The SHOW NOTES: Iran Attacks The US, Trump's Historic Iowa Win, & The Other Insurrection
Welcome! Donald Trump cruised to victory in Iowa with a historic 30-point margin.
HEADLINE: All GOP presidential candidates ahead of Biden in new poll, Haley holds largest lead - NY Post
NEW: John Kerry is out. - Fox News
COURT: Court deals blow to Biden dishwasher efficiency rule — but stops short of tossing it - The Hill
NFL: The Chiefs-Dolphins game on Peacock was the most-streamed live event in US history - CNN
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Iowa
Donald Trump won the Iowa Caucus with 51% of the vote while Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley finished in a distant second and third earning 21% and 19% respectively. Trump’s 30-point margin of victory set a record for a contested Iowa Republican caucus as Trump heads back to New York for a Tuesday morning court trial in Manhattan.
Context: While the record-setting Iowa Caucus in 2016 saw 180,000 participants, Edison Research estimates last night’s turnout was around 115,000 due to the inclement weather. For perspective, Iowa has around 2 million registered voters and a population of 3.1 million.
Controversy: The Associated Press called the race at 8:31 EST, only 31 minutes after caucusing began. Countless voters in many of Iowa’s 1,670 precincts received word that the AP had called the race before they cast a ballot. Multiple outlets followed the Associated Press’s lead and called the race for Trump shortly thereafter sparking furry in the Hawkeye state.
Out: Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign last night following a distant fourth-place finish that garnered only 8% of the vote. Ramaswamy announced he was throwing his support behind Donald Trump.
🚨 Here’s my take on what happened last night:
Even the Battle for Second Turned Out Well for Trump in Iowa
This is an expert from Nate Cohen at The New York Times (paywall):
The road ahead for him (DeSantis) is bleak. No upcoming contest plainly offers Mr. DeSantis a better chance of victory, and his poll numbers are even weaker in the states ahead. If he can’t compete in Iowa, it’s hard to imagine where he can. It has raised the question of whether he will continue in the race, though he has said he’s staying in. Either way, Ms. Haley has overtaken Mr. DeSantis as Mr. Trump’s nearest, if still distant, rival.
For Ms. Haley, the third-place finish is a disappointment but not dire. She showed important strength among college-educated, independent and suburban voters, who have long been Mr. Trump’s greatest skeptics. She defeated Mr. Trump by a comfortable margin in precincts where a majority of residents hold a four-year college degree. She also won 64 percent of self-described moderates.
Iran and Yemen
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard launched missiles towards the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq in an unprecedented move that significantly escalates international tensions. While the consulate was not directly hit and no US service members were injured, Iran immediately took responsibility claiming it was a "headquarters of spies."
Why this matters: Previously, Iran waged war on the US by supporting proxy militias such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, or the Russians in Ukraine. This marks the first and most noteworthy direct attack against a US position.
That’s not all: The Houthi rebels have seemingly ignored last week’s US attack against them and have responded by targeting a US cargo ship. The US-owned Gibraltar Eagle container ship was struck by a Houthi-launched ballistic anti-ship missile earlier today. All eyes turn to how the White House will respond.
Bonus: U.S. says it seized Iran missile parts bound for the Houthis after SEALs went overboard - NBC
Pro-Hamas Insurrection
The White House was partially evacuated after pro-Hamas protestors tried to topple a temporary security fence surrounding the White House. No arrests were made.
California Invents a Crazy New Tort
Businesses are often sued for selling allegedly faulty products that aren’t actually defective. Last week a California appeals court ruled that businesses can also be sued for failing to develop a product. Behold California’s new tort standard: You should have built that.
Some 24,000 patients have sued Gilead Sciencesin California state court for failing to introduce an allegedly safer version of an HIV drug. The Food and Drug Administration in 2001 approved a life-saving HIV medication by Gilead. The plaintiffs don’t argue that the drug is defective or lacked adequate warnings.
They claim that Gilead should have launched sooner an alternative HIV treatment that carries fewer bone and kidney side effects. They say Gilead delayed developing the new drug to maximize profits from its other HIV medication. Gilead disputes these claims and says it wasn’t clear from its early studies that the new drug would be safer or more effective.
Full story at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
Nathan Wade, embattled prosecutor in Georgia Trump case, has little prosecution experience
In the fall of 2021, Nathan Wade had little experience prosecuting criminal cases in the Atlanta area, serving as a municipal judge who mostly dealt with traffic tickets and running a private practice that focuses on family law and contract disputes.
Then, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) tapped him to lead the biggest case of her career, a two-and-a-half year investigation that led to charges against former president Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants alleging that they illegally conspired to try to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Willis’s decision to hire Wade is now facing enormous scrutiny after one of Trump’s co-defendants alleged in a court filing last week that the two prosecutors are lovers who have vacationed together on Wade’s dime in Napa Valley and the Caribbean. The accusations, if true, could present a conflict of interest or could amount to fraud.
Full story here.
Trending news:
Trump leads Biden in pivotal Georgia. - AJC
Grandfather shot dead on NYC subway trying to break up a dispute ‘always wanted peace,’ grieving family says - NY Post
Texans Asked to Not Use Their Washing Machines as Weather Tests Grid - Newsweek
Jason Kelce tells Eagles teammates he's retiring, sources say - ESPN
US Air Force Officer makes history as Miss America - ABC
Israel Unearths More of a Subterranean Fortress Under Gaza - Yahoo
Underwear and socks are the latest items to be locked up in shoplifting crackdown - as Walmart and Target both take action on theft of undies - Dailymail
HIT JOB: A Potentially Huge Supreme Court Case Has a Hidden Conservative Backer - NYT (paywall)
Market snapshot:
I suppose slightly off topic, but what is it that you yearn to return to in the republican party? I keep seeing some, including Eric, longing to go back to what is somehow called a sane republican party, and I can't help but wonder if that is the kind of republican like Lansford of Oklahoma who was given the task of negotiating with Schumer for an immigration, the results being that democrats get every single thing they want and there is nothing at all for citizens who are conservative. And that is the way it always is and has been. When democrats are in charge, republicans say they can't move the conservative agenda forward, but if we will just give them power next time they will do all these conservative value items. Then, if we are stupid enough to do it, they make excuses again, "compromise" every conservative ideal away, and wonder why we despise them. If that is what people want to call sane, I will have none of it.
All GOP presidential candidates ahead of Biden in new poll, Haley holds largest lead
That last part should be the only thing that’s important to antibody who doesn’t like Biden.
The only goal right now is to beat the dems and Biden. Period. Doesn’t matter if that’s Trump Haley or Mickey Mouse at this point.
A salt shaker would be a desirable alternative to the veggie tale story we have there now.
And whoever has the best chance at that, needs to be the nominee. And that’s not Trump.
He’s the only candidate who is a guaranteed loss and the stupid Trump base doesn’t seem to understand that.
He only won by 51%.
Which means 49% didn’t like him. And wants someone else.
Going to be difficult if not impossible to beat Biden with only 50% of your own party supporting you.
That equates to about 45% of the country. Welcome to 4 more years of Biden. That’s what you will get with Trump as the nominee. It’s now clear why the dems indicted Trump. They wanted to fire up his base and make him the nominee.
Now they can cheat the vote and nobody will care.
Our only hope is to keep the house and take the senate.
Then at least we can gridlock the country. That’s better than a dem controlled government ready to screw us into nuclear war.