CBS News
Who’s running for president in 2024? Meet the candidates
Chris Christie
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the race on Jan. 10, 2024, bringing to a close a bid that focused almost exclusively on him criticizing former President Trump and pressing his Republican opponents to do the same.
His exit came a week before the Iowa caucuses and just over six months after Christie launched his second presidential campaign on June 6, 2023.
Christie has called Trump “a bitter, angry man who wants power back for himself” and framed his decision to run for president on his belief that the country is at a pivotal moment of having to choose between “big and small.”
The former New Jersey governor argued that in recent years the country has been helmed by people who have “led us to being small — small by their example, small by the way they conduct themselves, small by the things they tells us we should care about … They’re making us smaller by dividing us into smaller and smaller groups.”
“All throughout our history, there have been moments where we’ve had to choose between big and small,” he said. “I will tell you, the reason I’m here tonight is because this is one of those moments.”
Christie filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission formalizing his candidacy June 6 and made his announcement in New Hampshire.
Doug Burgum
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum jumped into the 2024 presidential race on June 7, 2023, the same day former Vice President Mike Pence officially launched his campaign.
“We need a change in the White House. We need a new leader for a changing economy. That’s why I’m announcing my run for president today,” Burgum wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
Burgum has served as North Dakota’s governor since 2016 and was reelected in 2020. A former software company CEO, he grew Great Plains Software into a $1 billion company that was acquired by Microsoft.
He ended his campaign on Dec. 4 after struggling to get name recognition from voters and failing to qualify for the third and fourth primary debate. Burgum endorsed Trump on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, becoming the first of his former GOP opponents to throw their support behind the former president’s White House bid.
“Four years ago, I was speaking on behalf of President Trump at the Iowa caucuses in Sioux City, and today, I’m here to do something that none of the other presidential primary candidates have done,” Burgum, who joined Trump at a campaign rally, said Jan. 14. “And that’s endorse Donald J. Trump for the president of the United States of America.”
Tim Scott
Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, announced in an interview with Fox News on Nov. 12, 2023, that he would be dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
“I think the voters, who have been the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear. They’re telling me not now, Tim,” Scott said.
The South Carolina Republican said that he would not be endorsing another candidate and wasn’t interested in becoming a running mate, as “being vice president has never been on my to-do list for this campaign.”
Scott jumped into the presidential race in mid-May when he filed a statement of his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. He formally launched his presidential campaign at an event in his hometown of North Charleston on May 22, 2023.
“We live in the land of opportunity. We live in the land where it is absolutely possible for a kid raised in poverty, in a single-parent household, in a small apartment to one day serve in the people’s House and maybe even the White House,” Scott said in his campaign announcement.
Mike Pence
The former vice president and Indiana governor filed the relevant paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on June 5, 2023, cementing his place in the GOP field. He launched his presidential campaign with a campaign video, and attended a kickoff event in Des Moines, Iowa.
“Different times call for different leadership,” Pence said in the video. “Today our party and our country need a leader that’ll appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature.”
The former vice president said it would be “easy to stay on the sidelines, but that’s not how I was raised. That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing I’m running for president of the United States.”
Pence, who has been visiting early voting states while he mulled entering the race, has suggested he believes it’s time for the GOP to move on from Trump.
“I think we’re going to have new leadership in this party and in this country,” he told CBS News in January 2023.
Pence also has declined to commit to supporting Trump if he is the Republican nominee, instead saying that he believes GOP voters will choose “wisely again” in 2024 and thinks “different times call for different leadership.”
While Pence has promoted the policies of the Trump administration, he has also criticized the former president for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, saying that Trump’s words were “reckless” and put him and his family, who were on Capitol Hill that day for the joint session of Congress, in danger.
After languishing in the polls and struggling to fundraise, Pence suspended his campaign on Oct. 28, 2023, during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas.
“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence said. “To the American people, I say this is not my time, but this is your time. I urge you to hold fast to what matters most, faith, family, and the constitution of the United States of America.”
Francis Suarez
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced his decision to suspend his campaign in late August 2023, just two months after hopping into the 2024 race in mid-June. The move came after Suarez failed to qualify for the first Republican presidential primary debate, held in Milwaukee on Aug. 23.
“Running for president of the United States has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” he said. “This country has given so much to my family and me. The prospect of giving back at the highest levels of public service is a motivator if not a calling. Throughout this process, I have met so many freedom-loving Americans who care deeply about our nation, her people, and its future. It was a privilege to come so close to appearing on stage with the other candidates at last week’s first debate.”
Suarez, who is Cuban American, was the only Latino GOP candidate in the 2024 field. He was the second Florida politician to enter the race and has been critical of certain aspects of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policies and personality. He called DeSantis’ ongoing feud with Disney a “personal vendetta,” and told Fox News that the governor “seems to struggle with relationships, generally.”
Will Hurd
Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas announced on Oct. 9, 2023, that he would be suspending his campaign and endorsing Haley for the Republican presidential nominee.
“While I appreciate all the time and energy our supporters have given, it is important to recognize the realities of the political landscape and the need to consolidate our party around one person to defeat both Donald Trump and President Biden,” Hurd said in a statement.
The former congressman said Haley has “shown a willingness to articulate a different vision for the country than Donald Trump,” and called her knowledge of foreign policy “unmatched.”
Hurd’s decision to leave the race came less than four months after he announced his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in an interview with “CBS Mornings.”
Hurd, 46, worked as an officer in the CIA for nearly a decade and ran to represent Texas’s 23rd Congressional District in 2014. He defeated the incumbent Democrat by just 2,500 votes and went on to win reelection twice before declining to seek another term in 2020.
Hurd has not shied away from criticizing Trump, including over his handing of classified records and immigration policies, as well as his incendiary tweets. The former congressman authored an op-ed in 2018 that declared Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Larry Elder
Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder suspended his long-shot presidential campaign on Oct. 26, 2023. He tweeted that he had met with Trump “to lend him my endorsement for President.”
He added, “I am grateful for the support I received from so many of you across the country.”
Elder was a gubernatorial candidate during California’s failed 2021 effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. He kept his post, but Elder received the most votes — nearly 3.6 million — out of a large field trying to replace Newsom.
Elder announced his bid for president the previous April.
CBS News
GOP Rep. French Hill says it’s up to House Ethics Committee to decide on releasing Gaetz report
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Calvin Klein model charged with murder in stabbing death in New York City
A model who has appeared in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Levi’s has been formally charged in the stabbing death of a man in New York City, prosecutors said Saturday.
Dynus Saxon was arraigned in Bronx criminal court late Friday in connection with the Nov. 10 killing of Kadeem Grant, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office.
Police say they found the 35-year-old victim stabbed in the chest in an apartment in the New York City borough of the Bronx.
They haven’t disclosed a motive or any other details surrounding the incident other than to say that Grant was pronounced dead at the scene and that a knife was recovered. The knife was discovered near the victim’s body and a trail of blood was seen on the front steps of apartment building, the New York Post reported.
Saxon was arrested Monday on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
At his arraignment Friday, the 20-year-old resident of Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood was held without bail until his next court date on Dec. 3, Clark’s office said.
Saxon, who has also appeared in fashion publications such as Vogue Italia and L’Officiel Baltic, didn’t speak during the proceedings, the Daily News reported.
Prosecutors said he had a large bandage over his right hand because of an injury he sustained while repeatedly jamming the knife into Grant’s chest, the newspaper said.
Grant’s father, Christopher Grant, told the Daily News that his son cared for his young daughter and his grandmother.
“He was just a loving kid who was there for his family and his daughter. It’s just so sad that she has to grow up without a father,” Christopher Grant told the Daily News.
Bronx Defenders, a public defender nonprofit representing Saxon, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
Saxon’s Instagram profile, which has since been made private, featured photos of his modelling work, as well as attending red carpet events, including the New York premiere of the Marvel film “Deadpool & Wolverine” this summer.
CBS News
Transcript: Rep. French Hill on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we are joined now by Republican Congressman French Hill. He joins us from his district in Little Rock. Good morning to you, Congressman.
REP. FRENCH HILL: Good morning, Margaret. Thanks for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Glad to have you here. You served with Congressman Gaetz. You heard the Speaker who has said, while he doesn’t want to specifically wade in to the ethics matter, he also thinks it would set a bad precedent to release a report on a former member. Do you think the Ethics Committee should make that decision for itself?
REP. HILL: Well, I think the Ethics Committee does make that decision for itself, but I think Speaker Johnson makes a important point, which is, Mr. Gaetz has resigned from Congress. There are many investigations that the House Ethics Committee has done, and we don’t want to set a precedent where we, under any circumstances, will release documents from that committee, but that decision is theirs. Speaker Johnson has made his views known, and now it will be up to the Senate to conduct their advise and consent confirmation process.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, CBS News reported back in June that four women informed that committee they were paid to go to sex and drug fueled parties with Mr. Gaetz. Also the Ethics Committee has Venmo transactions showing Gaetz’s payments for the women, since taxpayers paid money for this report to be conducted and it was done, do you think if you were a Senate you would consider this material information to confirming the top lawmaker for the United States of America- law enforcement officer, I should say?
REP. HILL: I don’t, I don’t have, I don’t, I don’t personally know any details about the ethics investigation or the allegations, because I haven’t, don’t serve on that committee. But your point is, would the Senate Judiciary Committee asked to see that report, and that may well be a decision that they take, and the ethics committee has a decision that they have to make, and Mike Johnson’s expressed his view on on that as well. So as I say, this is an important process that the Senate has to do, advise and consent for all the nominations, and President Trump has the prerogative to nominate the people that he thinks can best lead the change that he believes the American people are seeking in each of the agencies of the federal government.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have spoken to us before here on “Face The Nation” about your work around Syria and Bashar Al Assad’s oppressive regime there. You actually visited northern Syria, an area that he wasn’t in control of, back in 2017. The first lawmaker since John McCain to do so. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, when she was in office, went to Syria and met with Mr. Assad himself, then publicly, she came out and questioned U.S. intelligence assessments of his chemical weapons attacks that were carried out on civilian areas, not just once, multiple times. These were high confidence assessments by the intelligence community. Would you feel comfortable with her at the helm of all 18 of them?
REP. HILL: Well, I served on the House Intelligence Committee during this past Congress, and I know the important job that the DNI performs in coordinating, collecting and reporting on our intelligence. And I think should Tulsi Gabbard be confirmed, she would know with high confidence as to precisely how we collect intelligence, how we coordinate and collaborate on it, and how we then report it to the President of the United States and to the two intelligence committees. So again, this is an important assessment for the Senate to make, but I remind you Margaret, Donald Trump won the election. He wants people that he has a good relationship with, that he trusts, that he believes can do a good job in the agencies to send the message that we want change in Washington. And the Senate, too, has their important job, and we’re going to have to wait and see how the Senate handles each of these confirmations.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So it was John McCain who went in 2017, you went in 2023 I may have misspoken there on the year, but so, you believe the US intelligence community conclusions, though? You don’t mean to question those?
REP. HILL: No, I don’t.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
REP. HILL: I’m simply saying, as a member of the committee, I don’t question that public assessment that’s been made in the public domain over many, many years, and I’ve led the charge against the Assad regime. I do not support that the Arab League put him back into diplomatic standing by admitting him to the Arab League. And I think America has a lot to do to limit Assad’s influence in the region, which is a partner with the Russians and the Iranians. And that’s not in the interest of the United States, Iraq, Israel or peace in the region.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have also been a supporter of Ukraine, and you’ve been trying to find some creative ways to help allow them to gain access to continued U.S. support. There was a tremendous attack just overnight there by Russia. The Biden administration wants to provide a $20 billion loan backed up by frozen Russian assets. Will the Congress give them permission to use that money for military assistance?
REP. HILL: Well, the REPO Act that was included in the national security package I worked on very closely with Chairman Mike McCaul of the foreign affairs committee gives the United States the authority to not only take frozen assets, but confiscate them and use them for the benefit of Ukraine. The loan you’re referring to has been negotiated between the Europeans and the Americans to back the Ukrainian government. I believe that will go through in my judgment. But I would urge President Trump, as he takes office, to actually follow the law and confiscate those Russian assets, as I believe that gives both Ukraine, the United States and Europe a much stronger negotiating position with Russia. And I don’t believe Biden, nor the G7 countries, have been tough enough on Russian on sanctions, on the delivery of weapons that were needed to have ended this war long ago.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re gesturing to what we know, which is that this is a pretty dangerous world right now. One of the selections that the President-elect has made to run the Pentagon at this time is Pete Hegseth. He would be the defense secretary, 44 years old, decorated Army vet, TV commentator. Do you think experience is necessary, or is on the job training OK at the Pentagon?
REP. HILL: Well, again, I think this will be assessed by the Senate in their confirmation process. He has a distinguished background in the military, and that counts for a lot, and I think his plans, his thoughts, his leadership, will be exposed when he goes through that Senate confirmation process. But once again, I have to say, President Trump, when he came into office in 2017 had cabinet members that he really had no personal relationship with, had no working background with. He wants to correct that this time by finding people that he has a good working relationship with. He knows how they think. They know how he thinks, because he thinks it will lead to better decision making in his administration. He’s got that prerogative to nominate those men and women and the Senate will have their advice and consent function well underway, and majority leader-to-be John Thune has said look, he’ll be effective. He’ll be speedy. He’ll take it done, get it done in the right course of action.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, thank you for your time today.
REP. HILL: You bet. Thank you, Margaret.