Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday said, simply and for the first time, that “white nationalists are racists.”

That remark to reporters marked a reversal from days of controversial comments to the contrary, which had drawn criticism from Democratic leaders and head-scratching from some of Tuberville’s Republican colleagues.

Earlier on Tuesday, the senator told ABC News that white nationalists shouldn’t all be labeled as “racist” while also insisting he opposes racism.

Tuberville, a former college football coach first elected in 2020, had been pressed on his stance by ABC’s Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, who asked him, “Can you explain why you continue to insist that white nationalists are American?”

Scott was referring to commets Tuberville made first in May and then again earlier this week, after he was initially asked about military readiness and whether white nationalists should be able to serve.

“Listen, I’m totally against racism. And if Democrats want to say that white nationalists are racist, I’m totally against that, too,” he told Scott on Tuesday, hours before changing his view.

“But that’s not a Democratic definition,” Scott said.

“Well that’s your definition. My definition is racism is bad,” Tuberville responded.

Scott followed up to say that the definition of a white nationalist is someone believing “the white race is superior to all other races” and asked, “Do you believe that white nationalists are racist?”

“Yes, if that’s what a racist is, yes,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday quickly denounced Tuberville’s position.

“For the senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of white nationalism is indeed very, very dangerous,” Schumer said. “His words have power and carry weight with the fringe of his constituency — just the fringe, but if that fringe listens to him, excusing … white nationalism, he is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.”

“I urge my Republican colleagues to impress upon the senator from Alabama the destructive impact of his words and urge him to apologize,” Schumer said.

Tuberville has repeatedly challenged the label of “white nationalism,” suggesting in interviews that he feels it is unfairly applied by Democrats and that the military, in particular, is wrongly focused on removing white nationalists from their ranks.

During a local radio interview in May, Tuberville — who has been blocking certain military nominations over his objections to a Pentagon policy on service member abortion access — was asked about how that could affect military readiness.

When he criticized “Democrats … saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists,” he was then asked, “Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?”

“Well, they call them that. I call them Americans,” he said.

He went on to condemn “extremists” who overran the Capitol during Jan. 6 but also defended those people whom he said did not actually enter the complex and “were true Americans that believe in this country.”

He criticized a subsequent effort by the military to examine extremism in the ranks. Multiple active-duty service members and veterans have been convicted and sentenced for involvement in Jan. 6.

“Saying we’re going to run out the white nationalists, people that don’t believe how we believe …. that’s not how we do it in this country,” Tuberville said in May.

He later said on CNN that the point he was trying to make was narrower: “Democrats portray all MAGA Republicans as white nationalists. That’s not true, we got a lot of great people in the military that are MAGAs — that’s what I was talking about.”

In a Monday appearance on CNN, Tuberville said there could be conflicting views on white nationalism.

“My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me is an American,” he said.

But he also said, “If people think a white nationalist is a racist, I agree with that.”

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told ABC News on Tuesday that while he did not see the Tuberville appearance on CNN, he made clear that white nationalism has no home in the Republican Party.

“I’m not sure exactly what he was trying to say there, but … I would just say there’s no place for white nationalism in our party and I think that’s kind of full stop,” Thune said, before Tuberville reversed himself.

“I just think when you’re throwing around terms like that, you have to be careful and cautious,” Thune said, adding, “We are not a racist country. We are not a racist party.”

Thune did not commit to speaking to Tuberville directly about his comments, saying it was possible the Alabama lawmaker said “probably something different than how it perhaps is being interpreted.”

“Hopefully we’ll get a better understanding of what it was he was trying to communicate,” Thune said. “But again, I just would say emphatically there’s no place for that in the party.”

Asked about Schumer’s call for Tuberville to apologize, Thune said that was about politics: “It’s playing right into Schumer’s wheelhouse.”

Tuberville, asked about Schumer, told reporters: “He needs to apologize.”

On Tuesday afternoon, at his weekly press conference, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked to weigh in on Tuberville and said, “White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our home country.”

McConnell was not asked to respond to Tuberville’s ongoing hold on military nominees, though he has said in the past that he opposes Tuberville’s approach.

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(NEW YORK) — The Atlanta-area prosecutor investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia is empaneling a new grand jury that could ultimately decide whether to approve charges against former President Donald Trump.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis met Tuesday with prospective jurors in front of Judge Robert McBurney at a courthouse near Atlanta, where she has been probing whether Trump and his allies’ overtures to state officials in late 2020 amounted to criminal activity.

In April, Willis signaled publicly that potential charges could be brought as soon as this summer.

Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.

Trump has denounced the investigation and has repeatedly defended his phone call to Raffensperger, which he called “perfect.”

In January, a previous special grand jury seated by Willis issued its final report, which found “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”

That grand jury did not have the ability to return an indictment — only to make recommendations concerning criminal prosecutions.

The publicly released portion of their report revealed no details about any such recommendations, beyond recommending that prosecutors seek indictments against witnesses who they believe may have lied during their testimony.

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(VIRGINIA) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday launched an initiative to increase early voting, either by mail or in-person, before Election Day in the state — the latest such push by Republicans even as former President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized a method being embraced by more and more people.

The “Secure Your Vote Virginia” campaign is a coordinated program to turn out Republicans and swing voters across Virginia.

The governor and his PAC, Spirit of Virginia, see early voting efforts as key in the fall legislative elections, when the GOP hopes to hold the House of Delegates and to flip the state Senate.

“Your vote matters and we’re going to need engagement from everyone interested in moving Virginia forward to be successful. We can’t go into Election Day down thousands of votes, so I’m thrilled to have such strong partners coming alongside us in this effort. We fundamentally believe Secure Your Vote Virginia is how, together, we can win in 2023 and beyond,” Youngkin said in a statement.

The Republican Party of Virginia launched a video featuring Youngkin discussing his early voting initiative and explaining how the state has made it easier to vote.

Earlier this summer, in the Virginia primaries, Youngkin emerged a kingmaker in the state as all 10 of his Republican endorsees went on to win their races.

Many of those nominees are running for seats that will be crucial in deciding which party will control the state House and Senate.

“Now, we need to lean in and leave nothing for chance, which is why Secure Your Vote Virginia is so important,” the state’s GOP chairman, Rich Anderson, said in his own statement.

The pro-early voting message from Youngkin and Virginia Republicans is drastically different from the false narrative of fraud that Trump has spread about people casting early ballots. Some conservatives say such rhetoric harmed them, politically.

“One of the first lessons we have to take from the midterms is the power of early voting,” activist Charlie Kirk tweeted after the 2022 elections.

Youngkin’s early voting efforts come on the heels of a Republican National Committee early voting campaign announced in June.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told reporters then that the initiative is a “nationwide effort focusing on maximizing pre-Election Day turnout for Republican candidates.”

Virginia Democrats offered a pointed rebuttal to Younkin’s efforts, saying that his “change of heart” occurred within six months of the GOP-led state House passing two bills that would have banned absentee ballot drop boxes and slashed early voting days in the commonwealth. Both were later defeated in the state Senate.

“We welcome the Virginia Republicans’ newly discovered interest in promoting democracy,” said Liam Watson, press secretary for the Democratic Party of Virginia. “Of course, we wish they had shown up in support of early voting and vote-by-mail years ago, instead of consistently voting against reforms designed to strengthen democracy in the commonwealth.”

With Youngkin nationalizing Virginia’s legislative races this year, questions have also swirled about his political future. He is term-limited as governor but has not conclusively shut the door on a late-breaking bid for the White House in 2024.

When asked on CNN on Monday if he thought he could be a primary challenger to Trump given that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is trailing in the early polls, Youngkin said that “he’s focused on 2023.”

ABC News’ Caroline Curran and Laura Romero contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday told ABC News that white nationalists shouldn’t all be labeled as “racist” while also insisting he opposes racism — tripling-down on controversial comments that have drawn criticism from Democratic leaders and head-scratching from some of Tuberville’s Republican colleagues.

Tuberville, a former college football coach first elected in 2020, was pressed on his stance by ABC’s Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, who asked him, “Can you explain why you continue to insist that white nationalists are American?”

Scott was referring to remarks Tuberville made first in May and then again earlier this week, after he was initially asked about military readiness and whether white nationalists should be able to serve.

“Listen, I’m totally against racism. And if Democrats want to say that white nationalists are racist, I’m totally against that, too,” he told Scott on Tuesday.

“But that’s not a Democratic definition,” Scott said.

“Well that’s your definition. My definition is racism is bad,” Tuberville responded.

Scott followed up to say that the definition of a white nationalist is someone believing “the white race is superior to all other races” and asked, “Do you believe that white nationalists are racist?”

“Yes, if that’s what a racist is, yes,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday quickly denounced Tuberville’s view.

“For the senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of white nationalism is indeed very, very dangerous,” Schumer said. “His words have power and carry weight with the fringe of his constituency — just the fringe, but if that fringe listens to him, excusing … white nationalism, he is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.”

“I urge my Republican colleagues to impress upon the senator from Alabama the destructive impact of his words and urge him to apologize,” Schumer said.

Tuberville has repeatedly challenged the label of “white nationalism,” suggesting in interviews that he feels it is unfairly applied by Democrats and that the military, in particular, is wrongly focused on removing white nationalists from their ranks.

During a local radio interview in May, Tuberville — who has been blocking certain military nominations over his objections to a Pentagon policy on service member abortion access — was asked about how that could affect military readiness.

When he criticized “Democrats … saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists,” he was then asked, “Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?”

“Well, they call them that. I call them Americans,” he said.

He went on to condemn “extremists” who overran the Capitol during Jan. 6 but also defended those people whom he said did not actually enter the complex and “were true Americans that believe in this country.”

He criticized a subsequent effort by the military to examine extremism in the ranks. Multiple active-duty service members and veterans have been convicted and sentenced for involvement in Jan. 6.

“Saying we’re going to run out the white nationalists, people that don’t believe how we believe …. that’s not how we do it in this country,” Tuberville said in May.

He later said on CNN that the point he was trying to make was narrower: “Democrats portray all MAGA Republicans as white nationalists. That’s not true, we got a lot of great people in the military that are MAGAs — that’s what I was talking about.”

In a Monday appearance on CNN, Tuberville said there could be conflicting views on white nationalism.

“My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me is an American,” he said.

But he also said, “If people think a white nationalist is a racist, I agree with that.”

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told ABC News on Tuesday that while he did not see the Tuberville appearance on CNN, he made clear that white nationalism has no home in the Republican Party.

“I’m not sure exactly what he was trying to say there, but … I would just say there’s no place for white nationalism in our party and I think that’s kind of full stop,” Thune said.

“I just think when you’re throwing around terms like that, you have to be careful and cautious,” he said, adding, “We are not a racist country. We are not a racist party.”

Thune did not commit to speaking to Tuberville directly about his comments, saying it was possible the Alabama lawmaker said “probably something different than how it perhaps is being interpreted.”

“Hopefully we’ll get a better understanding of what it was he was trying to communicate,” Thune said. “But again, I just would say emphatically there’s no place for that in the party.”

Asked about Schumer’s call for Tuberville to apologize, Thune said that was about politics: “It’s playing right into Schumer’s wheelhouse.”

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(NEW YORK) — A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who has accused President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, of corruption has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York with failing to register as a foreign agent while working to advance the interests of China.

Gal Luft, 57, has also been charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. He remains a fugitive.

According to the indictment, Luft paid an unnamed adviser to then-President Donald Trump to publicly support certain policies favorable to China.

In the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Luft allegedly created a written “dialogue” between a Chinese national and the Trump adviser, in which Luft wrote the adviser’s responses and included information that was favorable to China. The dialogue was then published in a Chinese newspaper online and sent to, among others, individuals in the United States, including a journalist and professors at multiple U.S. universities, the indictment said.

Shortly after the 2016 election, Luft and the Chinese national discussed possible roles the adviser might have in the Trump administration and also discussed the adviser taking a trip to China, according to the indictment. “[w]e are debating about his role in the new admin,” Luft is quoted as saying. “There are all kinds of considerations … We should talk ftf [face-to-face] as there can be a supremely unique opportunity for China.”

Federal prosecutors also allege that Luft tried to broker illicit arms deals involving China and that he set up meetings between Iranian representatives and a Chinese energy company for the purpose of discussing oil deals.

“As alleged, Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and co-head of a Maryland think tank, engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said of the allegations. “He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement.”

Luft was arrested in connection with these charges in February in Cyprus, but fled after he was released on bail. While a fugitive, Luft recorded a video given to the New York Post, claiming his arrest was meant to stop him from appearing before congressional Republicans to answer questions about the Biden family.

Luft has emerged in recent months as a vocal critic of the Bidens, leveling unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against members of the first family. Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Fox News late Monday that he hoped to interview Luft as part of his investigation into the Biden family, and suggested that the Justice Department was leveraging its powers to target a critic of the president.

“There are a lot of questions here, and it’s just amazing that the Department of Justice moves so quickly against some people,” Comer said.

The criminal charges against Luft were filed under seal in 2022.

Luft defended himself on Twitter in February, saying that he had been arrested overseas and that the U.S. had requested his extradition — an effort he framed as, “DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe,Jim&Hunter Biden.”

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(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Iowa lawmakers kicked off a special session Tuesday morning with the “sole purpose” of passing legislation that would restrict abortion.

It comes less than a month after the state’s Supreme Court was deadlocked on whether a lower court’s injunction of a six-week abortion ban should be dissolved, leaving the procedure legal in Iowa.

In response, Gov. Kim Reynolds blasted the court’s decision — saying it had failed to exercise its authority — and called for the special session.

“I believe the pro-life movement is the most important human rights cause of our time,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Not only will I continue to fight against the inhumanity of abortion, but I will also remain committed to supporting women in planning for motherhood, promoting fatherhood and parenting, and continuing policies that encourage strong families.”

Because Republicans hold a majority in both the state Senate and the House of Representatives, the new legislation seems likely to pass.

The bill would limit abortion once cardiac activity can be detected, which typically occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. Abortion in Iowa is currently legal up to 20 weeks.

There are exceptions for medical emergencies and for rape and incest, as long as they are reported to law enforcement or to a health agency within 45 days and 145 days, respectively.

ABC News reached out to Gov. Reynolds’ office for a request for comment.

If the ban is passed, Iowa will join several other states that have passed so-called “heartbeat bills,” including Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Texas.

Ohio and South Carolina have also passed six-week abortion bans; both are currently facing legal challenges.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa tweeted Monday, calling for demonstrators to protest the special session at the Iowa State Capitol.

“Now is the time to get loud and show up in force at the Capitol to fight back against attacks on abortion access,” the group wrote. “Together, we will make our voices heard and hold elected officials accountable for any vote they take to restrict abortion.”

The previous abortion ban, signed into law by Reynolds in 2018, also prevented abortion after six weeks. However, the law was permanently struck down by a district court in January 2019, which ruled that the law violated the Iowa constitution and that there was no state interest in banning abortions so early in pregnancy.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, at least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, according to an ABC News tally.

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(NEW YORK) — Several GOP presidential candidates have come out in support of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds after former President Donald Trump attacked her on social media for staying “neutral” and not endorsing him in the crucial early-voting state.

Trump’s criticism followed a New York Times article detailing both his team’s frustration with the popular Iowa governor for not solely supporting his run — and Reynolds’ growing bond with Trump’s biggest primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Reynolds has said she doesn’t plan to endorse any specific GOP candidate ahead of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. “I’ve made it clear, I will be happy to help introduce you, help travel the state, connect in any way that I can,” she said in February.

On Monday, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to claim he helped boost Reynolds’ own career but now, because she wasn’t endorsing him, he was distancing himself from her.

“I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won,” Trump wrote. “Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events!”

Reynolds won her first election as governor in 2018 by nearly 3 points and won her reelection, in 2022, by just over 18 points.

On Twitter on Monday, DeSantis defended Reynolds without directly attacking the former president.

“Kim Reynolds is a strong leader who knows how to ignore the chirping and get it done. She earned a landslide reelection because she delivered big results, and she is poised to deliver even more for Iowans in the special session,” he wrote.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, another GOP candidate, who served as an ambassador to the U.N. under Trump, likewise called Reynolds a “conservative rockstar” who has delivered for Iowans.

“Like I always say, Iowa grows strong women!” Haley wrote on Twitter.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a vocal Trump critic, was the only major Republican presidential candidate to call out Trump himself, writing in a tweet that no one should be attacked for not endorsing in a race, calling the former president’s behavior “dictatorial.”

“I applaud Kim Reynolds for welcoming all GOP candidates into Iowa,” Hutchinson wrote on Twitter. “America deserves better than Donald Trump.”

In an interview with CNN, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum defended Reynolds and pushed back against claims that she’s favoring DeSantis.

“She is doing a great job being neutral,” Burgum said.

Some members of Iowa’s congressional delegation have responded to Trump’s social post about Reynolds, too.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson tweeted Monday that “Iowa is lucky to have the best governor in the country!”

“We’re fighting alongside Kim Reynolds every single day to push back against Biden’s radical agenda and fire him in 2024!” Hinson wrote.

According to a source on Hinson’s team, while she tweeted in response to Trump’s post, “It’s not an attack against the former president but Ashley feels strongly that Gov. Reynolds has done an incredible job leading Iowa and believes any attack on her … is unwarranted.”

Reynolds’ office has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. One of Iowa’s senators, Republican Joni Ernst, has not commented, however, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said that Reynolds was doing an “outstanding job” when asked by reporters.

ABC News’ Libby Cathey, Abby Cruz, Lalee Ibssa, Will McDuffie and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(FORT PIERCE, Fla.) — The federal judge overseeing the case involving former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office has agreed to delay an upcoming hearing in the case.

Judge Aileen Cannon agreed Tuesday to delay a hearing involving how to handle classified material in special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta.

The hearing, originally scheduled for Friday, July 14, will now occur on Tuesday, July 18.

Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, had requested the delay due to a timing conflict with a bench trial he has to attend as defense counsel for a defendant charged in the Justice Department’s investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

On Monday, Smith’s top prosecutor, Jay Bratt, urged Judge Cannon to reject the request, arguing that Nauta can be properly represented by his new local attorney, Sasha Dadan.

“There is a strong public interest in the conference occurring as originally scheduled and the case proceeding as expeditiously as possible,” Bratt said in his filing.

The move comes as Trump’s attorneys seek a lengthy delay of the trial, suggesting in a filing on Monday that it would not be possible to try the case prior to the 2024 election.

Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities.

Nauta, Trump’s longtime aide, last week pleaded not guilty to six counts related to the case, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Trump has denied all charges and denounced Smith’s probe as a political witch hunt.

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(WASHINGTON) — In a court filing late Monday night, lawyers for former President Donald Trump called for a lengthy delay of his federal trial on charges related to his handling of classified documents, suggesting it would not be possible to try the case prior to the 2024 election.

Trump’s attorneys argue that the extraordinary nature of the case means there should be no reason to expedite the trial.

“Thus, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(A), based on the extraordinary nature of this action, there is most assuredly no reason for any expedited trial, and the ends of justice are best served by a continuance,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

As a result, the attorneys wrote, “the Court should, respectfully, before establishing any trial date, allow time for development of further clarity as to the full nature and scope of the motions that will be filed, a better understanding of a realistic discovery and pre-trial timeline, and the completion of the security clearance process.”

Special council Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the case, has not yet responded to the filing.

Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities.

Last week, Trump’s co-defendant, longtime aide Walt Nauta, also pleaded not guilty to six counts related to the case, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Trump has denied all charges and denounced Smith’s probe as a political witch hunt.

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(WASHINGTON) — Republican presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday launched a commission-based fundraising program called “Vivek Kitchen Cabinet,” which one campaign finance expert said appears to be the first of its kind.

In a tweet, Ramaswamy wrote that “starting today, *anyone* can fundraise for the Vivek 2024 campaign & make a 10% commission.”

He said in a video announcing the initiative that it came out of a desire to “democratize the ability to make money,” casting the traditional system of campaign fundraising as an “oligopoly” of the managerial class.

“If somebody … is going to make 10% of the money they would raise for me or other candidates, it might as well be you,” he said. “Let’s decentralize that.”

That language echoes Ramaswamy’s broader pitch to GOP voters, including a pledge to boost the economy by upending bureaucracy (which he blends with a Trump-style attack on “woke” values compared to “American national identity”).

Ramaswamy’s campaign CEO, Ben Yoho, said in an interview with ABC News that they hope to reach their first thousand applications for the program on Monday after receiving around 300 applications within the first several hours of the launch.

Applicants accepted after a background check will be considered freelance contractors for the campaign and paid their commission on total funds raised, Yoho said.

The announcement drew some negative reactions on social media, with users likening the “kitchen cabinet” to a multi-level marketing scheme, in which participants receive a commission for recruiting others.

Yoho defended the initiative as standard practice, saying, “This is a flat-base commission, just like we pay our political fundraiser who’s on staff here. … This just expands that opportunity to our grassroots supporters.”

Campaign finance attorney and former Democratic National Committee Chief Counsel Joe Birkenstock said that while the concept of commission-based fundraising is not entirely new, he has not seen anyone execute it before involving their supporters.

“As is not uncommon, you see ‘outsider’ candidates tend to be the ones who pursue these kind of novel strategies,” he said. “I think they’re gonna find that the juice really isn’t worth the squeeze. But it’s not something I can point to other examples having already gone wrong. I just think they’re kind of tackling a little bit of uncharted territory. And I think they need to be ready for a lot of surprises.”

“That’s less for specific legal reasons than for kind of overall compliance strategy, and, you know, to some extent, just for optics reasons,” he said.

Ramaswamy, with an estimated net worth of at least $630 million, according to Forbes, has said he’s contributed $15 million to his own campaign and has already surpassed the 40,000-donor threshold to make the first Republican primary debate stage in August — if he also continues to get at least 1% support in national voter surveys.

FiveThirtyEight’s polling average currently has him at about 4%.

Given this, when asked about the reasoning behind the new program, Yoho said that while Ramaswamy will continue to invest in his campaign, uncertainty about future debate thresholds and future expenses were considerable factors.

“We have to build the ground team, both in regards to volunteer activities, but also the grassroots army small-dollar donors that will be able to lift this campaign up … and we need a quick surge of resources to defeat Joe Biden,” he said.

Ramaswamy isn’t the only White House hopeful employing unusual strategies to increase donations: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is offering $20 gift cards for supporters who donate at least $1.

ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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