you can text us at (202) 748-8003. campaign 2024 continues on the tickly after the results of the south carolina primary. here to join is to break that down is a semaphore political reporter. thank you for giving us your time. guest: good to be here, thank

you. host: we saw a victory for joe biden in south carolina so how does that change is campaign going forward? guest: it doesn't change much because the president went to primary night saturday with no serious competition for the nomination. he still has marianne williamson running but he is not -- she is not a position to winning any delegates. there were not that many democrats in the primary and about 30,000 people showed up. those are for the democrats in south carolina but it was a signal of biden's strength in these primary states that have the delegates for super tuesday. they have lots of nonwhite voters and as we got nomination last on that's why he's got no serious impediment to the nomination this time although

two candidates are still in the race. host: president biden made a big effort of south carolina first so did it change his relationship with the state, particularly african-american voters? guest: it was helpful. it's a question of pushing south carolina first in the calendar and not voting in terms of picking up delegates in new hampshire, it ended up not hurting that much. you had a larger number of people turned out to vote for joe biden is a write in candidate last month than people who showed up for barack obama for a second term in 2012. it didn't hurt there. in south carolina, it anecdotally did help the president to put a focus on the state and rollout issues that have uplifted black voters, people below the poverty line. that's a lot of what is campaign is about.

that campaign is largely about using paid messaging and mail and digital ads to say whatever you think of the president, look what he's delivered for you in terms of drug costs and unemployment. it did help at the margins but not in the states he will need in november against donald trump. host: south carolina has yet to hold its primary for the republican candidates. talk about those competing there and what south carolina means to them. guest: it is down to nikki haley and donald trump competing in south carolina. there is a three week march to the primary were nothing has really changed since new hampshire. there was a hope by anti-trump republicans that nikki haley would win new hampshire and do so well she got ahead of him in south carolina but it didn't really happen. the trump campaign has taken its foot off the gas in south carolina because they have a

25-30 point lead. if you look at the most recent polls, trump is very popular with the people who vote in south carolina republican primaries. nikki haley is less popular than him even being the former governor. people rarely switch between parties for practical reasons. he has a 50 point lead in south carolina. she is only winning with people consider themselves democrats or independents and 130 up -- 130,000 of them just came out for the democratic primary. there isn't effort and less money involved to turn away people who are not traditional republicans are nikki haley. if you are a democrat in south carolina and you remember nikki haley 10 years ago, whether she was a tea party governor or a conservative icon the party before trump, convincing you to

turn around and vote strategically for her to slow down trump has been tough. she's been campaigning harder than trump in the state when making little progress in the polls. host: one of the papers say is one thing that may be working against her she is more competitive against the former president. guest: that's right, there is no good way to attack donald trump and get republicans to keep liking you. whoever has attacked him has seen a collapse in their approval rating. chris christie did that. it's just the dim munition of it. ron desantis tried it in iowa and new entry to a lesser standard. nikki haley much less so but in her outreach to non-republicans as attacked trump in performance that republicans don't love.

she went on saturday night live the day of the south carolina democratic primary and participated in a sketch where she was talking with a trump impersonator and her riffing about nikki haley issues like trump taking a mental competency deep -- mental competency test. that's not going to endear her with voters. she's the only one left and they think once trump is in legal peril, most republican voters decided he was being unfairly targeted and they had no sympathy for somebody who wanted to keep the primary going. i saw his last week at the rnc meeting. there was a lot of anger among the more conservative members of the rnc that were maga members that nikki haley is running at all. you hear that from a lot of republican voters. host: you in nevada we talk about what to expect but talk about how they do their primary

and how they split it. guest: it's complicated. democrats ran the state for the last four years. they changed it instead of a caucus that has a primary. that said democrats will assign their delicates but not how republicans will. they voted as a party pro-trump to make the primary irrelevant make the caucuses which are two days later assigned delegates. you had to choose the candidate of competing in the primary or would you compete in the caucuses which is two days later and will probably have a lower turn it but will pick that delegate. the trump campaign decided to compete in the caucuses and the nikki haley campaign decided to compete in the primary. you will have a democratic primary were biden's favorite to win again in the republican primary where the ballot is nikki haley and candidates

you've never heard of and the ability to write none of the above which the governor will do. he says i will write in none of the above. it's a strange two-part republican process and only one part democratic process. we will watch what the turnout is for republicans and how many vote for nikki haley or an alternative. any win number at all for nikki haley says she has traction which rick santorum did 12 years ago. sometimes it helps you but in the trump campaign, they will say that's not relevant, we are picking up the delegates anyway. nikki haley has no place to pick up delegates before she gets to south carolina. you have the virgin island caucuses. they will happen this week and they will only assign a pledged one delegate. there is a chance nikki haley gets maybe one delegate out this

week. that would be it. you will have a nevada competition with low stakes in the expectation that trump will pick up all the delegates thursday. host: we've got about 30 seconds, you wrote a recent piece -- the republican primaries were built for donald trump. tele reviewers why. guest: it's what i was just saying, they change the rules of trump would benefit. nevada was the big one. they banned super pac some acting in it and that was a shot across the bow against ron desantis. even in california, rules were changed so delegates are assigned at large. trump is up by about 40 points and he was already favored but where republican parties could change the rules and benefit from, they did and that's why nikki haley is running but has few places to mount an attack against donald trump to win

delegates. host: you can find the work at