Closing summary
The reverberations of Donald Trump’s triumph in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries were felt in the Capitol, where the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, reportedly told his colleagues that they would not be voting on any agreement to tighten immigration policy and also pay for military aid to Ukraine and Israel. The reason, McConnell said, is because Trump wants to campaign against Joe Biden on the issue of immigration, and enacting the deal – which the GOP has been negotiating with Democrats for months, and which has still not been made public – would “undermine” that strategy. Things could nonetheless still change, and McConnell said as much today, when he told a reporter that negotiations are “ongoing”.
Here’s what else happened today:
Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, has been sentenced to four months in prison for defying the January 6 committee, but will appeal.
Nikki Haley is continuing what looks to be a long-shot bid to clinch the Republican presidential nomination by winning the primary in her home state South Carolina.
Trump briefly took the stand in the New York City trial of the defamation lawsuit against him by E Jean Carroll.
US economic growth came in better than expected in the final quarter of 2023, despite fears of a slowdown.
A lawyer representing Trump in the Georgia election subversion case argued the charges against him should be dropped because district attorney Fani Willis made “provocative and inflammatory extrajudicial racial comments”.
This time next year, Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah who is one of the few avowed Trump foes in the chamber, will probably be out of politics.
The 76-year-old, who lost to Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, announced late last year that he would not run for office again. He’s keeping up his criticism of Trump as his final year in office begins, saying it’s “appalling” that the former president would try to undermine a compromise on immigration policy to boost his re-election campaign.
Here’s video of his comments, from CNN:
Mitt Romney: “I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn't want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is is really appalling." pic.twitter.com/L1LJex10JY
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 25, 2024
