Super Tuesday results live: Donald Trump beats Nikki Haley – ‘I will win the election’
Donald Trump has all but declared victory in his campaign to be the presidential nominee – but it hasn’t all gone his way.
Donald Trump has declared Joe Biden the “worst president in the history of our country” in a speech as he (almost) swept the Super Tuesday primaries in the US.
Primaries decide who from each party will be the candidate for President, with ‘Super Tuesday’ being the date the greatest number of states hold their primary elections.
“We’re going to win this election because if we lose the election we’re not going to have a country,” he said in a victory speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
As he was speaking, President Biden issued a statement declaring his rival “an existential threat to America,” driven by “grievance and grift”.
But one person was seemingly missing from the opulent room where Republicans were celebrating; former First Lady Melania Trump.
Mr Trump is now all but certain to be confirmed as the Republican nominee for November’s presidential election.
That would lead to a rematch with President Biden. And right now, a number of polls have suggested Mr Trump would win that rematch.
Mr Trump is projected to win 15 of the 16 primaries. But he looks to have lost the north eastern state of Vermont to his one remaining rival, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.
It may not be enough to keep her in the race. Indeed, Ms Haley is not due to speak tonight in a sign she may be preparing to exit the race.
Mr Biden has won all the Democrat state primaries held so far, but in concerning news for his team an option on the ballot called “uncommitted” has done well, meaning he may not have voters’ excitement or loyalty.
Melania missing
In his speech, Mr Trump said he wanted to “thank my family for being here. It’s a great family”.
But the New York Post said one key member of that family was absent, Mr Trump’s wife and former First Lady Melania.
In addition, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, also weren’t seen.
Sons Eric and Don Jr as well as daughter Tiffany were in Florida, as well as their partners.
Trump’s (almost clean sweep)
It’s estimated Mr Trump will reach almost 900 delegates by the end of Super Tuesday.
Those delegates will go to the Republican National Convention (RNC), to be held in July, where the presidential candidate will be crowned.
Ms Haley will get around 66.
Mr Trump’s win is not complete, he needs 1215 to secure the RNC endorsement, but it’s almost unassailable.
He racked up primary wins in the states of Texas, California, Minnesota, Colorado, Virginia, Maine, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Carolina. Ms Haley won Vermont.
But a significant number of Republicans overall, maybe as many as a third, opted for Ms Haley. That’s led some Democrats to hope some of Ms Haley’s supporters are “gettable” and will vote for President Biden to keep Mr Trump from returning to the White House.
Trump focuses on immigration and Biden
Mr Trump focused on two main issues in his comments on Super Tuesday evening: President Biden and what he has called the “open border” that was going to “destroy our country”.
“We have millions of people invading our country,” he said provocatively.
He said Mr Biden was “the worst president in the history of our country”.
“We watched our country take a great beating over the last three years.
“And nobody thought a thing like this would be possible.
“We wouldn’t have Russia attacking Ukraine; we wouldn’t have Israel being attacked”.
He added that under him, “We had no inflation.”
“A lot of experts have said the stock market’s the only thing that’s doing well — and that’s doing well because our poll numbers are so much higher than Joe Biden’s.”
He also said that Covid-19 came from a Chinese lab in Wuhan and caused a pandemic due to “incompetence”.
He did not mention Ms Haley once.
Biden fights back
As his rival was speaking, President Biden issued a statement saying that his administration had brought down inflation and led to more jobs. And he pushed what will probably ne his central election campaign themes: Mr Trump being a danger to democracy and women’s rights.
“Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?
“(Mr Trump) is driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution, not the American people.
“He is determined to destroy our democracy, rip away fundamental freedoms like the ability for women to make their own health care decisions, and pass another round of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy — and he’ll do or say anything to put himself in power.”
Trump’s meeting with Elon Musk
The New York Times has reported that Mr Trump met with entrepreneur Elon Musk on Sunday.
It’s reported that Mr Musk was one of a number of wealthy business people who went to Florida to see the former president amid reports he is in need an urgent cash infusion into his campaign.
In contrast, Mr Biden’s team has reported increasing amounts of cash pouring into his re-election campaign.
If Mr Trump can nab some of the $A300 billion the Tesla owner is reportedly worth it could erase some of Mr Biden’s advantage.
Mr Musk is increasingly seen to be a supporter of Mr Trump.
Team Biden rattled by protest vote
President Biden has won every Super Tuesday Democrat primary so far. But in some instances, perhaps by not as much as he might have liked.
Not all the votes have been counted, but in Minnesota – centred on the city of Minneapolis – “uncommitted,” has won 20 per cent of the vote. In Massachusetts, “no preference,” is on is winning 11 per cent of the vote.
The protest votes are generally being pushed by activists upset with Mr Biden’s support of Israel in the Gaza war.
The Democrats will be concerned if a chunk of the party’s supporters also stay away in the November general election.
Mr Biden has lost the primary in American Samoa. This is a US territory, as opposed to nearby Samoa which is independent, in the South Pacific that’s almost an equal distance between Australia and Hawaii.
Democrat Jason Palmer, an entrepreneur, won the primary. It won’t make much difference as Mr Biden already has swathes of delegates. American Samoa also didn’t pick Mr Biden in 2020. American Samoans cannot vote in the presidential election.
Anti-Trump votes ‘getabble’
Ms Haley who on Tuesday won Vermont to add to her win in Washington DC has said she will keep in the running while she is “competitive”. But there have been ever increasing calls for Ms Haley to step aside, which only grew after she lost the primary in her home state of South Carolina less than two weeks ago. Those calls may finally be heeded unless she can score some Super Tuesday wins.
She has repeatedly said that Mr Trump is an electoral liability and only she can beat Mr Biden.
“He lost 40 per cent of the primary vote in all of the early states,” Ms Haley said this week on the campaign trail.
“You can’t win the general election if you can’t win that 40 per cent.”
Ms Haley added that Americans have rejected Mr Trump’s divisive brand in almost every vote since his win in 2016 and would do so again in November.
The Democrats are hoping she is right. CNN has reported that many of the voters who opted for Nikki Haley are vociferously anti Trump and may be “gettable”.
Biden campaign officials have reportedly seen data that says significant numbers of Haley supporters are “turned off by Trump”.
Trump: ‘It’s a lie’
Mr Trump does not agree with this assessment.
“It’s a lie. She knows it’s a lie,” he told Fox News show Fox & Friends on Tuesday.
“We are winning against Biden in every single poll, and everybody knows it, whether it’s the New York Times, whether it’s any of the polls that have been taken over the last three months.
“So she is misrepresenting that fact and it’s fine. It’s not going to matter because I think we’re going to win every state tonight.”
Not every poll has Mr Trump beating Mr Biden – but a fair few do.
A particularly striking survey from Siena College, published in The New York Times over the weekend, showed Mr Trump leading the incumbent President 48 per cent to 43 per cent among registered voters.
But the same poll showed Ms Haley beating Mr Biden even more comfortably, with a margin of 45-35, though unless something very unexpected happens on Tuesday, that contest will likely never happen.
On Sunday, CBS News released its own poll, with more encouraging news for Mr Trump.
Not only did it show Mr Trump leading Mr Biden 52-48, but several indicators also favoured the Republican.
Warning sign for Trump
While Mr Trump is adored by a certain proportion of Republicans, a significant number are desperate for him not to stand again and could choose to sit out the November election – or even vote Democrat.
If Ms Haley loses, but still tots up a good chunk of the primary votes, it could be a warning sign for her competitor.
Ms Haley has also warned of the “chaos” surrounding a candidate who in just the last few months has been labelled an insurrectionist by a federal judge and found liable for sexual assault and business fraud running to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr Trump — who denies all wrongdoing — also faces the threat of jail time from multiple federal and state felony charges, mostly for allegedly trying to cheat in or steal the 2020 election
– with Samuel Clench
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