President Joe Biden and Donald Trump will do battle again for the White House in the rematch that few Americans want despite both easily swatting away their primary challengers on Super Tuesday. Biden’s robust economy will take a backseat to populist issues such as border security and violent crime as The Art of the Comeback author tries to distract voters away from his litany of legal troubles. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will announce that she is dropping out of the race on Wednesday morning in Charleston.
Haley will not endorse Trump during her speech. Most polling shows that voters across the board were unenthusiastic about the rematch, Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, won practically every contest on Tuesday. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds a majority of voters don’t think either Biden or Trump has the necessary mental acuity for the job. In February, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found that eight in ten swing state voters felt as though Biden was too old for the job. The same poll saw voters believe that Trump was too ‘dangerous’ for the role.
When Trump officials are crowned as the nominee, he will be in control of the Republican National Committee and will have more access to staff and effect party policy. ‘They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one. This has been a day that we’ve been waiting for,’ Trump told supporters after his victories began rolling in. In American Samoa, unheard of candidate Jason Palmer shot to a surprise victory in the Democratic primary. Trump’s only blot was a defeat in Vermont where Haley claimed the state’s nine delegates. Her second victory in the campaign. Speaking to supporters in Mar-a-Lago, Trump told a muted crowd that if ‘we lost the election, we’re not going to have a country left.’
During that speech, Trump mentioned hot button issues such as immigration while promising that there would be less warfare in the world if he were in office. He called his rival the ‘worst president’ in history. Without evidence, Trump claimed: ‘Our cities are being overrun with migrant crime.’ Mar-a-Lago was packed for a victory party. Among those attending were staff and supporters, including the rapper Forgiato Blow and former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn. In a statement, Biden said that Trump was driven by ‘grievance and grift’ rather than a desire to help the American people.
‘Tonight’s results leave the American people with a clear choice. Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?’ Republican strategist David Kochel told Fox News in the wake of Super Tuesday that ‘it’s pretty clear both parties are ready to get to the general election.’ Kochel said that it’s likely that the Trump and Biden campaigns will be fighting it out for Haley’s voters. Around 81 percent of Haley voters in North Carolina said that they would not vote for Trump in the national contest. Trump carried the state in 2020 by less than 100,000 votes. Haley won 250,000 votes in her defeat to Trump.
‘I do think it is time for her to step aside and let the party rally fully around Donald Trump so that he can take Joe Biden on and beat him in November,’ Trump’s former press secretary and now-Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Fox on Tuesday. Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, rumored to be on Trump’s shortlist to be vice president, told CNN that the ‘primary race is over.’ ‘The general election starts immediately. I think what you’re seeing is that there’s a high amount of energy for Donald Trump …. And everyone in the Republican Party that I know is thinking let’s get united and let’s get focused on the general election.’ Taylor Swift encouraged her fans to vote in a post on Instagram, though she did not endorse specific candidates.
Biden’s campaign is hopeful Swift will eventually back his candidacy, as she did in 2020. A February poll found that one-third of Republicans believe that Swift was caught up in a ‘covert government effort’ to help Biden’s re-election thanks to her high-profile relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Biden sailed through the Democratic contests, although a protest vote in Minnesota and six other states organized by activists opposed to his forceful support of Israel in its war against Hamas attracted unexpectedly strong results. The ‘uncommitted’ vote in Minnesota stood at 19 percent with nearly 90 percent of the votes counted, according to Edison Research, higher than the 13 percent that a similar effort in Michigan drew last week.
Biden nevertheless won Minnesota and 14 other states, including a mail-in vote in Iowa that ended on Tuesday. He did suffer one loss, in American Samoa, where entrepreneur Jason Palmer won 51 votes to Biden’s 40, according to the American Samoa Democratic Party. In 2020, American Samoa was the only victory that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg during his disastrous and expensive attempt to gain the Democratic nomination. Immigration and the economy were leading concerns for Republican voters, Edison exit polls in California, North Carolina and Virginia showed. A majority of Republican voters in those states said they backed deporting illegal immigrants. Trump, who frequently denigrates migrants, has promised to mount the largest deportation effort in US history if elected.
Tuesday’s results will only intensify the pressure on Haley to drop out of the race. She did not make a public appearance on Tuesday, and her campaign has not scheduled any events going forward. In a statement, her spokesperson said the vote showed ‘there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump.’ Haley’s challenge has highlighted some of Trump’s potential general election vulnerabilities. She has reached 40 percent in some state contests, performing particularly well among independent, well-educated and suburban voters who could play a crucial role in battleground states in November. About one-third of North Carolina voters said Trump would not be fit to serve as president if he was convicted of a crime, while in Virginia, over half said he would be fit for the office if convicted.
Trump is scheduled to begin his first criminal trial on March 25 in New York. In addition to the New York case, Trump faces separate federal and Georgia state charges for election interference, though it is unclear whether either case will reach trial before the Nov. 5 election. He also faces federal charges for retaining classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four criminal cases. Biden faces his own weaknesses, including widespread concern about his age. He is already the oldest US president in history. In her speech Wednesday morning, Haley will not endorse Trump but will encourage him to ‘earn the support of Republican and independent voters who backed her,’ according to the report.
On Tuesday, Haley told Fox & Friends, ‘I haven’t heard him pledge to me that he would support me if I won, so I don’t know why I have to go and pledge to him that I would support him.’ Haley will also speak Wednesday about conservative values, such as an active foreign policy, as opposed to MAGA isolationism and tighter government spending. Her campaign made history as she became the first Republican woman to win two primaries, in Vermont and the District of Columbia, thus preventing a total blowout. Read the full story:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13163313/trump-biden-rematch-2024-presidential-election.html?ito=msngallery
