One week until the Iowa Caucus, it appears to a battle for second place

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Good morning,

The first American lunar lander in more than half a century launched on Monday, but has already encountered a problem that may prevent it from reaching the moon.

Hours into the flight the unmanned spacecraft suffered a "critical" fuel loss possibly hindering its ability for the anticipated moon landing on Feb. 23.

The 202-foot-tall unmanned rocket lifted off at 2:18 a.m. ET from Florida.
It contained a lunar lander, dubbed Peregrine, which was tasked with collecting data for NASA, conducting some science experiments and leaving cremated human remains on the moon. NASA is leveraging private companies to do some recon ahead of returning astronauts to the moon in the coming years.

The company is “currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”

🚀 We’ll be following what happens... to infinity and beyond.

Mosheh, Jill, & Lauren

🗞 ELECTION 2024: TRUMP VS. EVERYBODY

There’s less than a week until the GOP Iowa Caucus next Monday night, and former President Donald Trump is the one to beat.

Trump is dominating polls with a 20-30 point lead in the state. It’s looking like a battle for second, with Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley positioning themselves as the best Republican Trump alternative.

On the Democrat side, some of the biggest names in the party, like former President Obama, are warning President Biden about his campaign team’s lack of imagination and position in the race.

▶ GOP IN IOWA
Donald Trump didn’t win the Iowa Caucuses back in 2016 (Remember Ted Cruz?). This time around Trump’s operation is more organized. For months, tens of thousands of people have come to his rallies in larger cities, packing events across the state.

Meanwhile, Haley and DeSantis are starting to attack Trump, but have mainly been going after each other. Here’s a commercial DeSantis has put $2 million behind in the state.

DeSantis portrays Haley, a former South Carolina governor who was Trump’s U.N. ambassador, as a puppet of wealthy donors and someone who has flip-flopped on key issues.
Haley, who hopes to edge the better-organized DeSantis (he’s visited all 99 counties) in Iowa, has accused him of misrepresenting her record, especially on taxes, and of falsely portraying himself as tough on China.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has crossed every county in the state — twice — but is still struggling to overcome the rest of his opponents. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, meanwhile, isn’t even putting energy into Iowa, and is instead focusing on New Hampshire’s contest later this month (Jan 23).

While Iowa only makes up 1.6% of delegates at the Republican convention— and 49 more states will vote—it commands a lot of media attention because it goes first. A great result (or one that surpasses media & party expectations) can help a contender gain momentum or kill a campaign that doesn’t meet expectations.

SPOTLIGHT ON TRUMP
Trump is polling over 60% nationally in the contest for the GOP nomination, leading by nearly 40+ points. The lead is historic for a primary without an incumbent president, and no candidate has rallied from such a deficit to win the nomination in the modern primary era, the Washington Post reports.

But, the challenges he faces around his name appearing on November’s ballot are more than political. A number of legal questions remain.

The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Colorado’s 14th Amendment case on Feb. 8 over Trump's 2024 ballot eligibility, after Colorado booted him from the ballot.
Here’s a list of the states trying to keep Trump off the ballot and where their efforts stand.

Trump is also facing 91 felony counts across four trials, including two separate indictments for alleged election subversion and one for withholding classified documents after leaving the White House. His immunity claims are also being questioned in courts.

▶ ON THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE
Biden's failure to consolidate support in key parts of the coalition that elected him in 2020 has left him narrowly trailing Trump, 37%-34% in a general election contest. Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr gets 10% of the vote.

🚨 The poll comes as the Washington Post reports on major party concerns that the Biden team isn’t taking Trump seriously. There reportedly was a private meeting before the holidays where former President Obama pushed Biden to move his political operation outside of Washington and his White House advisers. It is something Obama did with his Chicago-based 2012 reelection team.
- "Someone wants to light a fire under the asses of some of these people," a top Democratic strategist told Axios, as top Dems worry that the Biden campaign is complacent.

It’s unclear if Biden took Obama’s advice, but he effectively launched his general election campaign for the year last Friday. And the speech focused on Trump.

Biden framed the coming election as a choice between a candidate devoted to upholding American ideals and Trump—a chaos agent willing to discard them for his personal benefit.
- “Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power,” he said.

Biden is effectively guaranteed to win the democratic nomination, but Democratic primary voters will have two other main contenders to choose from: self-help author Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota).

✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: Iowa is not a great predictor of the eventual Republican victor. The last GOP presidential candidate to win Iowa and get the party’s nomination was George W. Bush in 2000 — and he was the first Republican to win it and the presidency since 1980.

But, the presidential primary process is a momentum game, which means that whomever wins next week is going to get more exposure that could help them win in New Hampshire a few days later.

Politico’s Steve Shepard pointed out that in the last two Republican caucuses, the candidate leading in the polls a week out didn’t win. In 2016, Trump led Ted Cruz a week before the caucuses by 6 points. In 2012, former Sen. Rick Santorum was polling sixth place a week before the caucuses, but quickly accelerated to the top spot. At the same time, Trump currently has the greatest polling lead in Iowa Caucus history. Still, Haley or DeSantis cutting significantly into that lead for a close-ish second could be a game-changer when we all wake up a week from today.

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 United & Alaska Air find loose bolts on some Boeing 737 Max 9s after grounding (CNBC)

📌 Over 40 states under blizzard, wind, snow or flood alerts as winter storms cross country (ABC NEWS)

📌 House Republicans release report recommending Hunter Biden be held in contempt of Congress (NBC NEWS)

📌 Civil trial alleging top NRA officials used the organization as ‘personal piggy bank’ begins (CNN)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 Israel kills key Hezbollah commander in Lebanon (FOX NEWS)

📌 China says a foreign consultant was found to be spying for Britain’s MI6 (CNN)

📌 Pope calls for universal ban on surrogate parenting, calls it 'deplorable' (REUTERS)

📌 French PM Élisabeth Borne resigns ahead of expected reshuffle (BBC)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 National Association of Realtors president steps down, alleging blackmail threat (THE HILL)

📌 Oscar Mayer seeks full-time drivers for the iconic Wienermobile (USA TODAY)

📌 Not so dead as a dodo: ‘De-extinction’ plan to reintroduce bird to Mauritius (CNN)

📌 Apple Vision Pro headset launches in U.S. on Feb. 2, preorders begin Jan. 19 (CNBC)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Michigan wins College Football Playoff National Championship, downing Huskies 34-13 (CBS NEWS)

📌 Tiger Woods, Nike announce end of 27-year partnership (ESPN)

📌 Jonathan Majors gives first interview since his conviction (CNN)

📌 Prince's 'Purple Rain' is becoming a musical (AXIOS)

🗓 ON THIS DAY: JANUARY 9

1493: Christopher Columbus mistakes three manatees for mermaids. He writes in his journal that they were ugly and described the mermaids as “not half as beautiful as they are painted.”
1951: The United Nations headquarters in New York officially opened.
1981: Phil Collins releases ‘In the Air Tonight’
2001: Apple introduces iTunes. The iPod would debut later that year, revolutionizing digital music.
2007: Apple’s Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone for the first time.