Thursday morning news: January 11, 2024

Debate » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former ambassador Nikki Haley debated head to head last night in Iowa, and the knives were out early.

SOUND: [Debate]

The party’s top two challengers to Donald Trump spent much of the debate attacking one another with little attention to Trump or President Biden.

Last night’s debate in Des Moines came just five days before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. And for the first time, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy did not make the cut.

Christie drops out » Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also failed to meet the polling requirements for the debate. And just hours earlier, he told supporters in New Hampshire:

CHRISTIE: It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for president of the United States.

Christie, who is one of Donald Trump’s most vocal Republican critics criticized other GOP candidates for, in his view, going light on the frontrunner.

Christie said Trump cannot be allowed to return to the White House. And he said by dropping out, he hopes to declutter the field of GOP alternatives to Trump.

Trump town hall » As DeSantis and Haley debated, the former president held a town hall event just miles away in Des Moines.

He took aim at President Biden on a range of issues, including the southern border.

TRUMP: A guy like Biden, there’s nothing he can run out. Everything’s turned out badly. The border’s a disaster, the worst border in history …

… I think the worst border in the history of the world. We had the best border in the history of our country. We never had a border like that.

He also blasted Biden for what he said are woke policies imposed on the military.

In a head to head matchup, an average of recent polls show Trump and Biden virtually tied.

But the primary race is a different story with Trump leading all GOP challengers by more than 50 points.

Mayorkas impeachment hearing » On Capitol Hill many Republicans are pushing to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

GOP members of the House Homeland Security Committee opened an impeachment hearing on Wednesday over what they say are his failures in securing the southern border.

Committee Chairman Mark Green:

GREEN: Upon entering office, Secretary Mayorkas began dismantling effective policies that had secured the Southwest border, despite being warned by experienced border security personnel.

Migrant encounters have shattered records in recent years, including 300,000 in December alone, the most ever in a single month.

But Democratic members called the impeachment hearing a political face.

Ranking Member Bennie Thompson.

THOMPSON: Extreme MAGA Republicans have created this impeachment circus sideshow in part to distract from their own failures.

Even if Mayorkas is impeached in the House, it’s unlikely that the Democrat-led Senate would vote to remove him from office.

Hunter Biden » Also at the Capitol on Wednesday,

COMER: I call up a report containing a resolution recommending that the House of Representatives find Robert Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena … duly issued by this committee.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer heard there. The Republican-led panel approved that resolution.

That was hours after Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance at the hearing. Reporters pelted him with questions on the way out.

The president’s son refused to appear for private questioning last month for an investigation into Biden family business dealings demanding that the hearing be public.

Ohio trans bill » Ohio state lawmakers have voted to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that would protect minors from medical attempts to change their sex traits.

WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: House Bill 68 would ban the prescription of cross-gender hormones, puberty blockers, and gender transition surgery to minors.

It would also bar males from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.

The Republican governor vetoed the bill saying he believes that parents, not the government, should make those decisions.

However, he did issue an executive order banning gender transition surgeries for minors.

A vote in the heavily Republican state Senate later this month will decide the fate of the law.

For WORLD I’m Josh Schumacher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Republicans fight fire with fire in the last debate before the Iowa caucuses. Plus, canine economics.

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