POLITICO Nightly: Nikki Haley’s long game

BY CHARLIE MAHTESIAN Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event in Greenville, S.C. today. | Julia Nikhinson/AFP via Getty Images These are the Mis Fits that REPUBLICANS are supporting? DYNASTIC WEALTH MELLON is funding tRump - see the post by ROBERT REICH DIRTY ENERGY KOCH is funding NIKKI HALEY who is carefully scripted and NO ONE SCRUTINIZES NIKKI HALEY's history Where are her TAX RETURNS? The source of her WEALTH is public record...where is it? NIKKI HALEY raised taxes as Governor.... As Governor, NIKKI HALEY left ratepayers with $9 BILLION to repay....who's asking? SOUTH CAROLINA SPENT $9 BILLION TO DIG A HOLE IN THE GROUND AND THEN FILL IT BACK IN https://theintercept.com/.../south-caroline-green-new.../ EVENT HORIZON — Nikki Haley took to the stage today and put to rest any questions about her immediate plans. At an event in Greenville billed as a “state of the race” speech, the former governor said she is not dropping out of the Republican presidential primary and plans to stay in beyond Saturday’s contest in South Carolina. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said. It’s a tacit acknowledgment that the prospects for winning her home state primary aren’t very good . Otherwise, no one would be wondering if she plans to stick around. In an era of nationalized politics, it’s not unusual anymore for presidential candidates to lose their home states in a primary — witness Marco Rubio, who got his clock cleaned by Donald Trump in Florida in 2016, or Elizabeth Warren, who finished a distant third in Massachusetts four years later. But losing in your backyard tends to be a sign that you’re not going to win the nomination. In Haley’s case, however, that’s not really a problem. Because it isn’t about 2024 anymore. It may not even be about 2028. Even if the architecture of her losses to date — and the steep polling deficit she currently faces in South Carolina — suggests there’s no path to defeating Trump, Haley still has much to gain from staying in a race that she conceded today was a David vs. Goliath battle. There’s no question that there is a donor base and a modestly sized wing of the party that supports her cause — she continues to roll out endorsement lists in upcoming states that attest to that. Every sitting officeholder and activist who appears on those rosters — many of them women — is well aware that at this point in the campaign, Haley is the longest of longshots. In a scenario in which Trump loses in November, Haley is sure to be viewed in a different light. And so is the wing of the party she leads. Her message will have been validated; the party would be coming off four successive election disappointments, all of which would be linked to Trump. In the event of a Trump loss, the exit polls would likely tell a familiar story about how women voters and the suburbs rejected Trump — precisely the kinds of voters who like Haley. It’s possible that by 2028, Trump’s grip on the party might not have loosened. And MAGA voters would likely remain unforgiving. But even if she remains an outcast, at 52 years old, Haley’s horizon extends well beyond 2028. She figures to be a national figure for more than a decade to come — if she ran for president in 2040, she’d still be younger than Trump when he was sworn in as president. At the moment, it’s hard to envision a place for Haley in the GOP current iteration. But the party has a history of rewarding the tenacious, and for giving its failed presidential candidates a second chance, whether it’s Thomas Dewey, Richard Nixon, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, John McCain or Mitt Romney. Even Trump, another failed presidential candidate, is getting a second bite at the apple. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmahtesian@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @PoliticoCharlie .   SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, the newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world, including WEF in Davos, Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to UNGA in NYC and many more. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Judge threatens ex-Trump aide Navarro with contempt in records fight: A federal judge threatened today to hold former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro in contempt of court for defying her order to return dozens — and perhaps hundreds — of presidential records to the National Archives. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, is giving Navarro until March 21 to review 600 records to determine whether additional government files are among them — or else face a potential contempt citation. She also said she plans to refer the matter to a magistrate judge to wade through the records and make sure the government gets those to which it is entitled. ISRAEL'S GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING IS DIVIDING THE NATION! — Dems face new divisions over Israel-Hamas war: The Israel-Hamas conflict is opening new rifts in the House Democratic caucus , with a second Congressional Progressive Caucus quitting the group over the war and Rep. Rashida Tlaib backing an activist campaign to undermine President Joe Biden in the Michigan Democratic primary. The new developments underscore that, more than four months in, Israel’s military operations in Gaza are still causing a painful rift within a Democratic Party that’s occasionally struggled to project both security-first and pro-humanitarian messages in the Middle East. It’s far from clear whether the enduring frustration with the Biden administration’s approach to the war — concentrated among progressives — will keep the party’s base sitting on its hands in November. But for the moment, Democrats aren’t done collectively wrestling with their approach. MASS SHOOTING! — Two adults are charged with murder in the deadly shooting at Kansas City’s Super Bowl celebration: Missouri prosecutors said today that two men have been charged with murde r in last week’s shooting that killed one person and injured 22 others after the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade. Both adults are charged with second-degree murder and other charges. They have been hospitalized since the shooting, Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said during a news conference. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 RFK JR is a deranged lunatic likely as a consequence of his long term HEROIN addiction. He contradicts himself, LIES, denies he made comments even after recorded on video. CASH CRUNCH — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign is burning through its cash , spending more than it raised last month. The financial squeeze underscores the challenges for his independent bid as he continues to work on ballot access and is relying heavily on a super PAC working on his behalf. Kennedy’s campaign committee spent more than $3.2 million in January while raising a bit shy of $2.7 million, according to a report filed by his campaign with the Federal Election Commission today. He had more than $4.8 million left in his campaign account as of the end of January. BREAKING RANKS — Two prominent Democrats are openly acknowledging concerns about President Joe Biden’s age at a crucial time for their own political future. Former Rep. Tom Suozzi, just before winning a tight race in a special election in New York, stated on FOX 5, “the bottom line is, he’s old” and Rep. Katie Porter, ahead of the March 5 primary for the California Senate seat, embraced age limits for all elected officials. This gap in the party armor on what was once a taboo subject could expand in the months leading up to November as Democrats try to distance themselves from an unpopular president or cast themselves as change agents in crowded races. “It’s a conversation that we should be thinking about,” Porter, who is still backing Biden, told POLITICO after broaching age limits during a televised debate. MY KEVIN’S SUCCESSOR — Former President Donald Trump endorsed Kevin McCarthy’s chosen successor for his House seat today, giving Assemblymember Vince Fong a major advantage in a deep red Central Valley district. Fong, a Bakersfield Republican, has been the putative frontrunner in the contest, buoyed by his longstanding ties to McCarthy’s political operation. But his race had also become a referendum on anti-establishment sentiment among GOP voters, with his opponents positioning themselves as the true standard bearers of Trump’s party. AROUND THE WORLD President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the reported death of Alexei Navalny from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Feb. 16, 2024. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images ‘MAJOR SANCTIONS’ — The Biden administration will unveil a “major sanctions package” targeted at Moscow on Friday in response to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said today. The sanctions will “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny, and quite frankly, for all its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war that has now raged on for two years,” Kirby told reporters during a call. He wouldn’t provide more detail about the package when asked. Speaking with reporters this afternoon, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the sanctions will cover “a range of different elements of the Russian defense industrial base and sources of revenue for the Russian economy that power Russia’s war machine.” Navalny, who was long seen as the most significant political opponent to Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in prison on Friday. The death of the 47-year-old, a month before Moscow’s presidential election, sent shockwaves around the world.   YOUR GUIDE TO EMPIRE STATE POLITICS : From the newsroom that doesn’t sleep, POLITICO's New York Playbook is the ultimate guide for power players navigating the intricate landscape of Empire State politics. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest and most important stories from Albany, New York City and around the state, with in-depth, original reporting to stay ahead of policy trends and political developments. Subscribe now to keep up with the daily hustle and bustle of NY politics.      NIGHTLY NUMBER $42 billion The amount of money that the Biden campaign raised in January , according to his political operation. The total includes funds from Biden’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee and two joint fundraising committees. RADAR SWEEP NOT ON MY ISLAND — On a tiny speck of an island in the English Channel called Alderney, with a population of around 2,000, there’s been a collision of forces surrounding a proposed renewable energy project that would require significant construction and development on the island. First, there’s a debate among many locals — who are interested in the project for the jobs it could create — and people with vacation homes in Alderney. Then, there’s a bigger question of Holocaust remembrance. A man named John Weigold insists that Alderney was a major site in the Holocaust, with tens of thousands of Holocaust victims in German camps. Historians and the British government generally refer to this as a baseless conspiracy theory, but some others believe it, and now it’s notably being used as a cudgel against building an energy pipeline on the island. Rebecca Panovka reports on the various considerations and characters surrounding the project for Harper’s Magazine. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1964: The Friendship 7 capsule, containing astronaut John Glenn, is recovered from the Atlantic by the destroyer U.S.S. Noa after a successful space flight. The Friendship 7 was the first crewed American orbital spaceflight. | AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Mia McCarthy @Reporter_Mia   FOLLOW US

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The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy Cohn

The unrepentant political hitman who taught a younger Trump how to flout the rules didn’t get away with it forever.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/

Prominent election deniers are facing growing legal trouble

 

FOX NEWS = FAKE NEWS LIARS settled with DOMINION for $787 MILLION for their election lies and lawsuits now pending from SMARTMATIC....also against the other right wing LIARS like OAN, NEWSMAX....

"R" voters aare conspicuously uninformed, refuse to inform themselves  and ignore FACTS...

TRUE THE VOTE?

Dinesh D'Souza?

MAGA SHEEP...just too lazy to look it up...

How STUPID do you have to be to continue to promote ELECTION LIES?

GHOULiani acknowledged in court that there IS NO PROOF OF ELECTION FRAUD!

Read the comments by the MAGA DIM WITS....they are so DUMB, they embrace the BOGUS FILM that has been DISCREDITED....

Our justice system is slow, but these DIM WITS will pay the consequences

Prominent election deniers are facing growing legal trouble

NPR.ORG

Prominent election deniers are facing growing legal trouble

The group True the Vote, which executive produced Dinesh D'Souza's "2,000 Mules

 

The poster child for the perils of dynastic wealth Four generations of Mellons are now bankrolling Trump ROBERT REICH FEB 20 Friends, If Donald Trump takes power this November, he’ll owe his victory in no small part to one of the richest Americans alive — in 1920. I’m talking about the Pittsburgh banker and industrialist Andrew Mellon, who as treasury secretary for Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, changed the U.S. tax code in ways that allowed — more than a century later — part of his personal fortune to bankroll Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. Andrew’s grandson, Timothy has so far contributed $20 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC. Since 2018, Timothy Mellon has also donated $30 million to the House Republicans’ super PAC for electing Republicans to the House. In 2020, he gave $30 million to the Senate Republicans’ super PAC. Timothy has so far donated $15 million to Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s super PAC — showing just how important RFK Junior’s candidacy is to Trump’s strategy of siphoning votes from Biden. Timothy is also responsible for nearly all the donations to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s $54 million border wall fund. Forbes estimated Timothy Mellon to be worth almost $1 billion in 2014, and in 2024, the magazine estimated the Mellon family was worth $14.1 billion. But Timothy didn’t earn his money. He inherited it. The money trail spans four generations. It began with Thomas Mellon, who started his own bank in Pittsburgh in 1869. Thomas’s bank attracted the deposits of robber barons like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick, and within a relatively short time it became the largest private bank between New York and Chicago. [Thomas Mellon: Generation #1 of the Mellon dynasty] Steeped in social Darwinism, Thomas Mellon promoted suicide as decency: If criminals were sufficiently public‐spirited, he argued, they would “manfully rid the world of their presence, and society of the expense and trouble of their trial and punishment.” Thomas viewed the acquisition of wealth as a mark of merit and poverty as a failure of character. Thomas wrote in his autobiography that voting rights were responsible for many of society’s ills, driving higher spending, borrowing, and taxes. After the Civil War, Thomas toured the South, where he was disgusted to see Louisiana’s Legislature captured by what he called “stolid, stupid, rude and awkward field negroes, lolling on the seats or crunching peanuts.” He wrote that these representatives were puppets of white Northerners who were using “corrupt schemes to rob the property owners and taxpayers.” Thomas brought his two sons, Andrew and Richard B., into the banking business. Then, in partnership with Henry Frick, Andrew and Richard organized a new bank — the Union Trust Company — which became even more successful. [Andrew Mellon: Generation #2 of the Mellon dynasty] Andrew knew how to use his wealth for political advantage. He supplied such a large portion of the campaign dollars that helped Warren G. Harding become president in 1920 that Harding made Andrew secretary of the treasury. Andrew held the position for the next 11 years, from 1921 to 1932 — longer than anyone in the history of the country (or as Nebraska Senator George Norris once acidly put it, “three presidents served under Mellon”). Andrew was intent on cutting taxes. He was an early prophet of “trickle-down” economics, arguing that lowering taxes on companies and the wealthiest would spur investment that would lead to prosperity for the nation. “Taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid,” Andrew wrote in a book on taxation published while he was treasury secretary. Andrew especially hated the estate tax. “The social necessity for breaking up large fortunes in this country does not exist,” he wrote. Andrew ended up cutting the estate tax by half. He also whittled down the top income tax rate from 73 percent to 25 percent and eliminated the gift tax. These changes enabled Andrew to shift much of his personal fortune — estimated to be $600 million, or about $9 billion today — tax-free to his heirs. Andrew was still treasury secretary when the Great Depression hit, ending his public career in disgrace. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal turned Andrew’s tax policies upside down. Under FDR, whom one biographer hailed as a “traitor to his class,” the top income tax rates went as high as 94 percent to raise funds for World War II. The tax on the largest estates rose to 77 percent. But the Mellon fortune survived notwithstanding. In 1957, Fortune magazine ranked four Mellon heirs among America’s eight richest individuals. [Paul Mellon: Generation #3 of the Mellon dynasty] Paul Mellon, Timothy’s father and the scion of Mellon Generation #3, is best remembered as a philanthropist and breeder of horses. As he wrote in his autobiography, aptly titled Reflections in a Silver Spoon, “I have been an amateur in every phase of my life … and I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the roles I have played.” Thence came Timothy Mellon — the fourth generation, and the Trump reelection campaign’s top benefactor. [Timothy Mellon, Generation #4 of the Mellon dynasty] Like his forebears (and like Donald Trump), Timothy Mellon rages against only handouts that go to those born without silver spoons. In his self-published 2015 autobiography, Timothy argued that expanded social programs have only made Black people “even more belligerent.” “For delivering their votes in the Federal Elections, they are awarded with yet more and more freebies: food stamps, cell phones, WIC payments, Obamacare, and on, and on, and on. The largess is funded by the hardworking folks, fewer and fewer in number, who are too honest or too proud to allow themselves to sink into this morass.” Timothy Mellon — and the tens of millions he is shelling out to Trump, RFK Junior, and Republican candidates for the Senate and House — is the product of a tax system pioneered by his grandfather that allows the perpetuation of dynastic wealth and the maintenance of its political power. The Mellon money trail exemplifies the perils of dynastic wealth — and why we need a wealth tax in America. Or the capital gains tax must be applied to the appreciated value of assets held during someone’s life, before they die and hand them off to their heirs at current market value. When he was a Virginia legislator, Thomas Jefferson sought legal ways to prevent the perpetuation of great fortunes, fearing the rise of an American “aristocracy of wealth,” which, Jefferson believed, posed more “harm and danger, than benefit, to society.” The wealth and power extending from Thomas to Andrew to Paul to Timothy Mellon proves Jefferson exactly right.