Trump Begins 2024 Run
(continued from Page 3) Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and several members of the state’s congressional delegation attended Trump’s event at the Statehouse.
Trump’s team has struggled to line up support from South Carolina lawmakers, even some who eagerly backed him before. Some have said that more than a year out from primary balloting is too early to make endorsements or that they are waiting to see who else enters the race. Others have said it is time for the party to move past Trump to a new generation of leadership. South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith was among the legislative leaders awaiting Trump’s arrival, although he said he was there not to make a formal endorsement but to welcome the former president to the state in his role as speaker. Otherwise, dozens of supporters crammed into the ceremonial lobby between the state House and Senate, competing with reporters and camera crews for space among marble-topped tables and a life-sized bronze statue of former Vice President John C. Calhoun.
Dave Wilson, president of conservative Christian nonprofit Palmetto Family, said some conservative voters may have concerns about Trump’s recent comments that Republicans who opposed abortion without exceptions had cost the party in the November elections. “It gives pause to some folks within the conservative ranks of the Republican Party as to whether or not we need the process to work itself out,” said Wilson, whose group hosted Pence for a speech in 2021.
But Gerri McDaniel, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, rejected the idea that voters were ready to move on from the former president. “Some of the media keep saying he’s losing his support. No, he’s not,” she said. “It’s only going to be greater than it was before because there are so many people who are angry about what’s happening in Washington.”
The South Carolina event was in some ways off-brand for a onetime reality television star who typically favors big rallies and has tried to cultivate an outsider image. Rallies are expensive, and Trump added new financial challenges when he decided to begin his campaign in November — far earlier than many had urged. That leaves him subject to strict fundraising regulations and bars him from using his wellfunded leadership political action committee to pay for such events, which can cost several million dollars. Trump’s campaign, in its early stages, has already drawn controversy, most particularly when he had dinner with Holocaust denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper formerly known as Kanye
West, who had made a series of antisemitic comments. Trump also was widely mocked for selling a series of digital trading cards that pictured him as a superhero, a cowboy and an astronaut, among others.
He is the subject of a series of criminal investigations, including one into the discovery of hundreds of documents with classified markings at his Florida club and whether he obstructed justice by refusing to return them, as well as state and federal examinations of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
Still, early polling shows he’s a favorite to win his party’s nomination.
“The gun is fired, and the campaign season has started,” said Stephen Stepanek, outgoing chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party. Trump announced that Stepanek will serve as senior adviser for his campaign in the state.”
Nichols
(continued from Page 3) She we know is the amount of also was struck by the immediate force that was applied in this aggression from officers situation was over the top.” as soon as they got out of the After the first officer roughly car: “It just went to 100 . ... pulls Nichols out of the car, This was never a matter of Nichols can be heard saying, de-escalation,” Goss Andrews “I didn’t do anything,” said, adding, “The young as a group of officers begin to man never had a chance wrestle him to the ground. from the moment that he was One is heard yelling, “Tase stopped.” him! Tase him!”
Davis has said other officers Nichols calmly says, “OK, I’m are under investigation, and on the ground,” and that he Shelby County Sheriff Floyd was just trying to go home. Bonner said two deputies Moments later, he yells at were relieved of duty without them to “stop.” pay while their conduct is Nichols is then seen running investigated. as an officer fires a Taser. The Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, officers start chasing Nichols. said the family would Others are called, and a “continue to seek justice” and search ensues before Nichols those who failed to render aid is caught at another intersection. are “just as culpable as the His mother’s home, officers who threw the blows.” where he lived, was only a few A Memphis police spokeswoman houses away, and his family declined to comment said he was trying to get on the other officers’ conduct. there.
Cities nationwide had braced The officers beat him with a for demonstrations after baton, and kick and punch the video emerged, but protests him. The attack continues were scattered and even after he collapses. nonviolent. Several dozen It takes more than 20 minutes demonstrators in Memphis afterward before any sort blocked the Interstate 55 of medical attention is provided. bridge that carries traffic over the Mississippi River During the wait for an ambulance, toward Arkansas. Protesters officers joke and air also blocked traffic in New grievances. They complain York City, Los Angeles and that a handheld radio was Portland, Oregon. ruined, that someone lost Blake Ballin, the lawyer for a flashlight, that multiple Mills, told AP in a statement officers were caught in the Saturday that the videos “produced pepper spray used against as many questions as Nichols. they have answers.” Throughout the videos, they Some of those will focus on make claims about Nichols’ what Mills “knew and what he behavior that are not supported was able to see” and whether by the footage or that his actions “crossed the lines the district attorney and other that were crossed by other officials say did not happen. officers during this incident,” In one, an officer claims that Ballin said. during the initial traffic stop Davis acknowledged that Nichols reached for the officer’s the police department has a gun and almost had his supervisor shortage and said hand on the handle, something the lack of a supervisor in the not shown in the video. arrest was a “major problem.” After Nichols is in handcuffs City officials have pledged to and leaning against a police provide more of them. car, several officers say he It’s not clear why the traffic must have been high. Later stop happened in the first one says no drugs were found place. One officer can be in Nichols’ car, and another heard on video saying that immediately counters that he Nichols wouldn’t stop and must have ditched something then swerved as though he while running away. intended to hit the officer’s During a speech Saturday in car. The officer says that Harlem, the Rev. Al Sharpton when Nichols pulled up to a said the beating was particularly red light, the officers jumped egregious because the out. officers were Black, too.
But Davis said the department “Your Blackness will not stop cannot substantiate the us from fighting you. These reason for the stop. five cops not only disgraced “We don’t know what happened,” their names, they disgraced she said, adding, “All our race,” Sharpton said.