She Took a Big Risk Backing Someone Other Than Trump. Then Her Candidate Lost.

DES MOINES, Iowa — She made her last stand in a public school library.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds had taken a huge political gamble in backing her friend and fellow Gov. Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination, bucking both Iowa governors’ traditional caucus neutrality and her erstwhile ally Donald Trump. The former president had ever since been foretelling the end of her political career and trashing her from campaign stops in her own state, sometimes getting boos at the mention of her name. These were ominous signals for a rising Republican star in a party beholden to Trump.

But in the days before the caucus, through a blizzard and plunging temperatures, through stubbornly consistent polls showing Trump lapping the field, Reynolds was out on the trail with DeSantis, chuckling gamely at his usually-people-don’t-leave-Florida-for-the-Midwest-in-January schtick, urging Iowans to defy the pollsters, to “layer up” against the cold and “show up” at the caucuses. The polls weren’t showing what she was seeing, she said. He was going to win this thing.

So on Monday night, she stepped to the front of a room of about 100 of her Madison County neighbors and made her pitch, once again, for a candidate polls said would be lucky to take second place. She thanked the caucusgoers, said what an honor it was to be their governor and took only a veiled swipe at the man expected to win by double-digits: “We need somebody that’s focused on the future, not the past. … Somebody that will fulfill the promises that they made to the people when they signed up to run for this position.” Polls were one thing, but surely a popular Republican governor could at least sway a room full of her own Republican neighbors in Madison County.

When all the handwritten paper slips had been counted about a half-hour later, Trump had dominated the room, just like he would the rest of the state. At that caucus location, the former president got 79 votes to DeSantis’ 23. The library erupted in applause and cheers.

It was a deflating moment for a governor accustomed to taking risks and winning. Since ascending to the post in 2017 — becoming Iowa’s first female governor after then-President Trump appointed then-Gov. Terry Branstad ambassador to China — Reynolds has evolved into one of the most successful conservative state executives in the country, with a national profile to match. If she had wanted, she could have just taken the safe route — used the 2024 presidential race, and Iowa’s caucus, to raise her profile further and showcase her state.

Instead, she went back on her promise to stay neutral and seemed to risk it all. From the moment she endorsed DeSantis (she said she didn’t think Trump could win in a general election and DeSantis could) it was clear what she stood to lose, not least a good relationship with the vengeful man who could be the next Republican president. Even before the endorsement happened, Trump declared that “it will be the end of her political career;” he continued to bash her right up until the night of caucus.

But on the caucus night itself, it wasn’t necessarily clear that she’d lost anything other than her bet on DeSantis, or even that she would. The chance that she might have foreclosed on a possible spot in a Trump administration — some had once thought her a likely shortlist vice presidential pick — bothered her not in the least, according to a senior adviser, who told me that, given her 11 young grandchildren in Iowa, she didn’t want to go to Washington no matter who was president. And the potential fallout from Trump supporters in her own state seeking revenge on his behalf? Well, I couldn’t find any hint of that in the caucus room. In fact, there was a surprising amount of big-tent love.

“We agree to disagree on things like this,” said Angie Daniels, a communications contractor wearing a Trump sticker. Daniels had “zero animosity whatsoever about [Reynolds] supporting DeSantis. … It’s not our dog in the race. But, you know, that’s the whole point of all this.”

Reynolds was confident enough in her outlier position (Chris Sununu in New Hampshire is the only other prominent GOP governor to have endorsed against Trump this cycle) that she only doubled down after the results were in. Later on caucus night, at a West Des Moines Sheraton, she somewhat implausibly introduced DeSantis to a crowd of still-fired-up supporters as the next president of the United States. (Trump, at his victory rally, meanwhile, embraced Attorney General Brenna Bird, who had endorsed him, and told the crowd: “She stepped up. She’s going to be your governor someday, I predict.”) Reynolds is no “Never Trumper” — she has made clear she’d support Trump if he gets the Republican nomination. She’s just not ready to do that yet — unlike a parade of other prominent GOP figures (Sens. Marco Rubio and Mike Lee, for instance) who raced to endorse Trump before the first vote was cast.

Still, the school library that night was an almost gauzy picture of what post-primary Republican unity might look like — part Norman Rockwell, part realpolitik. Trump voters I spoke to there were fully at ease simultaneously liking Reynolds’ record in the state and Trump’s in the country. They waved away Trump’s own comments about her as just Trump being Trump. “It’s all fair in love and war, when you’re doing the political crap,” said Bryan Arzani, the mayor of Truro, the town where we stood. Arzani is enough of a Trump fan to have attended the former president’s rally in Washington on Jan. 6 to protest the 2020 election results. (“[I] didn’t do anything stupid,” he said.) The DeSantis endorsement “does turn some people off who don’t understand the bigger picture,” he said, but not enough of them to really hurt her politically. A few minutes later, I watched him and Reynolds share a hug.

Travis Daniels, Angie’s husband, an Army vet in a cowboy hat, didn’t think Trump’s attacks would hurt Reynolds in the state, either. “Iowans support Iowans,” he said. “We take this very seriously. We do our research. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to go to church with half these people. I’ve got to go to the grocery store with them. I do business with them. So we don’t hold grudges like that. …We’re all on the same team.”

‘Out there on an island’

Kim Reynolds has arguably been two different governors: the Kim Reynolds before Covid and the Kim Reynolds after. The pre-Covid version had found herself suddenly elevated from a lieutenant governorship that had also come about rather early in her state Senate career, and she’d barely assumed the office before she faced a tough reelection campaign. She wasn’t taking major conservative legislative swings; her priorities included items such as mental health care and education funding. And then, a little over a year after she won a close reelection, the pandemic hit.

“I think during the pandemic is when Governor Reynolds really grew into the role and became the strong leader she is today,” said state Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a Polk County Republican. Indeed, talking to Reynolds fans at various pre-caucus campaign stops, I often heard people cite her pandemic performance as the reason voters liked her. She resisted shutdown orders at a time when most states had them and Trump’s pandemic team encouraged them.

As it happened, Ron DeSantis was doing something similar in Florida, which is how the two got to know one another. They were “out there on an island,” Reynolds said at quite a few DeSantis events leading up to the caucus — both heavily criticized in national media for shunning public health mandates and indeed some of the guidance coming from the Trump administration itself. The risks both of them faced — indeed every governor around the country faced — were not just political: They were deciding matters of life and death, children’s education and their citizens’ livelihoods.

Meanwhile, it was an election year, though Reynolds herself was not on the ballot. A headline from The New York Times that fall warned that Iowans were turning “sour on the GOP” and that Reynolds’ pandemic performance could drag down other Republicans, including Trump and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst. Both in fact won the state quite comfortably in 2020, and on election night, Reynolds praised Trump’s administration as one of “action and outcomes,” and Trump himself as “a leader, a fighter, a president who puts America and Americans first.” And the following January, Reynolds signed a then-controversial law requiring schools to offer an option for in-person learning five days a week — making Iowa one of only four states to have such a requirement, along with Florida, Texas and Arkansas. Again, the critics were loud, but in the end the statistics tended to support the decision to bring students back early; a McKinsey study found that Iowa experienced some of the lowest pandemic-related learning delays in the country. Nationwide by the end of 2021, according to a POLITICO ranking, Iowa ranked just below average in health outcomes, with better-than-average economic and educational performance.

By the 2022 midterms, she’d built up some political clout, and she used it. She had made “school choice” a priority that legislative session, pushing a bill that would put state money into scholarships for private schools. Democrats accused her of trying to defund public schools, and some Republicans objected to the idea on conservative grounds — that government largesse could cost private schools their independence, or that the idea would hurt their small rural school districts. So, somewhat Trumpishly, she backed primary challengers to some of those dissenting Republicans. She caused some bitterness in the process, but she also prevailed: Four of the four incumbents she sought to oust ended up losing their primaries. Trump’s endorsement record was far longer but nowhere near as strong.

In that midterm year of 2022, Trump was blamed for dragging down other Republican candidates and thwarting an expected red wave, but in Iowa under Reynolds, the red wave actually happened. Republicans gained statewide offices, knocked off the last Democrat in the congressional delegation and expanded their legislative majority. “Kim had massive coattails,” the Republican operative David Kochel told the Des Moines Register at the time. She used that majority in turn to push through a slate of ambitious conservative proposals, including tax cuts, strict abortion restrictions and a major school choice bill.

In her inauguration speech, she discussed her pandemic response and said that trusting in God had given her “freedom to be bold and not beholden” whether “to others, to elections, or even to what’s popular.” Her school choice bill, in fact, wasn’t popular, according to an Iowa Poll that found 62 percent opposed to it after it passed. Nor did Reynolds, who openly supported a six-week ban on abortion when a majority of Iowans thought abortion should be legal in most or all cases, suffer the post-Dobbs punishment other Republicans did that year. In 2023, she got that abortion ban through the legislature, too. (The law is currently blocked and set for review in the state’s Supreme Court.)

‘She has Trump antibodies now’

“Today, Reynolds is much diminished,” David Yepsen, a former Des Moines Register chief political reporter and “Iowa Press” host, told Iowa Starting Line this week. “She upset [and] alienated a lot of Republicans with her endorsement and very active campaigning by DeSantis’ [side]. That goes against historic practices of leading Iowa politicians to sort of stay out of this thing.”

But Reynolds is not up for election until 2026 — and she hasn’t even announced she’s running. She will be in her mid-60s by then, and her husband Kevin is currently battling lung cancer. But at that point, if she even does seek a political future after having served two terms and change, her actual record likely will be more important to her fate, one way or another, than a two-year-old endorsement. Disaffected pro-Trump legislators will have a say in shaping that record over the next two years, but the effect, if any, remains to be seen.

“I think future elections, no matter who is running for what, are going to be won and lost on issues and organization,” said Rob Sand, Iowa’s auditor and the state’s only elected statewide Democrat. He is no fan of Reynolds’ policies in general, and he also points to narrow losses for statewide Democrats in 2022 as evidence that the state is not as red as it looks. In which case, to the extent the DeSantis endorsement makes any difference at all, it may be in a general election rather than a Trump-backed primary challenge. “I think a meaningful number of people who have voted for both Democrats and Republicans are frustrated with someone who basically spent six years saying one thing” — that she supported Trump — “and then turned on a dime.”

It’s not that Reynolds lacks critics. (Just before Christmas, she declined to participate in a federal food assistance program for low-income children; Democratic opponents, not surprisingly, noted the disconnect with the spirit of the season.) It’s just that the criticisms I heard in Iowa tended to be more about substance than about Trump. Polls vary depending on the survey, but one that Donald Trump cited is a Morning Consult governors’ approval ranking showing her with the highest disapproval, at 47 percent. This was an 8-point jump in disapproval from the beginning of 2023, and the result notably preceded the DeSantis endorsement but came after an active legislative session in which the governor got major conservative priorities passed, including polarizing education policies.

“To me it feels like, as a teacher, she just doesn’t ask us what we think would be helpful,” said a teacher at Perry High School, where a shooter had opened fire on Jan. 4, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five other students. The principal was shot trying to protect other students in the attack, and days later died of his wounds. Reynolds visited the school and promised support. She called the principal a hero and ordered flags flown at half-mast after he died. But this teacher, a former Republican disaffected by Trumpism, pointed to Reynolds’ ongoing push to streamline Area Education Agencies, which provide services including special education and mental health support. The teacher said those services were indispensable after the shooting. “The thing I’m really disgusted with is her saying she’s going to give us every support possible and then gutting the organization that can do that.”

In other words, it’s policy and track record that matters most, not her perceived popularity with the notoriously fickle and loyalty-obsessed Trump. That is reportedly not the vibe inside MAGA World, where the attention is very much on who did or didn’t endorse Trump — and most crucially when they finally “bent the knee” (looking at you, Ted Cruz). But there’s at least one bona fide conservative out there whose advice to Reynolds is simply not to sweat it.

“I told her she has Trump antibodies now,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who campaigned for DeSantis alongside Reynolds leading up to the caucus.

Massie knows from getting crosswise with Trump. The then-president tweeted that Massie was a “third rate Grandstander” after he voted against the CARES Act pandemic stimulus in 2020; Massie still remembers the exact date of the tweet, March 27, as a day he thought he could lose his seat in an ongoing primary. But despite Trump’s popularity in his district, which outstripped his own — despite, indeed, the popularity of the CARES Act among likely Republican voters there — Massie raised money off of Trump’s attacks and crushed his opponent with 81 percent of the vote that year. The next cycle, Trump endorsed Massie, who suggested that the endorsement should call him “a first-rate defender of the Constitution.” “So I went from a third-rate grandstander to a first-rate defender of the constitution in two years,” Massie said. (For what it’s worth, Massie said he, too, would support the eventual Republican nominee.)

“The reality is, the way bullies work is they pick on the weak,” Massie told me. “She’s not weak.”

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California Senate leader aims to be the state's first woman and LGBTQ+ governor

The burgeoning field to be California’s next governor grew even more crowded Friday as Toni Atkins, the San Diego Democrat who has held the state’s top legislative posts, launched a bid to succeed Gov Gavin. Newsom in 2026.

Atkins — who has made history several times over as the first out lesbian to be Assembly Speaker, as well as the first woman and LGBTQ+ person to lead the Senate — is betting that her long resume in elected office coupled with her boundary-breaking profile is the winning formula to distinguish her from the pack.

“It’s a combination of story and experience,” Atkins told POLITICO in an interview. “I truly believe my record shows I’m the most qualified candidate based on the experience and the things that I’ve done.”

Atkins, now serving as Senate leader, has been at the top of the legislative food chain for much of her tenure in Sacramento. The leadership roles have given her tremendous sway in negotiating budget deals and pushing policy priorities such as affordable housing and abortion rights.

But being a Capitol power broker rarely translates to widespread notoriety, leaving Atkins with a steep climb building name recognition among the state’s voters.

“I know the work is going to be daunting. I know it's going to be hard,” Atkins said. “I'm going to spend every waking minute figuring out how to introduce myself to people across California.”

She added: “I don't come from wealth, I don't have that to fall back on. So I am going to have to raise money, and fortunately, I've had experience doing that as the Speaker and the Pro Tem to protect my caucuses.”

The allusion to her hardscrabble Appalachian upbringing offered a barely veiled contrast with Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who declared her candidacy for governor last spring in an early push to get out ahead of potential contenders. Kounalakis, a former ambassador and major Democratic donor, has drawn on family wealth to power her past campaigns.

Both Kounalakis and Atkins are striving to make history as the state’s first female governor, as is former state controller Betty Yee. The field is stacked with a number of potential ‘firsts’ — Atkins could be the state’s first LBGTQ leader, Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is Filipino American, could be the first Asian American governor and Tony Thurmond, the state schools chief, could be the first Black person and Latino to win the top job.

Atkins, 61, is still serving as Pro Tem before handing over the reins to state Sen. Mike McGuire on Feb. 5. Her gubernatorial kick-off, which was rumored in Capitol circles for months, took place Friday morning at the Air and Space Museum in San Diego, which has been her California home base since she moved to the state in 1985 to help care for her sister’s newborn.

Among those present at the launch event were California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a longtime ally, and her political mentor Christine Kehoe, the former San Diego legislator.

“If someone had told me when I first came to California that I would be here today, I probably would have laughed out loud at how crazy that sounded,” Atkins said in prepared remarks. “I had always been too different. Too poor. Too country. Too gay. … Do I think my story provides some kind of golden ticket to the governor’s office? Of course not. But my experience defines me.”

Atkins served as a director of a women’s health clinic before entering local government, first as a City Council staffer before getting elected to the Council in 2000. In 2010, she was elected to the Assembly, where she won the speakership in 2014. One year later, she made the unorthodox choice to challenge a sitting Democrat for a state Senate seat (the incumbent, Marty Block, later dropped out) and ascended to the upper chamber in 2017. The next year, she was sworn in as Senate leader, making her the first person in 150 years — and third ever in state history — to hold the top job in both houses.

With her Southern drawl and low-key demeanor, Atkins is a well-liked figure among political insiders. Her leadership tenures have seen relatively few controversies, though she has been scrutinized over how her spouse Jennifer LeSar’s affordable housing consulting business flourished while Atkins’ Capitol clout grew.

Atkins acknowledged she has not been the flashiest figure in recent California politics, particularly as she worked with two high-profile governors — Newsom and Jerry Brown.

“Most people don't see me taking the spotlight because I've had to represent my caucuses, whether it's the Senate or the Assembly,” Atkins said. “But I assure you, I have a vision for what I want to do and how I want to do it.”

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Tim Scott to endorse Donald Trump

Sen. Tim Scott will endorse Donald Trump at a rally tonight in New Hampshire, a person familiar with the coming event confirmed.

The senator had competed against Trump for the Republican nomination before bowing out amid a failure to gain traction in the polls.

His decision to back Trump is a blow to Nikki Haley, a fellow South Carolina Republican, who is aiming to have a strong showing in New Hampshire’s upcoming primary. It was Haley who appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012 while serving as governor of the Palmetto state.

The New York Times was the first to report the coming Scott endorsement.

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Netanyahu says he has told U.S. he opposes Palestinian state in any postwar scenario

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel’s assault on Gaza aiming to eliminate its Hamas rulers.

The U.S. has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the “day after.”

But in a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realizes a “decisive victory over Hamas.” He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans.

“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”

“The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.

More than 100 days after Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack, Israel continues to wage one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, with the goal of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and returning scores of captives. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.

More than 24,600 Palestinians have been killed, some 85 percent of the narrow coastal territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and the United Nations says a quarter of the population is starving.

Hundreds of thousands have heeded Israeli evacuation orders and packed into southern Gaza, where shelters run by the United Nations are overflowing and massive tent camps have gone up. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of Gaza, often killing women and children.

Early Thursday, medics said an Israeli airstrike on a home killed 16 people, half of them children, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

Dr. Talat Barhoum at Rafah’s el-Najjar Hospital confirmed the toll and said dozens more were wounded. Associated Press footage from the hospital showed relatives weeping over the bodies of loved ones.

“They were suffering from hunger, they were dying from hunger, and now they have also been hit,” said Mahmoud Qassim, a relative of some of those who were killed.

Footage emerged Thursday of Israeli troops blowing up the main campus of a university outside Gaza City in a controlled detonation — one of multiple universities they have destroyed. The video, apparently taken by drone, showed a giant explosion engulfing the complex of buildings of Al-Israa University.

The university, a private institution founded in 2014, said in a statement that its main building for graduate studies and bachelor’s colleges were destroyed. It said Israeli forces seized the complex 70 days ago and used it as a base. It was unclear when the explosion took place. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

According to Hamas, Israeli forces have destroyed more than 390 schools, universities, and educational institutions across Gaza.

Internet and mobile services in Gaza have been down for five days, the longest of several outages during the war, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks. The outages complicate rescue efforts and make it difficult to obtain information about the latest strikes and casualties.

There was meanwhile no word on whether medicines that entered the territory Wednesday as part of a deal brokered by France and Qatar had been distributed to dozens hostages with chronic illnesses who are being held by Hamas.

War reverberates across region

The war has rippled across the Middle East, with Iran-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets. Low-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target international shipping despite United States-led airstrikes.

The Israeli military said it fired an interceptor at a “suspicious aerial target” — likely a drone or missile — approaching over the Red Sea on Thursday, triggering air raid sirens in the southern Israeli coastal city of Eilat. The Houthis have launched drones and missiles toward Israel that mostly fell short or were intercepted and shot down.

Iran has meanwhile launched a series of missile attacks targeting what it described as an Israeli spy base in Iraq and militant bases in Syria as well as in Pakistan, which carried out reprisal strikes against what it described as militant hideouts in Iran early Thursday.

It was not clear if the strikes in Syria and Pakistan were related to the Gaza war. But they showcased Iran’s ability to carry out long-range missile attacks at a time of heightened tensions with Israel and the U.S., which has provided crucial support for the Gaza offensive and carried out its own strikes against Iran-allied groups in Syria and Iraq.

Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas to ensure it can never repeat an attack like the one on Oct. 7. Militants burst through Israel’s border defenses and stormed through several communities that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.

Israel has also vowed to return all the hostages remaining in captivity after more than 100 — mostly women and children — were released during a November cease-fire in exchange for the release of scores of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Family members and supporters were marking the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostage, in a somber ceremony Thursday in Tel Aviv.

The red-haired infant and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were captured along with their mother, Shiri, and their father, Yarden. All four remain in captivity.

Medicines bound for hostages enter Gaza

The agreement to ship in medicines was the first to be brokered between the warring sides since November. Hamas said that for every box of medicine bound for the hostages, 1,000 would be sent for Palestinian civilians, in addition to food and humanitarian aid.

Qatar confirmed late Wednesday that the medicine had entered Gaza, but it was not yet clear if it had been distributed to the hostages, who are being held in secret locations, including underground bunkers.

Both France and Hamas had said the International Committee for the Red Cross, which helped facilitate the hostage releases, would have a role in distributing the medications. But on Thursday, the Red Cross said “the mechanism that was agreed to does not involve the ICRC playing any part in its implementation, including the delivery of medication.”

Hamas has continued to fight back across Gaza, even in the most devastated areas, and launch rockets into Israel. It says it will not release any more hostages until there is a permanent cease-fire, something Israel and the United States, its top ally, have ruled out.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 24,620 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, around two-thirds of them women and children, with over 61,800 wounded. It says many other dead and wounded are trapped under rubble or unreachable because of the fighting. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it fights in dense residential areas. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 9,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 193 of its own soldiers have been killed since the Gaza ground offensive began.

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No Labels: We’d consider Haley on our ticket. Haley: No thanks.

No Labels national co-chair Joe Lieberman said on Thursday that the nonpartisan group would consider Nikki Haley to be part of their potential unity presidential ticket if she’s interested.

“If Gov. Haley does not succeed in obtaining the Republican nomination for president and she declares any interest in being part of our bipartisan unity ticket, I’m sure the people at No Labels would give that the most serious consideration, but obviously she’s not done that because she’s an active Republican candidate for president,” said Lieberman, a former Senator.

He said that based on her record as governor of South Carolina and as ambassador to the United Nations, “Governor Haley would deserve serious consideration” to be part of their ticket if she were interested. “We have no idea whether she would be,” he added.

Haley, a lifelong Republican and former cabinet member in the Trump administration, is currently engaged in an increasingly contentious primary fight against Donald Trump. And her campaign swiftly batted down the idea that she’d run under the No Labels banner.

“Nikki has no interest in No Labels, she’s happy with the Republican label,” Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a text message.

But it’s clear that No Labels views Haley positively, whether on their ticket or as the GOP standard-bearer. Two people familiar with the group’s thinking, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that No Labels would prefer that Haley win the GOP nomination since she’s a mainstream Republican. If Haley won the nomination, the group would likely not run a No Labels ticket.

One of the people also said that officials in and around No Labels are also strategically not floating other Republicans for their unity ticket because they believe it would send a vote of no confidence in Haley’s current ability to win the Republican nomination.

“Any potential Republican for a No Labels ticket is trying to save the Republican Party from within first before committing themselves to a No Labels unity ticket,” said the person.

Asked at the press conference whether the group wanted Haley to win the Republican primary so that their ticket was unnecessary, Ryan Clancy, No Labels’ chief strategist, said: “We don’t have a preference. It’s not for us to tell the Republican primary voters what they’re supposed to do. We’re here to provide the choice if the public wants it.”

No Labels has talked previously about how their unity ticket is an “insurance policy” in case both parties nominate Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Democrats fear that if No Labels runs a unity ticket, it would severely jeopardize President Joe Biden’s chances to get reelected by taking votes away from him.

Lieberman said that so far they haven’t gotten any commitments yet from potential candidates that they are talking to but that the group hasn’t been rejected by anyone either.

“We’re talking to a lot of people in both parties about potentially running and really none of them have said no, but none of them have really said ‘yes, I’m ready’ because they want to be convinced just like we do that one, it’s going to be Trump against Biden, and two, that there’s a plausible chance for a bipartisan unity ticket to win,” he said. He added that based on their current polling that there is such a chance.

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Florida Republicans eye new target: Flags

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Flags could be the latest casualty in Florida’s ongoing culture wars.

Flags heralding support for LBGTQ pride, Black Lives Matter and even Donald Trump would have to be taken down in classrooms and government buildings across Florida under new legislation introduced Wednesday by House Republicans.

GOP lawmakers contend removing all flags with a political viewpoint is necessary to save students from being “subliminally indoctrinated” with critical race theory, Marxism and transgender ideology. The proposal would also ban the Confederate flag from these places.

“Our taxpayer dollars should not be subsidizing political speech in government buildings and classrooms,” said state Rep. David Borrero (R-Sweetwater), a co-sponsor of the legislation. “It’s time we stopped … local governments and public school teachers from using classrooms and governments buildings as their indoctrination pulpit.”

The bill, FL HB901 (24R), requires K-12 schools, colleges, universities and government agencies, as well as local state government buildings, to remain politically neutral by targeting flags touching on viewpoints that explicitly include “partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender.”

Lawmakers advanced the proposal along party lines during its first House hearing, with Democrats joining dozens of LGBTQ advocates in opposition. A similar bill, FL SB1120 (24R) has been filed, but not heard or scheduled for a hearing, in the Senate.

Critics of the legislation claim it is an attempt by Republicans to quiet the voices of LGBTQ and minority communities, efforts they equate to “bullying” and “affirming hate” for building on past legislation. In 2023, GOP officials led by Gov. Ron DeSantis passed laws broadening the state’s prohibition on teaching about sexual identity and gender orientation, known by critics as “Don’t Say Gay,” banned transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care and made it a criminal offense for someone to use bathrooms that don’t align with their sex at birth.

This year, there are several new bills proposed by lawmakers such as restricting the use of personal pronouns that don’t align with a person’s sex at birth in some workplaces.

“Affirming that Black Lives Matter is not ideology, displaying a pride flag does not hurt anyone,” said state Rep. Dotie Joseph (D-North Miami). “At bottom, what hurts people in this culture war codification is hate and … violence.”

Republicans, however, argue that flying flags besides the United States, Florida and POW-MIA banners can be divisive and have no place in public schools. One lawmaker in particular objected to Joseph’s classification of Black Lives Matter, railing on the organization because it “encouraged” riots and violence in city streets while racking up millions of dollars in donations.

“If that’s not ideological, I don’t know what is,” said state Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole). “If this bill would accomplish that just that radical ideological flag is never flown above our government buildings, then it’s worth voting up.”

At least one Florida parent has sued a local school district over LGBTQ pride flags hanging in a classroom, although the challenge was ultimately rejected. In that case, centered around a Palm Beach County school, a circuit court judge ruled that “nothing in state law” or governing rules “imposes limits on its authority regarding the display of flags or addressing social issues in a seventh-grade classroom.”

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‘You just can’t control yourself’: Judge threatens to kick Trump out of courtroom

NEW YORK — A federal judge threatened to kick Donald Trump out of court Wednesday after the former president made repeated comments within earshot of the jury hearing a civil defamation trial against him.

Trump muttered that the case is a “witch hunt,” among other similar comments, according to a lawyer for the writer E. Jean Carroll, who is suing Trump over derogatory comments he made about her while he was president.

The episode prompted a stern rebuke from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who repeatedly tussled with Trump and his lawyers during a testy courtroom session Wednesday morning.

“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited, and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which is what has been reported to me,” the judge said.

Kaplan then spoke directly to Trump, who was seated at the defense table. “Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial,” he said. “I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that.”

At that point, Trump threw up his hands, saying, “I would love it. I would love it.”

“I know you would. I know you would,” Kaplan replied. “You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently.”

Trump shot back: “You can’t either.”

Kaplan’s threat came after Carroll’s lawyers complained twice that Trump had muttered during Carroll’s testimony in ways they believed the jury could hear.

Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley told the judge that Trump had said “it is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job,” echoing comments he has previously made about the case. After jurors watched a 2023 video of Trump calling an earlier trial against Carroll a “witch hunt” and a “disgrace,” Trump said, “it’s true,” according to Crowley.

Kaplan, who has been a federal judge since 1994, also oversaw an earlier trial in a case brought by Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. The jury in that case ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in damages after finding Trump sexually abused and defamed her. In the new trial, which began this week, Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages.

Trump never set foot in the courtroom during his first Carroll trial last year. But he has attended the first two days of the current trial.

After a lunch break, one of Trump’s lawyers, Michael Madaio, asked Kaplan to recuse himself, saying Kaplan had immediately accepted the assertions of Crowley, whom Madaio noted was once a law clerk for Kaplan, and that Kaplan had displayed “general hostility” toward the defense.

Kaplan replied: “Denied.”

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