Joe Biden capitalized on his State of the Union performance by announcing campaign stops across the United States and cheering yet another month of positive employment growth. Donald Trump, meanwhile, launched a volley of attacks on the president’s annual address, which was the third of his presidency and potentially the last, if Biden does not win re-election. The former president was otherwise busy posting a bond in the massive defamation judgment author E Jean Carroll won against him, while pushing for a new trial.

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Here’s what else happened today.

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• The Republican National Committeemade Trump’s daughter-in-law Laura Trump its co-chair, as the former president moves to install loyalists atop the party.

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• The Senateis scrambling to pass a government fund package ahead of a midnight deadline to prevent a shutdown.

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• No Labels is moving forward with fielding a third-party presidential ticket – but does not have any candidates lined up yet.

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• Biden’s campaignresponded to outcry over the president’s use of the word “illegal” to describe an undocumented murder suspect.

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• Ronny Jackson, a Republican congressman and Trump ally, advertises himself as a retired Navy rear admiral, but was in fact demoted following a scathing inspector general report into his work as White House physician.

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Joe Biden is capitalizing on his State of the Union performance by announcing campaign stops across the United States and cheering yet another month of positive employment growth. Donald Trump, meanwhile, launched a volley of attacks on the president’s annual address, which was the third of his presidency and potentially the last, if he does not win re-election. The former president was otherwise busy posting a bond in the massive defamation judgment author E Jean Carroll won against him, while pushing for a new trial.

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Here’s what else has happened today so far:

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• The Republican National Committeeappointed Trump’s daughter-in-law Laura Trump its co-chair as the former president moves to install loyalists atop the party.

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• No Labels is moving forward with fielding a third-party presidential ticket – but does not have any candidates lined up yet.

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• Biden’s campaignresponded to outcry over the president’s use of the word “illegal” to describe an undocumented murder suspect.

n

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No Labels, the centrist group that has been fielding a third-party candidate for the November presidential election, just announced that it will be moving forward with launching a campaign – but hasn’t decided yet who will actually run.

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In a statement, Mike Rawlings, No Labels’s national convention chair, said he had held discussions today with 800 delegates from across the country, who encouraged him to press on.

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“Even though we met virtually, their emotion and desire to bring this divided nation back together came right through the screen. I wasn’t sure exactly where No Labels delegates would land today but they sent an unequivocal message: keep going,” Rawlings said.

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“Now that No Labels has received the go-ahead from our delegates, we’ll be accelerating our candidate outreach and announcing the process for how candidates will be selected for the Unity Ticket on Thursday, March 14.”

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In recent months, various Republican and Democratic politicians have been reported as potential candidates for a No Labels ticket, including Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia who was a thorn in his party’s side in recent years, and Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of blue state Maryland who is seen as a leading centrist. But both men opted not to participate in whatever No Labels has planned, with Manchin instead retiring from the Senate, and Hogan launching a long-shot bid for an open seat representing his state in the chamber.

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The Republican National Committee voted on Friday to appoint Michael Whatley and Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump as its new chair and co-chair.

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Whatley and Trump will replace the RNC’s outgoing chair, Ronna McDaniel, who announced her resignation last month after Trump endorsed a slew of loyalists for key RNC roles.

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The appointment of his daughter-in-law marks Trump’s expanding influence across the GOP, despite criticisms of him from other Republicans, in addition to his mounting legal woes as the country gears up for the 2024 election.

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Last month, Lara Trump vowed to spend “every single penny” of RNC funds to ensure her father-in-law’s re-election.

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Speaking to Newsmax, she said: “The RNC needs to be the leanest, most lethal political fighting machine we’ve ever seen in American history … That is the goal over the next nine and a half months. If I am elected to this position, I can assure you, there will not be any more $70,000 – or whatever exorbitant amount of money it was – spent on flowers.”

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“Every single penny will go to the No 1 and the only job of the RNC – that is electing Donald J Trump as president of the United States and saving this country,” she added.

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Asked by a reporter about his use of the word “illegal” to describe an undocumented murder suspect, Joe Biden’s campaign on Friday sought to shift the focus to Donald Trump and his hardline immigration rhetoric.

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“I know it may have been difficult to hear over the incessant heckling of Marjorie Taylor Greene last night,” Michael Tyler,Biden’s campaign communications director, said on a call with reporters, “but we should be very clear about what the president was saying when it comes to fixing our broken system and to rejecting the cruelty in the hateful extremism that’s being pushed by people like Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who were actually just trying to demonize immigrants in an attempt to score political points.”

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While Biden was working to pass bipartisan immigration reform, Tyler said Trump is using immigrants as a “political punching bag” and “peddling Nazi rhetoric”.

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He then enumerated Trump’s immigration proposals, including a return of family separation, mass deportation and ending “birthright citizenship”.

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“Are we going to deal with this issue with the dignity and the humanity it demands or are we going to fall back with Donald Trump’s xenophobia, his racism and his inaction?” Tyler said. “That’s the fundamental choice for the American people in this election.”

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Asked whether this would hurt the campaign’s outreach effort with Latino voters, the campaign insisted they would continue to “demonstrate the clear contrast” with Trump on the issue of immigration and how the candidates are treating members of the Hispanic and Latino communities.

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“We are running this campaign against a man who was promising to rip kids away from their mothers again, who’s promising to erect mass deportation camps, who is promising to end birthright citizenship and is using hate as one of its chief political currencies,” Tyler said.

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“Our community knows Joe,” said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez,the granddaughter of labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.“They know who is fighting for our community; they know who’s fighting for us. They know the incredible track record that he has in investing and so many areas that are benefiting our community and they also know his values, his values of faith, of family, of hard work. All of those are so consistent with what our community stands for. And in this election we know that those values will continue to shine through as voters make their choice.”

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Donald Trump has posted a $91.6m bond as he appeals the judgment against him in the E Jean Carroll defamation case.

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It comes after US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan on Thursday denied Trump’s request for more time to secure an $83m bond to pay damages to the former Elle magazine columnist.

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In January, jurors agreed with Carroll that Trump had defamed her in June 2019 by denying he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. The jury awarded $83.3m to Carroll in her trial against Trump

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}],”data”:{“alt”:”E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan Federal Court following the conclusion of her civil defamation trial against former President Donald Trump on 26 January 2024 in New York City.”,”caption”:”E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan Federal Court following the conclusion of her civil defamation trial against former President Donald Trump on 26 January 2024 in New York City. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Kaplan made the verdict official on 8 February and gave Trump 30 days to post a bond or come up with cash during his appeal, which is expected to challenge the jury’s finding of liability and the amount of damages.

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Trump had sought to delay enforcement of the verdict until the judge ruled on his motions to throw it out, which he filed on Tuesday. But the judge said Trump should not have waited 25 days after the verdict before seeking a delay, adding that Trump failed to show how he might suffer “irreparable injury” if required to post a bond.

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Joe Biden has welcomed the latest jobs report, which showed employers added 275,000 jobs across the US last month.

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A statement by the White House hailed the “days of trickle-down” as being “over”, adding that “the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told.” Biden’s statement reads:

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n

The great American comeback continues. Last night, I put forward my vision for America’s future: one where we build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, where we invest in all Americans, and where the middle class has a fair shot and we leave no one behind.

Three years ago, I inherited an economy on the brink. Now, our economy is the envy of the world. We added 275,000 jobs last month – nearly 15 million since I took office. Unemployment has been under 4% for the longest stretch in more than 50 years. Wages keep going up. Inflation keeps coming down. And I’m taking action to continue lowering costs by taking on Big Pharma, getting rid of hidden junk fees, and making housing more affordable.

Across the country, the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. The days of trickle-down are over.

n

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Employers added 275,000 jobs across the US last month, as the labor market continues to grow at a clip in the face of the high interest rates.

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Job growth exceeded expectations of 200,000 on Wall Street in February and rose from the previous month’s revised rate of 229,000.

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Unemployment stood at 3.9%, according to data released on Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a 0.2% increase compared to January.

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Industries that saw an increase in jobs include healthcare, government employment and food services and drinking places.

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Joe Biden will travel to Philadelphia today for a campaign event just hours after he delivered a forceful State of the Union address on Thursday, repeatedly taking aim at his general election rival, Donald Trump, without once saying his name. Biden and Trump will then separately headline campaign events in Georgia on Saturday.

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Today marks the start of an at-least-month-long tour for Biden, who along with Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, cabinet members and senior White House officials will be traveling across the country to tout the president’s agenda. On the itinerary for the next week include New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Ohio and Arizona.

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Here’s what else we’re watching:

“,”elementId”:”fdd8bc25-d05c-4c4b-8ec9-4f802e34b4c2″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

n

• Republican National Committee (RNC) members are set to vote on new leadership during a Houston meeting where RNC chair Ronna McDanielplans to stand down. Members are set to elevate Trump’s endorsed candidates – North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley and Trump’s own daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

n

• House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries will hold his weekly news conference at 9.45am ET.

n

• The House is out but the Senate is expected to take up a $467.5bnpackage of spending bill before a midnight Friday shutdown deadline. Lawmakers are negotiating a second package of six bills, including defense, in an effort to have all federal agencies fully funded before a 22 March deadline.

n

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Joe Biden also re-emphasised his wish to introduce a corporation tax hike should he be voted in at the next election.

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Speaking during his State of the Union address, the US president said: “The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very wealthy finally pay their share.

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“In 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40bn in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes. Not any more!

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“Thanks to the law I wrote and signed big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%. But that’s still less than working people pay in federal taxes.

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It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21% so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.

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“I also want to end the tax breaks for big pharma, big oil, private jets, and massive executive pay! End it now!”

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BIDEN: “It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21%.”#SOTU2024pic.twitter.com/Epx4xqCzXc

— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) March 8, 2024

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Former president Donald Trump, during Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, sent a steady stream of messages blasting Biden on Truth Social.

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“He looks so angry when he’s talking, which is a trait of people who know they are ‘losing it,’” Trump wrote. “The anger and shouting is not helpful to bringing our Country back together!”

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He added: “This was an angry, polarizing, and hate-filled Speech. He barely mentioned Immigration, or the Worst Border in the History of the World.

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“He will never fix Immigration, nor does he want to. He wants our Country to be flooded with Migrants. Crime will raise to levels never seen before, and it is happening very quickly!”

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President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump of trying to “bury the truth about January 6” in a fiery State of the Union speech.

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The Democrat leader accused Trump and Republicans of trying to rewrite history about the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot by the former president’s supporters seeking to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.

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“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that,” Biden said, a signal that he will emphasize the issue during his re-election campaign. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”

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Here are other key moments from Biden’s speech:

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• He opened by declaring democracy under threat at home and abroad and criticizing Trump, who he did not mention by name, for inviting Putin to invade Nato nations if they did not spend more on defense.

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• The president said efforts to restrict abortion were an “assault on freedom”, and he derided the supreme court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, with members of that court seated just feet away.

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• Biden knocked Republicans for seeking to roll back healthcare provisions under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and driving up deficits, and jibed them for taking money from legislation they had opposed.

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• He proposed new measures to lower housing costs, including a $10,000 (£7,807) tax credit for first-time homebuyers while boasting of U.S economic progress under his tenure.

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• In a nod to Republican attacks over his age, Biden mentioned he was born during the second world war, but defended his vision for the country as fresh. “You can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.”

n

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Closing summary

Joe Biden capitalized on his State of the Union performance by announcing campaign stops across the United States and cheering yet another month of positive employment growth. Donald Trump, meanwhile, launched a volley of attacks on the president’s annual address, which was the third of his presidency and potentially the last, if Biden does not win re-election. The former president was otherwise busy posting a bond in the massive defamation judgment author E Jean Carroll won against him, while pushing for a new trial.

Here’s what else happened today.

• The Republican National Committee made Trump’s daughter-in-law Laura Trump its co-chair, as the former president moves to install loyalists atop the party.

• The Senate is scrambling to pass a government fund package ahead of a midnight deadline to prevent a shutdown.

• No Labels is moving forward with fielding a third-party presidential ticket – but does not have any candidates lined up yet.

• Biden’s campaign responded to outcry over the president’s use of the word “illegal” to describe an undocumented murder suspect.

• Ronny Jackson, a Republican congressman and Trump ally, advertises himself as a retired Navy rear admiral, but was in fact demoted following a scathing inspector general report into his work as White House physician.

On his website, Republican congressman and former White House physician Ronny Jackson describes himself as a retired Navy rear admiral.

The Washington Post reports that’s not the case. Jackson, a Texas lawmaker and Donald Trump ally, was demoted to captain by the Navy following an inspector general’s report that documented inappropriate behavior during his time as doctor to the president.

“The substantiated allegations in the DoDIG [Department of Defense inspector general] investigation of Rear Adm. (lower half) Ronny Jackson are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022,” Navy spokesmanJoe Keiley told the Post.

Here’s more:

Jackson is now a retired Navy captain, those people said — a demotion that carries a significant financial burden in addition to the social stigma of stripped rank in military circles.

Despite the demotion,Jackson has continued to refer to himself as a retired rear admiral, including in statements released since the Navyreclassified him as a retired captain. Former president DonaldTrump and other Republicans have also continued to publicly describe Jackson using his former rank; it’s unclear if they were aware of his demotion.

Jackson’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the Navy’s 2022 personnel action and his demotion. The former White House physician has become a prominent voice in the 2024 campaign, repeatedly affirming Trump’s fitness to serve while castigating President Biden’s.

After publication of this story, the Navy provided Jackson’s service record, which shows the rank of captain retroactively applied to the date of his retirement in December 2019.

For an officer who served 24 years like Jackson, there isamore than $15,000 difference in annual pension payouts between a retired one-star admiral, the rank that Jackson held when he retired from the Navy in December 2019, and a retired captain, according to an estimate by Katherine L. Kuzminski, a military policy expert at Center for a New American Security. That payout gap is likely to widen over time as the military periodically increases its pay rates for each position.

Kuzminski also said that it was inappropriate for Jackson to describe himself as a retired rear admiral. “While it is possible that others will mistakenly refer to him as ‘Admiral’ in perpetuity, he himself should not make that mistake,” she said.

As he departed Washington DC for a campaign event this evening in Philadelphia, Joe Biden reiterated that he would sign legislation to ban social media app TikTok, if it makes it through Congress.

Legislation to force TikTok’s parent company to divest or be banned in the United States was passed unanimously by a House committee earlier this week, leading the app to encourage its users to call their congress members to speak against it.

Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Kari Paul:

The Senate has voted to advance a $467.5bn spending package that would fund several federal agencies, but it remains unclear whether the chamber will be able to pass it in time to avert a partial government shutdown due to begin at midnight.

The bill passed a procedural hurdle by a bipartisan vote of 63 to 35, setting up a vote on final passage. While the Senate is expected to approve the measure, progress was slow in getting the bill to a final vote and it is unclear whether lawmakers will meet their midnight deadline.

The measure, which contains six annual spending bills, has already passed the House and would go to Joe Biden to be signed into law. Lawmakers are negotiating a second package of six bills, including defense, in an effort to have all federal agencies fully funded before the 22 March deadline.

Gloria Oladipo

Joe Biden’s seemingly off-the-cuff use of “illegal” to describe people who are undocumented during his State of the Union address drew disappointed reactions from experts who have long argued the term is inaccurate and outdated.

Responding to heckling from conservative congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who demanded Biden mention the name of Laken Riley – a Georgia nursing student who was allegedly killed by a person who is undocumented – Biden held up a button of Riley’s face and said she was an “innocent, young woman who was killed by an illegal”.

In unscripted moment, Biden holds up Laken Riley button that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gave him, using it as an opportunity to again call for the bipartisan border bill:

“How many thousands of people being killed by illegals? … Get this bill done. We need to act now.” pic.twitter.com/lkOzRF1Gd8

— The Recount (@therecount) March 8, 2024

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In unscripted moment, Biden holds up Laken Riley button that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gave him, using it as an opportunity to again call for the bipartisan border bill:

“How many thousands of people being killed by illegals? … Get this bill done. We need to act now.” pic.twitter.com/lkOzRF1Gd8

— The Recount (@therecount) March 8, 2024

Democrats and immigrant rights organizations said Biden’s use of “illegal” as dehumanizing. The Illinois congresswoman Delia Ramirez said she was “disappointed” in Biden’s use of what she called “dehumanizing rightwing rhetoric” to describe immigrants. “No human being is illegal,” Ramirez said. Another Illinois representative, Chuy García, added:

As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the world ‘illegal’.

Immigration advocates have long argued that the term “illegals” is an inaccurate term, as entering the US without documents is not a criminal offense. It is also a racially charged term that can promote violence and discrimination, according to the Drop the I-Word campaign, which advocates for media organizations not to use it when describing immigrants.

Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, has said he would support Donald Trump as the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee despite his history of criticizing the former president.

Speaking to WMUR on Thursday, Sununu – who had endorsed Nikki Haley in the GOP primary – said:

I’m going to support the ticket. I’m going to support Donald Trump. But my focus is definitely going to be here in the state.

Asked about his previous comments calling Trump a “loser” and making fun of his age, Sununu said:

Look, I don’t take any of that back, to be sure. But again, understand this is an alternative. I mean, the alternative is Biden, and I think folks are seeing a lack of management, a lack of understanding of what’s happening with immigration, a lack of fiscal responsibility.

The four-term governor, who will not be running for re-election in November, pushed back on Trump’s legal arguments, including that the president has complete legal immunity from all prosecution.

“No, no. That’s crazy,” Sununu said. “Just because you’re a politician does not put you above the law, period.”

The day so far

Joe Biden is capitalizing on his State of the Union performance by announcing campaign stops across the United States and cheering yet another month of positive employment growth. Donald Trump, meanwhile, launched a volley of attacks on the president’s annual address, which was the third of his presidency and potentially the last, if he does not win re-election. The former president was otherwise busy posting a bond in the massive defamation judgment author E Jean Carroll won against him, while pushing for a new trial.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• The Republican National Committee appointed Trump’s daughter-in-law Laura Trump its co-chair as the former president moves to install loyalists atop the party.

• No Labels is moving forward with fielding a third-party presidential ticket – but does not have any candidates lined up yet.

• Biden’s campaign responded to outcry over the president’s use of the word “illegal” to describe an undocumented murder suspect.

It’s always a tough job to deliver the rebuttal to a president’s State of the Union address, but Republican senator Katie Britt’s response was viewed by her fellow party members as particularly bad.

Today in the Capitol, reporters asked Britt’s Alabama counterpart, Republican Tommy Tuberville, for his thoughts on her speech. He praised it, while noting Britt was asked to give the remarks because she is “a housewife”, HuffPost reports:

Tuberville says Britt’s delivery was good:

“She was picked as a housewife, not just a senator, somebody who sees it from a different perspective…I mean, she did what she was asked to do. I thought she did a good job. And it's hard when you've never done anything like that.”

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 8, 2024

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Tuberville says Britt’s delivery was good:

“She was picked as a housewife, not just a senator, somebody who sees it from a different perspective…I mean, she did what she was asked to do. I thought she did a good job. And it’s hard when you’ve never done anything like that.”

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 8, 2024

Third party group No Labels announces plans to field presidential candidates

No Labels, the centrist group that has been fielding a third-party candidate for the November presidential election, just announced that it will be moving forward with launching a campaign – but hasn’t decided yet who will actually run.

In a statement, Mike Rawlings, No Labels’s national convention chair, said he had held discussions today with 800 delegates from across the country, who encouraged him to press on.

“Even though we met virtually, their emotion and desire to bring this divided nation back together came right through the screen. I wasn’t sure exactly where No Labels delegates would land today but they sent an unequivocal message: keep going,” Rawlings said.

“Now that No Labels has received the go-ahead from our delegates, we’ll be accelerating our candidate outreach and announcing the process for how candidates will be selected for the Unity Ticket on Thursday, March 14.”

In recent months, various Republican and Democratic politicians have been reported as potential candidates for a No Labels ticket, including Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia who was a thorn in his party’s side in recent years, and Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of blue state Maryland who is seen as a leading centrist. But both men opted not to participate in whatever No Labels has planned, with Manchin instead retiring from the Senate, and Hogan launching a long-shot bid for an open seat representing his state in the chamber.

Donald Trump’s attempts to delay his criminal trials until after the 2024 presidential election – in the hope that he secures the presidency – lack solid a legal basis, according to justice department veterans.

Peter Stone reports for the Guardian:

Claims by Donald Trump and his lawyers that holding any of the four criminal trials he now faces before the US election in November would be “election interference” lack a solid legal basis and are brazen ploys to delay trials until post election, former justice department officials say.

As he campaigns to return to the White House, Trump is facing unprecedented legal and political perils: trials are pending in four federal and state jurisdictions, where he’s been charged with 91 felony counts including 17 about conspiring with allies to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

To thwart any damaging verdicts and negative trial coverage pre-election, the former US president and his lawyers have pushed legal and political arguments by invoking election interference and presidential immunity, as they’ve sought to convince judges and courts to postpone trial dates until after November.

Trump’s drive to have trials held post-election is premised heavily on hopes of winning the presidency again, and then telling DoJ to kill the federal charges, say DoJ veterans.

For the full story, click here:

Republican National Committee votes to appoint Lara Trump as co-chair

Maya Yang

The Republican National Committee voted on Friday to appoint Michael Whatley and Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump as its new chair and co-chair.

Whatley and Trump will replace the RNC’s outgoing chair, Ronna McDaniel, who announced her resignation last month after Trump endorsed a slew of loyalists for key RNC roles.

The appointment of his daughter-in-law marks Trump’s expanding influence across the GOP, despite criticisms of him from other Republicans, in addition to his mounting legal woes as the country gears up for the 2024 election.

Last month, Lara Trump vowed to spend “every single penny” of RNC funds to ensure her father-in-law’s re-election.

Speaking to Newsmax, she said: “The RNC needs to be the leanest, most lethal political fighting machine we’ve ever seen in American history … That is the goal over the next nine and a half months. If I am elected to this position, I can assure you, there will not be any more $70,000 – or whatever exorbitant amount of money it was – spent on flowers.”

“Every single penny will go to the No 1 and the only job of the RNC – that is electing Donald J Trump as president of the United States and saving this country,” she added.