IOWA REPUBLICANS HEAD TO CAUCUS
Today Iowa voters will go to the caucuses in the first presidential battle of the 2024 election season.
As locals prepare to head to the caucuses amidst blistering cold and snow, President Donald Trump remains firmly in the lead.
Currently, Trump has a massive 33.8 percent lead over his nearest competitor according to RealClearPolitics averages, with 52 percent of those surveyed giving their backing to Trump.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has the next most support, with 18.2 percent backing her bid for the White House. Still, despite a recent surge in her polling numbers, Haley remains far short of overtaking Trump.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, initially the favorite for the runner-up spot behind Trump, currently sits at 15.6 percent support. Despite an arduous campaign circuit through each of Iowa’s 99 counties, DeSantis’s campaign has continued to lag since its early successes.
Behind these two are biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with 6.8 percent support and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson with only 0.5 percent support.
The final poll conducted ahead of the caucuses confirmed these figures.
The poll, conducted by J. Ann Selzer’s Selzer & Co., found that Trump is still far and away the favorite in the Iowa caucuses.
In the poll, Trump fell a few points short of his average, with 48 percent offering their support to the former president.
Haley, the runner-up, got 20 percent support. Behind the two leaders, DeSantis and Ramaswamy received 16 percent support and 8 percent support respectively.
Still, with blisteringly cold weather expected in Iowa the day of the caucus, Trump has warned his followers that they still need to show up.
“Our grassroots supporters have put us in position to win, and now we have to show up to caucus,“ Trump said in a statement issued in response to the poll. ”We have to show up.”
Speaking at a Trump campaign HQ on Jan. 14, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake reiterated the sentiment.
“No matter how windy, no matter how cold, we’ve gotta put our boots on,” Lake told campaign volunteers in Urbandale, a city in the outskirts of Des Moines.
Nevertheless, Trump seems poised at the moment to run away with the first electoral battle of the 2024 season.
DeSantis could be the biggest loser of the night if he fails to meet expectations.
While Haley has poured a great deal of energy into the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, DeSantis has put all his chips into Iowa. Without a respectable runner-up showing tonight, his campaign could be in trouble.
Caucus meetings will be held at 7 p.m. (CT) across the state’s 728 different caucus locations. In the smallest precincts, results are expected to start to come in as early as 7:30 p.m. (CT), with additional results pouring in as the night progresses. Because the election will be done by caucus rather than by ballot, the results should be available by the end of the night.
In prior reporting, The Epoch Times has delved into the details of the state’s odd caucus process—and what’s at stake for the competitors.
—Joseph Lord
ANOTHER STOPGAP SPENDING BILL
Lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill on Jan. 16 staring down an impending government shutdown.
Under a deal cut by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last year, funding for the government is set to expire on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 due to the two-part nature of the previous stopgap funding bill.
Over the weekend, Johnson reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to extend the government funding deadlines to March 1 and March 8.
Schumer announced he would bring the measure to the floor this week.
If passed, this deal would ensure that the government stays open past the Jan. 19 deadline.
But that doesn’t mean that Johnson’s party will be happy about it.
Stopgap funding bills, known as a “continuing resolution” (CR) in the parlance of the Hill, have become increasingly unpopular among Republicans. Many in Johnson’s House conference, including much of the House Freedom Caucus, view funding deadlines as a prime opportunity to win concessions on spending and border policy from the Democrat Senate and White House.
Pursuing a CR is not without its risks. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) decision to work across the aisle to pass a CR in September cost him the speaker’s gavel.
Most Republicans say that Johnson isn’t under the same threat, but many have nonetheless been disappointed by his results in negotiations thus far.
Doing so would also betray an earlier commitment by Johnson, who said in November that he was done with CRs.
“The House Republican Conference is committed to never being in this situation again. I’m done with short-term CRs,” Johnson said at the time.
Now, in a statement released Jan. 14, Johnson said the CR “is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars.”
The House Freedom Caucus, meanwhile, dismissed the proposal, writing in a post on X, “This is what surrender looks like.”
House lawmakers were also expected to pursue contempt of Congress proceedings against first son Hunter Biden, whose overseas business activities have been the focus of investigations by the House Oversight Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.
However, in a Jan. 12 letter Biden’s lawyers said he would comply with future subpoenas. The chairmen of the two panels seem to be willing to accept this offer of compliance.
A spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told The Epoch Times on Jan. 14 that they were now prepared to pause these proceedings in exchange for full cooperation from the first son.
Additionally, House and Senate Republicans are in a stare down after details of a proposed border deal leaked.
Republicans have long said that further assistance to Ukraine—a prospect that’s become increasingly unpopular among those on the Right—would be contingent on substantial changes to U.S. policy at the southern border with Mexico.
To that end, Senate negotiators led by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and others have for months been working behind the scenes on just such a deal.
Last week, alleged details of that deal were released. According to the leaks, the deal would increase green cards by 50,000 per year, provide work permits for adult H-1B visa holders, and permit 5,000 illegal aliens to enter the United States daily, among other provisions.
For House Republicans, this deal is a non-starter.
Even Johnson, speaking on the leaked details, said: “Absolutely not” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Lankford, for his part, has shot back at criticism of the deal, saying in a post on X: “I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill. I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet.”
Still, with Johnson opposed to the proposal, it seems unlikely that the deal will come to a floor vote in the House.
—Joseph Lord
TAIWAN'S HISTORIC ELECTION
The recent Taiwan election, deemed one of the most significant in recent history, has drawn global attention due to its far-reaching implications for U.S.–China relations.
On Jan. 13, when the news broke that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which advocates for closer ties with the United States, secured the presidency for another four years, all eyes turned to the White House.
President Biden’s response to Taiwan’s elections was brief: “We do not support independence.” This statement disappointed some experts who found it lacking in depth, believing that it weakened America’s longstanding position on Taiwan’s sovereignty.
In the lead-up to the election, China applied substantial pressure on Taiwan through various means, including the deployment of spy balloons and engaging in psychological warfare. The Chinese regime framed the election as a pivotal choice between “peace and war.”
Beijing has long viewed the DPP with hostility, viewing the party and its agenda as roadblocks to the “reunification” of the island with the mainland. The communist regime has favored the main opposition, the Kuomintang Party (KMT), which sees Beijing as a lesser threat to the island’s national security.
Despite winning the presidency, the DPP failed to secure an absolute majority in the Legislative Yuan during the election. Consequently, the divided legislature presents challenges for the incoming president, potentially impacting relations with the United States.
In Washington, many anticipate that China will respond to the election results in some manner, although it is unlikely that Beijing is currently in a position to use force to annex Taiwan. The Biden administration’s response to China’s reaction is of utmost importance.
While many experts and policymakers do not foresee an imminent invasion of Taiwan, they argue that the most effective way for the United States to deter China from attacking the island is by boosting its combat readiness. Some assert that the current approach of strategic ambiguity, which involves deliberately remaining vague about Washington’s actions in the event of an attack, has proven ineffective and should be ended.
–Emel Akan
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Iowa caucuses start at 8 p.m. ET, kicking off the 2024 primary season.
- Biden will volunteer at Philabundance, a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to mark Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service.
BOOKMARKS
Last week, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci came to Capitol Hill for a closed-door deposition by the House Subcommittee on the COVID-19 pandemic. An article by The Federalist delves into what he told the panel—including his admission that his advice wasn’t always “following the science” and acknowledging that vaccine mandates backfired.
It’s been over 100 days since Hamas carried out a surprise attack against Israel. Since then, according to some estimates, between 20,000 and 30,000 people—including women, children, and combatants alike—have died. An article by The Wall Street Journal reflects on the conflict and its lingering impacts on diplomacy and trade.
Some economists have walked back earlier speculation that a recession is imminent, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. But that won’t be much consolation for most because, economists say, even if there won’t be a recession, it’ll feel like one.
President Donald Trump has won several key endorsements ahead of the Iowa caucuses, including those of Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and his erstwhile competitor, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), meanwhile, isn’t ruling out a Trump endorsement, but called former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley “a great candidate.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee announced that he would hold a hearing on “scandalous” allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis misused state funds and has an improper relationship with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor in the case against President Donald Trump. The Epoch Times’ Catherine Yang reported on the allegations, which include claims that Willis used state funds to take lavish vacations with Wade.
A pro-Palestinian protest outside the White House took a turn for the worse on Jan. 13, when protesters became rowdy and nearly breached a White House gate. The Epoch Times’ Kos Temenes reported on the close call.
