Republican 2024 race heats up as Trump rival Nikki Haley announces run – as it happened

Meanwhile, national security council spokesperson John Kirby has said the objects downed over North America could be “benign” after all, the Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong reports:

Three unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets since Friday may turn out to be balloons connected to “benign” commercial or research efforts, a White House official said on Tuesday.

The US has not found any evidence to connect the objects to China’s balloon surveillance program nor to any other country’s spy program, national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters.

“We haven’t seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the [People’s Republic of China’s] spying program, or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts,” he said.

Instead, a “leading explanation” may be that the objects were operated privately for commercial or research purposes, Kirby said, though no one has stepped forward to claim ownership.

The unidentified object shot down by a US fighter jet over northern Canada on Saturday was a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it”, according to a Pentagon memo to US lawmakers obtained by CNN.

Earlier today, senators received a classified briefing on the three UFOs and the Chinese spy balloon shot down recently over North America.

According to Punchbowl News, there were no big revelations from the briefing, at least none that the lawmakers would share publicly. The military still isn’t sure what the three objects destroyed by America jets since Friday were doing, other than that it’s possible they were meant for surveillance, and were destroyed because of their potential threat to civilian air traffic.

“Nothing is clear at this point — other than that they exist,” said Democratic senator Bob Menendez.

As for the downed Chinese spy balloon, the military has already gleaned “very valuable information” from parts recovered so far, Republican senator Thom Tillis said, though he did not reveal what exactly they learned.

Republicans are rubbing their hands together with glee at the news that Dianna Feinstein will step down.

“Sen. Dianne Feinstein is retiring. She is the second Senate Democrat to retire this year. Who will be next? Joe Manchin? Jon Tester? Bob Casey? Tammy Baldwin?” the National Republican Senatorial Committee wrote in an email shortly after the California lawmaker’s announcement.

Democrats are expected to have a tough time maintaining their two-seat Senate majority in the 2024 elections, where lawmakers like Manchin, Tester and Sherrod Brown, all of whom represent red states, will be up for re-election. There’s also a chance the GOP could flip a seat in a swing state, such as Casey’s in Pennsylvania, or Baldwin’s in Wisconsin.

But the GOP should know better than to think Feinstein’s retirement has anything to do with all that. At 89 years old, Feinstein is the older person in Congress and the subject of reports of declining health. It’s hard to see her campaigning for another term, even in deep-blue California.

The Lincoln Project – a group formed by anti-Trump conservatives in the run-up to the 2020 election and which has maintained a high profile – is out with a statement about Nikki Haley’s run for president.

Haley, the statement says, is “a candidate with more ambition than principles. Her once promising career checked the right boxes and seemed to show her willingness to stand on principle. But then Donald Trump came along and exposed the GOP as ideologues willing to break our democratic institutions.

“Like all the other power hungry and ambitious politicians who make up the modern GOP, she fell in line.”

The release also quotes from a New York Times op ed by the former Republican operative (and author of It Was All a Lie) Stuart Stevens, a senior Lincoln Project adviser: “No political figure better illustrates the tragic collapse of the modern Republican party than Nikki Haley.

“There was a time not very long ago when she was everything the party thought it needed to win” – a reference to Haley’s youth (she became a governor at 38 and is still only 51) and background, as a successful Indian American conservative.

“Trump has a pattern of breaking opponents who challenge him in a primary. Ms Haley enters the race already broken. Had she remained the Nikki Haley who warned her party about Mr Trump in 2016, she would have been perfectly positioned to run in 2024 as its savior. But as Ms Haley knows all too well, Republicans aren’t looking to be saved.”

Here’s an interview with Rick Wilson, a Lincoln Project co-founder, about the Republican primary and the danger Trump still poses:

Lauren Gambino sends in the thoughts of Chairman Harrison – Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, who spoke to reporters earlier about Nikki Haley’s announced presidential run:

“There’s a lot of questions about Nikki Haley and about what she really stands for,” said Harrison, who led the South Carolina Democratic party when Haley was governor of the southern state, after Haley pointed to her conservative record on abortion and gun rights and her refusal to expand Medicaid in her state.

“If she says that she wants to do for the nation what she did for South Carolina,” Harrison said, “God bless us all.”

Speaking of George Santos, as Chris was earlier, our columnist Arwa Mahdawi wonders whether, of all the scandals dogging the New York Republican, it might be the one about dogs that finally brings him to heel. She writes:

There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there is George Santos’s CV. In the short time that he has been in the public eye, the 34-year-old has been accused of fabricating almost every facet of his life.

During his election campaign, Santos claimed to be a “proud American Jew” whose grandparents “survived the Holocaust”. After being challenged, Santos clarified that he was raised Catholic and argued that he had always said he was “Jew-ish”.

His education and work history appear to be fabrications. He has said his mother was working in the World Trade Center on 9/11, yet records show she was in Brazil. He has said that he “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, but the New York Times has not been able to verify these claims. He has claimed to have been a college volleyball star (unlikely) and a producer on Spider-Man (untrue). No one is even sure what Santos’s real name is.

I could go on and on with the lies, but I need to get to the scandals. There is the scandal about his former life as a drag queen in Brazil, which he originally denied, then appeared to admit. (To be clear: the only outrageous thing about his alleged drag-queen past is that he is now active in a party that demonises and wants to criminalise drag queens as part of a broader anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.) There is the $365,000 in campaign funds he can’t account for.

And then there are the multiple dog-related scandals.

Last week, Politico reported allegations that Santos spent 2017 cruising around Pennsylvania’s Amish Country buying puppies from dog breeders with cheques that bounced.

A few days after allegedly writing $15,125 in bad cheques to breeders, Santos held an adoption event at a pet store in New York. It’s not clear if he made money from this, but adoption fees can range from $300 to $400. Santos was charged with theft by deception, but those charges were dropped when he claimed his chequebook had been stolen.

The other dog-related scandal? The congressman is accused of promising to raise funds for a homeless man’s dying dog in 2016, then taking off with the money.

Joe Biden has released a statement on the shooting at Michigan State, in which three students were killed and five wounded last night. Here it is:

Jill [Biden] and I are praying for the three students killed and the five students fighting for their lives after last night’s shooting at Michigan State University. Our hearts are with these young victims and their families, the broader East Lansing and Lansing communities, and all Americans across the country grieving as the result of gun violence.

Last night, I spoke to Governor [Gretchen] Whitmer and directed the deployment of all necessary federal law enforcement to support local and state response efforts. I assured her that we would continue to provide the resources and support needed in the weeks ahead.

Too many American communities have been devastated by gun violence. I have taken action to combat this epidemic in America, including a historic number of executive actions and the first significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years, but we must do more.

The fact that this shooting took place the night before this country marks five years since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, should cause every American to exclaim “enough” and demand that Congress take action.

As I said in my State of the Union address last week, Congress must do something and enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, closing loopholes in our background check system, requiring safe storage of guns, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets. Action is what we owe to those grieving today in Michigan and across America.

Here’s our report on the Michigan shooting.

And here’s Richard Luscombe on the response from Whitmer:

Following Letitia James’s tweet, here’s the New York attorney general’s formal response to the appeals court ruling which said Donald Trump must pay a $110,000 fine for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a fraud investigation of his company and financial affairs:

Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump is not above the law.

For years, he tried to stall and thwart our lawful investigation into his financial dealings, but today’s decision sends a clear message that there are consequences for abusing the legal system.

We will not be bullied or dissuaded from pursuing justice.”

James, a Democrat, began her investigation while Trump was president. Trump and three of his adult children – Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – were all deposed. Last month, footage showed Trump took the fifth amendment more than 400 times.

Trump was fined in state court in April last year. He appealed. A judge capped the fine at $110,000. In September, James unveiled a wide-ranging civil lawsuit against the four Trumps, alleging false filings in order to enrich themselves and secure loans.

The lawsuit seeks to bar all four Trumps from executive roles in New York, and to stop the Trump Organization acquiring commercial real estate or receiving loans from state-based entities for five years.

Trump denies wrongdoing. In November he sued James, claiming a “relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade” which would cause “great harm” to his company, brand and reputation.

It was reported that Trump’s lawyers sought to stop him filing the suit. Trump withdrew two suits against James in January, shortly after he and a lawyer were fined $1m for a “frivolous” suit against Hillary Clinton.

New York’s attorney general Letitia James announced that a court has ordered Donald Trump to pay $110,000 for defying a subpoena from her office:

Last year, James successfully petitioned a judge to charge the former president $10,000 for each day he refuses to comply with a subpoena she sent him for documents related to her investigation of his business practices. We’ll see if Trump pays up this time.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis remains coy about his widely expected run for president.

Here’s his quip when asked about his plans today:

In less serious political news, Republican House lawmaker and admitted fabulist George Santos was back on Twitter to reiterate that has isn’t going anywhere:

Many people, including some fellow Republicans, would like him to resign.

Joe Biden has called again for banning assault weapons as he marks five years since the Parkland high school shooting:

Assault weapons were banned in the United States from 1994 to 2004, but Republicans have rejected reimposing the restrictions.

Shannon Watts, founder of gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, shared a video from a survivor of the Sandy Hook shooting who last night was on campus when a gunman killed three people at Michigan State University:

While Congress last year passed a modest package of gun control proposals after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives is unlikely to approve any new legislation to restrict firearm access. Gun safety advocates believe the best courses of action are either through executive orders signed by Joe Biden, or at the state level.

There’s been another mass shooting, this time at a university in Michigan:

At least three people were killed and several more injured in a shooting at Michigan State University, according to campus police. The suspected attacker died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

University police tweeted on Monday that shots were fired in two locations: near an academic building called Berkey Hall and an athletic facility known as IM East.

Michigan State University (MSU) police initially ordered students and staff to shelter in place after a report of shots fired around the school’s East Lansing campus.

An alert was sent shortly after 8.30pm by the university’s police department, advising students to “run, hide, fight”.

After searches that went on for more than four hours, MSU police announced at 12.30am on Tuesday morning that the suspected shooter had been found dead off campus.

While appealing for information from the public, the police said it was unclear what the motive for the attack may have been and work to identify the suspect was ongoing.

Senators don’t have particularly high expectations for this morning’s classified briefing on UFOs, Punchbowl News reports.

“I hope they can say more than that this wasn’t an alien invasion,” John Thune, the number-two Republican in the Senate, told the publication.

That said, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree they want more details from the Biden administration on what American jets shot down over the past few days. Mark Warner, the Democratic leader of the Senate intelligence committee, said he was “not satisfied yet” with the information released to him. The committee’s top Republican Marco Rubio said much the same.

“It’s impossible to make an assessment because there’s virtually no information available beyond what you’ve already seen publicly reported. And it’s just not a sustainable position. I will tell you, this is not usual. You don’t shoot things down over American airspace. We’ve never done that before. And we’ve done it four times in the last eight days,” he said, according to Punchbowl.

One of the UFOs shot down by an American jet appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” CNN reports, citing a memo from the defense department to lawmakers.

The object “subsequently slowly descended” into Lake Huron after being struck by a missile, according to the memo, which also said the object had also crossed near “US sensitive sites”.

Another detail from the document: the first missile fired at the object missed, and it’s not clear where it ended up.

Anyway, enough about Pence and Trump; let’s talk about UFOs. We still don’t know what the three objects American planes shot down over the continent in the past days were, though the White House said they were not extraterrestrial in nature. Senators from both parties are clamoring for details, and will receive a classified briefing on the topic today. Meanwhile, the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports the navy has managed to recover quite a bit of a Chinese spy balloon shot down earlier this month off South Carolina’s coast:

The US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.

The US Northern Command said in a statement: “Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.”

The balloon, shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February, was the first of a series of mysterious objects shot down by the US military over an eight-day period in North American airspace.

Mike Pence may have fallen out with Donald Trump, but he hasn’t escaped the swirl of investigations surrounding his former boss.

Last week, special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence as part of his investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, as well as the classified material found at Mar-a-Lago.

Politico reports today that Pence intends to challenge the summons, using a unique legal theory that might actually work:

Pence allies say he is covered by the constitutional provision that protects congressional officials from legal proceedings related to their work — language known as the “speech or debate” clause. The clause, Pence allies say, legally binds federal prosecutors from compelling Pence to testify about the central components of Smith’s investigation. If Pence testifies, they say, it could jeopardize the separation of powers that the Constitution seeks to safeguard.

“He thinks that the ‘speech or debate’ clause is a core protection for Article I, for the legislature,” said one of the two people familiar with Pence’s thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss his legal strategy. “He feels it really goes to the heart of some separation of powers issues. He feels duty-bound to maintain that protection, even if it means litigating it.”

Pence’s planned argument comes on the heels of an FBI search of two of his homes after his attorney voluntarily reported classified material in his home last month — drawing him into a thicket of document-handling drama that’s also ensnared Trump and President Joe Biden. While Pence aides say he’s taking this position to defend a separation of powers principle, it will allow him to avoid being seen as cooperating with a probe that is politically damaging to Trump, who remains the leading figure in the Republican Party.

Pence is preparing to launch a presidential campaign against his onetime boss. Aides expect the former vice president to address the subpoena — and his plans to respond it — during a visit to Iowa on Wednesday.

But regardless of its political consequences, the argument from Pence’s camp means Smith could be in for a legal mess.

That’s because the legal question of whether the vice president draws the same “speech-or-debate” protections as members of Congress remains largely unsettled, and constitutional scholars say Pence raising the issue will almost certainly force a court to weigh in. That could take months.

How do you know if someone might be running for president? When they head to Iowa. And that’s exactly where Mike Pence is going.

The former vice-president will be in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, where he’ll rally with the community against policies “that indoctrinate children and attempt to strip parents of their rights,” according to his conservative non-profit Advancing American Freedom. But first, Pence will travel to Minneapolis, where he “will deliver remarks on defending parents’ rights and combatting the Radical Left’s indoctrination of children.”

Travel to Iowa is closely watched because it’s the first state to vote in the Republican primary process. The eventual nominee doesn’t always win the state, but it certainly helps.

For those not in the know about Nikki Haley, let the Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas answer all your questions:

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is challenging her one-time boss for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to a video she released Tuesday.

“I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president,” Donald Trump’s former United Nations ambassador said in the video.

The 51-year-old’s run – which was widely expected – breaks a promise she made two years ago to not challenge the ex-Republican president for the Oval Office. But she had indicated recently that she would go back on her word, arguing that the country’s economy was too distressed for her to stand by and that it needed a new generation of leaders – Democratic incumbent Joe Biden is 80, and Trump is 76.

As of Tuesday morning, no other major Republican candidate beside Trump and Haley had announced bids aiming to unseat Biden, who has said he intends to seek a second four-year term.

Other Republicans who are expected to eventually join the fray include Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pompeo, ex-secretary of state, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.

Welcome to the 2024 Republican primary field, Nikki Haley!

Here’s who else you will probably be up against in your quest for the White House:

First of all, there’s Donald Trump. Not only has he already declared his run, but poll after poll indicate he’s the frontrunner among potential GOP contenders. Consider him the final boss of this election’s Republican primary – but as any video gamer knows, your last adversary isn’t always the most difficult to overcome. The former president, after all, has no shortage of liabilities.

There’s also Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is so widely expected to run that Trump has already started attacking him. He’ll campaign on taking his divisive culture wars legislation national, while touting the southern state as an economic success story.

Republican senator Tim Scott is expected to soon announce his own bid for the White House, bringing the number of South Carolinians in the GOP’s field to two. And don’t forget about Mike Pence. The former vice-president may have fallen out with Trump, but he’s betting the Republican rank and file will give him a second chance.

Who else? Speculation is endless, but other good bets are Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, senator Ted Cruz and perhaps Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin.