Nikki Haley is delivering her first public remarks since suspending her presidential campaign at the Hudson Institute, where she was recently named the Walter P. Stern Chair. Haley says “a growing number of Democrats and Republicans have forgotten what makes America safe...They believe that if we leave the world alone, the world will leave us alone.”

Nikki Haley in Keene, NH hit Trump for seemingly confusing her with Nancy Pelosi: "I’m not saying anything derogatory, but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.” "We see that Biden has changed so much over two years. But last night Trump is at a rally and he’s going on and on mentioning me multiple times as to why I didn’t take security during the capitol riot, why I didn’t handle Jan. 6 better," said Haley.

New: Vivek Ramaswamy is facing backlash from some young Republicans over his proposal to raise the voting age to 25.

Some young GOP voters compare it to Jim Crow and call it disenfranchisement, and others say it will push Gen Z further towards Democrats. washingtonpost.com/elections/2023… College Republicans’ @seabritt: “If Republicans take action to disqualify 18-24-year-olds from voting, they’ll push Gen Z further away from the GOP and risk losing an entire generation of voters who won’t soon forget the Party that disenfranchised them.”

An attendee says Biden and his cabinet have committed treason and asks why Ramaswamy isn’t talking about treason on TV.

Ramaswamy mentions Hunter Biden and says “I’m not some journalist sitting here to just complain about the problem, we want to solve it” Ramaswamy says the reason he “doesn’t pick on Joe Biden so much as a person” is that Biden is a “hallowed out husk” and a “puppet.”

Speaking at a rally here in Dallas County focused on motivating young voter participation in the Iowa Caucus, GOP presidential candidate @VivekGRamaswamy is announcing his support for a constitutional amendment to raise the voting age from 18 to 25. Under his “Civic Duty Voting” plan, 18 year olds could only vote if they:

- complete six months of direct service in the U.S. military or first response services (like police or fire)
- Pass a civic education test identical to the U.S. citizenship exam for naturalized citizens

Rep. @DanCrenshawTX is pissed.

“I'm tired of your stupid platitudes that some that some consultant told you to say on the campaign trail, alright. Behind closed doors tell us what you actually want, or shut the fuck up,” he said of the 20 defectors. “They need to be men and adults and say what they want, instead of playing these little games, that's what we're asking. That's what I've asked them. Some of them are my friends. Stop saying platitudes like, ‘Washington is broken. We can't do the status quo,’” Crenshaw said.

Rep. Bob Good post first vote: “Very pleased that we got 19. I think you're gonna see more votes against Kevin McCarthy on the second ballot, I think it's gonna become increasingly clear he's not going to be Speaker. We will never cave we will never vote for him.” Good: “The sooner he pulls out for the good of the country, for the good of the Congress, for the good of the conference, the better everyone is and that way we can move together try to find who the best person is that can reach 218.”

“That's exactly what we thought it would be,” Kevin McCarthy tells us after first vote.

“We got a number of members who are trying to fight for their own personal items instead of fight for the country, and we put out of the Commitment to American will continue to go do it.” More McCarthy: “Look, I've been Leader for four years. All we've done was win seats. We won the majority, it took Nancy eight years to win the majority back. While the Republican senators lost, the Republican governors lost, we won.”

In Georgia, Sen. Rick Scott reiterated his calls to delay leadership elections until post-runoff and didn’t rule out challenging McConnell.

“There's a lot of people who have called to ask me if I'll do it, and so I'm not gonna take anything off the table.” On McConnell’s allies blaming him for GOP loses & accusing the NRSC of functioning like his personal PAC, Scott said “Well, we've done everything we can. Clearly as you know it's disappointing that we didn't get the majority & we're gonna continue to work hard and win this one.”

D.C. Police Officer Daniel Hodges tells me he was in his head when he and other law enforcement officers were approached by witness/rioter Stephen Ayers, trying to decide if he should shake his hand.

“I asked him if he was sorry and he said ‘yes,’ and I said ‘I hope so.’” “That’s about all I can do right now,” he said. Hodges was crushed between two doors and beaten by his own baton on Jan. 6.

“It’s odd to put a face to the faceless crowd.”

The Supreme Court is completely surrounded by flowers in honor of RBG. also spotted at scotus: @KoenigLaurenR

At his first campaign event in South Carolina, @kanyewest is sporting a vest that says security, with “2020” shaved into his hair. Kanye on opiods: “In Europe, there’s a higher threshold for pain. I had plastic surgery to try to look young.” He adds “after getting the plastic surgery, that was a slippery slope to getting addicted to Percocets,” and that he would drive in Calabasas “high as a motherfu*ker.”