Trump and Biden prepare for rematch as Haley bows out of GOP race

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for debates with President Joe Biden hours after Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign. 

Trump, who did not participate in any GOP primary debates, has previously said he wanted to debate Biden in the general election. 

Biden's campaign responded, saying it’s a conversation they will have “at the appropriate time" and urged the former president to watch Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday.

This post has been updated with the Biden campaign's response.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are leading in delegates as they become their party's likely nominees, setting up a rematch in November.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Wednesday she is suspending her presidential campaign following a series of losses on Super Tuesday.

Here's the latest CNN delegate estimate:

On the Republican side: 

Delegates won on Super Tuesday: 

24 Republican delegates from Super Tuesday contests are still to be allocated.

A total of 1,215 delegates are required to win the Republican nomination. Here's how many GOP delegates have been won to date: 

On the Democratic side: 

Delegates won on Super Tuesday: 

25 Democratic delegates from the Super Tuesday contests are still to be allocated.

A total of 1,968 pledged delegates are required to win the Democratic nomination. Here's how many Democratic delegates have been won to date:

Arizona Democrats are facing a dilemma in Pima County. Home to Tucson, the blue county boasts a deep well of Democratic voters, but many with deep uncertainty about President Joe Biden's age and his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Read more about that here.

But state and county Democrats say they have a strategy to target these unenthused voters: Focus on local and state issues to drive up turnout and reap the benefits at the top of the ticket.

Advocates are gathering signatures to place a state constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights on the November ballot. They’re hoping to replicate the success of similar efforts across the country since the fall of Roe v. Wade by turning out Democrats, independents and even some supportive Republicans.

“A lot of people have been extremely shocked to see women's rights reversed after all of these years,” said Corinne Cooper, who has been volunteering since September to get Arizonans to sign the petition.

Democrats here point to competitive US Senate and House races as a draw for centrist and progressive voters alike, along with the possibility that the party could flip both chambers of the state Legislature – a duopoly they haven’t enjoyed since 1966.

Democrats are also counting on another factor: fear about what a second Trump presidency would look like. Becky Richards, a 37-year-old Realtor, moved to Arizona from much more Democratic Illinois a few years ago.

“It's terrifying to see that Trump is basically doing nothing, and still gaining momentum,” she said. “In Arizona, that scares me, in a way, because I see the Trump flags and the MAGA hats and things as you drive through the state.”

If it comes down to a rematch between Biden and Trump, Richards said that despite her hope for a younger candidate, she’ll vote for Biden “no question.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defended his endorsement of former President Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, despite Trump’s barrage of attacks against him and his wife and McConnell's harsh criticism of the former president after the January 6 insurrection. 

Earlier Wednesday, Trump thanked McConnell for the endorsement. The pair have had a rocky relationship over the past few years, but Trump says he’s willing to work with him.

“Thank you, Mitch,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I look forward to working with you and a Republican Senate MAJORITY to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

President Joe Biden has a problem where he can least afford it: with Democratic voters in Pima County, Arizona. The county, home to Tucson, boasts a deep well of Democratic voters, but many with deep uncertainty about the president’s age and his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Just how critical is Pima County? Biden won Arizona in 2020 by about 10,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast. He bested Trump by nearly 100,000 votes in Pima County. He’ll need every one of those votes, and maybe more, if he hopes to keep Arizona — and his job — come November.

Tucson business owner Jenna Majchrzak, a self-described “reluctant Democrat,” sums up the expected November choice between Biden and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump this way: “It's hard to vote for someone with multiple felony charges,” she says, “and it's also very hard to vote for someone that is pro-genocide.”

It’s an opinion shared by many Democratic voters whom CNN talked to in this diverse county of just over a million residents, with Mexico on its southern border and the Tohono O’odham Nation to the west.

Grady Campbell, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Arizona, is looking forward to voting in his first presidential election. But — and it’s a big one — he’s so put off by the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s offensive in Gaza that he’s voting for Marianne Williamson in the March 19 Democratic primary.  

Another concern for some Pima County Democrats: Biden’s age. 

“It's not even so much even the mental acuity as it is just kind of being out of touch,” Amanda Bruno, 31, said of the 81-year-old president. “I'd love to see somebody a little bit younger, who's whose impact will be felt by their generation.”

How are state and county Democrats responding to the challenge of unenthused voters? Read more about that here.

The White House implied that President Joe Biden still does not want to see former President Donald Trump receive classified intelligence briefings — even as Trump is set to officially become the Republican nominee for president. 

It’s tradition for past presidents to be allowed to request and receive intelligence briefings. In 2021, Biden said he didn’t believe Trump should receive the briefings due to his “erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection.” 

“I’d rather not speculate out loud,” Biden previously said when asked what he fears could happen if Trump continued to receive the briefings. “I just think that there is no need for him to have the — the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

Asked if Biden would do anything to try to block Trump from receiving the briefings, Jean-Pierre declined to answer on Wednesday.

“I don't have anything to add,” she said, “but the president was very clear about how he felt about that, and I would say those comments certainly do stand today.” 

The nominees of the two major parties have received classified intelligence briefings from top government officials for more than 60 years, a decision aimed at facilitating a smooth transition from candidate to commander in chief.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 25 in the blockbuster case dealing with whether former President Donald Trump may claim immunity from prosecution in the federal election subversion case.

The court previously said it would hear arguments in the case during the week of April 22. On Wednesday, it announced that it would hear the case during a rare Thursday session.

The timing of the case has drawn considerable scrutiny as it could help determine whether Trump faces trial over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election before the November 2024 election. 

Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the criminal charges, has sought to speed up the proceedings over Trump’s immunity claim so that he can bring the matter to trial as quickly as possible.

An original trial date that had been set for early March already has been postponed.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is ending his long-shot Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden.

He thanked his supporters, and urged them to do everything they can "to help keep a man of decency and integrity in the White House. That's Joe Biden."

Donald Trump has put America on notice – his second term would be even more disruptive and turbulent than his first.

The new presumptive Republican nominee booked his place in a general election rematch with President Joe Biden when his distant, last-remaining rival Nikki Haley conceded to reality and suspended her campaign on Wednesday.

The triumph of the once and possibly future president – an incredible comeback given his attempt to steal the 2020 election and a crush of criminal and civil trials threatening his liberty and fortune – sets up one of the most fateful elections in American history. His demonstrated record of contempt for democratic institutions means that the country’s political, legal and constitutional guardrails are facing a severe new test from a GOP candidate who could be a convicted felon by Election Day and who may see restored executive power as a tool to thwart federal prosecutions.

And Trump’s return to the threshold of the presidency will send shockwaves around a world still recovering from his volatile leadership and affinity for autocrats and send a warning to Ukraine, a nation fighting for its survival.

The reason Trump is so different from a traditional candidate is that he’s not campaigning as a fresh new voice pulsating with optimism for the future or brimming with policy ideas to bring the nation together. He’s portraying America as a dystopian, failed state overwhelmed by lawlessness, urban blight and slipping toward World War III abroad. In a classic trope of dictators, he’s promising to flush out enemies within, vowing revenge on political foes and posing as a strongman while conflating his own personal, political interests with the nation’s.

Read Collinson's full analysis on Trump here.