The '24 Seven - 2/23/24
The top seven stories shaping the race for the White House - 2/23/24
Hello, and welcome to The ‘24 Seven - a daily roundup of the top seven stories shaping the 2024 race for the White House. If you see something I missed or have suggestions, drop me a note - 24sight@substack.com.
So, what happens when you Never Surrender?
1 Never Surrender
The Trumpified CPAC is low energy … Some of that could be because the main draw for any CPAC or other Republican conference is Trump himself and he doesn’t speak until tomorrow. But Thursday at National Harbor, the long-running conservative conference was a ghost of it’s former self with radio row cut in half from last year, bare concrete dotting the cavernous exhibition hall (one observer told 24sight that’s in part because carpeting is expensive.)
Longtime CPAC observer and veteran politics reporter Ben Jacobs writes over at POLITICO that famously short-lived former British Prime Minister Liz Truss was the main draw Thursday.
2 Years of War
President Joe Biden announced 500 new sanctions against Russia, one week after Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died — U.S. officials and others say Russian President Vladimir Putin murdered his political opponent, Russian officials say Navalny died of natural causes in prison.
The sanctions come the day before the second anniversary of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the same week that federal prosecutors alleged that a key source at the center of the effort to impeach Biden was feeding disinformation from Russian spies to U.S. investigators.
3 Growing group
The Principles First Summit kicks off in Washington Friday night. The band of NeverTrump Republicans and conservatives has grown steadily since its launch in 2020 as a counter to the Trumpified CPAC. Top speakers include a number of former Trump administration stalwarts, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson, Sarah Matthew, longtime conservatives including Bill Kristol, George Conway and Charlie Sykes and other big names like retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and more. The event is being hosted in part by the team over at
4 Slow and low
The South Carolina primary is tomorrow. Trump is expected to win in a romp. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley says she’s staying in the race. Four years ago, the state started Biden on his path to the White House. POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin reports the first-in-the-south contest has been a sleepy affair, much like the Republican primary writlarge, with a minimal presence by major news outlets and few visits from Trump himself.
5 New Trump $$
Axios reports that longtime Republican operative turned Trumpworld mainstay Sergio Gor is launching a new super PAC to support Trump. The Trump campaign and its affiliated groups have been drained by a double hit this cycle of depressed small-dollar donations and extensive legal fees from the multiple criminal and civil trials Trump defending against.
6 Still fined
Trump trials expert (and fellow Messenger refugee) Adam Klasfeld reports over at Just Security that New York Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Trump “does not have any basis” to delay paying the $450 million in fines against him and his co-defendants.
7 Pod Vibe
Former CPAC communications director Ian Walters and The Independent White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg sat down with me Thursday for 24sight’s first podcast! Very excited to have two of the sharpest political observers walk us through where the American Right is, what that tells us about the energy heading into the election and some wild stories about CPAC.
Sending out later today for paid subscribers!