Morning Report — DeSantis, Haley knock Trump in bid for Iowa votes

Amid an Iowa duel against former President Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley on Thursday argued that support for the Republican presidential front-runner who wants to return to the White House would be a step toward reelecting President Biden.

During live back-to-back town hall discussions hosted by CNN in Des Moines, the Florida governor and the former U.N. ambassador, who served in the Trump administration, lobbed critiques at Trump and at Biden rather than at one another ahead of the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses.

Before his town hall event, DeSantis used a Thursday joint interview with NBC News and The Des Moines Register to call Haley a “phony” and “a darling of the Never Trumpers.” He did not repeat those criticisms during CNN questioning, although he’s been locked in an expensive ad battle with the former South Carolina governor, who is viewed as his chief rival for second place behind Trump in the Hawkeye State. The former president enjoys a large lead in polls among Iowa’s GOP voters. 

DeSantis on Thursday shed his caution about skewering Trump head-on, saying the former president broke promises he made to voters to cut federal spending and finish a border wall while shifting his positions on key concerns, including abortion restrictions.

“I mean, when you’re saying that pro-life protections are a ‘terrible thing,’ by definition you are not pro-life,” the governor said in a swipe at a Trump remark, adding, “How do you flip-flop on something like the sanctity of life?” (The Hill).

DeSantis said Trump’s legal troubles “give Democrats an advantage, that’s the reality.” He promised voters that his focus is on their issues and “Biden’s failures. … It’s not going to be about me.”

▪ CNN: Fact checking DeSantis and Haley’s town halls in Iowa.

▪ The Hill: DeSantis shoots down idea that Jan. 6 rioters displayed patriotism: “Of course not.”

▪ The Hill: DeSantis sticks to script on immigration, gun reform in Iowa town hall.

Trump’s campaign — with a nod Thursday to Haley’s recent momentum in Iowa and her fundraising prowess — released an ad critical of her record and Biden’s policies on border security and migration.

Haley repeated her campaign knocks on Trump as a magnet for “chaos … rightly or wrongly” and a figure best left in America’s political past. 

The Hill: Haley touts her rise in polls ahead of Iowa caucuses. “I defeat Biden.”

“Now is the time that we need to have a new generational leader. … It is time to move past President Trump,” she said.

▪ The Associated Press: Haley draws more attacks from Republican rivals after a televised town hall in Iowa.

▪ The Washington Post: Five takeaways from Haley and DeSantis during their televised town halls.

Haley and DeSantis split over continued U.S. support for Ukraine (he wants Europe to backstop Kyiv and she promoted U.S. aid to Ukraine as anti-war policy focused on Russia).

Following Thursday’s school shooting in Perry, Iowa, the two candidates staked out similar positions against proposals for gun control. DeSantis said he supports no-wait gun background checks, not more restrictions, and touted his leadership in Florida as a model for tackling mental health in schools. Haley pointed to mental health as the problem most often seen among students involved in school shootings, but her suggestions were vague about what she would do as president.

The Hill: Haley calls for mental health reform after Iowa school shooting.

“I will tell you that we could go and take away a certain kind of gun today, and that would make you feel better. But a week from now, there would be another shooting,” she said.

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3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ In the first school mass shooting of 2024, a 17-year-old student in small-town Perry, Iowa, killed a sixth grader, wounded five others and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday after posting a selfie on TikTok. The suspect had a small-caliber handgun and pump action shotgun, authorities said. A “rudimentary” improvised explosive device was found on-site.

▪ A Houthi drone ship filled with explosives detonated Thursday after being launched from Yemen and coming within “a couple of miles” of U.S. Navy and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The U.S. and allies this week warned of “consequences.” 

▪ ?️Winter storm “Ember” will chill the Northeast this weekend. Depending on where you live, grab a sweater, umbrella or a shovel. 

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?️ What’s ahead for GOP presidential candidates? On Wednesday, five days before the Iowa caucuses, Haley and DeSantis face off during a Republican primary debate in Des Moines, hosted by CNN. The former president qualified for the event, but opted to skip it. Instead, he’ll appear the same night during a bit of Iowa counter programming when Fox News broadcasts a town hall with him at 9 p.m. ET.

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LEADING THE DAY

© The Associated Press / Nathan Howard | House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared in May in the Capitol following passage of a conservative bill to impose new restrictions on asylum seekers.

ISSUES IN 2024 POLITICS

BORDER: On the campaign trail and in Congress, Republicans will keep border security and an immigration “crisis” front of mind among voters.

Biden and other Democratic contenders may criticize GOP border and asylum policies, but their actions inflate perceptions of the problems among urban conservatives and voters everywhere. 

The New York Times: Biden faces pressure on immigration, and not just from Republicans.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), pushed by constituents to deal with the exploding costs and details of sheltering and supporting more than 100,000 migrants, filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking $708 million from 17 charter bus and transit companies that transported asylum-seekers to the city from the U.S. southern border at the instigation of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). 

New York’s budgetary squeeze as a sanctuary location, which Adams has raised with the White House, and complaints about migrants and crime, are rarely absent from tabloid pages and Fox News. 

Abbott called Adams’s lawsuit baseless, emphasizing in a statement that every immigrant transported to New York City was allowed entry to the United States by the Biden administration.    

The Hill: Five things to know about the border security bill at the heart of House GOP shutdown threats.

ABORTION: Democratic strategists view abortion and reproductive health issues as powerful arguments in the election-year battle to retain White House control, the Senate majority and to take over the House, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton writes. To mobilize voters concerned about laws they view as extreme, they point to continuing conservative state and federal court rulings, including a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision Tuesday siding with Texas against the administration’s position on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. If state law would be violated, federal regulations cannot require emergency physicians to perform life-saving pregnancy terminations, the court said.

DEMOCRACY: Biden today in Valley Forge, Pa., will stump for another term by reprising a thesis of his 2020 campaign: Voters have a stark choice. Trump and his allies — he will argue while in a critical swing state — jeopardized democracy and the nation’s security on Jan. 6, 2021, and will do so again if returned to power. 

Vice President Harris will echo the president’s themes during a Saturday speech at a church convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in the state that lifted Biden to the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Trump plans two campaign rallies in Iowa on Saturday, the third anniversary of the Capitol attacks. 

▪ The New Yorker: Biden makes saving democracy the center of his campaign.

▪ Axios: How the Republican Party memory-holed Jan. 6.

▪ Politico: House Democrats have begun organizing for the GOP’s Biden impeachment fight.

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ A quarter of Americans say they believe a false conspiracy theory about the FBI three years after the U.S. Capitol attack, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. 

▪ No top federal official in December earned a job approval rating above 50 percent, according to a Gallup survey. It included as choices the Supreme Court chief justice, the president, the Senate majority leader and the Federal Reserve chair, among others. Ratings since 2021 are down.

▪ Trump businesses accepted close to $8 million, and likely more, from foreign governments, their agents and entities spanning 20 countries during his presidency, according to House Democrats. At least $5.6 million came from China. Trump’s critics assert violations of a constitutional prohibition on accepting funding from foreign governments. 

▪ Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that he’s optimistic about getting on ballots across the U.S. but said it will likely cost his campaign about $15 million. He is on Utah’s ballot.

▪ A progressive watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that Rep. Dean Phillips’s (D-Minn.) presidential campaign illegally coordinated with a supporting super PAC.

▪ Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn announced Friday he is running in the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. John Sarbanes. Dunn has testified to Congress about the Jan. 6 attacks at the Capitol.

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WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session and lawmakers return to work in Washington on Tuesday.

The Senate will convene for a pro forma session at 10 a.m. and resume legislative business on Monday.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. at the White House before traveling to Valley Forge, Pa., to deliver a campaign speech at 3:15 p.m. Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to New Castle, Del., in the evening and remain in Delaware overnight.

The vice president has no public events.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Turkey.

Economic indicator: The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. will release the jobs report for December.

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ZOOM IN

INTERNATIONAL   

Iraq blamed the United States for a drone strike that killed a militia leader in Baghdad on Thursday. Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of militia groups, said the strike killed Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba leader Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, along with at least one other Iraqi official. Five others were wounded. U.S. officials said the strike hit a vehicle in Baghdad, according to media reports. The Pentagon said in a statement to The Hill that American forces are working to protect troops and assets in the Middle East but did not confirm the strike (The Hill and The New York Times).

ISIS claimed responsibility Thursday for twin bombings in Iran that killed more than 100 people near the burial site of slain military commander Qassem Soleimani in southern Iran on Wednesday. The group offered no proof and its account of blasts set off by two suicide bombers differed from reports in Iranian media. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi blamed Israel for the explosions and warned of a “heavy price.” The Israeli military told CNN it had “no comment” on the matter. U.S. officials initially speculated about a blast with the hallmarks of a terrorist attack.

Secretary Blinken departed Thursday for the Middle East as tensions spiked surrounding Israel’s war against Hamas. Blinken’s stops include Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and a visit with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The secretary’s itinerary highlights governments the U.S. has leaned on to exert influence and help lower the temperature in the region (The Hill).

“It is in no one’s interest, not Israel’s, not the regions, not the worlds, for this conflict to spread beyond Gaza,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday.

Shipping companies are diverting their cargo away from the Red Sea as attacks by the Houthi rebel group in Yemen intensify in response to the ongoing siege of Gaza. The attacks by the Houthi rebels, officially known as Ansar Allah, are now sparking confrontations in other parts of the Middle East, and U.S. diplomats are moving to reassure allies and stanch a wider conflict (The Hill). 

“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the U.S., Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and eight other countries said in a joint Wednesday statement.

▪ Reuters: Maersk reroutes Red Sea container ships back to Suez Canal.

▪ CNBC: Deadly Iran blasts and U.S. warning over Red Sea attacks deepen fears of a wider Middle East war.

▪ The Guardian: The mother and uncle of a U.S. service member were rescued from the fighting in Gaza in a secret operation coordinated by the U.S., Israel, Egypt and others.

▪ The Washington Post: As Gazans return to destroyed homes, Israeli ministers push resettlement.

Russia used short-range ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea to strike Ukraine, according to the White House. The U.S. will raise the arms transfer with the U.N. Security Council (Reuters). 

© The Associated Press / Jon Elswick | Former President Trump petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ban and let his name appear on Colorado’s primary ballot.

TRUMP WORLD 

FIVE ILLINOIS VOTERS want the State Board of Elections to block Trump from appearing on Illinois’s March 19 primary and Nov. 5 general election ballots and filed objectionsto former Trump’s state nominating petitions Thursday, citing his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol. WBEZ Chicago reports the objectors believe Trump is disqualified as a presidential candidate under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to “support” the U.S. Constitution but “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding federal office. The state election board has openly questioned its authority to invoke the insurrection clause and suggests the Illinois courts or Legislature need to resolve the dispute.

COLORADO’S SECRETARY OF STATE saidlate Wednesday that Trump does not have a “get out of jail free card.” Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court ruling last month that booted the former president from the ballot under the 14th Amendment. Trump’s legal team is asking the nation’s highest court to take up the case and immediately reverse the Colorado ruling in a summary decision without oral argument or extensive briefing (The Hill).

“Donald Trump is trying to argue he did not incite an insurrection while Colorado courts at this point have determined that he did,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) told MSNBC. “Then Trump goes on to argue that even if he did incite the insurrection, well, the Constitution doesn’t apply to him. I don’t think that’s right.”

Could a Trump win put his running mate in office? A National Republican Senatorial Committee amicus brief in the Supreme Court argues just that.

CANDIDATE BACK IN COURT: Trump is expected to appear in court twice next week, including during Tuesday’s arguments at the federal appeals court in Washington about his claim of immunity from charges over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. On Thursday, Trump plans to attend closing arguments in Manhattan in New York state’s $250 million civil fraud trial against him and his real estate company, Bloomberg News reported.

NBC News: Trump’s lawyers want the Justice Department’s special counsel to be held in contempt for continuing to provide them with discovery material and filing motions ahead of deadlines. With a court-ordered stay in hand and Trump’s candidacy and legal calendar in mind, his team would like to freeze or delay until after the election the former president’s federal criminal trial on charges of 2020 election interference. That trial date is March 4.

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ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press / Patrick Sison | Drugmaker Eli Lilly warned against the cosmetic use of two of its weight loss drugs.

HEALTH   

? Drugmaker Eli Lilly on Thursday warned against using its diabetes and obesity drugs for “cosmetic” weight loss, as the medications have exploded in popularity, resulting in shortages. In an open letter posted online, the company said its products Mounjaro and Zepbound “are indicated for the treatment of serious diseases; they are not approved for — and should not be used for — cosmetic weight loss” (The Hill). 

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Eli Lilly has started a new online service for getting prescriptions and deliveries of weight-loss medication.

▪ Axios: The Food and Drug Administration is probing possible weight-loss drug side effects, including suicidal thoughts.

?COVID-19 still kills about 1,500 Americans each week. Medical researchers want to understand why so few infected people are taking Paxlovid, which can prevent severe illness and death from the coronavirus. A National Institutes of Health study of a million high-risk people with COVID-19 found that only about 15 percent who were eligible for Paxlovid took it. The New York Times reports that if half of the eligible patients had taken Paxlovid, 48,000 deaths could have been prevented. What gives? Some doctors worry about interactions with other drugs; patients’ decisions delay the window for effective treatment and some believe COVID-19 has been reduced to a mild infection. Patients also worry about possible rebound infections on Paxlovid or object to an unpleasant aftertaste while being treated.

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OPINION

■ How Biden wins in 2024, by Ramesh Ponnuru, contributing columnist, The Washington Post.

■ DeSantis is flaming out and blaming Trump, by Mary Ellen Klas, columnist, Bloomberg News.

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THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / John Minchillo | New Year celebrations in Manhattan’s Chinatown in 2023 featured dragons.

And finally … ??? Bravo to puzzlers who aced the first Morning Report Quiz of 2024! 

Asked about New Year’s superstitions and international traditions, here’s who went 4/4 with their own good luck: Jaina Mehta Buck, Donna Minter, Francisco Brocatto, Linda Field, Pam Manges, Carlanne McCrystal, Harry Strulovici, Patrick Kavanagh, Phil Kirstein, Stan Wasser, Ki Harvey, Mary Anne McEnery, Joan Domingues, Jim Pate, Steve James, Mark Roeddiger, Randy Moe, Robert Bradley, Anita Bales and Joe Erdmann. 

? They knew that the Chinese horoscope says 2024 is the year of the dragon, representing authority and good fortune.

Hoppin’ John is a New Year’s favorite dish in the American South, made with ingredients said to represent coins, currency and the color of gold.

Lucky cake lovers might find a Baby Jesus baked inside their confections in Catholic countries that celebrate the Epiphany on Jan. 6. 

At the start of the new year in the Philippines, some people wear polka dots to invite financial prosperity through coin-shaped symbolism.

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