A lot happened in 2024 outside of Gallup, both on a national and global scale. Here’s a breakdown of the top most impactful stories to come out of 2024.
TRUMP WINS 2024 ELECTION
Donald J. Trump won the 2024 General Election on Nov. 5, becoming the second president to serve a non-consecutive second term. Grover Cleveland was the first to do so; serving from 1885 to 1889 and then again from 1893 to 1897.
When Southern states such as Tennessee and South Carolina have a long history of voting for Republican candidates and East Coast states such as New York and Rhode Island tend to lean toward Democrats, most Presidential races come down to what are called “battleground” or “swing states.” These are states where the outcomes aren’t easy to predict, and the electoral votes could go either way. To officially win the Presidential election a candidate has to receive at least 270 electoral votes.
This year, there were seven battleground states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada.
Both Trump and his Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris spent a lot of time meeting with constituents and holding rallies in these swing states leading up to the election.
Ultimately, it came down to who performed the best in those states.
Trump won all seven of the swing states, along with Alaska, Utah, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana.
Harris won New Mexico, Washington, Washington D.C., Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.
In total, Trump won 277 electoral votes and Harris won 213, leaving him the clear winner. When it came to the popular vote, Trump came out with over 72.5 million votes, or 50.9%. Harris had almost 68 million votes, which came out to 47.6%.
BIDEN STEPS DOWN
President Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he would be stepping down from his reelection campaign. He isn’t the first incumbent president to abandon his campaign for reelection.
Democrats Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson both announced they would not seek reelection following subpar results in the New Hampshire primary.
Vice President Kamala Harris received the Democratic nomination to run for president, despite not having run during the primary election.
In a public statement published on July 21, Biden thanked the American people for their support during his presidency and explained why he felt he shouldn’t seek reelection.
“While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.
ISRAEL STRIKES, ADVANCES INTO SYRIAN TERRITORY
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled his country Dec. 9 after a 13-year-long civil war. The Assad family dynasty came to power in 1971. Assad clung to power through domestic oppression, torture and murder, eventually suppressing a 2011 uprising with a mix of chemical weapons and deadly backing from Russia and Iran. Seeing an opportunity, Israel began a sweeping aerial campaign on its neighbor. By Dec. 10, at least 350 airstrikes had leveled military assets across Syria, taking out the Navy, fighter jets, drones, tanks, air-defense systems, weapons plants and a wide array of missiles and rockets, according to the Israeli military. Israeli officials said they were destroying weapons and military facilities to keep them out of the hands of Islamist extremists. The rebel group that led the toppling of Assad was formerly linked to Al Qaeda and is still designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations. But the intense air assault on Syria at such a fragile moment raised alarm among some in the international community. “This needs to stop,” the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told reporters in Geneva on Dec. 10. As Syrian factions attempt an orderly transition to a new government, it is “extremely important that we don’t see any action from any international actor that destroys the possibility for this transformation in Syria to take place,” he added.
MAN WHO ALLEGEDLY SHOT UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO ARRESTED A 26-year-old man who reportedly shot and killed United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 was arrested on Dec. 9. After a five-day manhunt led by the New York Police Department, the alleged suspect, identified as Luigi Mangione, was picked up by police while eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa. He was initially charged with a gun charge before he was extradited to New York. Mangione reportedly had a 3D printed gun and multiple fake IDs on him at the time of his arrest. The Ivy League graduate from Maryland has been charged with murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm. Thompson was shot outside of an investors’ conference in Midtown Manhattan. Police reportedly found three bullets at the scene of the shooting. Each bullet reportedly had a word written on it — “delay,” “deny,” and “depose.” Law enforcement officials said they are looking into whether or not the words relate to a possible motive involving insurance companies and their responses to claims. Mangiione pled not guilty to murder in the furtherance of terrorism and other felony charges on Dec. 23.
TRUMP SURVIVES AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
During a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., president-elect Donald J. Trump was shot at in an attempted assassination.
Only a few short minutes into Trump’s rally speech, around 6 pm, at least five shots rang out.
Trump reportedly clutched his ear as dark-suited Secret Service agents dashed toward him. He dropped to the ground as the agents yelled, “Get down!” Thousands of rallygoers also dropped down.
Moments later, Trump stood as the Secret Service agents crowded around him, covering his body with their own. They tried to usher the former president offstage to his left as blood trickled from his ear. “Wait, wait, wait,” Trump said. He pumped his fist as the crowd cheered, and seemed to mouth the word “fight” before agents hustled him down the stairs and to a waiting black SUV. Trump pumped his fist one more time before getting inside.
The FBI quickly identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. The suspect, a resident of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, was shot and killed by the Secret Service seconds after he allegedly fired shots toward the stage where Trump was speaking.
NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS INDICTED ON FIVE FEDERAL PUBLIC CORRUPTION CHARGES Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, James E. Dennehy, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, and Jocelyn E. Strauber, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, announced on Nov. 26 the unsealing of an Indictment charging Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, with bribery, campaign finance, and conspiracy offenses. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho. According to the indictment, for nearly a decade, Adams, 64, has used his prominent positions in New York City government to obtain illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel. Adams allegedly solicited and accepted these benefits from foreign nationals, businessmen, and others. Adams then pressured the New York City Fire Department to facilitate the opening of a foreign government’s Manhattan skyscraper that had not passed a fire inspection. To conceal this criminal conduct, Adams took steps to hide his receipt of improper benefits from the public and law enforcement. In 2014, Adams was elected Brooklyn Borough President. Thereafter, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him. By 2018, Adams—who had by then made known his plans to run for Mayor of New York City—not only accepted, but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign from foreign nationals, as well as other things of value. As Adams’ prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash-in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when it became clear that Adams would become New York City’s mayor in 2021. Adams allegedly agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received. After his inauguration as Mayor of New York City, Adams soon began preparing for his next election, including by planning to solicit more illegal contributions and granting requests from those who supported his 2021 mayoral campaign with such donations. Adams is charged with one count of conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals and commit wire fraud and bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, which each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of soliciting and accepting a bribe, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hagan Scotten, Celia V. Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach, and Derek Wikstrom are in charge of the prosecution. TRUMP’S LEGAL PROBLEMS FALL AWAY Leading up to the 2024 election, Donald Trump was facing multiple lawsuits. One such case revolved around him attempting to subvert the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Neither of these cases made it to trial, and on Nov. 25 Special Counsel Jack Smith asked for the charges in both cases be dropped. An election-subversion case in Fulton County, Georgia, is effectively frozen already amid challenges to the prosecutor’s handling of the case. Trump has been convicted but not sentenced in New York State related to hush money paid to the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels, and sentencing in that case is indefinitely postponed as of Nov. 22. In the fall of 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil suit against Trump, his adult sons, and his former aide Allen Weisselberg, alleging a years-long scheme in which Trump fraudulently reported the value of properties in order to either lower his tax bill or improve the terms of his loans, all with an eye toward inflating his net worth. Justice Arthur Engoron ruled on Feb. 16 that Trump must pay $355 million plus interest, the calculated size of his ill-gotten gains from fraud. Trump also faced a pair of defamation suits from the writer E. Jean Carroll, who said that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department-store dressing room in the 1990s. When he denied it, she sued him for defamation and later added a battery claim. In May 2023, a jury concluded that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll, and awarded her $5 million. A second defamation case produced an $83.3 million judgment in January. In March 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg became the first prosecutor to bring felony charges against Trump, alleging that the former president had falsified business records as part of a scheme to pay hush money to women who said they’d had sexual relationships with Trump. The trial began on April 15 and ended with a May 30 conviction. A judge was scheduled to rule Sept. 16 on whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity invalidates the case. On Sept. 6, he announced that he was postponing sentencing to avoid interfering with the election. MYSTERIOUS DRONES FLY ACROSS THE EAST COAST The surge of drone sightings in New Jersey and across the U.S. has prompted an array of conspiracy theories and false claims online. A joint statement on Dec. 17 from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense said the sightings include legal commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones, as well as manned planes and helicopters. Two days later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said drones would be banned over certain "critical infrastructure" in the state. The FAA announced similar restrictions in New Jersey. While President Joe Biden said there doesn't appear to be anything "nefarious" about the sightings, social media users have continued to spread misinformation about the aircraft's origin and mission.
TIK TOK ASKS SUPREME COURT TO BLOCK LAW THAT COULD BAN POPULAR APP
On Dec. 16, TikTok asked the Supreme Court to block a law that could ban the video-based social media app, which has millions of American users. At issue is a bipartisan measure passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden that would go into effect on Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, unless the justices intervene. The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would require TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban. TikTok has challenged the law, saying it violates its free speech rights under the First Amendment. "The Act will shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration," TikTok's lawyers wrote in the court filing. TikTok asked the Supreme Court to act by Jan. 6. "Today, TikTok is asking the court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment," company spokesman Michael Hughes said in a statement. BILES MAKES HISTORY AT 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS Three years after an unceremonious exit at the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles returned to the center stage in Paris where she won four gold medals in gymnastics. With 11 gold medals and 30 World Championship medals to her name, Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history. Biles, along with Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, carried Team USA to a gold medal in Women's Team Gymnastics for the first time since 2016. Their combined score of 171.296 surpassed second place Italy by over six points.
