‘NEVER TRUMP’ FINANCIERS PICK NIKKI
A group of donors who have always gone against former President Donald Trump or once funded him but are ready to move on are sending multimillion-dollar checks to Nikki Haley.
In their year-end Federal Election Commission disclosures, the various groups directly and indirectly connected to the Haley campaign revealed they collected more than $129 million in 2023. All told, her committees entered 2024 with about $22 million cash in the bank.
Haley’s benefactors include some of the wealthiest men in the world.
WhatsApp founder Jan Koum, Elliott Investment Management founder Paul Singer, and Citadel Investment Group founder Kenneth Griffin all cut massive checks for the Haley-supporting SFA Fund. The three collectively chipped in $20 million, or close to a third of the hybrid political action committee’s 2023 intake.
New Balance owner James Davis, who backed Trump in 2016, is now pulling for Haley. He gave $2.5 million.
Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens Inc., was a significant financier of a Trump-dumping PAC in 2016 and then a Trump-boosting one in 2020. Stephens gave $2 million to SFA.
Still ready for some football? Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper passed $1.5 million to SFA. Shirley Ryan, the wife of GOP mega-donor and Chicago Bears minority owner Patrick Ryan, kicked in $2.5 million.
—Austin Alonzo
HOUSE DROPS FISA REAUTHORIZATION BILL
The House has released its version of reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978—and it is with notable reforms to Section 702, which allows the United States to spy on people abroad and has come under fire from conservatives and progressives.
The legislation makes a series of wide reforms to the FISA spying authority, which has come under increasingly heavy scrutiny since it was last reauthorized in 2018. These include, but are not limited to, prohibiting the FBI or other intelligence agencies from spying on political appointees, whether Senate and non-Senate confirmed, under the authority; and requiring the Department of Justice to perform an audit on Section 702 queries within 180 days of a search.
Last year, Congress extended the authority, which was set to expire at the end of 2023, until April 2024. The bill, if passed, would reauthorize the spying authority for a term of five years.
Since its reauthorization in 2018, FISA has consistently made headlines for abuses, leading many staunch privacy rights advocates in Congress to call for wide-ranging reforms—or its abolition altogether.
A short-term FISA extension was passed in December despite objections from conservatives and progressives shortly before the program was set to expire on Dec. 31.
The House Rules Committee is scheduled to debate the bill on Wednesday.
—Jackson Richman and Joseph Lord
FETTERMAN NOT THE PROGRESSIVE EVERYONE THOUGHT
In an in-depth news analysis, The Epoch Times’ Beth Brelje looks at how Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has surprised people—or not—since entering Congress in January.
Fetterman has been unafraid to go against his own party, such as on the debt ceiling and the border, and has been undeterred by his fellow progressives—though he does not consider himself one—upset over his staunch support for Israel amid the Jewish state coming under attack by the terrorist group Hamas.
“Sometimes people may have the wrong impressions, whether from the commercials and all that stuff,“ Fetterman told The Epoch Times. ”I’ve always really had those kinds of positions, so it’s not like a shock. So, nothing’s changed, perhaps maybe the perception.”
Indeed, Fetterman was the subject of ridicule during the 2022 election as he cognitively struggled following a stroke that was the result of a heart issue. Nonetheless, he defeated TV personality Mehmet Oz in the general election.
“He’s not a typical liberal Democrat, which most of us thought he was during the course of his campaign, and the fact of the matter is, he’s evolving,” G. Terry Madonna, senior fellow in residence for political affairs at Millersville University, told The Epoch Times.
—Jackson Richman
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- New Yorkers head to the polls for the special election to replace ousted Rep. George Santos. Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi faces off against Republican Mazi Pilip. Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. Eastern.
- House Republicans are expected to hold another floor vote on impeaching DHS Secretary Alejandro Majorkas after an attempt failed last week.
The special election being held today to decide who will occupy Rep. George Santos’s former seat may be a referendum on what voters make of illegal immigration. The Epoch Times’ Michael Washburn has more in a special report.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has taken to the American Conservative to warn of a “Republican plot against Donald Trump.” The man often discussed as a possible Trump VP pick argues that language in a new bill sets Trump up for impeachment if he tries to strip funding for Ukraine.
One striking element of Sunday night’s Super Bowl was all the sports betting ads, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. At Compact Magazine, historian Christopher Caldwell breaks down the legal and technological background of another vice normalized and even celebrated in recent times.
The New York Times is one of the surest barometers of how the liberal establishment feels. Now the Daily Mail reports on multiple articles from the Times’ opinion and editorial sections that highlight President Joe Biden’s age after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report detailed serious issues with his cognitive faculties.
But the octogenarian’s campaign is doing what it can to connect with the young, even creating a TikTok account. Andrew Thornebrooke’s report details security and censorship concerns arising from the app’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
