The political world was thrown into fresh turmoil Wednesday as a long-predicted indictment of former President Trump was reportedly pushed back at least another several weeks. Now, no indictment is likely before late April — if even then. That’s because the grand jury evaluating the case is expected to turn its attention to unspecified other subjects next week,…
Author: Niall Stanage
The Memo: Trump team seeks to paint DeSantis as opportunist
Former President Trump and his allies think they have found the chink in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) armor. Trump and those around him have recently sought to paint DeSantis as an opportunist and flip-flopper. It’s the common thread in a number of recent Trump attacks — on topics including Social Security, Ukraine and even…
The Memo: DeSantis joins Trump in pushing GOP toward skepticism on Ukraine
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has made a dramatic intervention in the national debate on Ukraine — and the reverberations are big. In response to a questionnaire from Tucker Carlson of Fox News, DeSantis declared that the war between Russia and Ukraine was merely a “territorial dispute” — and one that does not involve America’s…
The Memo: Democrats struggle to beat back GOP attacks on education
Republicans are lining up to take potshots at Democrats over education — an issue on which President Biden’s party used to enjoy a sizable advantage. The line of Republicans rushing to embrace the issue shows just how sharply the political dynamics have shifted. On Thursday evening, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin spoke at a CNN town…
Haley to hit Trump on spending record in closed-door Saturday speech
Nikki Haley will ding former President Trump when she addresses a powerful conservative group Saturday — and she’ll take aim at other 2024 rivals who have yet to enter the race. Haley, who launched her White House campaign in mid-February, will speak to a Club for Growth donor retreat in Palm Beach, Fla. — an…
Why Thursday’s US-Russia diplomatic meeting was so important
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held their first in-person meeting since the invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. Blinken and his opposite number were both attending the G-20 summit in New Delhi, India. The conversation was unexpected but brief — it reportedly lasted around 10 minutes — and there was…
The Memo: Lightfoot is latest Democrat to fall to anger over crime
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the latest Democrat to fall to public concerns over crime. Lightfoot suffered an ignominious fate Tuesday when she failed to even make the runoff in her bid for a second term. Paul Vallas, a centrist Democrat who topped the Chicago poll by a comfortable margin, has promised to grapple more…
The Memo: Trump’s surprise — a slightly conventional campaign
Former President Trump is doing something shocking — he’s running a campaign that is starting to look quite conventional. This week alone, Trump has issued several policy proposals. He has announced the hiring of seasoned senior staff in the first-caucus state of Iowa. And he has visited East Palestine, Ohio in the wake of the…
Nikki Haley: Bernie Sanders is ‘exactly the reason’ mental competency tests are needed
MARION, Iowa — Presidential candidate Nikki Haley defended her proposal for mental competency tests here on Tuesday — in startlingly personal terms. Haley said that one critic of the proposal, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was “exactly the reason we need it.” Sanders, 81, had told Stephen Colbert of CBS’s “Late Show” Monday that Haley’s plan…
Ranking the GOP’s top 10 presidential candidates
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley this week became the second major Republican candidate for president in 2024, joining former President Trump in a field that is sure to grow. Other potential candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are hinting that they could also declare soon. Enormous…