Today's recap
E Jean Carroll’s testimony in the Donald Trump defamation trial prompted outbursts from the former president in court. Here’s a full picture of the day’s proceedings.
Trump continued to lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, enjoying a 16-point lead in New Hampshire, per a major new poll. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley came in second, and Florida Ron DeSantis was a distant third, days before the state’s primary. DeSantis, said the US was “not a racist country”, echoing a controversial claim by Haley.
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A top aide for president Joe Biden called former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson to apologize. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients apologized a mocking statement released by the Democratic National Committee regarding Hutchinson’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
– Guardian staff
Cross-examination of E Jean Carroll in Trump defamation case has concluded
Donald Trump’s lead attorney in the case, Alina Habba, tried to discredit Carroll by noting that the gun she has kept for protection isn’t registered.
Habba also inquired about Carroll’s deletion of threatening texts and emails. “So as [you] sit here today, I have no way of knowing how many death threats you have received, nor do the police?” Habba asked.
Carroll is suing Trump over his June 2019 denials of her rape claim against him, maintaining that Trump’s denials smeared her reputation, sparking online abuse and serious threats. This trial will determine damages.
Updated
The US has put Yemen’s Houthi rebels back on its list of global terrorists as the group warned it would view any such move by Britain or America as a declaration of war.
Houthi leaders said their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea would stop as soon as the “Israeli aggression” in Gaza stopped, a point underlined by what appeared to be a fresh attack on a ship near Aden late on Wednesday. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organisation said that a vessel had reportedly been struck by an “uncrewed aerial system,” causing a fire onboard that was later extinguished.
The Houthi deputy foreign minister, Hussein Alezzi, said before the US decision: “Any measure that harms Yemen’s interests will be considered a declaration of war, and preventing Israeli ships will not be confined to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait alone.
He added: “There are others who will obstruct them through different means, and our coordination in this matter is advanced. The aggression by America and Britain and their shedding of Yemeni blood was unnecessary and will become a lifetime mistake unless they accept Yemen’s forthcoming response and cease their crimes against Gaza.”
Mohammad al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi supreme political council, said: “Direct confrontation with America is a positive thing because it is the US that brought destruction, siege, and poverty to our country. America, which said it had a bank of targets, targeted everything in the Republic of Yemen – hospitals, roads, schools, markets, prisons, and gatherings.”
Follow along with the Guardian’s coverage of the unfolding situation here:
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A top aide for president Joe Biden has called former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson to apologize for a mocking statement released by the Democratic National Committee regarding Hutchinson’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
In a statement released on Tuesday, DNC press secretary Sarafina Chitika said:
“This news comes as a shock to those of us who could’ve sworn he had already dropped out.”
Speaking to reporters, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden directed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients to call Hutchinson and apologize for the statement, saying that it did not reflect his views.
“President Biden has respect for governor Hutchinson and admires the race that he ran. The president knows him to be a man of principle who cares about our country and has a strong record of public service,” she said.
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Ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has condemned anti-abortion Republicans over their abortion bans.
In a statement on Wednesday, Schumer said:
“For decades, the far-right has led a campaign to systematically dismantle a woman’s fundamental right to choose. The most extreme elements of the Republican party have made it their mission to eliminate this freedom of choice. Republican abortion bans across the country have led to chaos, irreperable harm… We will never, never stop fighting for a woman’s right to choose.”
Today, ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Senate Democrats heard from witnesses at the forefront of fighting for abortion access.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 17, 2024
MAGA Republicans are still pushing for a national abortion ban.
Democrats will never relent in fighting for a woman's right to choose. pic.twitter.com/HWbUFOANeh
Here are some courtroom sketches coming through the newswires of E Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against Donald Trump:
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Less than a week before the New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump enjoys a 16-point lead in the north-eastern state, according to a major poll.
The poll, from Suffolk University, the Boston Globe and NBC, gave the former president 50% support, to 34% for the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Ron DeSantis, the hard-right governor of Florida who edged out Haley for second in Iowa this week, was a distant third on 5%.
In New Hampshire, voters who are not registered Democrats can take part in the Republican primary.
In the new poll, Trump dominated among registered Republicans and voters who called themselves conservatives. Haley led among moderates and independents.
David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told the Globe: “Haley’s had a tough week: underperforming in Iowa, trying to answer Trump’s attacks on her positions on social security and immigration, and the recent [Vivek] Ramaswamy endorsement of Trump helping him with younger GOP voters.”
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur with whom Haley frequently clashed in debates, dropped out of the race after finishing fourth in Iowa.
For Haley, Paleologos said, “there is time to at least close the gap with undecided voters or even with some Trump voters, and pull Trump below 50.”
Other polls have shown Haley closing the gap in New Hampshire. Also on Wednesday, American Research Group put Haley and Trump tied on 40% each.
The polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight.com gives ARG a C+ rating. Suffolk University gets an A-.
Cross-examination in E Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against Donald Trump is starting now.
The cross-examination follows Carroll’s testimony which Trump loudly complained throughout.
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Carroll tells trial Trump's statement after her first win made her feel 'worthless'
Much of E Jean Carroll’s testimony detailed Donald Trump’s continued statements about her after he was found liable of sexual abuse and defamation. This relates to jurors’ decision on damages, as they must determine a sum that would deter him from making similar statements.
Her attorney played a portion of Trump’s CNN town hall, which took place one day after Carroll won her first trial. Asked about the verdict, Trump said: “And I swear and I’ve never done that, and I swear to – I have no idea who the hell – she’s a whack job.”
“He’s doing it to a large crowd and drawing laughs about sexual assault,” Carroll noted.
When asked how this made her feel, Carroll choked up.
“I felt worthless,” she said.
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Guardian US is launching a new newsletter, focusing on Donald Trump’s many legal travails.
Will the former US president (and leading Republican candidate in this one) be a convicted felon by the time of this November’s presidential election?
Will the multiple cases against him actually conclude in time? Will he be allowed to stay on the ballot? Could he pardon himself?
The Guardian is launching a newsletter to help readers keep track of Trump’s myriad legal challenges.
Cameron Joseph, a politics reporter with 15 years of experience in Washington, will help readers stay on top of different cases, offering guidance on the big legal questions facing Trump and the American judicial system.
The newsletter will go out every Thursday – plus bonus editions on days with major Trump trial news.
You can sign up for the news letter HERE.
New York writer E Jean Carroll fought back tears on the stand in court in Manhattan earlier today, when shown a message by her lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, that had suggested that she stick a gun in her mouth and pull the trigger, Reuters reports.
“I was attacked on Twitter, I was attacked on Facebook, I was attacked on news blogs, I was brutally attacked in messages,” Carroll said, about what happened to hear after she accused Trump of sexual assault in the past. “It was a new world.”’
Carroll said she once got 200 letters a month from readers seeking advice, and now gets eight. She was best known as an advice columnist at Elle magazine.
She also said the attacks hadn’t let up.
“Yesterday I opened up Twitter, and it said ‘hey lady, you’re a fraud,’” Carroll said. “Now I’m known as a liar, a fraud and a whack job.”
Twitter is now known as X. Trump has also called Carroll a whack job.
Nonetheless, when asked by her lawyer if she regretted coming forward, Carroll said: “Only momentarily. I am very glad I took action.”
Updated
The defamation trial of Donald Trump is about to resume, amid high drama, in court in New York, where plaintiff E Jean Carroll has been testifying, and the former US president is present.
Here’s some useful background context from Reuters:
Last May, a different jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5m, finding he had sexually abused in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in New York, and defamed her in 2022 by denying that anything happened.
In Wednesday’s trial, Carroll is seeking another $10m in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages.
Judge Lewis Kaplan has already ruled that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the dressing room by forcing his fingers into her vagina, and defamed her for two statements he made in 2019 when he was president.
Trump had claimed that he didn’t know Carroll, and that she branded him a rapist to boost sales of her then-new memoir.”
The court in New York is on break amid the trial in which writer E Jean Carroll has sued Donald Trump for defamation for remarks he made while president after she alleged publicly that he had raped her in the past.
One of Carroll’s lawyers, Shawn Crowley, has had to complain twice to the judge, Lewis Kaplan, about Trump complaining about the case so loudly in court, while Carroll was testifying, that at least some of jury can probably hear him.
Before the break, Crowley said: “Just asking your honor to remind the parties that they’re not supposed to make statements to or indirectly – the defendant has been making statements again [that] we can hear at counsel table” and added that jurors were sitting closer to Trump than the plaintiff’s lawyers.
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Judge in E Jean Carroll case threatens to exclude Trump from court
Judge Lewis Kaplan has warned Donald Trump that his right to attend court in the defamation trial under way in New York, where the former president is the defendant in a civil case brought by writer E Jean Carroll, can be forfeited if he continues to disrupt proceedings.
Carroll has been testifying this morning and Trump, sitting with his lawyer, has been grumbling about the case, loudly enough that the jury can probably hear his remarks, Carroll’s legal team has said.
The judge had already warned Trump to pipe down. Just before the court broke for lunch, Carroll’s team complained to Judge Kaplan again. He said: “Mr Trump has the right to be present here – that right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive which is what has been reported to me and if he disregards court orders.”
Addressing Trump, the judge said: “Mr Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial … I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that.”
Trump responded.
“I would love it, I would love it,” he said and gestured.
The judge replied: “I know you would, you just can’t control yourself in this circumstance apparently.”
Shawn Crowley, one of Carroll’s lawyers, had said to the judge: “The defendant has been making statements again [that] we can hear at counsel table.”
She noted that some jurors are seated even closer to Trump than she is.
“He said it is a ‘witch-hunt,’ it really is a ‘con-job’,” Crowley told the judge.
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Kamala Harris on another Trump presidency: 'I am scared as heck'
Speaking to The View, Kamala Harris said she is “scared as heck” about another Donald Trump presidency.
The vice-president said:
“I am scared as heck, which is why I’m traveling our country. We should all be scared. But as we know, we don’t run away from something when we’re scared. We fight back against it.”
VP Kamala Harris on “The View,” when asked if she’s scared of another Trump presidency:
— The Recount (@therecount) January 17, 2024
“I am scared as heck, which is why I'm traveling our country … We should all be scared. But as we know … we don't run away from something when we're scared; we fight back against it.” pic.twitter.com/UYXfcIvAyj
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With the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial against Donald Trump underway in a Manhattan courthouse, vice-president Kamala Harris also made an appearance in the city where she took to The View’s studios to comment on Nikki Haley’s remarks that the US has “never been a racist country.”
Harris said:
“The issue of race in America is not something that should be the subject of a soundbite. The history of racism in America should never be the subject of a soundbite or a question that is meant to elicit a one sentence answer. But there is no denying that we have, in our history as a nation, racism, and that racism has played a role in the history of our nation.”
VP Kamala Harris on “The View” reacts to Nikki Haley saying that the United States has “never been a racist country”:
— The Recount (@therecount) January 17, 2024
“There is no denying that we have, in our history as a nation, racism, and that racism has played a role in the history of our nation.” pic.twitter.com/s82KEq4SvJ
E Jean Carroll described the barrage of threats she has received in the years since Donald Trump’s comments.
“I hope you die soon. I hope someone really does attack, rape and murder you,” one missive presented in court stated. “You deserve it all, you c--t.”
Another simply said: “Rape Jean rape Jean.”
Carroll described methods she has taken to protect herself at home in upstate New York. She bought a pitbull who goes leash-less on her property.
“He now patrols very eagerly and enthusiastically,” Carroll said. She also purchased bullets for the gun that had belonged to her father.
Roberta Kaplan asked Carroll where she kept the gun.
“By my bed,” Carroll said.
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Judge tells Trump to keep his voice down so the jury can't hear him
Before court resumed after the break, Judge Lewis Kaplan cautioned:
“I’m just going to ask Mr Trump to take special care to keep his voice down when conferring with counsel, so that the jury does not overhear.”
Updated
Trump loudly complains as Carroll testifies
As E Jean Carroll testified, Donald Trump complained audibly and appeared to double down on defamatory denials, her lawyer said during a morning break in the proceedings.
“Mr Trump has been sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things throughout Ms Carroll’s testimony,” said attorney Shawn Crowley.
They included claims that her comments were false and the statement, “She now seems to have gotten her memory back.”
“It’s loud enough for us to hear it,” Crowley said, so “I imagine it’s loud enough for the jury to hear it.”
Updated
Donald Trump’s public remarks about E Jean Carroll “ended the world I had been living in”, Carroll said in court, MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin reports.
“To have the president of the United States, one of the most powerful persons on earth, call me a liar for three days and say it 26 times – I counted them. It ended the world I had been living in and I lived in a new world,” said Carroll.
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Carroll: 'I've paid just about as dearly as is possible to pay'
During her testimony, E Jean Carroll explained the chain of events that unfolded after the excerpt ran. Carroll said she had never told anyone publicly about the incident.
She said that the fact that Donald Trump was president did factor into her decision to go public. “I took the responsibility and went ahead and did it,” she said.
Carroll said she expected him to respond but not in the way that he did. “I expected him to deny it, but to say it was consensual, when it was not, but that’s what I expected him to say,” she said.
“Is that what Trump did?” asked Carroll’s counsel, Roberta Kaplan, who has no relation to Judge Lewis Kaplan.
“No,” Carroll said.
Roberta Kaplan referred to the language in Trump’s denials.
“The thing that really got me about this was, from the White House, he asked if anyone had any information about me and if they did, to please come forward as soon as possible, because he wanted the world to know what’s really going on – and that people like me should pay dearly,” Carroll recalled.
“Have you paid dearly, Ms Carroll?” said Roberta Kaplan.
“I’ve paid just about as dearly as is possible to pay,” said Carroll.
Updated
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s lead attorney in the case, Alina Habba, does not appear to be doing him any favors, repeatedly angering Judge Lewis Kaplan – a no-nonsense jurist who does not hold back in voicing his displeasure.
Habba irked Kaplan by once again asking for proceedings to be adjourned on Thursday, which is the scheduled date for his mother-in-law’s funeral. Kaplan has denied this request on several occasions.
Kaplan said he would not hear another argument on it, saying, “None, none, do you understand that word, none?” and told her to sit. Habba did not. “I said sit down,” said Kaplan.
She did not and said she wanted to discuss another thing. “I don’t like to be spoken to that way, your honor,” Habba said. “I will ask you to refrain from speaking to me that way.”
Kaplan again said her request for an adjournment was denied. “Sit down,” he said, his voice growing very stern.
Another time, Habba started to address the court while seated. “When you speak in this courtroom or any other courtroom in this building, you stand up,” Kaplan warned.
Updated
When E Jean Carroll first took the stand, Trump could be seen whispering to his lead attorney, Alina Habba. He sat with slightly hunched shoulders as Carroll testified.
Following Carroll’s initial remarks, one of her attorneys, Roberta Kaplan, asked the former Elle columnist questions about her career. Jurors heard how Carroll ascended from writing articles for high-profile publications to landing the columnist position, as well as a talkshow and authoring multiple books.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires of E Jean Carroll’s defamation case against Donald Trump:
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E Jean Carroll: Donald Trump 'lied and it shattered my reputation'
E Jean Carroll took the witness stand Wednesday morning in her defamation trial against Donald Trump, marking the first time she confronted the ex-president in a courtroom.
“I’m here because Donald Trump assaulted me and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened,” Carroll testified. “He lied, and it shattered my reputation.
“I’m here to get my reputation back and to stop him from telling lies about me,” she added.
Updated
E Jean Carroll is now on the stand, Victoria Bekiempis reports for the Guardian from the Manhattan courthouse.
We will bring you the latest updates from the trial.
Updated
Donald Trump walked into the courtroom just before 10am in E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against him.
The trial is in its second day and Carroll is expected to testify about how Trump’s denials of her rape claim destroyed her reputation and resulted in threats. Carroll is expected to testify.
If Trump does stay for Carroll’s testimony, this will mark the first time she will confront him in open court.
Updated
Ron DeSantis echoed Nikki Haley’s remarks of the US having “never been a racist country”, saying at Tuesday’s town hall, “The US is not a racist country.”
DeSantis, who is engaged in a self-described war on “wokeness” involving LGBTQ+ communities, education and race, added, “We’ve overcome things in our history.”
The Republican governor of Florida also cited his attempts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs in his state, saying, “They say it’s diversity, equity and inclusion, but it’s really very ideological, and they’re trying to impose an agenda… I think the way it’s actually practiced, it stands for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, and it’s wrong.”
Updated
Despite his legal woes, Donald Trump and his potential comeback as president remains at the forefront of discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Speaking to CNBC, Tim Adams, president of the Institute of International Finance said:
“Every question I’ve gotten as I’ve walked up and down the [Davos] Promenade today is, ‘Is he coming back?’… So I think there is a lot of interest in that question and what does that mean and who would be in the key positions.”
Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered, said:
“The slight re-engagement that we’re seeing through the [Joe] Biden administration are an indication to me that the US is looking to stabilize [relations with China]… If Trump becomes president, we know that he’s a transactional president, and there’s probably a transaction in there someplace, that keeps the economy on an even keel, without fundamentally disrupting that relationship.”
Meanwhile, Vera Jourova, European Commission vice president, told CNBC:
“If Mr. Trump will become the president ... we might see a strengthening of Russia and increasing of appetite of [Vladimir] Putin to grab more territory, and this directly endangering the security of our member states,” she said, adding that “we have concerns, we are preparing for any option.”
Nikki Haley: US has 'never been a racist country'
The US has “never been a racist country,” Nikki Haley said in a recent Fox News interview.
Speaking to Fox host Brian Kilmeade who asked the Republican presidential candidate whether the Republican party is racist, Haley responded, “No. We’re not a racist country. We’ve never been a racist country.”
She went on to add, “Our goal is to make sure that today is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No. But our goal is to always make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can.”
Haley also said, “I know, I faced racism when I was growing up. But I can tell you, today is a lot better than it was then.”
Nikki Haley: "We've never been a racist country" pic.twitter.com/qcB0wTjvJS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 16, 2024
A few weeks ago at a campaign event, Haley declined to say that slavery was the cause of the US civil war, instead saying that the war involved “basically how the government was going to run” and “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do”.
Haley later walked back on her remarks, saying, “Of course” the US civil war was about slavery.
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During his town hall on Tuesday with CNN, Ron DeSantis also questioned his opponent Nikki Haley’s ability to bring Republicans together.
Speaking to CNN host Wolf Blitzer, DeSantis said:
“I think it’s great in a general election to build a big tent…but to win a Republican primary…you gotta be able to win core Republicans, you gotta be able to win conservatives, and she can’t do that.”
He went on to add:
“She does not have the ability to win the kind of coalition that you need to win a Republican primary – period, much less take on Donald Trump.”
Ron DeSantis says Republicans will lose election with Donald Trump as nominee
Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis warned that if Donald Trump becomes the Republican presidential nominee, then Republicans are “going to lose”.
DeSantis cited Trump’s mounting legal issues as distraction to the election, saying: “If Donald Trump is the nominee, the election will revolve around all these legal issues, his trials, perhaps convictions if he goes to trials and loses there and about things like January 6.”
Speaking at a CNN town hall on Tuesday, he added: “We’re going to lose if voters are making a decision based on that. We don’t want it to be a referendum on those issues. We want it to be a referendum on the country going in the wrong direction and a candidate like me being a president that can reverse the decline.”
DeSantis’s comments follow his second-place finish at the Iowa caucuses earlier this week, where he landed 30 percentage points behind Trump and two points ahead of Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and the US ambassador to the UN under Trump.
Here are other developments in US politics:
The House is set to convene at 10am on border security legislation with first votes expected at 1.30pm ET, Politico Playbook reports.
ABC News has cancelled the next Republican presidential debate after Haley said she would not participate without Trump.
An aide to defense secretary Lloyd Austin who called 911 for an ambulance asked the ambulance to “not show up with lights and sirens”, a newly unveiled recording has revealed.
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