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Trump absent as Republicans begin to flock to Iowa
CBSN
Nikki Haley is swinging through Iowa this week fresh off announcing her presidential campaign. Her fellow South Carolinian Republican, Sen. Tim Scott, will also be here as he decides his political future. And former Vice President Mike Pence was just in the state courting influential evangelical Christian activists.
After a slow start, Republican presidential prospects are streaming into the leadoff presidential caucus state. Notably absent from the lineup, at least for now, is former President Donald Trump.
Few of the White House hopefuls face the lofty expectations in Iowa that Trump does. He finished a competitive second to devout social conservative Ted Cruz in 2016, and went on to carry the state twice, by healthy margins, as the Republican presidential nominee in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
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More than a half-century ago, during Watergate, President Richard Nixon had a stand-off with the Justice Department, and the courts. On October 20, 1973, the president demanded that attorney general Elliot Richardson fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refused, and resigned. His deputy, William Ruckelshaus, also refused, and resigned.