Thursday morning news: January 25, 2024

Biden campaign » On the heels of Donald Trump’s big win in New Hampshire, President Biden’s campaign leaders say they believe the Republican race is over.

RODRIGUEZ: And the election-denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican party.

Biden Campaign Manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez heard there. And Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks added that it’s time to focus on November.

FULKS: Just looking at the reality of the data in front of us, right? We’ve been prepared for this since the launch of this reelection in April of last year.

President Biden is now looking to rally his base, speaking Wednesday at a United Auto Workers union conference in Washington.

BIDEN: It’s great to be home! One of the best unions in the world!

UAW President Shawn Fain declared that the union is again endorsing Biden.

Trump and Haley campaigns » For his part, Donald Trump is also focused largely on November, taking regular jabs at Biden.

TRUMP: If you took the 10 worst presidents and put them together, they would not have done the damage that crooked Joe Biden has done.

But while Biden and Trump may be gearing up for a rematch, Nikki Haley says the GOP primary race is far from over.

She’s campaigning in her home state of South Carolina where she was twice elected governor. She touted her record last night in North Charleston.

HALEY: We moved 35,000 people from welfare to work. (cheers)

Despite her deep roots in the state, the poll numbers there suggest Trump enjoys a comfortable lead at the moment.

Border » And speaking of polls, immigration is now the top concern on the minds of voters, surpassing even inflation. That’s according to a new Harvard-Harris survey of well over 2,000 registered voters.

A bipartisan group of senators is negotiating over a bill that would tighten immigration policies at the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans have demanded that in exchange for approving more funds for aid to Ukraine.

President Biden says he’s open to changes on the border.

But Republican Sen. Mike Lee said Wednesday,

LEE: What should give us any reason to believe that the administration that, with existing law, doesn’t want to use the tools that it has already on the books today, will suddenly change course if he has access to new laws?

Lee was part of a group of Republican senators who addressed reporters on Capitol Hill.

They complained that GOP leader McConnell is leaving many rank-and-file Republicans out of the negotiations. And they expressed serious doubts that any forthcoming Senate bill would pass in the House.

Ohio trans protections for minors » State lawmakers in Ohio have overturned the governor’s veto of a bill that will protect minors from transgender procedures. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The Republican-led state Senate overrode GOP Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of the measure on a vote of 24 to 8.

The new law will ban transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormone therapies for anyone under the age of 18.

It also prohibits males from competing on girls or women’s sports teams from kindergarten through college.

The law is slated to take effect in April.

22 other states have already enacted laws protecting minors from transgender medical procedures.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Kirby on Iran-backed attacks » National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. military is on high alert watching for more attacks by Iran-backed militants in the Middle East.

KIRBY: As the president has said, we’re not going to hesitate to take necessary action to protect our troops and our facilities, and we’ll stay vigilant going forward of course.

U.S. forces carried out airstrikes in Iraq on Tuesday, targeting facilities controlled by Iran’s proxy groups in the region.

That followed a missile attack by militants over the weekend that wounded four U.S. service members at an air base in Iraq. Just the latest of roughly 150 attacks on American troops in recent months.

Russia plane crash » Kirby also said the United States is looking into a deadly plane crash on Wednesday in western Russia. Officials in Moscow claim the transport plane was carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war en route to the location of a prisoner exchange.

KIRBY: We’re obviously doing the best we can to try to get more clarity and more information on it.

The Kremlin claims Ukraine’s military shot down the plane. But it offered no evidence of that.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would push for an international investigation of what happened “considering that the plane crash occurred on Russian territory beyond our control.”

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Getting back to basic biology in Missouri. Plus, The ministry of staying put in war time.

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