President Biden on Thursday will warn in a prime-time speech that “MAGA forces are determined to take this country backward” as he makes the case that the Make America Great Again movement led by former President Trump poses a danger to the nation.
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards. Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love,” Biden is poised to say in Philadelphia, according to advanced excerpts released by the White House.
The White House has billed Biden’s speech as one about “the soul of the nation” and the threats facing American democracy.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday said the speech would be “optimistic” despite the serious subject matter, and she disputed that it would focus on Trump.
But the excerpts make clear Biden will single out the former president’s movement, tying it to recent attacks on law enforcement and the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that found a person’s right to abortion to be constitutional.
“So tonight I have come here to the place where it all began to speak plainly to the nation about the threats we face,” Biden will say, according to the excerpts. “About the power we have in our own hands to meet those threats. And about the incredible future that lies in front of us if only we choose it.”
“For a long time, we’ve reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed,” the excerpt reads. “But it is not. We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.”
Biden has in recent weeks become more assertive in calling out “MAGA Republicans.” At a political rally last week in Maryland, Biden described the movement as akin to “semi-fascism.”
On Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Biden referenced “MAGA Republicans” multiple times as he invoked the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, condemning attacks from some Republicans on law enforcement.
Some Republicans have criticized Biden for his comments, arguing he campaigned on a pledge to unite the country and lower the temperature of the nation but is using inflammatory rhetoric by comparing conservatives to fascists.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is giving a speech in Scranton, Pa., hours before Biden to criticize his record and recent comments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A retired New York Police Department officer was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
Thomas Webster’s prison sentence is the longest so far among roughly 250 people who have been punished for their conduct during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The previous longest was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.
Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a self-defense argument. A jury rejected Webster’s claim that he was defending himself when he tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Webster, 56, to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release, noting that along with Rathbun, “the other victim was democracy.” He allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.
Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 17 years and six months. The court’s probation department had recommended a 10-year prison sentence. Mehta wasn’t bound by the recommendations.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Webster of “disgracing a democracy that he once fought honorably to protect and serve.” Webster led the charge against police barricades at the Capitol’s Lower West Plaza, prosecutors said. They compared the attack to a medieval battle, with rioters pelting officers with makeshift projectiles and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
“Each individual attack on an officer at the West Plaza weakened the defensive line, fueled the crowd, and brought the rioters one step closer toward disrupting our democracy,” they wrote.
Defense attorney James Monroe said Webster was “swept up in the fervor of the large crowd” but didn’t join many other rioters in entering the Capitol. Monroe said the mob was “guided by unscrupulous politicians” and others promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the Republican incumbent.
“These forces championed by former President Donald Trump exerted an extraordinary amount of influence over those Americans present at the Capitol on Jan. 6 though their relentless disinformation,” Monroe wrote.
In May, jurors deliberated for less than three hours before they convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, the flagpole.
Also Thursday, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to using pepper spray on police officers, including one who later died. Officer Brian Sicknick suffered a stroke the day after the riot and died of natural causes. He and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks as the mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Julian Khater, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. He could face up to 20 years in prison, though will likely face a sentence ranging from about 6 1/2 to 8 years at a hearing set for December.
The case against Khater and a second man have been among the more notable brought by the Justice Department. George Pierre Tanios brought the pepper spray in a backpack. Tanios previously pleaded guilty and is also set to be sentenced in December.
Webster had testified at trial that he was trying to protect himself from a “rogue cop” who punched him in the face. He also accused Rathbun of instigating the confrontation.
Rathbun testified that he didn’t punch or pick a fight with Webster. Rathbun said he was trying to move Webster back from a security perimeter that he and other officers were struggling to maintain.
Rathbun’s body camera captured Webster shouting profanities and insults before they made any physical contact. The video shows that Webster slammed one of the bike racks at Rathbun before the officer reached out with an open left hand and struck the right side of Webster’s face.
After Rathbun struck his face, Webster swung a metal flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping motion, striking a bike rack. Rathbun grabbed the broken pole from Webster, who charged at the officer, tackled him to the ground and grabbed his gas mask, choking him by the chin strap.
Webster drove alone to Washington, D.C., from his home near Goshen, New York, on the eve of the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, where Trump addressed thousands of supporters. Webster was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Marine Corps flag on a metal pole when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.
Webster said he went to the Capitol to “petition” lawmakers to “relook” at the results of the 2020 presidential election. But he testified that he didn’t intend to interfere with Congress’ joint session to certify President Joe Biden ‘s victory.
Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service, which included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.
Former President Trump said he would be looking “very seriously” into full pardons for those charged in connection with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if he decides to run for a second term and wins the 2024 presidential election.
In an interview with conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday, Trump further stated that he would consider it “very strongly and very favorably.”
The 45th president also shared that he was “financially supporting” some of the defendants who were in his office just days ago.
“I am financially supporting people that are incredible and they were in my office actually two days ago, so they’re very much in my mind,” Trump added.
“It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful,” he said.
While Trump teased a potential 2024 run for the presidency, he stopped short of announcing it during the interview.
When asked by Bell if he would announce his run on the show, the former president shared, “Well the time is coming closer and I think you’re gonna be really happy. You have campaign finance laws that [don’t] allow you to … it’s crazy. It’s not smart. If you say it, everything changes and you have reporting and you have all things. But I will be doing something and I think you’re going to be happy.”
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on how exactly he is supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot defendants.
Trump’s comments come on the same day that President Biden is set to deliver a prime-time speech from Philadelphia about protecting democracy, in which he will warn that Americans’ rights and freedoms are “under attack,” according to a White House official.
It’s unclear whether Biden will explicitly mention Trump during his Thursday address, but plans for the speech suggest he’ll at least allude to the former president and his false claims about the 2020 election.
The former president reiterated recent comments he made at a Faith and Freedom event in Nashville, Tenn., last month where he said the defendants charged in the Capitol riot had their “lives destroyed,” claiming that most had been “charged with parading through the Capitol.”
To date, more than 860 people across the country have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot. More than 350 have pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes. More than 115 have been incarcerated for their role in the riot.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska on Thursday congratulated Democrat Mary Peltola on her victory in the special election to fill the vacant House seat representing the state.
Peltola on defeated two Republicans, former Alaska governor and GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, to serve the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s (R) term. Young held the seat for almost half a century before his death in March.
Murkowski noted that Peltola’s victory made state and national history, as she will become the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress.
“While it will be impossible for Alaska to replace Congressman Young, Mary has a long track record of public service to our great state — including our time working together in the Alaska State Legislature — and I look forward to her join Senator Sullivan and I as we advance Alaska’s priorities over the coming months,” she said in a statement.
Peltola and Murkowski served in the Alaska state House together for a few years before Murkowski became a senator.
Sullivan said he hopes to be able to work with Peltola over the next four months on the “issues that truly matter to our state,” like inflation and energy costs, using Alaska’s natural resources with “much-needed” infrastructure and achieving sustainable and healthy fisheries for all residents.
“The three-person Alaska congressional delegation has a long and distinguished record of working together to advance and defend the interests of Alaskans, despite not always agreeing on different aspects of politics and policy,” he said.
Peltola will face Palin and Begich, the former co-chairman of Young’s 2020 reelection campaign, again in a general election to hold the seat for the next two years in November. She won the special election in the state’s first ranked-choice vote, in which voters could list the candidates in order of their preference.
Peltola led after the first round of the election revealed voters’ first preferences but did not obtain a majority necessary to win outright. Palin came in second in first-place votes, and Begich came in third.
Begich was then eliminated, and his votes were redistributed according to the second preference of his voters. Peltola defeated Palin in the second round by about 3 percentage points.
A bipartisan data privacy bill faces another roadblock, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressing concern Thursday that the proposal could limit state protections.
Pelosi cited concerns raised by leaders in her home state of California, which has been leading the way in the U.S. in setting data privacy standards, about the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA).
“Proudly, California leads the nation not only in innovation, but also in consumer protection. With so much innovation happening in our state, it is imperative that California continues offering and enforcing the nation’s strongest privacy rights,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Pelosi did not dismiss the bill, which advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with bipartisan support in July, entirely. She said she will continue to work with Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) to address “California’s concerns.”
Pallone said in a statement he looks forward to continuing to discuss with Pelosi ways to “further strengthen” the bill.
“It’s critical that we put people back in control of their online data and create a strong national privacy standard. This is the most robust and comprehensive legislation to protect Americans’ privacy, and I’m laser focused on building support for final legislation that can be brought to the House floor and become law,” Pallone said.
California Democrats main concern is that the bill sets a national standard that would preempt state law. But preemption is a sticking point for Republicans, and a piece supporters say is crucial to the compromise lawmakers made to craft a bipartisan bill.
The version that advanced out of the committee included a provision that would grant the California Privacy Protection Agency, created under California’s privacy law, the authority to enforce the ADPPA, seemingly in an attempt to try and quell some of the concerns.
However, California lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce during the July vote said they were concerned the bill could undermine California’s privacy protections. Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) were the only votes against advancing the bill.
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) voted to advance the bill but said she would not vote in favor of passing the bill without additional changes.
The proposal aims to set a national standard for how tech companies collect and use Americans’ data, after years of debate within Congress on how to tackle the issue of data privacy.
The bill would allow users to sue over violations of the law through a private right of action. It also includes protections for children online, including banning targeted ads to minors and treating all information related to individuals under 17 as sensitive data.
The proposal has an even tougher chance of advancing in the Senate, due to pushback from Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
Federal agents searched properties allegedly linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg Thursday, according to a new report from NBC New York.
The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the New York Police Department were seen searching two New York properties linked to the billionaire ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NBC New York reported.
The agents and detectives were spotted carrying boxes during the search of properties in Manhattan and Southampton, N.Y., and another search is reportedly also underway in Miami, according to the outlet.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the New York Police Department did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Hill.
Vekselberg has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2018. Spanish police and FBI agents seized his $90 million superyacht in April after the Department of Justice alleged bank fraud, money laundering and sanction statues had been violated.
Along with a number of other Russian elites, Vekselberg was hit with new Treasury Department sanctions earlier this year after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine.
Vekselberg, who leads the conglomerate company Renova Group, has a net worth of more than $6 billion and financial interests spanning multiple sectors of the Russian economy, according to the Treasury Department.
Vekselberg has close ties to Putin and other Moscow leaders and “has taken part in Russian diplomatic and soft power activities on behalf of the Kremlin,” according to the department.
Ohio police released bodycam footage this week showing officers fatally shooting an unarmed 20-year-old Black man who was asleep when they broke into his room.
Several officers with the Columbus Police Department broke into the home of Donovan Lewis around 2:28 a.m. on Tuesday for the execution of a felony search warrant.
Outside the apartment, police shouted repeatedly for the occupants to come outside, leading to the arrest of two people who exited with their hands up.
Officers questioned the suspects and said they were “looking for Donovan.” When he didn’t show, they walked inside the apartment and toward the bedroom where he was sleeping.
Ricky Anderson, a canine officer and a 30-year veteran with the department, opened the bedroom door while positioned to the side, his firearm raised and his police dog barking loudly in front of him.
When the door opened, Lewis sat up quickly in confusion. Lewis was not armed, although he may have been holding a vape that police mistook for a firearm.
Anderson fired one shot, striking Lewis in an unidentified area on the body. Unconscious, Lewis was transported to a local hospital where he was reported deceased at 3:19 a.m.
Another body-camera angle sent to The Hill is taken from Anderson’s angle. It shows the officer hurrying into the apartment with his police dog and firing immediately once the door swings open.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has launched an investigation into the fatal shooting, according to a news release.
National civil rights attorney Ben Crump tweeted that “within seconds” of opening the bedroom door, officers fired.
“Police reportedly mistook a vape in the hand of the unarmed young Black man as a weapon,” Crump wrote. “This is just the most recent of many fatal police shootings committed by Columbus police involving unarmed citizens — including Andre Hill! The pattern and practices of this police department MUST be reformed!”
Lewis had an outstanding warrant for domestic violence, assault and the improper handling of a firearm, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Lewis had a girlfriend who is pregnant with his child.
An attorney for the Lewis family, Rex Elliott, said at a Thursday news conference there was “no question” that Anderson was guilty.
“Donovan was alone, in his room, in his bed,” Elliott said. “Donovan was unarmed and abiding by police commands to come out of the room when he was shot in cold blood by Officer Anderson.”
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther tweeted Thursday that he was “committed to full transparency” on the shooting.
“That is why we released the body-worn camera footage and details of the arrest warrant within roughly 12 hours of the incident,” he wrote. “The state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating, but a thorough accounting takes time. Chief [Elaine] Bryant and I join Donovan’s family as they grieve, and we echo their calls for peace.”
While headlines focus on deep partisan divisions and the accompanying rhetorical bombast from all sides, Congress has managed to move some pieces of bipartisan legislation this year. That approach soon will be necessary for the periodic reauthorization of the farm bill. Usually, this bill has been passed under less confrontational auspices in Congress between the two parties, but it now comes up at a time when food security issues are in the limelight.
The farm bill is a gigantic package of legislation that affects a variety of key industries beyond what laymen would consider strictly agriculture, from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for lower-income families to programs that make up the farming safety net.
The 2023 version of the farm bill comes at a time of major challenges for farmers, many of whom face supply chain disruptions, drought conditions, increases in interest rates for loans, price spikes for fuel, transportation and production materials, and — like American families — the general effects of high inflation.
It is no wonder that farmers’ pessimism continues to grow, according to Purdue University’s Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly survey and analysis of economic sentiment among farmers. In recent editions, about half of survey respondents “expect their farms to be worse off financially a year from now,” including a record high of 51 percent in the July report.
The food and agricultural trade effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has been a major exporter of agricultural and food commodities, has reinforced the national security implications of issues with food supply issues that the COVID-19 pandemic also brought to the forefront.
Indeed, the national security implications of agricultural and food supply policy are weighing heavily in the farm bill’s pending reauthorization, with strained relations between China and the U.S. adding to the growing pile of concerns regarding the need for ensuring an abundant and safe food supply for America. Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) recently touched upon this theme, saying, “When you look at a farm bill, I hope that we can all look at this as a national security issue.”
The farming safety net and related agricultural trade policy has been a source of tension during previous farm bill hearings and debates. One program that has earned bipartisan support is U.S. sugar policy, which was approved with a historic bipartisan margin of 141 House votes the last time it was reauthorized.
While some economic conservatives would prefer a more immediate move to a market free from government intervention for commodities such as sugar, others prefer a more step-by-step approach, especially given the nature of the global sugar market. Some governments, such as India and Brazil, subsidize their sugar production and then dump the excess sugar on the global market at prices far below the cost of production. These factors contribute to sugar — a vital commodity in overall food production — being one of the most distorted commodity markets in the world. Still, American trade commitments make us the third largest importer of sugar in the world.
The good news for free-market defenders and proponents of less government interference is that loan programs embedded in our sugar policy are designed to not cost American taxpayers any money — in fact, sugar producers who receive loans pay them back with interest.
There have been proposed paths that could take us toward a freer market — the most notable one pushes for countries that trade in sugar to eliminate all tariffs and subsidies before the U.S. would repeal existing sugar policies, resulting in a truly free market. In the meantime, however, American sugar producers contribute $23 billion to the American economy each year.
With geopolitical uncertainty and conflict on the rise, and the correlated sense that food security and national security go hand in hand, the coming farm bill may be one bright spot in a congressional environment that is often hindered by partisan discord.
Mario H. Lopez is president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a public policy advocacy organization that promotes liberty, opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. Follow him on Twitter @MarioHLopez.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to issue an immediate decision in a case brought by former President Trump whose attorneys asked the court to appoint a third party legal expert to review evidence seized by the FBI when they searched his Florida home.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said she will issue a ruling at some point on whether to appoint a so-called special master to review the evidence and temporarily block the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of classified records due to their storage at Mar-a-Lago. She did not specify a timeline for when she might issue that decision.
Cannon last Saturday wrote that it was her “preliminary intent” to appoint a special master, but that was before each side made its case during Thursday’s hearing.
The Miami Herald reported that during Thursday’s hearing, it was revealed that more than 300 classified documents had been obtained by federal authorities since Trump left office. Those documents were either turned over by Trump or seized during the search at Mar-a-Lago, the news outlet reported.
The hearing came after the Justice Department filed a lengthy brief asking the court to reject Trump’s request, arguing investigators not assigned to the case have already reviewed the evidence to scan for personal property as well as any materials that might be covered by attorney-client privilege.
Trump’s legal team has argued that a special master would help shield the government from obtaining any information that should not have been swept up in the search. But they’ve also argued Trump had a right to retain presidential records due to executive privilege.
The government has flatly rejected that argument, noting that presidential records are property of the government and must be managed by the National Archives.
The department has also expressed concerns that the appointment could delay the investigation, in part because a special master probably would need to obtain a security clearance to review the records and special authorization from intelligence agencies.
U.S. House candidate Democrat Mary Peltola celebrates after results are announced for the special election in which she won the race for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in Anchorage, Alaska.
Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, tracking all things related to the 2022 midterm elections. Starting next week, you can expect this newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday leading up to November’s election.
The political landscape just keeps getting better for Democrats.
Mary Peltola, a Democratic former state lawmaker, on Wednesday was declared the winner of the special election to finish out the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s (R-Alaska) term in the House, scoring an upset victory over two Republicans in a reliably red state that former President Trump carried by 10 points less than two years ago.
Peltola, who will be the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress as well as the first woman to serve as the state’s lone representative in the House, defeated Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, and Nick Begich III, a staunch conservative from Alaska’s most prominent Democratic family, in a race that tested the state’s new ranked-choice voting system, in which voters rank the candidates in order of preference.
Any conclusions drawn from the results come with some caveats. Peltola will be on the ballot once again in November when she’ll seek a full term in the House. And special elections are hardly seen as reliable predictors of a party’s chances in regularly scheduled general elections.
There’s also the open question of whether Peltola’s win was more a vote of confidence in Democrats or simply a rejection of Palin, a former Republican political star who irked many Alaskans when she resigned as governor after she and the late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) lost the 2008 presidential election.
But Peltola’s victory in the special election is the latest sign that Democrats are gaining momentum heading into the final stretch before the 2022 midterm elections, a little more than a week after Democrats notched another key victory in the special election in New York’s 19th Congressional District.
Those two wins, combined with a series of solid performances by Democrats in other recent special elections, are among a growing list of signs that the political environment may be improving for the party that has spent much of the past year bracing for an electoral thrashing in 2022.
Recent polling shows Democrats in their strongest position in months on the generic ballot, a question that asks voters which party they would rather see win control of Congress. A Wall Street Journal poll released on Thursday found Democrats regaining an edge over Republicans on that question after the same survey in March found them trailing the GOP by 5 points.
Also on Thursday, The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan handicapper, shifted five more House races toward Democrats, including Peltola’s race, which moved from a “Likely” Republican win to a toss-up.
Let’s be clear: Democrats are still facing a tough political landscape this year. President Biden’s approval rating is still underwater and the party in power almost always loses ground in Congress in midterm elections. Democrats are also defending an already-narrow majority and Republicans appear likely to pick up a handful of seats thanks to the redistricting process alone.
In other words, Democrats are in a better position than they were even a month ago, but that alone is far from a guarantee that their majorities in the House and Senate will be spared.
Republicans eager to recalibrate Senate prospects
Republicans are looking to hit the reset button on their Senate strategy going into the midterms as several of their candidates in contested states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia show signs of losing momentum, trailing their Democratic opponents in polling or getting out-fundraised.
But there are signs of Republicans breathing new life into races that could pose decisive over which party controls the upper chamber next term, including tweaking rhetoric on issues like abortion and the election and funneling in money into races, as our Mychael Schnell writes.
Hedging bets: McConnell said on Monday he thinks Republican Senate candidates Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Herschel Walker in Georgia and Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina have a “good chance of winning,” also saying this week “I think Oz has a great shot at winning.”
But the state of play comes against the backdrop of what has become a more public disagreement between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, over their views on the GOP Senate landscape.
Remember what McConnell saidlast month? “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
Scott claps back in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner: “We have great candidates with incredible backgrounds and ideas to make our country better. Do I wish they had more money than their Democratic opponent? Of course. But we have great candidates, chosen by the voters in their states, and our job is to help each one of them win.”
Trump heads to Pennsylvania for Oz, Mastriano
Former President Trump is heading back to Pennsylvania on Saturday to give a boost to three of his endorsed candidates just over two months out from the midterms. Trump is set to hold a rally in Wilkes-Barre for Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and House candidate Jim Bognet.
The trip comes as Democratic candidates John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro lead their Republican rivals in the races for Senate and governor, respectively. And in a sign of the changing political landscape, the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the Senate race earlier this month from “toss up” to “lean Democrat.”
Against the backdrop of all of this is apprehensions among some, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about the Republican Party’s ability to flip the Senate as GOP candidates see themselves getting out-fundraised by their Democratic peers. Some are also continuing to be dogged by scandals.
POLL WATCH
To add to the recent good fortune Democrats are seeing, a poll released on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal shows President Biden leading former President Trump 50 percent to 44 percent in a hypothetical matchup if the 2024 election for president was held today. Last time respondents were asked this question in March, Biden and Trump were tied at 45 percent each. Though the White House has said Biden is intending to seek reelection, Trump has not formally declared candidacy, though he has at times teased out the possibility.
AD WATCH
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is out with a new ad today hitting Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters (R) over abortion. The 30-second ad, named “Jennifer,” targets Masters over his stance on abortion, claiming he supports banning all abortions with no exceptions.
The Arizona Senate candidate previously had a line on his website that said he backed “a federal personhood law (ideally a Constitutional amendment) that recognizes that unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed,” according to NBC News, though the network said it wasn’t clear from his website when that rule should become applicable. Masters has changed his abortion messaging on his website that shows his support for “a law or a Constitutional amendment that bans late term (third trimester) abortion and partial-birth abortion at the federal level.”
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Campaign page for the latest news and coverage. See you next week.
