Today in one sentence: Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot based on the Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban”; a federal judge approved Georgia’s new, Republican-drawn congressional map that preserves Republican power; Nikki Haley declined to say that slavery was a cause of the Civil War; and a senior Hamas leader was killed by Israel in an explosion in Beirut.

1/ Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot based on the Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban.” The decision makes Maine the second state to disqualify Trump from office, after the Colorado Supreme Court removed him from the ballot because of his actions before and during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hours later, California announced that Trump would remain on the ballot in the nation’s most populous state, despite a request from the state’s lieutenant governor to consider excluding him on constitutional grounds. The Michigan Supreme Court, meanwhile, declined to hear a case attempting to remove Trump from the state’s ballot. Trump is expected to appeal the Colorado Supreme Court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court and the decision by Maine’s secretary of state to that state’s Superior Court. (Associated Press / CNN / Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / CNN / Detroit Free Press / New York Times / Washington Post / Politico)

  • [Poll] 53% of Americans said Trump bears “a great deal” or “a good amount” of responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack. Two years ago, 60% of Americans blamed Trump for the attack. Among Republicans, 14% say Trump bears responsibility for the attack on the Capitol, about half as many as did in 2021 (27%). (Washington Post)

2/ A federal judge approved Georgia’s new, Republican-drawn congressional map that preserves Republican power. In October, the judge ordered the Georgia General Assembly to draw new congressional and state legislative maps to include an additional majority-Black district, two additional majority-Black state senate districts, and five additional majority-Black state House districts following the 2020 census, which diluted the political power of Black voters. The Republican-controlled legislature, however, approved a new congressional map that complied with the order, but safeguarded the Republicans 9-5 edge in its U.S. House delegation. (CNN / CBS News / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

3/ Nikki Haley declined to say that slavery was a cause of the Civil War. Instead, she said the causes were “basically how the government was going to run” and “freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.” The Republican candidate then turned the question around on the person who asked it. Hours later, Haley baselessly blamed a Democratic “plant” for the question at her New Hampshire campaign event and said “of course the Civil War was about slavery.” (ABC News / Politico / Associated Press)

4/ Ohio’s Republican governor vetoed a bill that would have prevented minors from receiving gender-affirming health care and restricted transgender girls’ participation on school sports teams. Mike DeWine said the “gut-wrenching” decision about whether a minor should have access to gender-affirming care “should not be made by the government, should not be made by the state of Ohio,” rather it should be made by the child’s parents and doctors. DeWine is one of two Republican governors who have vetoed restrictions on gender-affirming care. (NBC News / Axios / Associated Press / New York Times)

5/ A senior Hamas leader was killed by Israel in an explosion in Beirut – the biggest Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital since the 2006 war between the two countries. Israel, however, said it had “not taken responsibility” for the attack that killed Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, adding that they were bracing for retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah and Hamas militants in Lebanon. Senior U.S. officials, however, confirmed that Israel was responsible for the strike, raising concerns of a regional escalation of the war in Gaza. The Biden administration, meanwhile, bypassed Congress to approve a $147.5 million emergency sale of weapons to Israel. More than 22,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and about half of Gaza’s 2.2 million people are at risk of starvation, and 90% regularly go without food for a whole day. (CNN / NBC News / Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / ABC News)