US politics: Nikki Haley to give GOP response to State of the Union – as it happened

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5 Jan 201617.09 EST

Dan Roberts

Bernie Sanders sought to rekindle the anger of the Occupy Wall Street movement in a major policy speech in New York on Tuesday that revealed how he would aim to dismantle much of the modern investment banking system within months of taking office, reports Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts:

Declaring that the “business model of Wall Street is fraud”, the Democratic presidential hopeful also fleshed out longstanding promises to jail bank executives and introduce a sweeping new transaction tax on speculation.

“Greed, fraud, dishonesty and arrogance, these are the words that best describe the reality of Wall Street today,” Sanders told supporters in midtown Manhattan. “To those on Wall Street who may be listening today, let me be very clear. Greed is not good. In fact, the greed of Wall Street and corporate America is destroying the fabric of our nation.”

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Sanders also called for a national “usury law” to regulate interest rates charges by lenders:

The Bible has a term for this practice. It’s called usury. And in The Divine Comedy, Dante reserved a special place in the Seventh Circle of Hell for those who charged people usurious interest rates,” he said. “Today, we don’t need the hellfire and the pitchforks, we don’t need the rivers of boiling blood, but we do need a national usury law.”

Jumbo wingéd metaphor alert

After the president delivers his final state of the union address next Tuesday, Governor Nikki Haley will deliver the Republican response, according to House speaker Paul Ryan.

The state-of-the-union-response slot commonly goes to an up-and-coming, or would-be-up-and-coming, star of the party. That turned to be true for Florida senator Marco Rubio, but not so much for Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal.

The governor’s name recognition is sure to expand with this speech. Tens of millions of people watch the state of the union address; 38m watched last year, and 62m tuned in for George W Bush’s 2003 fairy tale about Saddam Hussein’s WMDs.

The reply speech is sometimes thought to be a stepping stone to the presidency, and indeed that has been the case for three of the last seven presidents: Gerald Ford, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton.

Far more numerous, however, are the rising political talents who saw their stars fade after answering the call to rebut.

Governor Haley was in the news last summer for supporting efforts in her state to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol. She’s a popular governor – a poll last November put her in-state approval at 56%, versus only 28% who disapproved.

The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui is at the Jeb event.

Also:

Every politico knows that you never stick a candidate in a room that’s too big for the crowd. So why did the Bush team put Jeb! in this giant arena?

On a serious note, Bush’s speech today was on a topic of great personal pain: his daughter Noelle’s struggles with drug abuse.

Bush previewed the remarks in an online post titled “addressing the heartbreak of addiction.” It begins:

As a father, I have felt the heartbreak of drug abuse. My daughter Noelle suffered from addiction, and like many parents facing similar situations, her mom and I struggled to help.

Bush continued:

To win this fight across the country, I believe we need a multi-faceted strategy that:

Prevents drug abuse and addiction before it begins: Drug abuse and addiction prevention efforts must start in childhood. That begins with dedicated parents, strong communities and local education. The private sector must also be committed to joining this fight to achieve success, including coalitions driven by local communities and involving health, local law enforcement and social services professionals. When I was governor of Florida, my wife Columba took a very active role in prevention efforts with children; treatment facilities focusing on women with children and struggling children; and coordination of a resource network for local communities at the county level.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie struck a chord in New Hampshire in November with a call to offer addicts help instead of punishing them as criminals.

(h/t @lgamgam)

Florida senator Marco Rubio brings the mad in a new television spot that, according to the campaign, “will begin airing in early states.”

Who’s he mad at? Barack Obama. What’s he mad about? Barack Obama making us unsafe.

“America needs a real commander in chief, and a president who will keep us safe,” Rubio says. It looks like he borrowed the Oval Office to shoot the spot, which seems generous of the White House.

Rubio is usually sunnier than this. In debates he follows the Reagan principle of projecting optimism . But that’s in contrast with Donald “this country is going to hell” Trump – and Trump’s shown that darkness sells.

The ad is called “Safe”:

(h/t @sabrinasiddiqui)

Aaaaahhhhh!!!

Aaaaahhhhh!!!

Aaaaahhhhh!!!

According to her, Donald Trump used to send little messages to Fox News host Megyn Kelly, whom he now regularly belittles and insults and who, he said, asked him “all sorts of ridiculous questions” at a debate “and you know you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”.

From a Vanity Fair interview:

In the past, she says, “he would send me press clippings about me that he would just sign ‘Donald Trump.’ And he called from time to time to compliment a segment. I didn’t know why he was doing that. And then when he announced that he was running for president, it became more clear. But I can’t be wooed. I was never going to love him, and I was never going to hate him.”

The White House has released a transcript of the president’s speech on guns. A key passage:

How did we get here? How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns?

Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying. I reject that thinking. (Applause.) We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.

The top Republican in the Iowa Senate (there are 24 Republicans out of 50 state senators total) endorses Ted Cruz for president: