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The 2024 Republican nomination will be wide open, whether President Trump wins reelection next year or not. And several high-profile Republicans are already angling to succeed him.

A bit under five years from now, Trump will either be finishing up his second term, won in 2020, or an ex-president, having lost to the Democratic nominee that year. A natural successor for Trump, 73, would be his vice president, Mike Pence, who has dutifully stayed in the shadows for nearly three years in office behind his considerably more brash and flamboyant boss.

Pence, 60, a former Indiana governor and congressman, has a natural advantage heading into 2024 his daily working relationship with Trump, whom more than 90% of Republicans support.

But Pence, a cautious career politician, has none of Trump's bravado and bluster, which makes the president so endearing to supporters. And vice presidents have trouble directly succeeding the presidents they served. It's only been done twice, by Vice Presidents Martin Van Buren, in 1836, and George H.W. Bush, in 1988. Several others in recent decades have tried but come up short, including Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Al Gore in 2000.

Pence has largely, though not entirely, avoided getting embroiled in Trump administration scandals, such as the Ukraine military aid affair that led to the president's impeachment on Dec. 18. Yet, he would hardly have a free ride to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, 47, also is considered high on the list. Following the former South Carolina governor's sudden exit from her diplomatic post at the end of 2018, she's been subject to rising speculation over her political plans.

Haley finally made it clear she would not run in 2020 but instead campaign for Trump. But 2024 remains a live possibility, a theory stoked by her vocal defense of Trump in the Ukraine matter, and a memoir that helps keep Haley in the public eye.

In late November, the Dallas County Republican Party sent an invitation to a Dec. 2 $25,000-per-attendee Texas fundraiser headlined by Haley. The e-mail was titled Road to 2024 and welcomed Haley as a prospective presidential candidate. The local Republican party later changed the invitation's wording, which had been not approved by Haleys team.

Haley is not the only Trump-world ally with foreign policy experience being eyed for 2024. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to see Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 55, run for the open Kansas Senate seat to succeed retiring Sen. Pat Roberts, which could serve as a platform for a 2024 White House bid.

Fueling speculation is a report that Trump is seeking a new secretary of state to replace Pompeo, a former House member from Kansas and CIA director, if he ran for the Senate. Potential successors to Pompeo at Foggy Bottom includes two Republican senators long mentioned as 2024 candidates, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida, the latter of whom lost to Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary fight.

Yet, another senator and 2016 Trump GOP primary foe is raising his profile, Ted Cruz of Texas. The Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate, 49, has made no secret that in 2024 he wants to take another shot at the presidency.

"Look, I hope to run again," Cruz said in September. "We came very, very close in 2016. And it's the most fun I've ever had in my life."

After a bitter primary fight that included Trump slurs against members of his family, Cruz has made his peace with the president and is now a vocal supporter. Cruz has traveled the country and touted the presidents political accomplishments while defending him against Democratic opponents.

Trump has reciprocated by bestowing the nickname him Beautiful Ted, and holding a reelection rally for Cruz in 2018 as he faced a strong challenge for his Senate seat by then-Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

You know, we had our little difficulties. It got ugly, Trump told the crowd during a rally for Cruz at the Toyota Center in Houston. "But nobody has helped me more.

Cruz has subtly upped his public presence in other ways. Over the past year, he received accolades for a beard he grew in fall 2018. Cruz noted O'Rourke's own facial hair on Dec. 18, tweet, "Nice beard," after his former Senate rival dropped his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Cruz also inveighed forcefully on Twitter against a year-end spending deal he and other critics contend was a gift to lobbyist and a waste of taxpayer money. Cruz, in a Dec. 19 video, blasted the 2,313-page omnibus that cleared Congress and was signed by Trump, avoiding a government shutdown.

"Christmas came early in Washington," the Texas senator said in a six-minute video on Twitter.

"While you were with your family, while you were shopping for Christmas, the lobbyists were spending and spending. I present to you, the massive omnibus bill that Congress is voting on," Cruz said while holding a lit cigar with theatrical flair.

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Looking past Trump: Pack of top Republicans already eyeing 2024 GOP nomination - Washington Examiner

One month shy of completing three years in office, President Trump has fulfilled or is making significant progress on most of his 2016 campaign promises, which aides said give him a strong reelection argument to counter his impeachment by a bitterly partisan House last week.

As the president and his team ready for the 2020 campaign at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, officials said it would be built on the administration's achievements list of 15 categories and 319 results.

Vice President Mike Pence told Secrets that the message is simple: Promises made, promises kept. Pence, who has already hit the campaign trail in a specially outfitted Trump-Pence bus, added, Thanks to President Trumps leadership, we are living in a stronger and more secure America with the best economy in the history of this country.

In looking at the extensive administration results list provided to Secrets, pollster Jonathan Zogby said, You really see the genesis of why Trump was elected in 2016 and will probably not be hampered by the Democratic impeachment and wins reelection in 2020.

Certainly, he will need a big list to overcome being only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. But Trump appears to be starting with polls on his side, many showing that a majority want him punished but not removed from office and others showing that voters dont believe any of the top Democratic candidates can beat the Republican.

If things continue the way they are until Election Day, its hard to see how Trump can lose, and it might even become more clear to all voters as to why the Democrats rushed a partisan impeachment of a president who has delivered on a lot of campaign promises, Zogby added.

The list provided to Secrets is the latest update of initiatives, executive orders, accomplishments, results, and brags with a focus on the improved economy, trade, energy independence, job creation, cuts to illegal immigration, the presidents America First foreign policy, help for veterans, cutting eight regulations for every new one, packing courts with conservatives, and Trump's record of becoming the nations most anti-abortion chief executive.

It also charted Trump's successes in killing more than a dozen major Obama-era initiatives.

Officials said the list would be longer if key agency initiatives were also included, such as the Department of Transportations move to boost rural infrastructure and the Interior Departments expansion of areas open for hikers, hunters, and anglers.

Critics of the president have claimed that his achievements are overshadowed by multiple court setbacks, tussles with foreign leaders, an exploding deficit, and the Democrats investigations. But his supporters point to just the last few weeks when, as he was being impeached, he won some of his biggest policy victories, such as agreement on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and creation of the Space Force.

Presidential historian Doug Wead said: "Historians of the future will come racing back to this Trump era with amazement. The list of presidents on either side will be a boring blur by comparison. Of course, the economic numbers from the Trump time will be telling. They don't lie. And they point to a great presidency."

Pence suggested that his and Trumps bid to improve the country are most important to voters, and he regularly uses his campaign stops to point that out.

He told Secrets: Over the past three years, weve continued to deliver on our promise to put American workers and American jobs first: Weve cut taxes, rolled back regulations, and fought for reciprocal trade. In the past three years, seven million new jobs have been created, wages are rising at record pace, and unemployment is at a 50-year low. We negotiated a new strong pro-American trade deal with China and the USMCA, and created the Space Force. Weve continued our commitment to rebuilding our military, standing with our allies, standing up to our enemies, taking on ISIS, reducing illegal crossings by 75% since May, and confirming more than 170 conservatives to our federal courts including two Supreme Court justices.

And Zogby said: The impeachment of Trump will play little into how voters decide who should be president in 2020. Remember, it's the economy stupid, and you can't impeach that.

The Trump "results" release provided to Secrets is below.

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Exclusive: Trump list shows 319 'results' and promises kept in three years - Washington Examiner

U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland explicitly linked President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Mick Mulvaney and other senior officials in a cabal aimed at pressuring a foreign government (Ukraine) to investigate Trumps political rival in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid classic quid pro quo. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee tried to undermine Sondlands remarks by asking if the president directly ordered Sondland to communicate a quid pro quo.

Sondlands response was clear: Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.

The Judiciary Committee subsequently approved two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

If Trump officials who refused to appear when subpoenaed or turn over requested documents like Rudolph Giuliani, Pence, Pompeo and Mulvaney are proud of what they did then they should stand up and tell the world about it. Instead they stay silent. For what they have done to our country they are nothing but a group of thugs, with Trump being the chief thug. This is a cancer that has metastasized. Republicans in the House, and Senate have been infected by this White House.

Every American is responsible for what is happening in Washington and we all bear responsibility for the outcome. Anger should be directed not at the criminal, but at those who stood around and did nothing.

Joel Wells

Iowa City

Joel Wells

See more here:
Officials did nothing, while Trump violated the Constitution - The Gazette

Newly revealed communications between White House staffers and officials at the Pentagon are shedding additional light on the Ukraine scandaleven as the Senate prepares for President Donald Trumps trial following his impeachment by the House of Representatives last month. Just Security reported Thursday that Michael Duffey, a political appointee who oversees defense spending at the White House Office of Management and Budget, told Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker in an August 30 email that he had clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold vital military aid that was supposed to be sent to Ukraine. That statement was one of a number of redacted lines in 300 pages of emails the administration released last month to the Center for Public Integrity after a court order in aFreedom of Information Act lawsuit. Just Security says it reviewed unredacted copies of the emails.

The emails obtained by Just Security also raise questions about Vice President Mike Pences role in Trumps efforts to pressure Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations of Trumps political enemies. Pence met with Zelensky on September 1. Prior to this meeting, Eric Chewning, chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Mike Esper, told McCusker, in reference to the hold on Ukrainian aide: The Ukrainian PM speaks with VPOTUS on Tuesday. We expect the issue to get resolved then. (The email appears to misstate Zelenskys job; he is Ukraines president, not its prime minister.)

The emails dont say why officials thought Pence could resolve the matter. But Trump reportedly pushed Pence to urge Zelensky to take more aggressive action on corruption. It has since become clear that Trumps references to corruption in Ukraine were actually calls for investigations into Joe Biden and bogus allegations about Ukrainiansinterfering in the 2016 election to help Hillary Clinton. And Gordon Sondland, Trumps ambassador to the European Union, testified in November that he told Pence just before the vice presidents meeting with Zelensky that Ukraine would receive its stalled aid money only if it announced the investigations Trump sought. Pence, through an aide, has denied Sondlands account and has asserted he did not know that Trumps references to corruption related to Biden and the 2016 election. But the same day that Pence met with Zelensky, Sondland told a Zelensky aide, Andriy Yermak, that security assistance money would not be released until Zelensky agreed to announce an investigation related to Biden, according to Sondland and former White House national security official Tim Morrison. Pences office is resisting congressional calls for more information on the VPs role in Ukraine, refusing to declassify details of a September 18 call he had with Zelensky.

The Just Security account describes repeated emails from McCusker to Duffey and others warning that the ongoing hold might be illegala potential violation of a law requiring the executive branch to spend money as appropriated by Congress or to tell lawmakers why it refused to do so, which the administration did not do. Duffey enforced the hold by inserting a footnote in budget documents. It said in part that the pause in obligations will not preclude DODs timely execution of the final policy direction. By August 9, though, McCusker warned him in an email that the hold could prevent the Pentagon from transmitting the money before the end of the fiscal year on September 30 and pushed for changing the footnote to reflect that reality.

Yet in a December 11 letter to the Government Accountability Office, OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta claimed that at no point during the pause in obligations did DOD [Office of General Counsel] indicate to OMB that, as a matter of law, the apportionments would prevent DOD from being able to obligate the funds before the end of the fiscal year. This seems misleading. McCusker, while not in DODs Office of General Counsel, had asked Duffey if OMB had cleared its actions with that office and had repeatedly raised concerns about the departments ability to pay out the funds. The Trump administration released the aid to Ukraine after a whistleblower exposed the the matter, though some of funds remain unpaid.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Thursday that the newly revealed emails undermine efforts by the Senates Republican leadership to hold a trial for Trump without key documents or testimony from witnesses, including Duffey, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton, and Robert Blair, another top OMB official. Importantly, that Mr. Duffey said there was clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold only further implicates President Trump and underscores the need for the Senate to subpoena the witnesses and documents weve requested at the onset of a trial, Schumer said. The American people deserve a fair trial that gets to the truth, not a rigged process that enables a cover-up.

Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are sparring with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has said hopes to acquit Trump after a brief, limited Senate trial. McConnell said he plans to work closely with the White House during the process and stated last month that he is not an impartial juror. Senate rules require members to pledge to do impartial justice at the outset of an impeachment trial.

Thursdays report is part of a stream of revelations that makes it clear the Trump administration is still sitting on a substantial amount of relevant information that has not been made available to Congress or the public. Trump and his backers say he did nothing wrong. So what are they hiding?

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Emails Reveal Clear Direction From POTUS on Ukraine Scandal - Mother Jones

SANIBEL ISLAND

Sanibels Best Homemade Ice Cream is hoping a scoop of its new, delectable desert starting on Friday afternoon can make an impact our eliminating our Southwest Florida water crisis.

Laurie Verme, who owns Sanibels Best Homemade Ice Cream, said water quality is near and dear to her heart. She is donating all the proceeds from the shops new ice cream, Dolphin Tracks, to Captains for Clean Water.

Verme has made trips to Tallahassee to support the non-profit, which advocates for the elimination of large-scale Lake Okeechobee discharges into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie River Estuaries.

Our chamber, as well as our community, Verme said, have really stepped forward in going up to Washington.

Verme told WINK News that the launch on Friday, coinciding with a visit by Vice President Mike Pence, is a happy accident. She said it would be wonderful for him to stop by as he is a great supporter.

Gloria Garrett, a huge supporter of Captains for Clean Water, said the heart of the island depends on having clean water. She said clean water is vital to the economy. It affects the Everglades and healthy estuaries.

What Id like to say to Vice President Mike Pence, Verme said, is come on down come on down and have some dolphin tracks!

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Sanibel ice cream shop hopes to give message to visiting vice president - Wink News