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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says she isn’t ending her long-shot bid for the GOP presidential nomination, despite her lagging behind former President Trump. 

“I’ll keep going until the American people close the door,” she said at an event Tuesday, just days before her home state Republicans head to the polls. “I’ll campaign until the last person votes.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Haley said she’d stay in the race until at least Super Tuesday, March 5, and would not drop out after the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24, regardless of the results. One U.S. territory and 15 states will vote on Super Tuesday, just 10 days after the South Carolina primary.

Haley trails Trump in South Carolina by 23 points, according to the latest Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released Tuesday.

Haley, the last Trump rival standing and a one-time political appointee of the former president, said during her address Tuesday that she won’t “kiss the ring” and kowtow to Trump, insinuating that his allies are afraid of angering him.

“I have no fear of Trump’s retribution,” she said. “I’m not looking for anything from him.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded by predicting Haley would “kiss a–” to Trump when she drops her election bid.

“She’s going to drop down to kiss a– when she quits, like she always does,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Sen. Tim Scott, a fellow South Carolinian Republican appointed to the Senate a decade ago by Haley, said she should call it quits. Scott, a former GOP presidential candidate, dropped out of the race in November and endorsed Trump. 

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• The House is planning to launch a bipartisan task force centered on artificial intelligence at the direction of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
  
  
• The United Nations’ World Food Program is pausing deliveries to northern Gaza out of concern for staff safety and security — a move likely to worsen starvation levels amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.
  
  
• CNN reporter and White House correspondent MJ Lee in a live segment about President Biden’s strategy against former President Trump  this fall said Biden’s “direction was to significantly ramp up the campaign‘s efforts to highlight the ‘crazy s—’ that Trump says in public.”

© Greg Nash / The Hill

The Supreme Court won’t take up a case brought by a group of House Republicans over the chamber’s pandemic-era mask mandate.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) racked up thousands in fines in 2021 after they flouted the House safety protocols under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The trio previously appealed the sanctions to the the House Ethics Committee, but the panel upheld them.

Under the COVID-19 rules, House members faced $500 fines if they didn’t comply with the mask requirement. Subsequent infractions could trigger $2,500 penalties taken from the lawmakers’ yearly pay. 

The White House is planning a major sanctions package against Russia after the mysterious death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison.

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that the plan is to “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny,” as well as hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Biden has blamed Putin for Navalny’s death and recently told reporters the White House would be “looking at a whole number of options” in response.

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The United States upended a United Nations Security Council proposal Tuesday to call on Israel to implement a cease-fire in its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, deeming such a move as “wishful” and “irresponsible.”

United Nations ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. is circulating an alternative that calls for a temporary cease-fire in exchange for the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages who have been held since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

“For weeks, we have made it incredibly clear that the resolution before the council would not achieve the goal of a sustainable peace and may in fact run counter to it,” Thomas-Greenfield said, explaining her lone veto of the resolution Tuesday. “Proceeding with a vote today was wishful and irresponsible.”

Thomas-Greenfield noted that a cease-fire negotiation is critical to getting aid to Palestinian civilians in war-torn Gaza.

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are children under state law and can lead to wrongful death of a minor cases when mishandled.

The court ruled the wrongful death law “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit brought by vitro fertilization patients whose frozen embryos were destroyed when they were removed from a cryogenic storage unit three years ago.

Experts say the case could have a major impact on families undergoing fertility treatments.

“Why is Biden letting in millions of illegal border crossers?” via Nolan Rappaport , former aide to House Judiciary Committee.

“To save our democracy, corporations must put people over shareholder profits” via researcher Ralph E. Gomory.

4 days until the South Carolina GOP primary. 

14 days until Super Tuesday. 

259 days until the general election. 

The House and Senate are not meeting this week. Both will be back in town Feb. 26.

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