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(PHOENIX, Ariz.) — Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake, a former Phoenix news anchor who has seized the conservative spotlight in recent weeks, was careful not to forget former President Donald Trump when she joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a rally Sunday, even as DeSantis seeks to raise his national profile ahead of a potential presidential run against Trump.

“Someone said, ‘Kari, you’re going to be the DeSantis of the West,’ Lake said to an adoring crowd that organizers said numbered up to 4,000 supporters. “Honestly, other than being called ‘Trump in a dress,’ that is the greatest compliment you could pay me, and I appreciate that. And that means that you know what you will get with me — you’re gonna get somebody who fights for you every single day.”

Outside the rally in downtown Phoenix, notably located in Maricopa County — the state’s most populous– MAGA supporters dressed in “Trump-DeSantis” gear, with “Vote Lake & Blake” signs and chanting “Let’s Go Brandon!” lined up for several hours in more than 100-degree heat. The first man in line said he’d been there since 3 a.m. local time to see DeSantis headline the event with Lake and U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters, also endorsed by Trump.

The “Unite and Win” rally was hosted by Turning Point Action, a conservative youth group founded in Arizona by activist Charlie Kirk, who blasted the FBI for escalating what he called a “paperwork dispute” with Trump.

“They raided our president’s home. There is no going back from this everybody,” Kirk said. “The raid at Mar-a-Lago only makes me like Donald Trump even more,” prompting many in the crowd to a standing ovation in apparent agreement.

Notably, both Trump-backed Abe Hamadeh, candidate for Arizona attorney general, and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, who like Lake and Masters espouse without evidence Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, were not on the schedule with DeSantis, though the four ran as a primary slate. But Finchem, who has previously identified as an Oath Keeper and was in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was front row and center in the audience, and people cheered for him as he walked up to the venue.

DeSantis stopped earlier in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and delivered a similar stump-like speech in Phoenix Sunday, ticking through his anti-COVID, anti-transgender policies in Florida and criticizing the federal government, all without once mentioning Trump’s name.

“I think the difference between today and when [President Ronald] Reagan was here is these federal agencies have now been weaponized to be used against people the government doesn’t like. And you look at the raid at Mar-a-Lago, and I’m just trying to I’m trying to remember, maybe someone here can remind me, about when they did a search warrant at Hillary’s house in Chappaqua,” DeSantis said, going on to sow doubt in the federal government’s top law enforcement agency.

Republicans across the board were quick to defend the former president when the FBI conducted a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, with Arizona candidates, including Lake and Rep. Paul Gosar, leading calls to “defund the FBI” two years after the GOP lambasted Democrats for “defund the police” slogans in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. As the federal agency says it’s fielding threats to agents, dozens of individuals gathered outside the FBI field office in Phoenix to protest the raid one day before DeSantis dropped in.

“They’re enforcing the law based on who they like and who they don’t like. That is not a republic. Well maybe it’s a banana republic, when that happens,” DeSantis said.

For her part, Lake has blasted the raid on TV hits on conservative media outlets and on Twitter, all but suggesting Arizona should secede from the country, but only briefly mentioned the Trump search in her half-hour remarks, tacked onto an attack on Democrats for passing the Inflation Reduction Act and in support of arming school resource officers.

“They decided to hire 87,000 armed IRS agents to go after us in case we’re late on our taxes. Can you imagine if they hired 87,000 school resources and armed them? We’d have safe schools,” she said. “And then these people sent politically motivated, federal agents to President Donald Trump’s home and raided it. How dare they? Joe Biden, we have had enough,” she went on, shaking her finger.

Lake laced her stump speech with praise for DeSantis for being a “fighter” in his response to COVID-19 mandates and criticized California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who she called, “Witch-mer,” in Trump-like name-calling.

“Amidst all of the insanity, there was one governor who stood out in the crowd and he was talking about he’s right up there, right now. And his name is Governor Ron DeSantis,” she said to cheers.

But when she added that he had what she called “BDE” — “Big DeSantis Energy” — she made sure to say Trump has it, too, careful not to fall out of favor with her most famous supporter.

“[DeSantis] has a backbone made of steel. I’ll tell you what he’s got. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but he’s got the B-D-E,” Lake said. “Ask your kids about it later. I call it ‘Big DeSantis Energy.’ Right? He’s got the same kind of BDE that President Trump has.”

Returning her enthusiasm, DeSantis met Lake’s call on border security, a top campaign issue as she’s said she’ll declare an invasion on “Day One.” He said he told Lake, “Look, if you’re willing to put people on that border and keep them from coming in to begin with, I’ll send National Guard to help with that,” to roaring applause.

Before invoking the Bible in his closing, the Florida governor called on the crowd to “have the courage to stand in the way of the Brandon administration.”

DeSantis will make stops later this week in Ohio and Pennsylvania, which governor’s candidate Doug Mastriano said Saturday he would like to make “the Florida of the North,” to boost Republican candidates in battleground states ahead of the midterm elections including his own. But leaving his home state to do so further suggests he’s testing the waters for something bigger.

“There’s no doubt Ron DeSantis is the second biggest draw in the Republican Party. But Trump is still the biggest draw. And right now, they do have a common goal of electing people like Kari Lake,” said Barrett Marson, a longtime Republican strategist in Arizona.

“There’s room enough to have two national supporters in these races. It’s not like the battle between Pence and Trump, where they took opposite candidates. Here, they’re on the same team,” he told ABC News, referring to races like the governor’s primary in Arizona where former Vice President Mike Pence backed a candidate competing with Trump’s.

DeSantis’ rallies, announced last Monday morning, still risk being overshadowed by the Mar-a-Lago search that has dominated headlines since last Monday night. Trump, DeSantis’ primary opponent if both decide to run, continues to tease announcing his bid own before the November midterms — and while he’s fielding a barrage of legal issues.

Asked this week about Trump saying that he would not oppose the release of documents related to the search, Lake told ABC News the “overreach” would only encourage more MAGA supporters to get out and vote.

Her first public reaction was a lengthy statement on Twitter calling the Biden administration an “illegitimate, corrupt Regime” which “hates America and has weaponized the entirety of the Federal Government to take down President Donald Trump,” adding, “We must fire the Federal Government.”

Masters tweeted the search was “politically motivated” and “should terrify us all.” And DeSantis, for his part, tweeted: “The raid of [Mar-a-Lago] is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves.”

Their Democratic opponents in November, aside from Kelly who declined to comment, criticized both the reaction and the rallies.

“Ron DeSantis is traveling the country campaigning for 2020 election deniers,” tweeted Charlie Crist, a former Florida governor seeking the Democratic nomination to run against DeSantis. “He’s running for president by mobilizing the same people who tried to overthrow our democracy.”

Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for Governor Katie Hobbs, who Lake has called on to resign as she runs for governor, said in a statement, “Far from putting ‘America First,’ Kari’s repeated calls to defund law enforcement and her talk of secession are dangerous and belong nowhere near our state’s highest office.”

Lake and Masters joined Trump for a July rally in Prescott Valley, historically the most Republican county in Arizona, ahead of the state offering Trump his most successful primary night of the season.

ABC News’ Miles Cohen and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — On the one-year anniversary Monday of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, House Republicans and the Biden administration quarreled over who is to blame for the series of events that led to the Taliban victory and the handling of the chaotic withdrawal of 120,000 Afghans.

A 121-page report by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee that investigated the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan blames the Biden administration for failing to plan accordingly for what would happen once all U.S. troops left the country. The report, in which committee Democrats did not participate, was made available to ABC News and other news outlets ahead of its public release.

Ahead of that release, the White House issued a memo denouncing the Republican investigation as a “partisan report” that “is riddled with inaccurate characterizations, cherry-picked information, and false claims.”

“It advocates for endless war and for sending even more American troops to Afghanistan,” Adrienne Watson, the National Security Council’s top spokeswoman, said in the memo. “And it ignores the impacts of the flawed deal that former President Trump struck with the Taliban.”

Citing a lack of cooperation from the Biden administration, the report relied on open source reporting, independent interviews with former officials, and interviews with U.S. military commanders included in U.S. Central Command’s investigation of the Abbey Gate suicide bomb attack at Kabul’s airport that killed 13 American service members and more than 170 Afghan civilians.

“The choices made in the corridors of power in D.C. led to tragic yet avoidable outcomes: 13 dead service members, American lives still at great risk, increased threats to our homeland security, tarnished standing abroad for years to come, and emboldened enemies across the globe,” said the Republican report.

In its response, the NSC said Biden’s decision reflected the tough choice he had to make to either “ramp up the war and put even more American troops at risk, or finally end the United States’ longest war after two decades of American presidents sending U.S. troops to fight and die in Afghanistan.”

The Republican report claims President Biden was “likely aware” that his stated reasons for withdrawing from Afghanistan were “inaccurate” when he announced the withdrawal in April 2021 and that he ignored recommendations by U.S. military commanders that it would be prudent to keep a small U.S. military presence of at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

“The decision to withdraw U.S. military forces was made by President Biden, despite advice from his military commanders that such a move could lead to Taliban battlefield gains,” said the report.

Watson also pushed back on that claim, citing congressional testimony last fall by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley that leaving a force of 2,500 would have likely led to a troop increase if the Taliban targeted U.S. forces.

The Republican report criticizes the Biden administration for not having prepared for the quick Taliban takeover of Kabul saying President Biden “was warned repeatedly that the return of the Taliban was a question of when, not if.” Meanwhile, the White House response shifted blame to the Doha agreement negotiated by the Trump administration said “empowered the Taliban and weakened our partners in the Afghan government.”

In the two weeks after the fall of Kabul, 120,000 Afghan civilians were evacuated as part of a hastily-planned U.S. military airlift, but those that left were the lucky ones who were able to clear Taliban checkpoints and U.S. military entrances to Kabul’s airport.

The chaotic images of thousands of Afghan civilians attempting to be allowed into the airport became the signature image of that withdrawal.

The Republican report blamed the State Department for not planning accordingly earlier in the year and noted that at the peak of the withdrawal there were only 36 U.S. consular officers at the airport to process the claims of the tens of thousands ultimately evacuated.

Only a small number of those who were evacuated had received for applied for the Special Immigrant Visas (SIV’s) offered to Afghans who served as interpreters or contractors working for the United States. More than 77,000 Afghans who applied for those visas remain inside Afghanistan and the report criticizes the Biden administration for not developing a plan for how to get them out of Afghanistan.

The report also disclosed the previously undisclosed figure that more than 800 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan since last year, a much larger number than the 100 to 200 Americans that the administration had claimed were still in the country at the end of the chaotic withdrawal.

Republicans also disclosed that a “significant” number of highly trained Afghan commandos crossed into Iran seeking refuge after the Taliban takeover and expresses concerns that they “could be recruited or coerced into working for one of America’s adversaries that maintains a presence in Afghanistan, including Russia, China, or Iran.”

The report described last week’s CIA drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri as proof that Afghanistan has once again become a safe haven for terrorists.

But the White House responded that the Zawahiri strike showed that the U.S. did not need a troop presence to go after the top terrorist leader and cited a U.S. intelligence assessments that al Qaeda has not reconstituted itself in Afghanistan. According to that assessment, there are only 12 al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan and only Zawahiri has attempted to restart operations in Afghanistan.

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(WASHINGTON) — On Tuesday, for the first time, Alaska voters will use ranked-choice voting — and it’ll be for a special general election to fill the state’s only House seat following the death of Republican Rep. Don Young.

Three candidates advanced from a crowded special primary in June: Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee; Republican Nick Begich III, a businessman and former GOP aide; and Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola.

The seat they are seeking to fill opened for the first time in almost 50 years in March, with Young’s death.

Voters in the state had approved a ballot initiative in 2020 in favor of using ranked-choice voting in their general elections. The initiative also created a nonpartisan primary which sends the top four vote-getters, regardless of political affiliation, to the general election. (The fourth candidate in June’s special primary, Al Gross, withdrew shortly thereafter.)

The ranked voting works like this: If a candidate in the general election wins more than 50% of first-choice votes, they win the race outright. Otherwise, the candidate with the least amount of first-place votes is eliminated and that candidate’s voters instead have their ballots redistributed to their second choice.

This process continues until a candidate exceeds 50%.

Alaskans for Better Elections, co-chaired by former state Attorney General Bruce Botelho, was responsible for the ballot measure authorizing the ranked-choice voting system.

Supporters hope that ranked-choice voting could lead to less polarizing elections. Botelho said he believes it will force a more “civil dialogue focused on issues” and see candidates pushed to “reach beyond their base,” since how voters rank the hopefuls could decide the winner of the election (as happened in New York City’s last mayoral race).

Chris Warshaw, an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, said that a downside to ranked-choice voting is that it’s more complicated compared to plurality voting, which is more standard, in which the first-place candidate usually wins even if they don’t get a majority.

“Theoretically, things [that] are more complicated could both drive down turnout and exacerbate socioeconomic inequalities,” Warshaw said. “Empirically, we don’t know; there isn’t much evidence on [ranked-choice voting] because it’s such a new reform.”

The system has been implemented in some other cities and states, such as New York City, Maine and San Francisco.

Voters in Alaska may not know who won the special House election for a while, since on election night and for the 15 days after, the state will only report first-choice results.

If none of the three candidates reaches the 50% threshold, the state will apply the ranked choices, eliminating the last-place candidate and redistributing their ballots — and then report those results on or about Aug. 31.

Whoever emerges as the winner of the race will serve only the remainder of Young’s term, which will end in January.

A regularly scheduled election to decide who will serve a full two-year term starting in 2023 will be held in November; the regular election primary is also on Tuesday and includes all three of the top candidates for the special election alongside more than a dozen others.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department said in a new court filing Monday that it opposes an effort by multiple media organizations, including ABC News, to unseal the supporting affidavit behind the now-public search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

“There remain compelling reasons, including to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security, that support keeping the affidavit sealed,” the filing states.

In a footnote, department officials write that they “carefully considered” whether they could release the affidavit with redactions, but the redactions necessary to “mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive as to render the remaining unsealed text devoid of meaningful content, and the release of such a redacted version would not serve any public interest.”

However, if the magistrate judge were to order the partial unsealing of the affidavit, “the government respectfully requests an opportunity to provide the Court with proposed redactions.”

The department also says that it does not object​ to the unsealing of other materials filed in connection with the search warrant, “whose unsealing would not jeopardize the integrity of this national security investigation,” but with minor redactions to protect government personnel. This would consist of “cover sheets associated with the search warrant application, the government’s motion to seal, and the Court’s sealing order.

The government has filed those under seal and is asking the court to unseal them.

Further explaining their request to keep the underlying affidavit sealed, prosecutors note it “would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps.”

They briefly detail some of the information in the affidavit that has been reviewed by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, noting that, “it contains, among other critically important and detailed investigative facts: highly sensitive information about witnesses, including witnesses interviewed by the government; specific investigative techniques; and information required by law to be kept under seal” under grand jury rules.

“In addition, information about witnesses is particularly sensitive given the high-profile nature of this matter and the risk that the revelation of witness identities would impact their willingness to cooperate with the investigation,” prosecutors note — highlighting stories regarding an increase in threats to law enforcement that has followed the search of Mar a Lago.

“Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage would also likely chill future cooperation by witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses, as well as in other high-profile investigations,” the filing states. “The fact that this investigation implicates highly classified materials further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the investigation and exacerbates the potential for harm if information is disclosed to the public prematurely or improperly.”

The unsealing could also impact the civil liberties of those whose actions are detailed in the underlying affidavit, prosecutors said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, respectively, have sent a private letter to top intelligence officials and the Justice Department asking for more information from last week’s unprecedented FBI search at Mar-a-Lago.

The letter, sent Sunday to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Attorney General Merrick Garland, specifically seeks the classified documents that were seized and an analysis of any national security threat posed by the mishandling of the information.

The request comes after it was revealed that 11 sets of classified information were seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida resort, including confidential, secret and top-secret documents.

The letter, first reported by Axios, also is seeking to get to the heart of the rationale behind the search, which Garland said he personally approved.

“The Senate Intelligence Committee is charged with overseeing counterintelligence matters, including the handling and mishandling of classified information, which appears to be at the core of the search of Mar a Lago,” said Rachel Cohen, a spokesperson for Warner who confirmed the letter and its contents but would not share it.

The letter from Warner and Rubio is the first bipartisan outreach from Congress asking for more information from the search. Other House committees have requested information on the fuel behind the search and what was found, though those appeals were spearheaded by Democrats.

Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairs of the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees, respectively, sent a letter over the weekend asking Haines to conduct a damage assessment on the classified information recovered from Mar-a-Lago.

“In his remarks, Attorney General Garland claimed there was a substantial public interest in the execution of an unprecedented search warrant on President Trump. As such, the Intelligence Committee has asked the Department of Justice to share with us, on a classified basis, the specific intelligence documents seized from Mar-a-Lago,” Rubio said through a spokesperson.

Rubio also sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting a meeting to discuss the search.

A spokesperson for DNI Haines declined to comment on both the request by Senate Intelligence Committee leaders and the separate joint request for a damage assessment made by Schiff and Maloney.

The search on Trump’s Florida residence sparked both a backlash from Republican allies over claims that the investigation is a political effort and Democratic questions over the handling of the classified information found at Mar-a-Lago, which included top-secret, sensitive compartmented information (SCI) material, a classification of materials that sometimes involves nuclear secrets.

SCI material is also intended to only be handled in secured locations.

Trump has offered an array of explanations over the search, including saying that evidence was planted, that he had declassified the documents prior to leaving the White House and that the documents obtained by the FBI were protected under attorney-client and executive privileges.

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