The Republicans/MAGA 1 March 2024-

July 15-18, 2024
The Republican National Convention
Milwaukee, WI
Watch live

25 July
J. D. Vance Served in the Marines. Will It Matter in November?
His veteran status could be an advantage for the GOP—unless he trumpets his years of service too much.
By Ben Kesling
(The Atlantic) Vance wasn’t a Marine who saw combat. His specialty while he was deployed to Iraq was public affairs, which means he wrote stories and took photos. That in itself is no reason to question him. He served honorably in uniform, which the majority of Americans don’t even consider doing. Among veterans, there’s a mutual understanding that everyone is part of the military family—no matter what their job was. I’m a veteran myself, and I understand that there’s a code: Anyone who volunteered to wear the uniform deserves respect.
But few things anger veterans like someone who goes beyond talking about their service and starts bragging about it. When veterans bring undue attention to their service, they invite deep scrutiny of their record that they might not actually want. And when they use their military service as a political cudgel, that veteran code of respect is voided.

22 July
Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged
Now the Republicans are the ones saddled with a candidate who can’t make a clear argument or finish a sentence.
By Anne Applebaum

You Know Who Else Is Really Old?
Democrats just flipped their biggest disadvantage onto the opposition.
By Mark Leibovich
(The Atlantic) It’s now officially a Republican ailment, as of 1:46 p.m. yesterday, the moment President Joe Biden quit his reelection campaign and was supplanted by Donald Trump, 78, as the oldest presidential nominee in American history.
Democrats are ecstatic to be rid of this distinction. Since Biden’s debate debacle on June 27, the preoccupation with Biden’s age, fitness, and, yes, decline had become their crushing, almost incapacitating, burden. As such, Democrats’ prevailing mood since Biden’s exit tweet landed has been one of overwhelming relief, as if the entire party just passed a collective kidney stone. Instantly, they seem decades younger.
For all the uncertainty that still looms for Democrats—starting with who their nominee will be and whether Vice President Kamala Harris, if nominated, is up to challenging Trump—they’ve now flipped what’s arguably been their single biggest disadvantage onto the opposition. … Now, just like that, all of those paragraphs that began with “Biden will be 82 on Inauguration Day and 86 at the end of a second term” can be tossed over into the noisy neighbor’s yard: Trump will be 78 on Inauguration Day and 82 at the end of a second term. All of those polls in which massive majorities of voters across the political spectrum kept saying—screaming—that Biden was way too old to be running again are no longer operational. All of those surveys showing that most Americans support a mandatory retirement age for elected leaders are no longer germane, at least not for the Democrats, as a reelection issue.

Heather Cox Richardson July 21, 2024
Biden’s decision has left the Republicans in deep trouble, and they are illustrating their dilemma with high-pitched anger that the ticket of their opponents has changed and by insisting that if Biden is not fit for another four-year term he must resign the presidency immediately. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said he will sue to try to keep Biden in the race; Democratic election litigator Marc Elias responded that “if your lawyers are telling you that they can prevent the DNC from nominating its candidate of choice, they are idiots. I know a lot about that, since I beat them more than 60x in court after the 2020 election.”
Trump, meanwhile, has posted seven times about Biden since he dropped out of the race. He has ignored Harris.
The Republicans’ anger reflects that fact that if Biden is off the ticket, they are in yet another pickle. Just last week, the Republicans nominated Donald Trump, who is 78, for president. Having made age their central complaint about Biden, they are now faced with having nominated the oldest candidate in U.S. history, who repeatedly fell asleep at his own nominating convention as well as his criminal trial, who often fumbles words, and who cannot seem to keep a coherent train of thought. Democrats immediately pounced on Trump with all the comments Republicans had been making about Biden. Republicans have already suggested that Trump will not debate Harris, a former prosecutor.
With 39-year-old Ohio senator J.D. Vance now their vice presidential nominee, it will be tempting for Republicans to push Trump out of the presidential slot. But aside from the fury that would evoke from Trump loyalists, it would further alienate women from the Republican ticket. Republicans were already losing voters over their overturning of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, so many that Trump has recently tried to sound as if he is moderating his stance on abortion and to appeal to women in other ways. Just this weekend at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump appeared to be courting suburban women by promising to “stop the plunder, rape, slaughter and destruction of our American suburbs and cities” he implied had taken place under Biden. (In fact, violent crime has decreased significantly since 2020.)
Vance is an extremist who supports a national abortion ban, has said he does not believe in exceptions for rape or incest in abortion bans, and has praised women who stay in abusive marriages.
Biden’s decision not to accept the Democratic presidential nomination has created yet another conspicuous contrast with Trump. Thanks for a job well done and praise for his statesmanship have been pouring out ever since Biden made his announcement—indeed, they have apparently convinced some people that he has stepped down from the job altogether, while in fact he will remain the president for another six months.

20 July
David French: The Republican Party Has a Split-Personality Problem
The people who would make Trump president want different things from him, and those differences present political perils for Trump and also make it difficult to predict the contours of his second term. It could be just as extreme as millions of Americans rightly fear or it could be more moderate — with the deciding factor being Trump’s own sense of self-interest and personal grievance. And when Trump’s emotions ultimately dictate policy, it’s fair for Americans to be concerned about worst-case outcomes.
… If Trump does win again, it won’t be because of the MAGA revolutionaries. It will be because millions of his voters want the opposite of revolution. They want calm. They want the world to feel less dangerous, and they want milk and eggs and gasoline to cost less. These are the nostalgia voters, the people whose impressions of Trump’s presidency have improved since he left office, who long for the world of Jan. 1, 2020, when the economy was strong and the world seemed less chaotic.

15-18 July
Republican Party is Trump’s now. Critics wary his quest for power will go unchecked
(Reuters) – Five days after narrowly escaping assassination, Donald Trump will accept his presidential nomination on Thursday before an adoring crowd of supporters, the final act in his transformation of the Republican Party into the party of Trump.
His brush with death has fueled the growing quasi-religious fervor among the party faithful, elevating him from political leader to a man they believe is protected by God.
In Milwaukee, a G.O.P. Transformation From Dysfunctional to Unified
On Tuesday, Republicans effectively took a victory lap in the middle of the presidential race, expressing a sense of invincibility at their convention.

Heather Cox Richardson July 16, 2024
The last time a Republican vice presidential nominee has been named so late was 1988, and while announcing at the convention has the benefit of generating enthusiasm for the novel story, it has the downside of bringing an avalanche of opposition. Vance brought the latter.
He is very young—just 39—and has held an elected office for just 18 months, making him notably inexperienced for someone in contention for the vice presidential slot, especially behind a 78-year-old presidential nominee. In the past, he was a never-Trumper, saying that Trump “might be America’s Hitler,” “might be a cynical a**hole,” and is “cultural heroin,” “noxious,” and “reprehensible,” but he came around to embrace the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and to say that if he had been vice president on January 6, 2021, he would have done what former vice president Mike Pence would not: he would have refused to count the certified electoral ballots for President Joe Biden.
Former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, who was drummed out of the party for standing against Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, wrote: “JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn’t—overturn an election and illegally seize power. He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts. He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine. The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution.”
Both ends of the Republican spectrum have also expressed concerns about Vance. The far right has been vocal today about their disdain for Vance’s wife, who is the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants. “Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” Nick Fuentes asked.
On the other side of the Republican spectrum, those who opposed Trump because of his extremism, especially on abortion, are unlikely to have their fears relieved by Vance, who has advocated no-exceptions abortion bans, that people stay in violent marriages, and said: “We are effectively run in this country…by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made. And so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
But for all the talk of unifying the country since last weekend’s shooting, Trump did not pick Vance to bring Republicans together. His selection of Vance reinforces that the MAGAs have taken over the Republican Party with an ideology that rejects democracy in favor of Christian nationalism.

Trump chose Vance to reinforce his message
Elaine Kamarck
For much of American history, vice presidents were chosen to “balance” the ticket.
It was only when the reinforcing model came into vogue that the Office of the Vice President developed its own importance and influence, beginning with Al Gore and increasing with Dick Cheney.
Trump has made an effective choice in Senator Vance. Vance will not only reinforce Trump’s core messages, but also he will be trustworthy as a vice president.
(Brookings) In choosing Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio to be his running mate, Donald Trump chose someone who would reinforce his hard-right agenda. …by 2022, when he ran for the Senate, he got solidly behind Trump, got his endorsement, and won the seat.
Since then, he has been a loyal messenger to the Trump base. He said the 2020 election was “stolen,” he referred to the hush money trial as a “sham,” he called people arrested for participating in the Capitol attack “political prisoners,” he said Trump should be immune from criminal prosecution, he blamed the Trump assassination attempt on the Biden campaign’s messaging, and he said that if he had been vice president on January 6 he would not have certified the election results. On other issues, Vance insinuated that Biden and the Democrats are intentionally poisoning middle Americans with fentanyl to take revenge on GOP voters; he said Trump ought to fire all the bureaucrats and replace them with MAGA types, and in a 2023 tweet, Vance wrote, “my education policy is that we should stop funding institutions that teach American kids to support terrorist killers…”

Trump receives a hero’s welcome
The crowd erupted into thunderous applause as the former president made his first public appearance two days after surviving an assassination attempt.
J.D. Vance Is Trump’s Pick for Vice President
A political newcomer and former Trump critic turned ally, Senator Vance is an ambitious ideologue who relishes the spotlight and has already shown he can energize donors.
Former President Donald J. Trump has chosen Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate, wagering that the young senator will bring fresh energy to the Republican ticket and ensure that the movement Mr. Trump began nearly a decade ago can live on after him.
Mr. Vance, 39, is a political newcomer who entered the Senate only last year, but he has spent that time methodically ascending the conservative firmament. Once an acerbic Trump critic — attacking Mr. Trump as “reprehensible” and calling him “cultural heroin” — he won Mr. Trump’s backing in his 2022 Senate race by wholly embracing his politics and his lies about a stolen election. The endorsement lifted him above a crowded field, and ultimately to the Senate.
Mr. Vance, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who became best known for writing the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” did not forget it. He quickly emerged as a top defender of the former president in the halls of Congress and on television, taking his cues from Mr. Trump while frequently bucking the priorities of Senator Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s longtime Republican leader.
Mr. Trump’s choice of Mr. Vance capped months of feverish running-mate speculation — and followed an intense anti-Vance lobbying effort that tried to get the former president to pick other top contenders such as Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota or Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Some of those pressuring Mr. Trump to not select Mr. Vance included major Republican donors and Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire media mogul.
The other politicians considered in the top tier of candidates for Mr. Trump’s running mate had competed against him in Republican presidential primaries. …
Compared with other possible selections, Mr. Vance has relatively little governing experience should he ascend to the presidency. But he has never directly competed against Mr. Trump, and his political career exemplifies how devotion to Mr. Trump has practically become a precondition in Republican politics.
Why Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate
(BBC) In 2016, when Donald Trump picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, it was widely viewed as an effort to court evangelical Christian voters who may have been wary of supporting Trump, a thrice-married former Democrat.
This time around, he opted for JD Vance. And like his previous choice, the Ohio senator’s selection offers some insight into the former president’s campaign strategy – and, possibly, how he would govern if he returns to the White House.
The pick suggests Trump knows this election will be won and lost in a handful of industrial Midwest battleground states.
What to Know About J.D. Vance, Trump’s Running Mate

18 June
GOP pick for N.C. governor downplayed Weinstein allegations, assault by Ray Rice
Mark Robinson has spent years repeatedly questioning the veracity of women who accuse prominent men of violence.
Mark Robinson, the firebrand Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, has for years made comments downplaying and making light of sexual assault and domestic violence.
A review of Robinson’s social media posts over the past decade shows that he frequently questioned the credibility of women who aired allegations of sexual assault against prominent men, including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, actor Bill Cosby and now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Robinson’s caustic remarks could also make Republican hopes of flipping a Democratic governorship more challenging, according to political strategists, including some Republicans.
Robinson’s Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein — as well as President Biden — are hoping to win the votes of women in North Carolina by significant margins in November.

Heather Cox Richardson May 24, 2024
On Wednesday, May 22, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who had been the candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, said she will vote for Trump. …
There are two ways to look at Haley’s capitulation. It might show that Trump is so strong that he has captured the entire party and is sweeping it before him. In contrast, it might show that Trump is weak, and Haley made this concession to his voters either in hopes of stepping into his place or in a desperate move to cobble the party, whose leaders are keenly aware they are an unpopular minority in the country, together.
The Republican Party is in the midst of a civil war. The last of the establishment Republican leaders who controlled the party before 2016 are trying to wrest control of it back from Trump’s MAGA Republicans, who have taken control of the key official positions. At the same time, Trump’s MAGA voters, while a key part of the Republican base, have pushed the party so far right they have left the majority of Americans—including Republicans—far behind. …

11 May
Manafort will no longer take on Republican convention role
[Paul] Manafort had offered to work free on the Republican convention, meeting with officials in recent weeks about his role.
(WaPo) Manafort, the longtime political power broker who served as the 2016 chairman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is no longer planning to help manage this summer’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Manafort’s decision to step aside comes a day after The Washington Post reported that he had re-engaged in international consulting, including lending support to a media venture in China, after being pardoned by Trump for crimes related to money laundering and obstruction of justice.

8 May
Johnson Survives Greene’s Ouster Attempt as Democrats Join G.O.P. to Kill It
Republicans and Democrats banded together to block a motion by the right-wing Georgia congresswoman to remove the speaker.
(NYT) The vote to kill the effort was an overwhelming 359 to 43, with seven voting “present.” Democrats flocked to Mr. Johnson’s rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to block the effort to oust him.
Members of the minority party in the House have never propped up the other party’s speaker, and when the last Republican to hold the post, Kevin McCarthy, faced a removal vote last fall, Democrats voted en masse to allow the motion to move forward and then to jettison him, helping lead to his historic ouster.
This time, the Democratic support made the critical difference, allowing Mr. Johnson, who has a minuscule majority, to avoid a removal vote altogether. While for weeks Ms. Greene had appeared to be on a political island in her drive to get rid of yet another G.O.P. speaker, 11 Republicans ultimately voted to allow her motion to move forward.

24 April
So, 112 ignoble, infantile Republicans voted to endanger civilization
By George F. Will
In today’s Republican Party, dominated by someone who repudiates the internationalism to which Eisenhower committed the party seven decades ago, the cabal of grotesques might yet predominate.
Stoking the passion that is their excuse for pandering — the nihilism of a febrile minority in their party — a majority of House Republicans voted last Saturday to endanger civilization. Hoping to enhance their political security in their mostly safe seats, and for the infantile satisfaction of populist naughtiness (insulting a mostly fictitious “establishment”), they voted to assure Vladimir Putin’s attempt to erase a European nation.

Exclusive: Trump brothers Eric and Don Jr. emerge as loyalty czars
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have become key players in the early planning for a second Trump administration’s transition team, and would focus on vetting potential officials and staffers for ideology and loyalty, campaign aides and close allies to their father tell Axios.
Why it matters: Neither brother would officially run Donald Trump’s transition team, but they’d take a lead in making sure government jobs are filled by Republicans aligned with Trump’s vision for the party, the sources said.

16 April
Johnson’s Plan for Ukraine Aid Meets Republican Pushback, Muddying Its Path
The Republican speaker’s strategy for moving foreign aid measures for Israel and Ukraine through the House has outraged many in his own party, increasing calls for his ouster.

Heather Cox Richardson April 13, 2024
There are really two major Republican political stories dominating the news these days. The more obvious of the two is the attempt by former president Donald Trump and his followers to destroy American democracy. The other story is older, the one that led to Trump but that stands at least a bit apart from him. It is the story of a national shift away from the supply-side ideology of Reagan Republicans toward an embrace of the idea that the government should hold the playing field among all Americans level.

7-12 April
Trump says he stands with Johnson as Greene threatens ouster
(Axios) Former President Trump offered much-needed praise Friday for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as he faces threats to his gavel from his conference’s far-right flank.
Why it matters: Trump’s assurance that he stands “by the speaker” came as conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has ratcheted up her attacks on Johnson in the latest display of GOP congressional dysfunction.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s comments, during a joint appearance with Johnson from his Florida club, were a blow to Greene’s efforts.
Greene asserted she would not back down from potentially pulling the trigger on a resolution to oust Johnson, sending a dear colleague letter on Tuesday accusing him of “serving Democrats.”
It’s “unfortunate that people bring [motion to vacate] it up because right now we have much bigger problems,” Trump said.
His comments came just hours after a sizable number of conservatives blasted Johnson’s decision to vote down an amendment to a bill reauthorizing section 702 of FISA pertaining to warrant requirements.
9 April
What’s behind the latest right-wing revolt against Mike Johnson
Ukraine aid — a growing point of contention — is at the heart of the recent GOP drama.
(Vox) House Speaker Mike Johnson could be facing the most perilous threat to his leadership yet as Congress once again debates Ukraine aid.
Johnson recently made clear he wants to hold a vote on sending more funding to Ukraine after the House returns from recess on Tuesday. That stance has infuriated far-right members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has vocally opposed the provision of such funds. Greene’s dissent over Ukraine — along with far-right members’ dismay over bipartisan government funding deals — has prompted her to issue an open threat to Johnson’s job.
Mike Johnson faces revolt by hard-right Republicans over Ukraine aid package
Some House members remain staunchly opposed to proposal and one of them has already threatened to oust the speaker
Speaker Johnson’s job is on the line as the House returns
Deep divisions on issues like Ukraine and border security may force the speaker to once again turn to Democrats to pass his priorities
(WaPo) House Republicans are dreading their return to Washington on Tuesday, anticipating their deep divisions will jeopardize high-stakes legislation in a way that may end in the ouster of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and further throw the chamber into dysfunction.
The next two weeks are the most critical of Johnson’s nearly six-month tenure atop a very wobbly House with a majority that continues to narrow. His chief priority is passing a bill funding Ukraine that also sends aid to Israel and Indo-Pacific allies. Unlike a national security package that passed the Senate, House Republicans across the ideological spectrum insist that any foreign aid deal must also include measures that strengthen U.S. borders.
‘Increasingly chaotic’: Why House Republicans are heading for the exits
The decision by 21 Republican lawmakers to depart is indicative of the broader morale problem within the GOP conference
The tumultuous year in a slim majority hasn’t necessarily pushed departing Republicans to seek higher office or pursue other opportunities away from Capitol Hill. But it reaffirmed for most that they made the right call to leave, that because the House has become more partisan, it is now more difficult to pass legislation that makes an impact than when many were first elected.
The decisions to depart are yet another sign of the broader drop in morale within the GOP conference. Many Republican lawmakers have largely accepted that their inability to govern is a predicament of their own making. They acknowledge that overcoming their legislative impasse relies not only on keeping control of the House in November, but also on growing their ranks significantly enough to neutralize the handful of hard-liners who wield influence by taking advantage of the narrow margins.

26 March
Vulnerable Republicans bet their seats on Trump
The fate of the GOP House majority this fall rests on a small but pivotal group of lawmakers — the 17 Republicans who represent districts won by President Joe Biden in 2020.
In the so-called crossover districts they represent, Donald Trump isn’t exactly an asset at the top of the ticket. So each of the 17 has to carefully consider the political trade-offs between embracing the polarizing former president and distancing themselves from him.

22 March
Not the best of weeks for the one-happy-family Republicans – presuming there ever was one.
(AP) Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, said Friday he would resign from the House, leaving House Republicans with the thinnest of majorities. Gallagher announced he would resign his position on April 19. It will leave Republicans with a 217-213 majority in the House, meaning that they cannot afford to lose more than one vote on a party-line vote.
Enraged Over Spending Bill, Greene Threatens to Oust Johnson
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, on Friday took the first step toward ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson, filing a resolution calling for his removal after he pushed through a $1.2 trillion bipartisan spending bill that enraged the hard right.
Republicans lash out at Greene over threat to oust Speaker Johnson

8-9 March
Alabama senator Katie Britt delivers Republican response to Biden’s State of the Union – video

Republicans baffled by Katie Britt’s State of the Union response: ‘One of our biggest disasters’
The 42-year-old Alabama senator is a rising Republican star but her kitchen table speech did not land well even in her own party
As a Gallup poll showed 57% of American voters think the US would be better off if more women were in elected office, Alyssa Farah Griffin, a Trump aide turned never-Trumper, said: “Senator Katie Britt is a very impressive person … I do not understand the decision to put her in a KITCHEN for one of the most important speeches she’s ever given.”
Speaking to CNN, Griffin added: “The staging of this was bizarre to me. Women can be both wives and mothers and also stateswomen, so to put her in a kitchen, not at a podium or in the Senate chamber where she was elected after running a hard-fought race, I think fell very flat and was completely confusing to some women watching it.”
‘Dramatic,’ ‘creepy’ and ‘insincere’: Republican Katie Britt’s SOTU rebuttal is the butt of the joke
‘Seriously, the Katie Britt response is scary as s***. This is like a sci-fi movie. This is Handmaid’s Tale coming to life,’ one person posted on X
Katie Britt Gave People Serious ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Vibes With SOTU Response—And The Memes Were On Point
GOP Senator Katie Britt inspired instant ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ comparisons with her bizarre State of the Union response.
(Second Nexus) Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union on Thursday night, presenting a counter-narrative to his critiques of the GOP and highlighting what she sees as a darker reality under his leadership.
But her remarks—made from her kitchen table in Montgomery, Alabama—inspired comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood that was written at the height of the Reagan administration and satirized political, social, and religious trends of the 1980s.
Don’t go in the kitchen. I’m delivering a State of the Union response.
By Alexandra Petri
Fellow MOMS, if you are like me, you lie awake at 2 a.m., wondering how you can BE in three places at once: this KITCHEN, the Senate and the opening monologue of a Purge movie. But you see, we CAN do it, by WHISPERING slowly with an intensity usually reserved for WASP moms trying to prevent their daughters from making a SCENE in the J. Crew fitting rooms. (We’re not LEAVING yet PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER.) I am delivering these remarks in a WAY that makes you think this isn’t ACTUALLY my kitchen and I’m not SUPPOSED to BE here, but no one has dared REMOVE me because I am SPEAKING in a TONE that makes the PROSPECT of interrupting me TOO FRIGHTENING!
A lot of moms can’t see themselves in Katie Britt’s kitchen
By Monica Hesse
The Alabama senator’s performance seemed aimed at suburban women whom Republicans have done little to win back
(WaPo) Before Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-Ala.) had even begun her State of the Union rebuttal on Thursday night, an ally reportedly had already sent around a helpful list of talking points that conservative pundits could use to describe her — again, as-yet undelivered — speech. They should make comparisons to Ronald Reagan, according to the New York Times, which reported the memo. They should say that Britt came across as “America’s mom.”
When Britt did appear, it became clear she’d gone balls-to-the-wall with the mom theme, broadcasting solo from her Alabama kitchen in such a way that, if you were watching with the volume down, you would have assumed you had stumbled upon a commercial for either stain remover or Il Makiage.

Trump Ally and Daughter-in-Law Officially Take Over R.N.C. Leadership
With the installation of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, Donald Trump tightened his already firm grip on the party apparatus.

5-6 March
5 Takeaways From Super Tuesday: Trump Wins and Haley Exits
Donald Trump racked up delegates, but also revealed weaknesses. Nikki Haley conceded to cold, hard math.
Donald J. Trump rolled up victories across the country on Super Tuesday, and by the end of the evening it was clear that the former president had left Nikki Haley in the delegate dust.
Mr. Trump’s coast-to-coast wins — in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and beyond — brought a new mathematical certainty to what has been the political reality for some time: He is all but certain to capture the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
Ms. Haley made it official on Wednesday morning, exiting the race but withholding her endorsement of Mr. Trump. Instead, she said he must work to win over her voters.
That is important because tucked inside Mr. Trump’s often dominant statewide victories on Tuesday were signs of vulnerability for the fall. He showed some of the same weakness in the swingy suburban areas that cost him the White House in 2020.
How Republicans Voted on Super Tuesday
Donald J. Trump won the vast majority of counties in the Republican primary on Tuesday. Below, explore the county-level vote and see the types of areas that supported Trump and Nikki Haley in several states, based on precinct data.

2 March
Reminder: Alaska and Maine are two of the 15 states voting on Super Tuesday, three days away, where a combined 865 delegates are at stake. But along with the D.C. primary, as Steven Shepard notes this morning, GOP conventions and caucuses in Michigan, Idaho and North Dakota will select 119 delegates over the next three days — more than Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina combined.
5 GOP contests to watch before Tuesday, including one Haley might win
Republicans in four states and the District of Columbia will be voting over the next few days.
From the Potomac to the Palouse, Republicans across the country are filling caucus sites, convention halls and even a downtown Washington hotel this weekend. There are as many contests in the next three days as there were over the entirety of the last two plodding months, in which the primaries were few and far between. The four states — and the District of Columbia — voting over the next three days will send roughly as many delegates to the Republican nominating convention as those earlier states.
Most of the contests are almost certain to demonstrate former President Donald Trump’s hold over the GOP, and they’ll help him rack up even more delegates heading into Tuesday, putting him in an even stronger position. But one of the contests this weekend might actually go to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, giving her a first — perhaps only — win in the race.
Sunday: The District of Haley?
Haley enters the weekend 0-for-5 in primaries and caucuses, but her best chance to notch a win anywhere in the nominating process might be this weekend in the District of Columbia.
… [She] could win all 19 delegates at stake in the contest. She also continues to rally to her side as much of the anti-Trump faction of the GOP as possible. Last night, Sens. LISA MURKOWSKI and SUSAN COLLINS revealed they are backing Haley.