TRUMP’S HECTIC SCHEDULE
Trump’s complex legal and political timelines have created an untold number of scenarios for the election season as separate court cases could bear on each other’s outcomes and even the electoral landscape for 2024.
Fourteenth Amendment challenges have raised the prospect that Trump could be disqualified from appearing on certain state ballots in the primaries, and even the general election.
A long list of presidential primaries and debates (Jan. 10, Jan. 18, and Jan. 21) is approaching, offering opportunities for candidates to distinguish themselves or make endorsements if they exit the race. Republican caucuses and primaries are set for Iowa (Jan. 15), New Hampshire (Jan. 23), Virgin Islands and Nevada (both Feb. 8), South Carolina (Feb. 24), Idaho (March 2), and the District of Columbia (D.C.). (March 3).
Super Tuesday on March 5, 2024, will see the culmination of political and legal pressure mounting in response to Trump’s court cases. Primaries in 14 states are set for that day, which can set the tone for the rest of the presidential race. It could either solidify Trump’s position as the presumptive GOP nominee or pit him against a rival who’s popular within the party.
Author Henry Olsen said the March 4 trial date for Trump’s D.C. case will force his GOP competitors to confront his legal woes. “If it actually takes place that day, then it will clearly dominate the news … it'll be impossible for a Republican contender, assuming one is still there after the first few primaries to make any news that isn’t revolving around that,” he told The Epoch Times.
Uncertainty surrounds the D.C. trial date and others as courts wrestle with pre-trial battles over issues like Trump’s motion to dismiss his D.C. indictment based on presidential immunity.
Other Trump cases include his lawsuit with E. Jean Carroll (trial to start on Jan. 16), Georgia election trial (proposed start date of Aug. 5), Mar-A-Lago documents trial (scheduled to start May 20), and his New York hush-money lawsuit involving porn star Stormy Daniels (scheduled to start on March 25).
The Supreme Court will likely weigh in on several of the legal issues raised in Trump’s trials. The justices declined Jack Smith’s request to fast-track the presidential immunity appeal. That issue is currently scheduled for oral argument on Jan. 9, just before CNN’s presidential debate in Iowa the following day.
Trump also asked the justices on Jan. 3 to review a Colorado supreme court decision, which declared he was disqualified from running because he engaged in an insurrection as outlined under the 14th Amendment. Maine’s secretary of state similarly accused Trump of engaging in an insurrection and made her state the second to disqualify him.
Many other states have 14th Amendment lawsuits still pending, meaning that disqualifications could occur as candidates head into the primaries. Further review by higher courts, like the U.S. Supreme Court, could upend those disqualifications—thereby creating uncertainty around how and when campaigning would be strategic in those states.
—Sam Dorman
JOHNSON’S BORDER VISIT
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and some 60 House Republicans visited the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, yesterday to highlight the border crisis.
More than 6.5 million people have crossed the southern border illegally in the past three years.
It was “heartbreaking and infuriating,” Johnson said of the visit. “Our communities are overrun.”
Johnson laid the blame on President Joe Biden.
“If the Biden administration would reinstate just the Remain in Mexico policy, it could stem the flow by probably 70 percent or more, but he refuses to do it,” Johnson said.
The White House countered that Republicans have undermined President Biden’s attempts to secure the border by voting to eliminate the positions of more than 2,000 Border Patrol agents, spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement via email.
To spur action, House Republicans are using military aid for Ukraine as leverage.
“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security,” Johnson said, referring to the $106 billion aid request that includes $45 billion for Ukraine.
House Republicans say they won’t approve additional military aid for Ukraine until the Senate passes the provisions of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which the House passed nearly a year ago.
Eagle Pass has become a symbol of the way illegal immigration has overwhelmed American cities.
“Two weeks ago, there were 12,000 people coming over illegally under that bridge to right down the street,” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), said. “We are at the brink of massive catch and release, and when that happens, our communities get turned upside down.”
In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Senate negotiators were moving closer to a deal that could bring House and Senate together on the border and Ukraine.
—Lawrence Wilson
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley appear in back-to-back CNN town halls in Iowa.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Eric Trump hold simultaneous campaign events in Iowa for Trump.
BOOKMARKS
In case you missed it, hundreds of court records linked to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released last night. The Epoch Times’ Caden Pearson has the details.
The FBI went in hard after Isaac Westbury and Aaron James, Minnesota men accused of crimes related to Jan. 6. Read the harrowing account of a pre-dawn raid on this Minnesota family by Joseph Hanneman of The Epoch Times. Related: Here’s a good summary of the Jan. 6 arrests and prosecutions, compiled by the Associated Press.
Wall St. is hatching a plan to create trading companies for U.S. natural resources. Find out why, and what’s at stake in this report from The Epoch Times’s Kevin Stocklin. E&E News offers a slightly different take on the idea.
A federal judge dismissed three of five civil counts against former President Donald Trump and co-defendants in a Jan. 6 case related to the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Caden Pearson of The Epoch Times breaks down what’s at stake. Speaking of Capitol police, The Hill reports that Harry Dunn, who testified before the Jan. 6 select committee, will leave the force and may run for Congress.
Claudine Gay, embattled president of Harvard, has resigned. Jackson Richman and Bill Pan have the details for The Epoch Times. For more, see this in-depth profile of Christopher Rufo, the mastermind behind Gay’s ouster, in Politico.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams has warned that immigrants will soon be sleeping in the streets. The Epoch Times’ Katabella Roberts reports the details of that city’s crisis. The Big Apple isn’t alone. Read how the Red State/Blue State tussle over handling illegal immigrants may affect the election in Politico.
The U.S. debt has topped $34 trillion. Andrew Moran of The Epoch Times breaks down how that happened and what lawmakers from Speaker Johnson to Lauren Boebert are saying about it. For a deeper dive into the economic fallout, check this WaPo report surveying the opinions of prominent economists.
Correction: In our Jan. 3 newsletter, we incorrectly stated the location of Gov. Kristi Noem’s rally in Iowa. Noem was scheduled to speak in Sioux City, not Sioux Falls. Constitution Ave. regrets the error.
