Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Steve Bannon, former adviser to former President Donald Trump, is expected to surrender to prosecutors in New York on Thursday, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The details of the charges are unclear, however, the sources confirmed to ABC News that the charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office stem from the federal prosecution of Bannon over “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraising campaign for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the federal case, Bannon was accused of defrauding donors and using the money for personal expenses.
Trump pardoned Bannon on his final day in office but two codefendants who did not receive pardons pleaded guilty.
The pardon only applies to the federal case and does not preclude the state charges, the specifics of which were not immediately clear.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had no comment when reached by ABC News.
Bannon, via a spokesperson, issued a statement to ABC News Tuesday, saying, in part, “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
The Washington Post first reported the news.
Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist before departing the White House in August 2017, was found guilty in July of defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel for records and testimony in September 2021.
After the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt for defying the subpoena, the Justice Department in November charged him with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas has spent over $12 million as of mid-August in busing migrants to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, a spokesperson for the Texas Division of Emergency Management told ABC News.
The state agency utilizes a contract to charter the buses, which include private security, the spokesperson said.
Abbott has sparred with the Democratic mayors of the three cities, who have accused him of using immigrants as pawns in his political agenda. The governor began the busing program after the Biden administration overturned a pandemic-era order restricting migrant entry numbers to the U.S.
Chicago became the latest city to unknowingly receive migrants as of last Wednesday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for unity in the situation and slammed the busings as “inhumane” and “not the Christianity and the teachings of the Bible that I know.”
“My frustration comes from the actions of the governor of Texas,” Lightfoot said at a press conference held Sunday following the arrival of another bus of migrants. “There could be a level of coordination and cooperation but he chooses to do none of those things and instead tries to send human beings…not cargo, not freight, but human beings across the country,” she added.
A spokesperson for Abbott said Chicago has received over 150 migrants on 3 buses so far from Texas. Abbott has no plans to stop anytime soon, the spokesperson said, calling on Mayor Lightfoot to take it up with President Joe Biden.
“Attacking the Governor’s commitment to his faith is a pathetic political ploy to change the conversation away from Mayor Lightfoot’s unwillingness to uphold her city’s self-declared sanctuary status,” Abbott’s press secretary Renae Eze said in a statement provided to ABC News. “Where was Mayor Lightfoot’s outrage and condemnation of President Biden as he flew plane loads of migrants across the country and dropped them in communities in the cover of night?”
The statement added, “Instead of lowly personal attacks on the Governor and complaining about a few dozen migrants being bused into her sanctuary city, Mayor Lightfoot should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border—something the President continues failing to do.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki in April told reporters the migrants on the buses are processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and “are free to travel.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams called Abbott’s actions “the worst type of politics” in an interview with “Nightline” last month.
“It’s hateful politics to raise his national profile and, you know what, you should not be doing it by taking away the respect and dignity of people who are in need,” Adams said.
Abbott responded by calling Adams a “hypocrite” because “New York City is a self-declared ‘sanctuary city.'”
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser was denied a request last month from the Pentagon for help from the National Guard in dealing with the crisis.
(WASHINGTON) — Tuesday is primary day in Massachusetts, where attention turns to the GOP gubernatorial race between a Donald Trump-backed hopeful and a more “pragmatic” politician as Republicans aim to keep control of the executive office. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.
With state Attorney General Maura Healey now the presumptive Democratic nominee after clearing the field in her primary, all eyes are on who will face her. Former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who has the support of Trump, is going up against businessman and political newcomer Chris Doughty for the Republican nomination.
Diehl won the state party’s endorsement earlier this year and has positioned himself as the more conservative choice as well as focusing on issues like infrastructure, expanding housing options and supporting law enforcement. He also cast doubts on the 2020 presidential election, opposed COVID-19 mandates and supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Diehl previously ran against Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 Senate race but lost by 24%.
Meanwhile, Doughty has focused on three main areas throughout the primary season: lowering taxes, keeping the statehouse balanced and making Massachusetts more affordable for people to live in. He has described himself as both a “moderate” and as “pragmatic, common sense [and] … fiscally conservative.”
Even though Massachusetts is considered a Democratic stronghold in many ways — it hasn’t voted for a Republican president in nearly 30 years — the state has a long history of electing GOP governors, including an unbroken 16-year stretch from 1991-2007.
The incumbent, Charlie Baker, is widely popular in the state but decided not to seek a third term and has not endorsed either candidate in Tuesday’s primary.
After primaries in Illinois and Maryland, the race is the latest example of Republican voters in blue states having to choose between two different types of conservatives as they hope to either retain control of the governorship or retake it after the last election.
Whoever wins the GOP primary, history could be made in Massachusetts if Healey is victorious in November. If she wins, Healey would be Massachusetts’ first elected female governor and first openly gay governor.
(WASHINGTON) — When Democrats left Washington in August, they did so on the wings of a series of policy wins, leaving town after pushing through many of President Joe Biden’s key climate and health care proposals on party-line votes.
But now, with midterms in November looming, the 50-50 Senate returns to Washington Tuesday with must-pass legislation on its plate, requiring bipartisan cooperation just as political tensions hit their peak.
It’s been over a month since lawmakers were last in the nation’s capital. Much awaits them.
Campaign on the brain
Lawmakers may be returning to the Capitol in person, but their minds will likely be far away on their home states and election battleground states.
This month marks the last work period for the House before the midterm election on Nov. 8. The Senate is scheduled to return for two weeks in October, but lawmakers in both chambers will no doubt use their remaining days in Washington seeking political wins to tout on the trail.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are expected to spend the weeks leading up to the election traveling the country, holding official events with incumbent lawmakers while also rallying supporters and fundraising for key races and candidates.
Clock is ticking on government funding
Chief among the priorities for Congress this month will be funding the government to avert a shutdown when current funds runs out on Sept. 30. With bipartisan agreement on an omnibus spending bill still seemingly far off, lawmakers are expected to spend September focused on passing a stopgap funding bill that will likely kick the concerns about long-term funding to the end of the year.
Passing the bill is required to keep the government open, but don’t mistake necessity with ease.
The Biden White House and Senate Democrats will try to use the short term funding bill to secure resources for a few outstanding priorities, knowing full well it could be their last opportunity before the election potentially shifts control of either chamber of Congress.
Administration officials are requesting about $47 billion in emergency aid to be tacked on to the funding bill to pay for additional Ukraine aid, COVID aid, and monkeypox and disaster relief. Expect many of those items to get Republican pushback.
The administration wants Congress to approve, as part of the stopgap funding bill, $22 billion for COVID relief. That thinking is in line with key Democratic appropriators who introduced a similar $21 billion supplemental to address COVID and other health concerns in late July.
But this is just the latest in a string of failed attempts by Democrats to approve COVID funding that they say is necessary to continue research and development of new vaccines and to provide free tests and vaccines.
Republicans have resisted the funding, arguing that some previously approved COVID funding has yet to be spent, and calling on Democrats to find ways to pay for the additional COVID relief. Attaching the aid to the larger stopgap bill could prove perilous for the entire bill.
Demands from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that his party included in the stopgap funding bill permitting reform legislation to expedite development of some energy projects, could also complicate matters.
Manchin, whose vote in favor for the Democrat’s Inflation Reduction Act was the lynchpin in the bill’s final passage last month, conditioned his support on a promise that his permitting reform proposals would make it onto the stopgap funding bill. The deal, brokered largely between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, has sent progressives reeling, urging leadership not to attach legislation that could expedite oil and gas projects onto the funding bill.
“I am not going to be steamrolled into a bunch of fossil fuel give aways just because Manchin cut a deal in a closed room with Chuck Schumer,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said in a statement. “He doesn’t get to run the show on something like this, and many of us will have a say on what that deal looks like if it even happens.”
Republicans are also threatening to withhold support for a funding bill that includes Manchin’s proposed measures.
“I will not vote for a continuing resolution that is part of a political payback scheme,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said last month.
Trump and Jan. 6 back in focus
By the time FBI agents executed their Aug. 8 search on former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, lawmakers were already far from Washington D.C. Many, including leaders of both parties, have chosen to keep quiet as the early stages of the legal battle surrounding the FBI’s actions unfold. But when they return this week, members on both sides of the aisle will be peppered with questions, and some of key committees will likely ramp up already growing calls for additional information to be provided to Congress.
Sens. Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to National Intelligence Director Avril Hanes and Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting a damage assessment of any national security threat posed by the mishandling of information. And Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has also called on the FBI and Justice Department to provide Senators with a classified briefing on the raid.
“It’s unprecedented to have a raid like this on a former president’s residence, and that’s why I think the transparency should be unprecedented also,” Portman said on MSNBC on Thursday. “Obviously, we need to be careful that sources and methods are not being revealed through classified documents. They should never be taken from the White House in the first place, but we just don’t know the details yet. So yeah, I think it’s important we have that briefing.”
Meanwhile, the Jan. 6 select committee is expected to continue its work after a quiet August. The committee hasn’t held a public hearing since mid-July, but it’s expected to host additional hearings in September and to issue an interim report.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves on the panel, lost her primary race handedly during the August recess. Her defeat, paired with GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s retirement, means both Republicans on the committee will leave Washington come January. The committee is expected to issue its final report before they do.
Separately, the House Oversight Committee said it could release some of the former president’s highly-sought after financial records as early as this month after striking a deal with the administration.
Seeking consensus while highlighting differences
With the Inflation Reduction Act now signed, any remaining legislative objectives will have to pass muster of at least 10 Republicans at a time when the GOP will be more reluctant than ever to hand Democrats a victory.
Still, there may be a few bipartisan victories to eke out before the 117th Congress ends.
After Democrats fell short on their efforts to enact major election reform earlier this year, a bipartisan coalition formed to consider narrow changes to the Electoral Count Act. The group announced an agreement to clarify the ceremonial role of the vice president in certifying the results of a presidential election in late July. A vote on the reform could come before the year is out.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins is also leading efforts to find 10 Republicans to support a bill that would codify the right to same sex marriage into law. She’s been optimistic she can find support within her conference.
But Democrats are also only guaranteed a few more months in the majority. Expect them to use that time to highlight party priorities.
Schumer has vowed that Democrats will force Republicans to take another vote on lowering the cost of insulin, a provision ruled out of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Democrats have also vowed to make abortion rights a key issue on the campaign, and will likely force additional show votes on protecting abortion access on the floor, encouraged by Kansas voters’ decision to uphold the state’s constitutional right to an abortion in early August.
(WASHINGTON) — In a win for Donald Trump, Judge Allen Cannon has granted a request from the former president’s legal team to appoint a special master to review documents seized from the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The ruling will also halt all reviews of the documents by the Department of Justice.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden, a pro-union president, on Labor Day kicks off the the unofficial start of the fall campaign season ahead of the midterm elections with two cross-country stops in battleground states.
Biden, the White House says, will deliver remarks “celebrating Labor Day and the dignity of American workers,” in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, after a string of legislative victories and a slight bump in approval ratings.
In both swing states, Democrats are facing high-stakes, heavily-funded midterm races.
Biden travels first to Milwaukee to speak about 1:00 p.m. at the city’s Laborfest, with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers — up for reelection in November against Republican Tim Michels — expected to make an appearance.
It was unclear whether Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes — a Democratic Senate hopeful embattled in a tight race against incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson — would also accompany Biden.
Ahead of his visit, Republican National Committee and the Wisconsin Republican Party hosted a Zoom call, slamming the president’s Thursday primetime speech in Philadelphia and his recent moves to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt.
Johnson was on the Zoom, calling the president “no moderate” and that he has become a “divider-in-chief.” Johnson noted that his Democratic opponent has been “in hiding” and that Barnes has not been doing any recent press conferences. One of Barnes’ most recent events was a meet and greet with seniors on Aug. 29 on the subject of Social Security and Medicare, in response to recent Johnson comments on potentially cutting those programs.
From Milwaukee, Biden travels to Pittsburgh where he is scheduled to make more Labor Day remarks at 5:30 p.m at United Steelworkers of America Local Union 2227 — the third time the president has visited the commonwealth in one week.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is in a contentious battle for retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s Senate seat against Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In a tweet, Fetterman’s director of communications said that the candidate will also be marching with Biden — the first time the candidate has joined the president during his weeklong span of the state — with plans to discuss marijuana decriminalization.
“John will be marching in the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh next week, and he looks forward to talking to the President there about the need to finally decriminalize marijuana,” wrote Joe Calvello.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro is also facing a tight race against Trump-endorsed Republican Doug Mastriano for governor. Shapiro will also march with Biden on Monday, following his appearance with the president at Wilkes University on Tuesday.
In Pittsburgh, Shapiro will be “marching with the hardworking men and women of labor on Monday,” Manual Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said in a statement. “As always, we welcome President Biden back to his home state of Pennsylvania.”
On Thursday in Philadelphia, Biden, in a fiery speech, warned about what he called threats to American democracy, presenting himself and Democrats ahead of the midterms as a clear contrast to Trump and MAGA Republicans.
He pummeled Republicans who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and those who refuse to accept the 2020 election results and want to strip away abortion rights.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” he said. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at the Greater Boston Labor Council Annual Breakfast on Monday, echoed Biden’s remarks Thursday in Philadelphia, criticizing “extremist, so-called leaders” for their attempts to “turn back the clock …To a time before workers had the freedom to organize. To a time before women had the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. To a time before all Americans had the freedom to vote.”
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly one month since the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, cited the privileges given to Trump as a former president as justification for taking 15 boxes of classified documents out of the White House.
“You know, I have lived in the classified world most of my professional career, I personally wouldn’t do that. But I’m not the president of the United States. But he has a different set of rules that apply to him,” McCaul told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, who asked if he saw any reason that Trump took the highly classified materials.
“I know they were taken out of the White House while he was president and whether or not he declassified those documents remains to be seen. He says he did. I don’t have all the facts there,” said McCaul, who has been pushing for more information about the search to be released alongside some fellow GOP lawmakers.
Martha pushed back, saying that Trump’s attorney general Bill Barr found the idea of Trump standing over documents and declassifying them to be absurd.
Raddatz also brought up Joe Biden’s “soul of the nation” speech in Philadelphia on Thursday, in which he was highly critical of MAGA Republicans. Immediately after the president’s remarks, McCaul took to Twitter, writing that “attacking half of America will only further divide our country.”
Raddatz questioned McCaul on his social media statement, asking, “When you look at those polls showing 60 to 70% of Republicans believe Joe Biden is not the legitimate president, what is Biden supposed to do when the country cannot even decide what democracy means?”
McCaul said that while “democracy is messy,” it is “better than all the other forms of government,” and also argued that if Biden’s intention with the speech was to unify the American people, it “had just the opposite effect.”
“And, you know, saying that Republicans are a threat to democracy is really a slap in the face … you know my vote on certification and my position on that. I took an oath to the Constitution but having said that, you don’t come out to unify the nation,” McCaul said, adding that it “was not a presidential address.”
Raddatz asked for McCaul’s — who was a former federal prosecutor — reaction to Trump’s remarks in a speech Saturday where Trump referred to the FBI and the Department of Justice as “vicious monsters.”
“I think the perception is what a lot of Republicans I know see on the heels of the Russian investigation, the Steele dossier,” McCaul said. “There’s a certain distrust but verify attitude — when it comes to the Department of Justice and the FBI, and it, frankly, saddens me because as a alumni of DOJ, I hate to see people’s faith in our institutions be weakened.”
Asked by Raddatz about how much Donald Trump should be blamed for the division in the country, McCaul blamed both political parties for the recent heightened rhetoric. He made a reference to Abraham Lincoln who, rather than condemning the opposing party during that time, brought them into the conversation in the spirit of unity, he said.
That is the mission that Biden should embark on but failed to do in his speech Thursday, according to McCaul. “It was a campaign speech before the midterm elections, and that’s basically how I see it,” he told Raddatz.
(WILKES-BARRE, Penn.) — In his first rally since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home last month, former President Donald Trump took the stage in Pennsylvania for nearly two hours during which he responded to the raid on his home last month and President Joe Biden’s remarks earlier this week.
“The shameful raid and break-in of my home Mar-a-Lago was a travesty of justice,” Trump said of the search. “The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters.”
Trump was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on Saturday campaigning in support of Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor against Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is taking on Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate race.
Trump praised both candidates while emphasizing the importance of taking back the House and Senate this November.
“Two months from now the people of Pennsylvania are going to fire the radical left democrats and you are going to elect Doug Mastriano as your next governor, and you are going to send my friend Oz, he is a great guy, to the US Senate,” Trump said. “You’re going to elect an amazing slate of true America first Republicans to Congress.”
And though Saturday’s rally was in support of his Pennsylvania candidates, Trump spent the vast majority of his speech focused on his own issues– mainly with the FBI, the Department of Justice, fellow Republicans and Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to give the most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president…..He’s an enemy of the state,” Trump said in response to Biden’s remarks earlier this week.
Amid these high stakes, Trump’s rally also comes as fallout continues from the Aug. 8 FBI search at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where agents recovered classified documents as part of an investigation into his handling of presidential records after leaving office.
On Friday, Judge Cannon unsealed a detailed inventory showing what the FBI seized during the search. The list states some documents bearing classification markings ranging from confidential to top secret were found intermingled with newspaper clippings, photographs and other documents.
Trump almost immediately launched into a response to the raid of his Mar-a-Lago home Saturday, framing it as persecution of a political enemy. He attacked law enforcement without offering any substantive response to the allegations against him regarding his handling of classified documents.
“There could be no more vivid example of the very real threats of American freedom than just a few weeks ago you saw when we witnessed one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history. The shameful raid and breaking of my home Mar a Lago was a travesty of justice,” Trump said.
Those in line to hear him speak on Saturday expressed beliefs that Trump was unfairly targeted.
“I don’t feel he did anything wrong. I think that will come out in the end, but they just want to turn people against Trump,” said Barbara, a voter from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania.
Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania comes just days after President Joe Biden’s back-to-back visits in the battleground state, during which he condemned Trump and his fellow “MAGA Republicans” as a dominant force in today’s GOP and a threat to American democracy.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden said in a prime-time speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Biden’s ramped up rhetoric comes as he seeks to recast the November elections as a choice between those who want to save the “soul of the nation” or those who he says are a danger to democracy.
“Joe Biden came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to give the most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president,” Trump said “You’re all enemies of the state? He’s an enemy of the state. You want to know the truth.”
Trump supporters waiting in line to see the former president give remarks criticized Biden’s rhetoric and said it has only energized them even more ahead of the midterms. Evy Mecjes, and Debbie Latsha called Biden’s speech “very divisive.”
“We’re now the bad guys. We are the terrorists of the United States of America,” Mecjes said.
Latsha said Biden’s speech showed how “afraid” Democrats were of the power Trump still has over the Republican Party.
“They’re a little afraid of all the people that are rising up and whose eyes are being opened, who are waking up to what’s truly happening in our government,” Latsha said. “So let’s see if we can smash them down a little bit more and divide people a little bit more. I mean, there was nothing unifying about that.”
They defended Trump supporters pointing to school closures during the pandemic and inflation as examples of how they felt Democrats have hurt Americans.
“People are rising up because we’re pissed off about how our government is treating us and you know, President Biden does not speak for the people,” Mecjes remarked.
Biden will be back in Pennsylvania again on Sunday, spending part of his Labor Day weekend in Pittsburgh.
While Republicans have generally been favored to win back control of both chambers of Congress this midterm cycle, recent legislative victories for Democrats and some positive economic news has bolstered Democrats’ chances to keep their majorities.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms defended President Joe Biden’s prime-time address on Thursday, warning of the threat “MAGA” Republicans pose to American democracy on “This Week,” saying Biden spoke “optimistically” about the country, but also said that the nation needs to “call out hatred.”
“This ‘MAGA’ Republican agenda, this hate-filled agenda … we saw incite violence on our nation’s Capitol, has no place in a democracy. And if we are not … calling it out, which is what the president did, then our country, everything that our country is built upon is in danger,” Bottoms, now a senior adviser for public engagement for the White House told co-anchor Martha Raddatz Sunday morning.
In his remarks, Biden used some of his harshest language to date to criticize former President Donald Trump, and his supporters, saying they “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic” — a notable shift for Biden, who ran on a message of uniting the country after Trump’s four years in office.
The speech, delivered just months before the midterm elections, was seen by many as an effort to help frame the November elections as a referendum on Trump, and was heavily criticized by Republicans as divisive, saying it disparaged the 70-plus million Americans who voted for Trump in 2020.
A new analysis from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks hate speech, said after the Biden speech, there was a surge online in conversations that said Biden’s remarks singling “MAGA” Republicans were interpreted as a declaration of war against conservatives and Trump voters.
Bottoms stressed that Biden was not speaking about all Republicans, but those who supported the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“The president has not called out all Republicans. He’s been very specific about this ‘MAGA’ agenda,” she said. “I’ll just remind you of the words of Martin Luther King Jr. when he said that, ‘it’s not the words of our enemies that we will remember. It’s the silence of our friends’ and what the president has said, is that mainstream Republicans, Independents, Democrats, can all come together, we’ve seen us come together, to do what’s right on behalf of the American people,” Bottoms said to Raddatz.
While Biden criticized “MAGA” Republicans for supporting candidates who deny the outcome of the 2020 election, there has also been criticism of Democrat groups who have been accused of bolstering far-right Republican candidates in races, in hopes of increasing Democratic odds in November.
Raddatz asked Bottoms about those claims and whether Biden should address them.
“I think what the president will continue to do is encourage people to go out and vote their conscience, whatever their conscience may be, and what the president will continue to do, which what we saw him do just this week, is to remind people who we are as a country, who we are as a nation,” Bottoms said.
“So does he support that? Does he support supporting those extreme candidates?” Raddatz pressed.
“I cannot speak to what the president supports. I can speak to what he has said publicly and what he has said publicly is that we are a nation that values the rule of law, that we are a nation of peace, that we are a nation that values that peaceful transition of power, and this MAGA agenda has no place in our democracy,” Bottoms said.
(WILKES-BARRE, Pa.) — Former President Donald Trump is campaigning for Republicans in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday in what will be his first rally since federal agents searched his Florida home last month.
Trump will speak at the Mohegan Sun Arena in support of Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor against Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Schapiro, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is taking on Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate race.
Supporters were lined up in the parking lot hours before Trump is due on stage.
Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania comes just days after President Joe Biden’s back-to-back visits in the battleground state, during which he condemned Trump and his fellow “MAGA Republicans” as a dominant force in today’s GOP and a threat to American democracy.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden said in a prime-time speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Biden’s ramped up rhetoric comes as he seeks to recast the November elections as a choice between those who want to save the “soul of the nation” or those who he says are a danger to democracy.
Trump supporters waiting in line to see the former president give remarks criticized Biden’s rhetoric and said it has only energized them even more ahead of the midterms. Evy Mecjes, and Debbie Latsha called Biden’s speech “very divisive.”
“We’re now the bad guys. We are the terrorists of the United States of America,” Mecjes said.
Latsha said Biden’s speech showed how “afraid” Democrats were of the power Trump still has over the Republican Party.
“They’re a little afraid of all the people that are rising up and whose eyes are being opened, who are waking up to what’s truly happening in our government,” Latsha said. “So let’s see if we can smash them down a little bit more and divide people a little bit more. I mean, there was nothing unifying about that.”
They defended Trump supporters pointing to school closures during the pandemic and inflation as examples of how Democrats have hurt Americans.
“People are rising up because we’re pissed off about how our government is treating us and you know, President Biden does not speak for the people,” Mecjes remarked.
Biden will be back in Pennsylvania again on Sunday, spending part of his Labor Day weekend in Pittsburgh.
While Republicans have generally been favored to win back control of both chambers of Congress this midterm cycle, recent legislative victories for Democrats and some positive economic news has bolstered Democrats’ chances to keep their majorities.
Amid these high stakes, Trump’s rally also comes as fallout continues from the Aug. 8 FBI search at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where agents recovered classified documents as part of an investigation into his handling of presidential records after leaving office.
Lawyers for the Justice Department and for Trump faced off in court Thursday over whether there should be a judge-ordered independent review of the Mar-a-Lago documents by a special master. The judge, Aileen Cannon, has yet to make a ruling on the matter.
On Friday, Judge Cannon unsealed a detailed inventory showing what the FBI seized during the search. The list states some documents bearing classification markings ranging from confidential to top secret were found intermingled with newspaper clippings, photographs and other documents.
The inventory also revealed the government seized dozens of folders that were empty but either had “CLASSIFIED” banners on them or were labeled “Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing as he publicly fights back against the search.
Those in line to hear him speak on Saturday expressed beliefs that Trump was unfairly targeted.
“I don’t feel he did anything wrong. I think that will come out in the end, but they just want to turn people against Trump,” said Barbara, a voter from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania.
