Nikki Haley finally killed the GOP debates

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     January 17, 2024 I don't think Nikki Haley is too popular with the Mother Jones audience. But you may like her a little more after learning that she's the reason at least two GOP debates have been cancelled. As my colleague Arianna Coghill [reported](, after Haley's third-place finish at the Iowa caucuses Monday night behind Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ([so much for her so-called surge](), she announced yesterday morning that she'd no longer participate in the GOP primary debates unless Trump participated, as well—which, as you probably know, the former president [doesn't plan to do](. (He obviously feels like he doesn't need to: He dominated the Iowa contest—something he didn't even manage to do in 2016, as my colleague Jeremy Schulman [wrote](—and [has been polling]( ahead of President Biden in battleground states and neck-and-neck with him [overall](.) So once Haley pulled out, so did ABC and CNN, which were slated to host the next two debates, originally scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday. (CNN, which hosted a town hall with DeSantis last night, will host a town hall with Haley tomorrow instead, a CNN spokesperson confirmed to me today.) DeSantis tried to make the most of Haley's announcement, [writing]( in a post on X that Haley is "running to be Trump’s VP" and is "afraid to debate." But Haley [told]( CNN yesterday that "there is nobody else I need to debate" but Trump. So, are you thanking Haley for inadvertently getting the next couple[#GOPKiddieDebates](—as Mother Jones' D.C. bureau chief David Corn calls them—cancelled? Or should all the contenders, including Trump, be showing up on stage to fight for votes? [Let us know](. —Julianne McShane Advertisement [Beyond Complicity]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [ABC Just Canceled Thursday’s Planned GOP Debate]( Thanks, Nikki! BY ARIANNA COGHILL MOJO MUST-READS BY MICHAEL MECHANIC   Adam Hochschild, author, Bury the Chains “Jackpot is a fascinating tour through this increasingly stratified society of ours by a superb author with an acute eye for the telling detail, and for the emotional reverberations of privilege and deprivation that a less sensitive journalist would have missed.” [Get Jackpot here.]( [Trending] [Black activists began traveling to Palestine in the 1960s. They never stopped.]( BY NIA T. EVANS   [How the Biden administration's strikes on Houthis could violate the law]( BY ISABELA DIAS   [Climate denialism on YouTube has evolved into something else]( BY KATE YODER   [Startups aim to turn plant waste into concentrated carbon—and bury it]( BY MATT SIMON Advertisement [Beyond Complicity]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [From hairstylist to Jan. 6 influencer: Meet the man helping the GOP whitewash the insurrection]( Brandon Straka went from house arrest to convincing Republicans to embrace the Capitol rioters. BY STEPHANIE MENCIMER [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755