(WASHINGTON) — When Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows surrendered on state charges in the Georgia election interference case, they used a service that common criminal defendants use: a bail bondsman.
The president of the company that put up their bonds in Fulton County, Georgia, said hiring a bondsman is “a piece of the puzzle.”
“It’s no different than paying a lawyer,” Daniel Matalon, president of A 2nd Chance Bail Bonds, told ABC News in an interview.
Matalon said he personally dealt with Giuliani’s bond as well as those for David Shafer and Cathy Latham, two other co-defendants in the Georgia case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Former President Donald Trump and the 18 other defendants are charged by Willis for their alleged illegal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
A 2nd Chance Bail Bonds also put up the bond for former Trump campaign operative Michael Roman.
Matalon said the relationship he has with the sheriff’s office makes the process of surrendering easier.
“There was a lot of communication between myself and the sheriff’s office directly,” he explained.
When posting a bond, there are two sometimes three entities involved, and hiring a bondsman, who has all the established relationships and connections makes the process easier, he said.
Not only does it make financial sense, he said, but having some help through the process makes things easier for defendants.
After the indictment came out, he said, his phone started ringing and there was a lot of logistics involved because some of the defendants were from out of state.
“There’s so many little details that go into this stuff that people don’t realize, [and when] you get in with the person that has the relationships from A to Z, that is what I have,” he explained. “Why would you want to go tie and all that money for the next two years?”
The process of obtaining a bondsman is normal on state charges, especially in Georgia. The bonding company posts the bail on behalf of a defendant and the defendant pays the bond company a portion of the bond plus a fee for their services.
Having a former mayor of New York City and a former White House chief of staff as clients doesn’t change the type of service Matalon’s company delivers, he said.
“We’ve done so many large, complex, hard to do criminal bail bonds for attorneys all across the country,” he said. “We’re the experts in in that field. So … it’s kind of like business as usual.”
He said there is a “little bit” more pressure because of the press and components surrounding higher-profile defendants “but at the end of the day, it’s still the same process.”
Giuliani was “great to deal with. He was very appreciative of the assistance and we tried to make it as easy as possible,” Matalon said.
Matalon said he believes the bonds set by the district attorney were “fair” — $100,000 for Meadows, $150,000 for Giuliani.
An average bond, according to statistics provided by the company is just over $7,000, but they have ranged from $130 to $600,000.
“I don’t look at these as higher risk than normal,” he said. “We have every we have every reason to believe that. Each defendant respects the Judicial process and will take the necessary steps to comply with the requirements of the bond order and the court process.”
(WASHINGTON) — Eminem has told presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to stop using his music on the campaign trail.
In a letter addressed to the Ramaswamy campaign’s attorney, music licenser Broadcast Music, Inc. revoked rights to use Eminem’s music after the rapper himself contacted the company.
“This letter serves as notice … that BMI has received a communication from Marshall B. Mathers, III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions,” the letter began.
“BMI will consider any performance of the Eminem Works by the Vivek 2024 campaign from this date forward to be a material breach of the Agreement for which BMI reserves all rights and remedies with respect thereto,” the letter continued.
First reported in the Daily Mail, the notice, dated Aug. 23, came just 11 days after Ramaswamy’s viral impromptu “Lose Yourself” performance at the Iowa State Fair.
“Vivek just got on the stage and cut loose. To the American people’s chagrin, we will have to leave the rapping to the real slim shady,” Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News regarding the letter from BMI.
Ramaswamy said in a 2006 interview with his alma mater’s newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, that “Lose Yourself” was a go-to for his rapper alter ego “Da Vek.”
“I think that children should be forced to listen to it,” a then 21-year-old Ramaswamy said. “The edited version, of course.”
Nearly 17 years later, Ramaswamy told ABC News he would commit to an Eminem karaoke session when asked if the song was still his anthem — plans that now seem halted.
“I’ve kind of not been at the top of my game in keeping up with my music, but … I would probably be the presidential candidate in U.S. history that would do a best now or future karaoke [version] of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself,’” he said in July. “I’ll commit to that.”
(ATLANTA) — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has set a date for former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants to be arraigned on charges in the Georgia election interference case.
The plea hearings and arraignments for the 19 defendants are scheduled for Sept. 6, starting at 9:30 a.m. and running at 15-minute intervals through 3 p.m.
All 19 defendants, including Trump, surrendered to authorities for processing at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail last week. They will enter their pleas in the case at the upcoming arraignment.
Trump and the 18 other defendants are charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
The former president says his actions were not illegal and that the investigation is politically motivated.
Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is currently seeking to have his trial in the same case moved from state to federal court.
(ATLANTA) — Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, charged along with 18 others in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, is in court Monday to try to have his trial moved from state to federal court.
Among other charges, the indictment cites Meadows’ role in the infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call then-President Donald Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — actions that Meadows argues he took as a federal official acting “under color” of his office.
Latest headlines:
-Meadows: ‘I don’t know that I did anything that was outside of my role’
-Meadows describes ‘biggest surprise’ in indictment
-Meadows says his role was to be in almost every meeting Trump had
-Arraignments set for Sept. 6
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Aug 28, 8:16 PM EDT
Hearing ends, no decision from the judge
The hearing ended Monday evening with no decision from the judge about Mark Meadows’ request.
Meadows’ attorneys asked the court for a “prompt” ruling “as soon as it possibly can,” and the judge said he would rule quickly.
The judge noted he would give it “thorough consideration” and that it was a “very important case” and would likely set precedent.
The judge added that if he doesn’t rule by Sept. 6 — the date the defendants are set to be arraigned — he said Meadows will have to go through with the arraignment.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Aug 28, 6:36 PM EDT
Prosecution makes final arguments
The prosecution closed their arguments by saying there is “nothing to show” how Meadows’ participation in a criminal conspiracy to overturn an election was within his official duties.
Prosecutors questioned if it was “necessary or proper” to offer campaign resources to state officials or arrange state elections.
“It was done so Donald Trump could be declared the winner of the 2020 election, when he was not,” prosecutors said regarding Meadows’ actions.
Prosecutors said all Meadows had to do during the hearing Monday was “look at that law, something he astronomically paid no attention to today.”
The prosecution claimed the defense did not demonstrate what federal authorities allowed the chief of staff to arrange Trump’s call with Raffensperger.
The prosecution also said Meadows in multiple instances throughout his testimony today used the term “we” while never explaining who “we” meant when he described calls and emails. Was it the campaign or the federal office, the prosecution asked.
-ABC News’ Riley Hoffman, Mike Levine, Soorin Kim and Nadine El-Bawab
Aug 28, 5:41 PM EDT
Meadows’ lawyers make final argument to judge
Mark Meadows’ legal team began its final argument to the judge.
They contended that removing this case to federal court requires them to meet “the lowest evidentiary burden one can imagine.”
The defense just needs to show “some kind of… connection to the duties” of chief of staff to warrant removal, Meadows’ lawyer said.
He said a “critical aspect” of Meadows’ testimony Monday was that he took the actions he did related to the Jan. 2, 2021, call to get “closure” so the government could move on “to the rest of the transition and peaceful transfer of power.”
The lawyer also said that “the federal government has a huge role in post-election matters.”
-ABC News’ Mike Levine
Aug 28, 5:06 PM EDT
Raffensperger: ‘We spoke the truth’
After prosecutors played a portion of the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between then-President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, prosecutors asked Raffensperger, “Did Trump win?”
“No, he did not,” Raffensperger responded, adding, “He lost the election in the state of Georgia.”
Raffensperger then listed off the investigations he and his team conducted into allegations of voter fraud, rattling them off one by one, stating that none of them found evidence of voter fraud.
“You add that all up, none of that was sufficient,” Raffensperger said. “We spoke the truth.”
Raffensperger finished testifying after over one hour on the stand.
Aug 28, 4:31 PM EDT
Raffensperger: Trump’s ‘outreach to that extent was extraordinary’
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testified about the impact of Donald Trump’s pressure to challenge the results in Georgia.
Raffensperger also testified that he faced “multiple threats” to himself and his wife due to the false allegations of election fraud.
Prosecutors, discussing the Jan. 2, 2021, call between Raffensperger and Trump, asked Raffensperger if the election results could have been changed. Raffensperger replied, “We hadn’t crossed that bridge yet, but I wouldn’t think so.”
When asked about Trump’s efforts, Raffensperger said an “outreach to that extent was extraordinary.”
The prosecution played audio clips from the Trump-Raffensperger call in court.
Raffensperger noted, at the prosecutor’s prodding, that no one from the Department of Justice or the White House counsel’s office was on the call.
“I thought that it was a campaign call,” he said.
-ABC News’ Riley Hoffman, Mike Levine, Soorin Kim and Will Steakin
Aug 28, 4:16 PM EDT
Raffensperger testifies
When Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger took the stand, he was asked directly what role the federal government plays in the certification of elections. He responded, “None.”
Prosecutors followed up and asked if the president has any role in the certification of an election. Raffensperger responded, “Not from my understanding.”
When asked if Donald Trump’s team won the 2020 presidential election, Raffensperger said, “They lost the election.”
Prosecutors then asked who won, and Raffensperger responded, “Now-President Biden.”
Raffensperger testified about Meadows’ efforts to reach him before the Jan. 2, 2021, call, including a November 2020 text telling Raffensperger to call him. But Raffensperger said he didn’t call him back. He said it would be inappropriate to have “outside forces” weighing in on the state’s inquiries into alleged fraud.
-ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab
Aug 28, 3:56 PM EDT
Attorney on Raffensperger call takes the stand
The first witness called to the stand by the prosecution was Kurt Hilbert, a Georgia attorney who was on Donald Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Hillbert testified that on Jan. 2, 2021, before the phone call, he spoke to Trump, Mark Meadows and lawyer Cleta Mitchell, all of whom were later on the call with Raffensperger.
Contrary to what Meadows testified, Hilbert said the only reason for the call with Raffensperger was to discuss campaign matters.
The prosecution asked, “You believe the entirety of that conversation was in furtherance of settlement negotiations related to the campaign lawsuit in Georgia?” Hilbert responded, “Yes.”
The judge asked him why he believed that, and Hilbert said there were two pending lawsuits on the Georgia election and “there would be no other purpose” in having the call.
Hilbert said he did understand Meadows to be there as chief of staff.
Meadows testified earlier Monday that he couldn’t recall if he spoke with campaign lawyers prior to the call on Jan. 2, 2021.
-ABC News’ Riley Hoffman, Mike Levine and Will Steakin
Aug 28, 3:29 PM EDT
Defense rests, Meadows steps down
Mark Meadows’ defense has rested. Meadows stepped down from the stand after nearly three hours and 40 minutes.
Before stepping down, he reiterated that there is a federal role in ensuring the accuracy of elections and protecting elections from cyberthreats.
Before Meadows stepped down, prosecutors questioned him about his role in the fake electors scheme. Meadows said, “As chief of staff, no I did not coordinate those efforts.”
The prosecution asked Meadows if he had a personal interest in Trump staying in office. He responded, “Wanting him to stay in office? Certainly.”
The prosecution then asked if keeping his job depended on it. Meadows said yes, joking, “I can’t imagine that I would be chief of staff for Joe Biden … I was not on the shortlist.”
Meadows testified that Trump’s focus on various allegations of election fraud played a role in Meadows being so involved in efforts to overturn the election. Meadows claimed, “They were consuming the president’s time.”
-ABC News’ Mike Levine and Will Steakin
Aug 28, 3:06 PM EDT
Meadows addresses Hatch Act
Mark Meadows testified that the Hatch Act does apply to the White House chief of staff, but he said “there are some differences of opinion on how it should apply.”
Meadows insisted that when it comes to his interactions with people connected to Donald Trump’s campaign, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he said, “I didn’t [see ] that as a violation of the Hatch Act.”
The Hatch Act limits the political participation and speech of federal employees.
-ABC News’ Mike Levine
Aug 28, 3:00 PM EDT
Meadows dodges questions on if he believed Trump won election
Mark Meadows repeatedly dodged the prosecution’s questions on whether he believed Donald Trump’s claims about the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“He believed he won,” Meadows said, to which the prosecution pressed, “Did you believe that?”
“I believed there were additional things that needed to be investigated,” Meadows replied, without saying whether he personally believed Trump won the 2020 election.
The prosecution repeatedly pressed Meadows, asking at one point if he meant that he did not have enough information to come to his own conclusion.
Meadows again deflected, saying there were a number of allegations, but he believed the signature verification issue in Fulton County, Georgia, had more credibility than the other allegations.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Aug 28, 2:54 PM EDT
Prosecution asks Meadows about Raffensperger call
When Mark Meadows’ hearing resumed Monday afternoon, prosecutors honed in on the time frame between when Donald Trump asked Meadows to set up the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and when the call took place.
Prosecutors also tried to undercut the claim that the Raffensberger call was federal business. Under questioning, Meadows noted that no one from the White House counsel’s office or the Department of Homeland Security was on the call.
When the prosecution asked Meadows why he believed by Jan. 2, 2021, that questions about the election in Georgia were still “outstanding,” as Meadows had testified, the former chief of staff said because Trump “kept asking me about it.”
On direct examination, Mark Meadows’ testimony at one point became almost a one-on-one conversation between him and the judge, as they both swiveled their chairs to directly face each other.
The judge asked Meadows his own questions, including asking him for specific instances when he went out and got information.
They were “very insightful questions,” Meadows told the judge when he was finished.
Aug 28, 1:52 PM EDT
Meadows testifies about Raffensperger call
Mark Meadows said on the stand that he wasn’t sure whether the lawyers on then-President Donald Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger were Trump’s personal attorneys or lawyers for the Trump campaign.
The prosecutor then asked Meadows if he didn’t know what roles they had then “why did you want them on the call?” At that moment the judge shook his head in seeming bewilderment.
Meadows said the purpose of the phone call was to find a “less litigious way” to resolve an issue regarding signature match in Fulton County, Georgia.
Repeatedly asked about how the call with Raffensperger came about, Meadows said he reached out to Raffensperger himself once and then reached out to a staff member of the secretary of state’s office, but he said neither of them answered and he does not recall how the call was eventually facilitated.
He said Trump himself asked to reach out to Raffensperger.
Asked about his conversations with Cleta Mitchell, one of the three lawyers involved in the call, Meadows said he spoke with her about a variety of aspects related to Georgia and alleged election fraud but said he doesn’t recall the specifics.
ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab, Will Steakin and Soorin Kim
Aug 28, 1:22 PM EDT
Meadows: ‘I don’t know that I did anything that was outside of my role’
Court is in a brief recess after Mark Meadows testified for nearly three hours without breaks.
On the stand, Meadows firmly stood by his actions — including observing the audit in Cobb County, Georgia, and setting up then-President Donald Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — putting it squarely as part of his role as chief of staff.
“I don’t know that I did anything that was outside of my role as chief of staff,” Meadows testified.
“I saw it as part of my role,” Meadows said. “The president gave clear direction to deal with it.”
Meadows said serving Trump “takes on all kinds of forms” and that much of the work had a “political component to certainly everything.”
Meadows was careful with his words, at one point saying he didn’t want to say anything incorrectly, while joking, “I’m in enough trouble as it is.”
Attorneys for Trump were seated in the second row as Meadows testified.
ABC News’ Mike Levine, Aaron Katersky and Will Steakin
Aug 28, 1:06 PM EDT
Meadows asked about text to Georgia Secretary of State chief investigator
The state pressured former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about a text Meadows sent to Georgia Secretary of State chief investigator Frances Watson that read: “Is there any way to speed up Fulton County signature verdicts in order to have results before Jan. 6 if Trump campaign assist financially?”
Meadows claimed he was in a unique relationship, acting as chief of staff but not offering federal funds.
When prosecutors asked why he was making a financial offer, Meadows claimed he was trying to ask if the speed of counting was due to an overtime issue or financial constraint.
ABC News’ Danielle Jennings, Riley Hoffman and Will Steakin
(WASHINGTON) — The federal trial over former President Donald Trump’s alleged illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 election is slated to start on March 4, 2024 — one day before “Super Tuesday” in the GOP presidential primary. Yet that, just like four indictments and two impeachments, may not stop the steamroller that is Trump’s campaign, GOP strategists who spoke with ABC News said Monday.
Trump has not blitzed the campaign trail, opting instead for a few events each week, and he retains the power to pack crowds with his signature rallies, meaning the trial may not significantly impede his campaign operations ahead of Super Tuesday. And given his sturdy dominance in early state polling, strategists warn the primary might already be over by March 4 anyway.
“I get the conversation going into overdrive about Super Tuesday,” said Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director. “But if Trump wins Iowa and New Hampshire, then electorally, in the primary, there’s no impact because it’s locked up at that point. I think this highlights the importance of Iowa.”
Trump’s allies lambasted the timing of the trial, which U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan announced after rejecting both an expedited timeline from special counsel Jack Smith and a request from Trump’s lawyers to delay the trial until 2026, with Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance dubbing it “Straight up election interference.”
“You’re starting the trial the day before the biggest primary day? It’s called Super Tuesday for a reason. It’s the biggest day of primaries. That’s when you start the trial?” asked one GOP consultant supporting Trump.
Trump later posted on his social media platform that he plans on appealing the March 4 date announced by Chutkan.
Still, the date’s timing could offer both disadvantages and opportunity — potentially taking Trump off the campaign trail the day before the largest number of delegates is up for grabs while also elevating attacks over an alleged “two-tiered” justice system that have so animated his backers.
“He’ll be able to message on it, but it will certainly interfere with his ability to campaign. It’s a double-edged sword,” said the consultant, who discussed the new ruling on condition of anonymity.
GOP strategists downplayed how much of a logistical hurdle the March 4 trial would pose to Trump — if he’s even required to show up at all.
California, whose primary is a major Super Tuesday prize, is expected to have a hefty chunk of its votes already cast before March 5. And with Trump riding partially on his name recognition, he doesn’t necessarily have to glad-hand every day of the primary calendar like some of his lower-polling rivals must.
“California is Super Tuesday, but I bet more than half the votes will already be submitted by mail before Election Day, if not two thirds of the votes, because the early voting is all by mail,” said Rob Stutzman, a California-based GOP strategist. “He’ll be able to campaign all weekend…he’ll still be somewhere that evening campaigning.”
“He’s kind of a two-rallies-a-week type of guy anyway,” Stutzman added. “And you’ll have scenarios where he walks out of court at five o’clock and gets on the jet, and there’s a 7:30 rally in western Pennsylvania. That’s what he’ll do is talk about his day in court, being persecuted all day. He’ll still pop up on a rally stage in the evening.”
Trump’s leads in national and early state polls suggest that strategy is enough.
Stutzman said it’s a “very even-money question” as to whether Trump can win Iowa and New Hampshire — the states with the first two nominating contests where polling has shown Trump with double-digit leads — but that if he does, the former president could face an unobstructed path to his third straight nomination.
“Unless he’s narrowly winning states against somebody, then conceivably, it could be going to Super Tuesday, but if he wins the first four states, yeah, you would think he’s all but the nominee at that point,” Stutzman said.
But while the March 4 trial date may end up being a mere speed bump in the primary for Trump, the general election could be something else altogether.
Trump is facing four different criminal cases, in which he maintains his innocence in each, that are expected to extend through November 2024, meaning he’ll have to bounce between a courtroom and the campaign trail for months on end, all while his legal struggles remain front and center for swing voters, not just the GOP’s supportive primary electorate.
“You want to know that your politician who wins in November is not going to be in the slammer. And you can’t say that about Trump. And so those voters, they don’t love Joe Biden, they don’t think the economy is working, but they wanted to give him a chance, and in part because they were tired of all of chaos,” Heye said. “This does not help them come back.”
(ATLANTA) — Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, charged along with 18 others in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, heads to court Monday to try to have his trial moved from state to federal court.
Among other charges, the indictment cites Meadows’ role in the infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call then-President Donald Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — actions that Meadows argues he took as a federal official acting “under color” of his office.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 28, 6:09 AM EDT
Other defendants keeping ‘close eye’ on proceedings
As Meadows heads to court Monday, multiple sources close to some of the 18 other Georgia defendants — which include Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — have told ABC News that the legal teams for many of the defendants will be keeping a “close eye” on the proceedings, with some even sending people to watch in person.
Many involved in the case are uncertain what the ramifications would be if Meadows’ case is moved to federal court, the sources said, and whether it would bring along all 19 defendants or leave their cases in state court.
“It is completely untested,” one attorney for a defendant in the case told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s team and former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are due back in court on Monday to present arguments for when Trump’s federal election interference case should go to trial.
Smith said in a filing earlier this month that he is prepared to take Trump to trial by Jan. 2, on the grounds that the date would “vindicate the public’s strong interest” in a speedy trial.
The special counsel estimated it would take no longer than four to six weeks to put on his case before a jury in Washington, D.C.
Trump’s lawyers, in contrast, requested that Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing the case, schedule the trial for April of 2026 — more than two and a half years from now.
The former president’s attorneys cited the large amount of discovery provided to them by the government — roughly 11.5 million pages of evidence — and said in their filing that if they began reviewing the documents today, “we would need to proceed at a pace of 99,762 pages per day to finish the government’s initial production by its proposed date for jury selection.”
“In this District, ordinary order when faced with such overwhelming discovery is to set a reasonable trial schedule, commensurate with the size and scope of discovery and complexity of the legal issues,” Trump’s attorneys said in their filing earlier this month.
Trump earlier this month pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and denounced the charges as “a persecution of a political opponent.”
Trump’s lawyers and special counsel prosecutors last appeared in court together in the Jan. 6 matter on Aug. 11 over the terms of a protective order Smith was seeking in order to prevent “the improper dissemination of use of discovery materials.”
It’s not clear whether Judge Chutkan will address Trump’s more recent social media comments about her and witnesses in the case, but earlier she cautioned Trump over public statements he had made, and suggested that his words could backfire by moving the case to trial even faster.
“I intend to ensure the orderly administration of justice in this case as I would with any other case,” Chutkan said during the last hearing. “The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool or intimidate potential witnesses, the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial to ensure a jury pool from which we can select an impartial jury.”
(NEW YORK) — Most candidates at the first GOP primary debate said former Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing by certifying the 2020 election results while also suggesting it’s time to move past Jan. 6. The question was not posed to Vivek Ramaswamy though, who has been vocal in his condemnation of alleged government lies that he says have fueled national division around former President Donald Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a contentious interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, Ramaswamy echoed earlier statements he made to the National Review by saying Pence missed “a historic opportunity … to unite this country” when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his appearance on the show, he also said that if he had been in Pence’s position, he would have implemented his voting reform proposal by Jan. 7, the day Pence certified Biden’s win, before “declaring a reelection campaign” and certifying results.
His proposal: single-day voting via paper ballots requiring a government-issued I.D. “matching the voter file.”
“If we achieve that, then we have achieved victory, and we should not have any further complaint about election integrity,” he said.
Ramaswamy has said that he would extend limited accommodations for absentee voting to people with disabilities, for example, but he does “not think that is an excuse for creating [a] multi-week voting processes with ballot harvesting, and mail-in voting that undermines public trust in our elections,” he told reporters recently during a campaign stop in Pella, Iowa.
Ramaswamy’s views on Jan. 6 and Donald Trump’s role in it have evolved since 2021. The presidential candidate once called Trump’s actions on the day “downright abhorrent” and criticized “stolen election” claims in his second book, Nation of Victims.
“It was a dark day for democracy. The loser of the last election refused to concede the race, claimed the election was stolen, raised hundreds of millions of dollars from loyal supporters, and is considering running for executive office again,” he wrote in the book. “I’m referring, of course, to Donald Trump.”
Now, two and half years later, Ramaswamy seems to give the claims slightly more credit, focusing on public distrust stemming from the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol and standing on his commitment to pardon Trump and those now facing federal charges related to that day to “move the country forward,” he said in a live town hall with NewsNation in mid-August.
Ramaswamy, who has said that he would have made different decisions than Trump on Jan. 6 but does not consider Trump’s actions criminal, told ABC News that his comments condemning Trump in the days after the riot were about how he handled Jan. 6.
“What I would have done? … Starting that day under the same circumstances, I would have said, as soon as there are people violently approaching the Capitol, ‘Stand down,’” he said in an interview with ABC News.
“Standing by while protesters turned violent, I think, was a bad mistake of leadership,” he added while reiterating, “I don’t think Donald Trump was the cause of Jan. 6.”
Although he says he stands by his writings, maintaining as he wrote a year ago that he has not seen evidence of mass ballot fraud, he attributes his new views in part to skepticism over “the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop story,” he said on the Sunday news program. What has remained the same, however, is Ramaswamy’s assertion that higher powers are at play, whether it be Big Tech and censorship, as he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in 2021, or what he calls the “administrative state,” which he defines as an unofficial fourth shadow branch of government that has influence over political and civic action.
The supposed nuance of Ramaswamy’s views, however, does not always appear to come across as he may hope, something that played out in real-time at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, after Ramaswamy answered a question about how to restore faith in the U.S. voting system due to ongoing debate over the validity of Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.
“So many Republicans have lost faith in our voting system. And they say they’re not going to vote because it doesn’t matter. How are we going to change that?” one voter asked.
Explaining his proposal, Ramaswamy asked that attendees join him in “dropping our complaints about ballot fraud or election integrity” if it were to be enacted. Though many applauded, another voter called his stance “offensive.”
“I just want to be honest, and your answer was slightly offensive. We … the United States of America has the most secure elections,” she asserted. “I don’t think you’ve ever actually worked an election.”
Ramaswamy told ABC News on Friday that he sees his voting reform proposition as an appropriate common ground for bipartisan efforts to resolve a pressure point in the country. Asked by ABC News as he met with a group of press after the Newton, Iowa event later if he thinks the U.S. has secure elections and if Trump or the indictments against him have affected public opinion of election security, Ramaswamy said: “I think the indictments have shaken public trust in our institutions, in our government more generally, to a pretty bad place.”
“I’ve laid out a very practical, a deeply pragmatic, and I believe noncontroversial approach to restore that public trust,” he said.
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Republican presidential candidates including Mike Pence and Tim Scott are lamenting the Saturday shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, and the racism that authorities said motivated it — but the White House hopefuls are steering clear of the debate over gun laws.
Jacksonville authorities said the three Black victims were killed in a “racially motivated shooting” by a man who had detailed a “disgusting ideology of hate” in his writings.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail this weekend, entrepreneur and GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy compared Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a Black House member who is part of the progressive “squad,” to the conduct of the Ku Klux Klan — drawing quick pushback.
And former President Donald Trump saw massive fundraising after he surrendered to Georgia authorities, on charges he denies, and his mug shot was released last week.
Here’s what to know from the campaign trail:
Candidates decry latest shooting
The country’s latest high-profile shooting was at a Dollar General in Jacksonville on Saturday, when a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun shot the three people before fatally shooting himself, according to law enforcement.
“Devastated by the news out of Jacksonville, FL. There is nothing more hateful than murdering someone because of the color of their skin; violence of any kind has no place in our country,” Scott, R-S.C., the only Black Republican in the Senate, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “1 Corinthians 13:7 teaches love endures all things. That is my prayer today for our nation.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the shooter a “scumbag” Saturday and said the attack was “totally unacceptable.”
“We condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms,” DeSantis told reporters.
“There’s no place in America for racially inspired violence, and I condemn what occurred in Jacksonville in the strongest possible terms. That wasn’t a criminal act. That was an act of evil,” former Vice President Pence said on CBS on Sunday.
President Joe Biden, in his own statement, said in part that “we must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America.”
Comparing lawmaker to the Klan
Ramaswamy escalated his attacks on Pressley, who had criticized what she called his far-right policies.
“We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice. We don’t need any more Black voices that don’t want to be a Black voice,” Pressley said, prompting Ramaswamy to say those remarks were “the words of the modern grand wizards of the KKK.”
“We typically don’t engage in these bad-faith attacks but yesterday a line was crossed. A GOP candidate referred to Ayanna as ‘a modern grand wizard of the KKK’ because she speaks out against racial injustice,” Pressley’s team fired back in a fundraising pitch. “This is backwards and harmful, but that is the point.”
Ramaswamy, who has campaigned similarly to Trump, with a penchant for headline-grabbing remarks, doubled down on Sunday, telling CNN anchor Dana Bash, “I stand by what I said to provoke open and honest discussion in this country.”
Pressley has been a vocal progressive since joining the House in 2019 and was one of the founding members of the “squad,” the small but growing and informal group among House Democrats who push leadership to adopt more liberal policies.
Another GOP candidate challenged Ramaswamy’s remarks about Pressley: former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who took issue with them during his own appearance on CNN.
Trump’s mugshot comes with a fundraising heyday
Trump is under four different criminal investigations (and he denies all wrongdoing), but he had his mugshot taken for the first time last week — and his campaign said that he is reaping some financial benefits from his supporters.
Trump’s campaign said it had brought in $7.1 million from Thursday night, when the picture was released, to Saturday evening. That includes $4.18 million raised on Friday alone, the biggest fundraising day for the campaign so far, a spokesperson said.
In total, the campaign said it has raised nearly $20 million in the past three weeks, including when the former president was indicted in Washington, D.C., and in Georgia. That total already is over half of what Trump took in during his first seven months of campaigning.
Biden campaign to focus on policy over legal troubles in potential rematch with Trump
President Biden’s campaign indicated on Sunday that he and his team do not plan to make Trump’s legal troubles a priority in his reelection bid and instead will focus on promoting legislative wins and policy differences with Republicans.
“The president has said from the beginning that he wanted an independent Justice Department … so we’re not going to comment,” Cedric Richmond, the co-chair of Biden’s campaign, said in an interview with ABC This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz, referencing investigations into Trump. “We’re not going to focus on Donald Trump’s legal problems.”
Richmond went on to tear into Republican candidates’ performances at last week’s primary debate.
“I think what we saw that night was a race to the extreme part of the Republican Party, a race to the MAGA base,” Richmond told Raddatz. “And that’s what we expected.”
“What we’re gonna do is continue to do what we’ve been doing and that is to talk to people about the fact that we’re creating jobs, bringing costs down, bringing manufacturing back to the United States from overseas,” he added. “And that’s what campaigns are for. For us to go out and tell the story of us meeting challenges, what we’ve accomplished, the challenges we still have to meet and all of those things.”
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Libby Cathey, Fritz Farrow, Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The most recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, conducted Aug. 15-17, showed some problems for former President Donald Trump in terms of public opinion on his mounting criminal charges amid his comeback bid for the White House.
The poll, released after his fourth indictment, over efforts to reverse his 2020 loss in Georgia, shows that he’s not getting the post-indictment bounce with Americans that he’s been touting on the campaign trail.
“Any time they file an indictment, we go way up in the polls,” Trump boasted during a Republican Party dinner in Montgomery, Alabama, earlier this month. “We need one more indictment to close out this election. One more indictment, and this election is closed out.”
But the ABC News/Ipsos survey — which follows three other polls this year in the wake of Trump’s charges in three other indictments, all of which he denies — suggest that while Republicans are still largely supporting him, he faces issues with the broader public.
President Joe Biden, whom Trump could face next year in a rematch of the 2020 race, is also grappling with an anemic favorability rating, seemingly not receiving a boost even as many Americans say they want Trump to suspend his campaign.
No continued post-indictment bounce with GOP but still primary front-runner
Trump is now charged in four criminal cases: in federal court in Florida and Washington and in state court in Georgia and New York. He denies all wrongdoing and has been touting his indictments as political rocket fuel endearing him further to a base that he’s helped make skeptical of the criminal justice system investigating him.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the former president did see a primary polling boost after his first indictment, in New York. His fundraising in the second quarter of 2023, amid his mounting legal troubles, was also nearly double the previous period.
But, despite what he has claimed, the most recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, shows no noticeable improvement for him among Republicans since a previous ABC News/Ipsos poll, conducted early this month after Trump was indicted for the third time, in relation to Jan. 6 and the push to overturn his election defeat.
Early this month, 20% of Republicans said Trump should suspend his campaign and 14% said he should have been charged in the Jan. 6 indictment.
These results are unchanged in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll, with 20% of Republicans saying Trump should suspend his campaign and 15% indicating he should have been charged in the Georgia indictment.
More broadly, Trump’s favorable/unfavorable ratings with Americans remain severely underwater according to the latest poll: 31% favorable and 55% unfavorable — essentially unchanged from the previous poll.
At the same time, Trump remains the clear favorite so far for the Republican presidential nomination according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, with a nearly 40-point lead nationally over nearest rival Ron DeSantis
Half of Americans want Trump out of the race
Early this month, 49% of adults said in the ABC News/Ipsos poll that Trump should suspend his campaign — and 50% say the same in the most recent survey. Only about a third of Americans in these polls don’t think Trump should suspend his campaign, with the rest undecided.
That figure portends some struggles for Trump should he make it to the general election.
Republican critics of Trump have for months lamented his primacy in the primary, insisting that he would be a liability in a general election given his baggage — even as his campaign has decried the charges as “un-American.”
“All this is gonna continue to weigh him down,” Mike DuHaime, an adviser to former New Jersey governor and current GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie, told ABC News before the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll’s release.
“He’s been pretty skillful to this point, but I do think the weight will eventually get to him,” DuHaime said of Trump.
Biden remains stuck in the doldrums
Despite the public’s views about Trump’s indictments, Biden continues to struggle with his favorability rating among American adults, according to the recent ABC News/Ipsos polls.
Early this month, 33% of adults said they had a favorable view of the president.
In the latest poll, 31% of adults say they have a favorable view of Biden — the same as Trump’s favorability rating.
Democrats have sought to play down concerns over Biden’s viability, seeking instead to tout his legislative wins in office and the party’s relative success in last year’s midterms.
