw over 2.4 million migrant encounters. Gotaways are particularly worrisome to officials as they are more likely to have something to hide, including criminal convictions, from officials. Jason Owens, now head of the Border Patrol, told lawmakers last year of his concerns over gotaways. 5,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED EVERY DAY INTO US, ADMIN OFFICIALS PRIVATELY TELL LAWMAKERS “If a person is willing to put themselves into harm’s way crossing through very remote, very dangerous conditions to evade capture, you have to ask yourself why. What makes them willing to take that risk? That’s of concern to me,” he said. “What’s also of concern to me is I don’t know who that individual is. I don’t know where they came from. I don’t know what their intention is. I don’t know what they brought with them. That unknown represents a risk, a threat. It’s of great concern to anybody that wears this uniform.” Hawley says the crisis has gotten worse under Mayorkas’ leadership. “The yearly number of gotaways has increased dramatically under your watch, up from nearly 600,000 in fiscal year 2022 and more than double the 389,515 in fiscal year 2021,” he says. “All told, nearly 2 million illegal immigrants have successfully evaded border officials during the Biden Administration.” He also cited reports that there were over 302,000 migrant encounters in December, itself a new record. “These unprecedented figures underscore the need for you to be fully transparent about your Department’s own accounting of the southern border crisis,” he said. He is asking for DHS to corroborate the CBO estimate, and to provide methodology of how gotaway estimates are calculated, and how many suspected terrorists, violent criminals and other felons are among them. DHS has previously noted that gotaways have been an issue for multiple administrations, blaming it on a “broken” immigration system that is in need for reform and funding from Congress. The administration is seeking over $14 billion in border funding, which includes money for technology and staffing at the border. That funding is currently being held due to Republican demands for limits on asylum and the use of parole. DHS has said that its investments in technology and personnel it has been able to make has led to high levels of apprehensions, including over 70% in 2021, and that the average rate has remained identical to the Trump administration, compared to around 35% between 2002-2004. The department says that there is also more awareness of who is getting in, even if they are not captured, due to those investments. “With the investments that this Congress has made in the Border Patrol, CBP as a whole, we have greater situational awareness now than I’ve ever had,” then-Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said in March last year. Fox News reported on Tuesday that so far in FY 24 there have been over 96,000 known getaways, an average of 800 a day. Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
GOP Sens Fischer and Cornyn endorse Trump after New Hampshire victory: ‘Trump is Republican voters’ choice’
GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Deb Fischer endorsed former President Trump on Tuesday night following Trump’s win in the New Hampshire primary in his bid to be crowned the Republican presidential nominee. “It’s time for Republicans to unite around President Donald Trump and make Joe Biden a one-term president,” Fischer said in a statement. “These last three years have yielded a crippling border crisis, an inflationary economy that prices the American Dream out of reach for families, and a world in constant turmoil with our enemies on the march. I endorse Donald Trump for president so we can secure our border, get our economy moving again, and keep America safe.” Cornyn said in a statement posted to X, “To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice.” RECORD GOP TURNOUT, CALLS FOR HALEY TO LEAVE RACE ROUND OUT TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARIES “Four more years of failed domestic policies like the Biden Border Crisis and record-high inflation, and failed foreign policies that have emboldened our adversaries and made the world a more dangerous place, must be stopped,” he said. Cornyn and Fischer join more than 15 GOP senators in endorsing Trump, including Sens. JD Vance of Ohio, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Rick Scott of Florida, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Marco Rubio of Florida and others. The endorsements come as there is increasing pressure on former South Carolina governor Nikki Hailey to suspend her campaign and endorse Trump. A growing number of lawmakers have been calling on the GOP to unite behind Trump, who is expected to be the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election. Trump won the first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday night, defeating Hailey, and declared the GOP was “very united” behind his candidacy. Trump also won the Iowa caucuses last week. HALEY AND PHILLIPS OUTPERFORMED IN NEW HAMPSHIRE BUT IT’S STILL A TRUMP VS. BIDEN HORSE RACE New Hampshire — where independent voters who make up roughly 40% of the electorate can vote in either major party’s contest and have long played an influential role in the state’s storied presidential primary — was considered fertile ground for Haley. She spent plenty of time and resources in the state, securing the influential endorsement of popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. However, Trump dominated for a second week in a row, cruising to victory in both critical early voting states. When asked if he felt Haley would suspend her campaign, he said, “I don’t know. She should.” Haley asserted she would continue on in the race following the primary.