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Trump Wins Nevada’s Republican Caucuses

LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump won Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses Thursday after he was the only major candidate to compete, winning his third straight state as he tries to secure his party’s nomination.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, his last major rival still in the race, skipped the caucuses even though they are the only contest in Nevada that counts toward the GOP nomination. Haley cited what she considered an unfair process favoring Trump and instead ran in Nevada’s symbolic state-run presidential primary on Tuesday, when she finished behind the “none of these candidates” option.

Trump will win most, if not all, of the state’s 26 delegates. He needs to accrue 1,215 delegates to formally clinch the party’s nomination and could reach that number in March.

From Nevada, the GOP contest pivots to the South Carolina primary in Haley’s home state on February 24. Trump remains popular in the deeply conservative state but Haley, who won two elections as South Carolina’s governor, is hoping her local roots give her an edge. Trump is eyeing a massive delegate haul during the March 5 Super Tuesday contests, which would move him closer to becoming the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

Trump, delivering a brief victory speech in Las Vegas, basked in reports of long lines in the Western state and told his supporters he was eager to declare victory in the upcoming South Carolina primary.

“We’re leading everybody,” he said. “Is there any way we can call the election for next Tuesday? That’s all I want.”

Though Trump has been the front-runner, Nevada’s caucuses were seen as especially skewed in his favor due to the intense grassroots support caucuses require candidates to harness around a state in order to win. Nevada’s state party gave him a greater edge last year when it barred candidates from running both in the primary and caucuses and also restricted the role of super PACs like the groups that were key to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign before he dropped out.

Caucuses typically require voters to show up for an in-person meeting at a certain day or time, while elections can offer more flexibility to participate, with polls open for most of the day on Election Day along with absentee or early voting. Nevada Republicans said they wanted certain rules in place like a requirement that participants show a government-issued ID.

Trump’s supporters waited in long lines Thursday. At one caucus site at a Reno-area elementary school, a line of nearly 1,000 people stretched around the corner and down the street 20 minutes after the caucuses opened.

Voters in line, some of whom were wearing Trump hats and shirts, said they came out to back the former president in a contest that would give him a third straight win in the Republican presidential race.

“I think it’s about backing Trump up and giving him the support that he needs. And to let people know that we’re supporting him,” said Heather Kirkwood, 47.

Trump has long been immensely popular among Nevada Republicans, but he had other perceived advantages among the party’s key figures. Nevada GOP Party Chair Michael McDonald and the state’s Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid were among six Republicans in the state indicted on felony charges that they were so-called fake electors who sent certificates to Congress falsely claiming Trump won Nevada in 2020. The chairman of the Republican Party in Clark County — the largest county, which is home to Las Vegas — was another of the six so-called fake electors.

Republicans are increasingly converging behind Trump while he faces a deluge of legal problems, including 91 criminal charges in four separate cases. Trump is flexing his influence both in Congress — where Republicans rejected a border security deal after he pushed against it — and at the Republican National Committee, as chairwoman Ronna McDaniel could resign in the coming weeks after he publicly questioned whether she should stay in the job.

Trump still faces unprecedented jeopardy for a major candidate. A federal appeals panel ruled this week that Trump can face trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting his claims that he is immune from prosecution. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday heard arguments in a case trying to keep Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The justices sounded broadly skeptical of the effort.
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Biden Denies Claims of Poor Document Handling, Contrasts Case with Trump’s

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday pushed back on claims he incorrectly handled sensitive government documents, forcefully contrasting his case with that of former President Donald Trump – and drawing a contrast with Trump’s own high-stakes legal travails the same day the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could remove Trump from the presidential race.

Biden, at turns defiant and bitterly jocular with the reporters called in for the last-minute remarks Thursday evening, strongly disputed that he “willfully” retained and shared classified materials, as was said in a report released earlier in the day.

“These assertions are not only misleading, they’re just plain wrong,” he said.

The report by special counsel Robert Hur concluded that no criminal charges should be brought, and that many of the classified documents found in Biden’s offices and home were kept by mistake.

In a statement earlier in the day, Biden said he was “pleased” the special counsel had “reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach — that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed.”

That evening, he parried questions over a section of the report in which the author described the 81-year old president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden replied to a reporter who asked after his memory and cited voters’ concerns over his age. “I’ve been president, I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”

Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, also pushed back on the report in a statement, accusing Hur of “trashing” the investigation’s subject “with extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.”

“The special counsel could not refrain from investigative excess, perhaps unsurprising given the intense pressures of the current political environment,” Bauer’s statement read. “Whatever the impact of those pressures on the final report, it flouts department regulations and norms.”

Biden’s detractors weighed in within the hour.

“The President’s press conference this evening further confirmed on live television what the Special Counsel report outlined,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “He is not fit to be President.”

Biden is not the only president to face criticism over his handling of documents. In 1973, a Washington Post reporter who had had lunch in 1970 with then-former President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote that “the ex-President came prepared with the goods in the form of stacks of papers marked TOP SECRET and TOP SECRET SENSITIVE. Over and over, he read from the various memoranda, letters and other documents to back up his positions.”

Trump faces 40 felony counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office.

Trump, in a statement, said the Biden case was “100 times different and more severe than mine.” He added: “I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more.”

Trump’s case is the first federal indictment of a U.S. president. He has pleaded not guilty.
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 Supreme Court Seems Skeptical of Colorado Effort to Remove Trump From Ballot

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AI Deepfakes Pose Threat to Elections Worldwide

Four billion people worldwide have voted or are scheduled to do so in national elections through 2024. While the candidates and issues differ in each country, one common concern is the use of generative artificial intelligence in disinformation campaigns. VOA’s Valdya Baraputri has the story.
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Biden Won’t Seek Redactions in Report on Classified Documents

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden will not seek any redactions in a report by the Justice Department special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents, the White House said Thursday, clearing the way for its release. 

White House Counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said the White House had notified the Justice Department that it had completed a review of the report Thursday morning. “In keeping with his commitment to cooperation and transparency throughout this investigation, the president declined to assert privilege over any portion of the report,” he said. 

The yearlong investigation centered on the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a senator and as vice president. Sensitive records were found in 2022 and 2023 at his Delaware home and at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president. 

It came amid a wider Justice Department investigation that has led to charges against former President Donald Trump, who is accused of unlawfully retaining highly classified documents after he left office and refusing to hand them over to federal officials when demanded. 

The White House review for potential executive privilege concerns appeared to be the final hurdle before the report would be released to Congress and the public. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a letter to Congress Wednesday that he was committed to disclosing as much of the document as possible once the White House review was complete.
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