If the result of the 2020 US presidential election – and his denial of it – showed that Donald Trump is a sore loser, the outcome of last night’s New Hampshire primary is an example of how he’s not a great winner either.
With the vast majority of votes counted as of 7am (Irish time), Mr Trump had a 10-point lead over his only remaining rival in the Republican party, his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
However, it was a strong enough showing for Ms Haley – more than 43 per cent of the vote as of this morning – and she vowed to fight on with her home state up next.
As our Washington Correspondent Keith Duggan put it in his report, “the lady is not for turning” and he outlines how Ms Haley incurred the wrath of her rival by staying in the race.
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Ms Haley told supporters: “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go. And the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina. At one point in this campaign there were 14 of us running and we were at 2 per cent in the polls.
“Well, I’m a fighter and I’m scrappy and now we’re the last one standing next to Donald Trump. And today we got close to half of the vote. We have a ways to go but we keep moving up.”
Mr Trump evidently did not take Ms Haley’s intention to stay in the race terribly well – “seething” is the way Duggan describes it. He responded to her speech branding her an “imposter” and claiming she “failed badly”.
Mr Trump told his supporters: “This is not your typical victory speech but let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night and I can say to everybody, ‘oh thank you for the victory it’s wonderful’, or I can go up and say, ‘Who the hell was the imposter that went up on the stage before and, like, claimed a victory?’”
He also said: “She did very poorly actually. She had to win. The governor said she’s going to win, she’s going to win, she’s going to win. Then she failed badly.
“But Ron [DeSantis] beat her also. Ron came in second and he left. She came in third [in the Iowa Caucuses] and she’s still hanging around.”
Ms Haley has an uphill battle if she is to close the gap between her and the former president in the South Carolina primary next month. The FiveThirtyEight website puts her some 37 points behind on average across polls in the State.
It still seems likely that November’s election will be a rematch of the 2020 contenders, Mr Trump and sitting president Joe Biden.
Duggan notes another “breathtaking number” from the night which was mentioned in passing on CNN: the observation that at 77, Bill Clinton is younger than the two men who will campaign for the White House.
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Playbook
Dáil proceedings begin with an opportunity for TDs to raise Topical Issues at 9.10am.
A debate on a Social Democrats motion on the war in Gaza which calls on the Government to support South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel starts at 9.58am.
Leaders’ Questions is at noon.
Government Business in the afternoon includes statements on last month’s European Council meeting and a motion on the Tribunal of Inquiry into certain matters relating to the Complaints Processes in the Defence Forces.
The weekly Dáil votes are at 9.18pm.
The Seanad will consider the legislation to create the new role of directly elected mayor for Limerick ahead of the planned election to the office in June. The debate is at 12.45pm.
The Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023 aimed at strengthening the governance of An Garda Síochána will be before the Seanad from 3pm.
The Committee on Health will examine the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 aimed at regulating surrogacy from 9.30am.
Irish Rail will update the Committee on Transport on its activities and capital projects from 1.30pm.
The tax credit for film production will be discussed with officials from the Departments of Finance, Enterprise and Arts at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight from 5.30pm.
The Committee on Agriculture will consider the “deepening crisis in the inshore fishing industry in Ireland” also at 5.30pm.
The full Dáil, Seanad and committee schedules are below.
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