January 5, 2024 - US election campaign news

The Biden campaign is seizing on former President Donald Trump’s comments in a speech he made today about the recent shooting in Iowa.

The Biden campaign posted the clip of Trump’s comments on X.

Some background: A 17-year-old gunman killed a sixth grade student and wounded five other people Thursday morning at Perry High School near Des Moines, Iowa, authorities said.

The five people wounded include four students and one school administrator, officials said. The school’s principal, Dan Marburger, was among the injured, according to officials in another school district where Marburger was an alumnus.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a town hall in Maquoketa, Iowa on Friday, January 5.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he didn’t know Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa women’s basketball star, in response to a voter question on Friday, drawing exasperated gasps from some members of the crowd. 

A woman attending Ramaswamy’s town hall in Maquoketa, Iowa, on Friday asked Ramaswamy if he knew “the name of the Iowa women’s basketball player who has been setting records.” 

 “I should?,” he asked the crowd, responding to their reaction.  

The woman who asked the question told him her name is Caitlin Clark. 

“Actually I’ve been hearing about it, people have been bringing up the name,” he said after a pause. “That’s who that is, good.”

Clark’s cult status in the first-in-the-nation caucus state has infiltrated the Republican presidential race in recent days.

At a University of Iowa women’s basketball game last month, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley mistakenly called the team’s star player by the wrong name, identifying her as “Caitlin Collins.”

In a veiled jab at Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presented CNN’s Kaitlan Collins with a replica Clark jersey at a CNN town hall in Iowa on Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he hopes the three Supreme Court justices he appointed would be “fair” as the high court considers whether Trump can be barred from holding office.  

Trump argued that judges he appointed “go out of their way to be fair and unbiased and even to a point where they hurt you,” as he addressed a crowd of supporters in Sioux Center, Iowa.

The US Supreme Court said Friday it would review the Colorado Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision to remove Trump from the state’s ballot. Trump remains on the primary ballot as the lower-court ruling disqualifying him has been put on hold pending Supreme Court action.

If the justices do conclude Trump is ineligible for public office, then any votes cast for him wouldn’t count.

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie speaks during a town hall in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday, January 5.

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie reacted on Friday to the US Supreme Court’s announcement that it will review the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove former President Donald Trump from that state’s ballot, telling New Hampshire voters that “it’s not the job of the nine members of the Supreme Court to keep our republic. It’s ours.”

The former federal prosecutor reiterated his view at a town hall in Keene that there are “good legal arguments” as to why Trump doesn’t qualify to be on state ballots, but he hopes the court doesn’t kick Trump off “because it’s our responsibility, not the nine Justices of the Supreme Court.” 

Christie recalled founding father Benjamin Franklin’s words that the United States is “a republic, if you can keep it.” 

Christie brought up Trump’s comment that he would be a dictator only on the first day of his presidency, and told the room of New Hampshire voters “you voted for him in ’16,” prompting one voter to call out “no, we didn’t.”

“Unfortunately, you’re saddled with it, babe, you’re saddled with it,” Christie responded, continuing to detail Trump’s winning record in past New Hampshire primaries.

“You vote for him in 24 … Live Free or Die sounds like bull to me. Right? Because this guy doesn’t want you to have freedom,” he said.

Christie called Trump angry, bitter and “backward looking,” warning that he will “continue to be even worse.”

“If you want to try to turn that page, it’s not going to fix itself. We have to fix it. The Supreme Court’s not going to come in and save us. We’re gonna have to save ourselves,” he said.

Ramaswamy prays with residents of Perry, Iowa, on Thursday, January 4.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reflected on the campaign event he held in Perry, Iowa, as the news broke Thursday of a shooting at nearby Perry High School, calling it “one of the most meaningful events” he’s held on the campaign trail.  

Ramaswamy talked about his experience learning of the shooting as he arrived in Perry for a campaign event Thursday morning, and speaking with Perry residents as the community learned of the tragedy.

“I was in Perry when it happened, actually. We had an event about five minutes away from the shooting and we were there. I only heard about it literally as we’re pulling up — we see ambulances, we see police cars, we see helicopters, you know something is happening,” Ramaswamy said. 

Ramaswamy talked about the decision to shift the event from a traditional campaign town hall to a community prayer gathering and shared the reactions of two Perry residents who said they had long-held concerns about threats at the high school. 

“The first two people who spoke were both people who lived in Perry, one of them was a guy, a young man who had just gone to Perry High School, and both of them independently said the same thing … He said we’re not shocked that this happened,” he added.

 A sixth grade student was killed and five others were wounded in the shooting, police said.

Colorado’s top election official has now certified the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballots with former President Donald Trump’s name on the Republican ballot.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold had previously made clear Trump’s name would remain on the state’s primary ballot given his appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove him unless the US Supreme Court said otherwise. 

Former President Donald Trump campaign says it welcomes a “fair hearing” at the Supreme Court over the 14th Amendment challenge to Trump appearing on the Colorado ballot.

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis appears at a campaign event at the Elk Lodge in Decorah, Iowa, with Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Texas Rep. Chip Roy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis assured Iowans he can unite the Republican Party – including those that stand firmly for former President Trump – if they put their faith in him at the caucuses just 10 days from now.

One voter asked how DeSantis plans to “beat the bullying from the MAGA group and Trump?”

DeSantis said his record delivering “conservative principles and conservative policies” would unify the party, since it’s about results, not any one individual. 

“When Trump ran in ‘16, it was really you know, America First. There was a lot of energy behind that, because we needed things shaken up,” DeSantis said. “Now, this campaign has really been about Trump First, and that doesn’t – that’s not ultimately going to be sustainable, because it’s got to be rooted in some principles.”

DeSantis stressed how consequential Iowans would be in this election, thanking those who already committed to caucus for him and tasking them with recruiting more support. 

He told voters he’s keeping his “eye on the prize” in Iowa which “can set the tone,” for New Hampshire, South Carolina and other early primary states. 

DeSantis also commented on Florida receiving FDA approval of its Canadian Prescription Drug Importation Program, which will allow the import of cheaper drugs from Canada to his state. 

Christie speaks during a campaign event at MaryAnn's Diner in Amherst, New Hampshire, on Friday, January 5.. 

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie called the top GOP House leaders, who have endorsed Donald Trump for president, “cowards” who “just fall in line.”

He said Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer backed the former president because they feared him.

“Not because they believe in him. Because believe me, I haven’t spoken to Speaker Johnson but I’ve spoken to Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer. They don’t believe in him,” he said.

Christie suggested Trump was right when he told the New York Times that GOP lawmakers “always bend the knee” in response to securing the support of Emmer, after tanking the Minnesota Republican’s speakership bid. 

The former New Jersey governor also said he wished “Nikki Haley would be stronger about it,” again criticizing his rival for saying she would pardon Trump and vote for him if he was a convicted felon. 

“And she won’t refuse his offer to be vice president with the office. That doesn’t sound to me like somebody who’s serious about beating Donald Trump,” he continued.

He also said Ron DeSantis was “never serious about beating Donald Trump” and Vivek Ramaswamy was “competing with Nikki to be vice president.”

“So the only person in this race anymore who’s running against Donald Trump is standing right in front of you,” Christie told a few dozen people gathered at MaryAnn’s Diner. He also took questions for close to an hour, including on LGBTQ rights, China and Ukrainian refugees.

The US Supreme Court is now confronting an election case of unparalleled weight that will determine Donald Trump’s prospects to regain the White House and influence public regard for an increasingly embattled court.

The new controversy from Colorado arrives as the nine justices face more scrutiny and the country is more polarized than in 2000, the last time the court was at the center of a presidential election battle, in the case of Bush v. Gore.

The justices’ handling of the fight over Trump’s disqualification from the Colorado ballot – the first moves of which were made on Friday – could intensify the tumult surrounding them or, in the end, give them an opportunity to inspire confidence regarding the norms of democracy as the 2024 elections approach.

The Colorado Supreme Court decision Trump is appealing said Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — adopted after the Civil War and aimed at former Confederate officials — disqualifies him from state ballots. The state voters challenging Trump struck back immediately to his arguments characterizing an insurrection, asserting in a Thursday evening filing that “this attack was an ‘insurrection’ against the Constitution by any standard.”

Lower court judges have found that Trump incited violence when he implored allies on January 6 to “fight like hell” to “take back our country.”

But Trump contended in his filing to the justices that “his only explicit instructions” on January 6 were for peaceful protests. His legal team even attached a copy of Trump’s speech on the Ellipse that day.

Trump and the others involved in the new paired controversies – voters challenging him on the ballot and the Colorado Republican State Central Committee – want the justices to resolve the unprecedented dispute quickly.

Norma Anderson, a former Republican Colorado legislative leader, and the five other GOP voters who began the case against Trump want it decided by February 11, before a scheduled February 12 mailing of primary ballots in Colorado. The Colorado Republican Committee, backing Trump’s interests, has asked the justices to rule by at least March 5, which is when ballots in the state have to be submitted. That is also Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen other states hold their primaries.

Trump’s lawyers offered no specific timetable but stressed the urgency of the issue, writing that the Colorado Supreme Court decision disqualifying him “would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide.”

For instance, the Maine secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, in December determined that Trump should not be on the ballot. Trump has appealed her decision in Maine state courts, and it could be similarly bound for the US Supreme Court.

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