Haley in South Carolina, Boeing's Woes, Alabama Execution

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has launched a major campaign push in her home state of South Carolina.

I will spend every single day trying to make you proud. Can she edge out Donald Trump in that primary?

I'm Michelle Martin, that's a Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News.

And a person in Alabama could be the first in the country to be executed using nitrogen gas today.

We're heading into what could possibly be a catastrophe.

What's behind that method, and how is the state trying to avoid another botched execution? Stay with us, we've got all the news you need to start your day.

Listen, we've only had two states that have voted, we got 48 more that deserve to vote.

One of those states is South Carolina, where Haley served for six years as governor. It's also where she's focusing her campaign's energy ahead of that state's primary next month, starting with a rally in Charleston last night.

NPR's Stephen Fowler joins us now from Charleston, South Carolina. Stephen Haley finished third in Iowa, second in New Hampshire and is the last major candidate left other than Donald Trump. So what's her argument for staying in the race?

Well, Trump's got the stranglehold on the conservative base of the GOP. But since he first took office in 2016, that hasn't really been enough for the party to win many key races. Haley's still got the same conservative stances as Trump, but her rhetoric and record appeals to more independent voters in a general election. I spoke with Marie Barber, from Mount Pleasant at the rally, who says she has friends and family. That won't vote for Joe Biden, but won't vote for Trump either.

Trump is kind of a tough sell to a lot of more moderate conservatives because he can.

Be very abrasive.

But if he were the nominee, I think he would get the job done. I just feel like Nikki would do it with a lot more style and class.

And hey, that's Nikki Haley's pitch in a nutshell. I'll also note that, Barber said she'll vote for Trump if he's the nominee.

Yeah, and Haley has also said that she'd vote for Trump if he's a nominee, OK, but so if the difference is between Trump and Haley is style over substance? I mean, how's that playing out within the Republican Party?

Well, once again, most of the party's leaders rally around Trump, including numerous South Carolina politicians like Senator Tim Scott, who, by the way, was appointed to that seat by Nikki Haley. Trump's also lined up most of his presidential challengers that have dropped out. Like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who just last week said Trump would have problems facing Joe Biden in November. Then he dropped out and endorsed Trump. Now, Haley's new stump speech focused on her record as governor, touting everything from the economy to criminal justice reform. She also knocked Trump for his mental lapses, like a recent rally where he confused her with Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

Because right now they're responding to the loudest person in the room, right? How can you be the loudest without being the bad publicity?

She also said she'd vote for Trump if he's the nominee.

So then what does a path forward for Nikki Haley look like? I mean, is there a mathematical or maybe a practical way that maybe she could outlast Trump over the next few months?

Well, a, in many ways, the math ain't math. And I mean, to get the Republican nomination, you need more delegates. To get more delegates than Trump. you got to get more votes than Trump. And that's not looking likely.

All right, that's NPR's Stephen Fowler in Charleston. Stephen, thanks.

Thank you.

The Federal Aviation Administration says grounded Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets can fly once again.

More than 170 planes have been grounded since a door plug flew off an Alaska Airlines flight in Midair nearly three weeks ago. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was on Capitol Hill yesterday trying to reassure lawmakers and the flying public.

We fly safe planes.

We don't put airplanes in the air that we don't have 100 percent confidence in.

But questions are mounting about quality control at Boeing's factories.

NPR Transportation correspondent Joel Rose has been following all this. So Joel, So why did the FAA give it the all clear?

Well, the FAA laid out what it calls a thorough inspection and maintenance plan. These jets will have to go through before they're certified to fly again. And this has taken several weeks because. The FAA says it needed to gather information from airlines and Boeing to ensure that the planes are safe to fly. But FAA administrator Mike Whitaker also said this is not just back to business as usual for Boeing. The agency is imposing a pretty sweeping production caps on the company's factories, not just the Max 9, but other 737 lines as well.

Yeah, and investigators have been trying to figure out why the door panel blew out midair in the first place. So has there been any clue as to why that happened?

Well, nothing new from the FAA or from other federal investigators. But we did get some very interesting insight from an apparent whistleblower, a self-described Boeing employee who appears to have access to a lot of company records. The whistleblower claims to have new details about that door plug panel that blew off the Alaska Airlines jet. This person alleges that four bolts that are supposed to hold the door plug in place were removed for some repair work at Boeing's factory in Renton, Washington. The bolts should have then been replaced, but, according to this person, were not reinstalled before the plane left the factory. This person laid all of this out in a detailed post on an aviation website last week that was first reported yesterday by the Seattle Times.

So what has Boeing said in response?

Boeing has declined to comment, citing ongoing investigations, and referred questions to the National Transportation Safety Board. It's interesting to note the NTSB has already raised the possibility that the Bolts were not there. I should say. NPR has not been able to verify the identity of this apparent whistleblower, but their explanation does seem credible to Ed Pearson. He is a former senior manager at Boeing's 737 factory.

This is symptomatic of what happens when you rush production and people are put under this kind of pressure. People take shortcuts and that's where these mistakes are made. And it didn't surprise me because this is the kind of stuff that we had seen, I had seen in the past.

Today, Boeing's factory teams in Renton are scheduled to have what the company is calling a quality stand down. Basically, allowing production to pause for a day so that employees can take part in special training sessions.

Now, Joel. A couple of weeks ago, I had a flight canceled back home to L.A. because it was a Max 9 plane. And a lot of flights have been canceled because of that. So how soon could Max 9 planes be back in the air?

You know, it could happen relatively quickly. The inspections themselves are not expected to take that long. United Airlines says some of its Max 9 planes could start flying again on Sunday. Alaska Airlines says that a few could be flying as soon as tomorrow. Whether the public is ready to start flying on these planes, that is another question.

All right, that's NPR Transportation CoRrEspondent Joel RoSE Joel, Thanks, you're welcome.

But it will be the second time the state will try to execute Kenneth Smith, who survived an execution by lethal injection, in 2022.

NPR Investigations reporter Kiara Eisner has been covering this story and is in Atmore, Alabama. That's where the execution is scheduled to take place around 6 p...m. There's also been a lot of debate over this as well there. Kiara Does it still look like it's going to happen today?

It does, and there has been a lot of back and forth in Alabama courts. But yesterday, the U.S Supreme Court justices were given a chance to chime in as well. Kenneth Smith's lawyers asked them to consider pausing the execution so they could argue that executing Smith a second time violated his constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

All right now, nitrogen as a form of execution, I mean, why are they using an untested method for this second attempt to execute? Kenneth Smith?

Well, back in 2022, Alabama had three high profile botched executions when the state attempted to execute people with lethal injection each of those three times, execution. Workers from Alabama were unable to quickly place the IV in the veins of the prisoners to deliver the drugs. The first time, they ended up actually executing the prisoner. But it took so long that the family is now suing the state and those other two times, one of which was Smith's execution.

This nitrogen that we've been talking about, is it like, laughing gas? Is that what we're talking about?

No, that is nitrous oxide, this is pure nitrogen gas, which is not administered to humans in medical settings. And it's been deemed by vets to be quote unacceptable for the euthanization of mammals other than pigs because of its potential for causing distress to those animals.

Oh, okay, now. You've been reporting on this for a couple of months now. You've spoken to Smith and also his spiritual advisor. That spiritual advisor is going to be in the room with him later today. How are they feeling about how prepared the state of Alabama is to carry this out on a person?

Yes, so. I spoke with the spiritual advisor, Jeff Hood, yesterday. Shortly after, he saw Smith at the prison and met with the prison's warden. Here's what he told me.

The warden came and took me back to the execution chamber, and I can tell you that what I saw did nothing to minimize my fears. They have proven time and time again that they don't know what they're doing. So I think we're heading into what could possibly be a catastrophe.

Reverend Hood will be at the prison from 8.

All right, that's Kiara Eisner, a reporter with NPR's investigations team. Kiara, thank you very much for bringing us this.

Thank you.

And that's up first for Thursday, January 25th. I'm a Martinez.

And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratts, Russell Lewis, Barry Hardiman and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Ziad Budge, Ben Abrams and Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Start your day here with us tomorrow.

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