Politics

(NEW YORK) — After several major candidates dropped out of Wisconsin’s Democratic Senate primary within a week of one another, the party has coalesced around Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes with the goal of defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.

Three candidates — Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, Outagamie Executive Tom Nelson and State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski — all left the race just days before voting ended Tuesday. Soon after polls closed, Barnes was projected by ABC News to win the Democratic primary.

Control of Congress’ upper chamber could next be at stake in one of the country’s fiercest battlegrounds, which Barnes’ former rivals-turned-supporters cited in stepping aside.

“Every day matters, and that’s why the second I realized that there was no path forward, we made sure that we did what we thought was best for us to be able to defeat Ron Johnson,” Lasry, who was arguably Barnes’ stiffest competition, told reporters in late July.

“The progressive vote is consolidated and the progressive family is one because today I’m endorsing Mandela Barnes for U.S. Senate,” Nelson said in his own statement when he left the race last month.

And Godlewski, the last of the three to exit, said: “If there’s one thing we know about Mandela Barnes is he’s no stranger to running statewide and he has done well. And he’s going to show like he did in 2018 again in 2022 that he is the best candidate and he will defeat Ron Johnson.”

In an interview with ABC News before the primary, Barnes called the endorsements of his former opponents “huge.”

“It feels great, because it shows the momentum and also the strength that this campaign has, the broad coalition that we set out to build in the first place,” he said.

While Barnes sailed through the Democratic nominating contest, there are no guarantees in November’s general election in this sharply divided swing state. Barnes’ progressive leanings and endorsements from left-wing standard-bearers like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders could run off more moderate voters.

“We are basically a 50-50 state and politics here resembles trench warfare more than it resembles a normal competition between two political parties,” said University of Wisconsin at La Crosse government and politics professor Anthony Chergosky. “The political competition in Wisconsin is vicious and it is a battle of two parties that are completely dug in against one another. And so that is absolutely going to be used against Mandela Barnes in the upcoming general election campaign against Ron Johnson.”

Wisconsin’s Republican Party has already gone on the attack.

“Mandela Barnes will speak out of both sides of his mouth to convince voters that he is a moderate – but Barnes has earned the support of extremists like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Bernie Sanders because he wants to abolish ICE, end cash bail, and impose fringe-left policies in Wisconsin and the nation. As families confront sky-high inflation, rising crime, and a crippled education system under Democrats, Wisconsinites will soundly reject the Barnes-Biden agenda,” Wisconsin GOP Executive Director Mark Jefferson wrote in a statement, in part.

Barnes called that criticism meritless.

“We’re talking about a party whose ideology is quite simple: Donald Trump,” he said.” So I dismiss any sort of notion or any type of way that they would try to paint me.”

Johnson, for his part, is likely to face more scrutiny ahead of November over his ties to former President Donald Trump and what the House Jan. 6 committee described as his role in a fake elector scheme to overturn the 2020 election. (Johnson has disputed parts of this, saying he was not fully aware of some of the information he passed along.)

“Ron Johnson is going to be portrayed as too extreme by the Democrats and Mandela Barnes is going to be portrayed as too extreme by the Republicans,” said Chergosky, the politics professor.

Barnes told ABC News that he hopes his humble beginnings and what he calls his middle-class values will be his ticket to Washington. A son of an autoworker and a public school teacher, he is the first Black lieutenant governor in the state and could be the state’s first Black senator if he wins in November.

“I know what a lack of opportunity means, and I carry my story of my experiences as a Black man who was born in Milwaukee, who still lives in Milwaukee, I take that all across Wisconsin,” he said.

Barnes, who is 35 years old, is also a part of a key demographic in the state: millennials. Despite being the largest generation, millennials aren’t proportionately represented in either chamber of Congress, which has some Wisconsin voters calling for more generationally diverse leadership.

“Having somebody who is so much younger and can see the way that we think now, the way that we work now — it’s incredibly important,” said Adrianna Pokela, a millennial voter and founder of a women’s rights organization in Green Bay.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House credits the drop in gas prices to President Joe Biden’s million-barrels-a-day strategic oil reserve release and his engagement with oil companies.

They say this strategy helped bring gas prices down below $4 a gallon in many parts of the country. 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recalled the near-dollar-a-gallon gas price jump this summer.

“This is the fastest decline in gas prices in over a decade,” she touted.

She also hopes this drop in gas prices will have an effect on tomorrow’s Consumer Price Index report. Last month’s report showed inflation at a 40-year high.
 

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(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 committee was expected Tuesday to interview Donald Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

ABC News first reported in July that Pompeo was in negotiations to sit with committee investigators behind closed doors. (CNN and The New York Times, respectively, first reported Mastriano and Pompeo’s appearances before the panel.)

Mastriano has not agreed to the terms of his own closed-door interview with investigators. Mastriano’s attorney wants to record the deposition or have access to the committee’s recording after the fact. The committee has not agreed to that.

That has raised the possibility that in his virtual appearance, Mastriano may not answer questions or refuse to proceed. Mastriano has said he would walk out of a deposition with investigators if they didn’t agree to his terms.

Mastriano, who has baselessly challenged the results of the 2020 election, was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he has said he left when rioting broke out — calling the violence “unacceptable.”

His attorney previously told the Associated Press that he spoke with the FBI and “told them the truth about everything that happened that day.”

The previous outreach to Pompeo, meanwhile, was an indication of the committee’s continuing interest in gathering information and testimony from high-level Trump administration officials as the panel moved closer toward the release in the fall of a public report on its findings.

The committee’s vice chair, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, said in late July that the group’s work continued apace after wrapping its public hearings for the summer.

More hearings are expected related to the committee’s report.

“We have a number of many interviews scheduled that are coming up. We anticipate talking to additional members of the president’s Cabinet. We anticipate talking to additional members of his campaign,” Cheney told CNN in July, adding, “We’re very focused as well on the Secret Service and on interviewing additional members of the Secret Service and collecting additional information from them.”

ABC News’ Adam Carlson and Jonathan Karl contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Sunday narrowly approved a $700 billion-plus tax, climate and health care-pricing bill, capping an unusually jam-packed summer on Capitol Hill and marking another win for Democrats’ fragile congressional majorities before they face a competitive midterm cycle with the GOP eager to retake control.

Over the past 12 weeks, Democrats (joined with some Republicans) have pieced together passage on a slate of legislation for veterans’ health care, the tech manufacturing industry, gun violence prevention and, finally, a social spending bill they have been working on in some form since President Joe Biden took office last year.

The Senate also approved Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

The flurry of activity is tempered by a looming political reality: Despite Democratic achievements, multiple of which were passed with bipartisan majorities, Biden’s approval ratings remain underwater on a number of issues that voters say are top of mind, including the economy and historically high inflation.

As Democrats prepare to face voters in November, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted that Americans will soon begin to see the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act — the tax, health and climate bill passed Sunday — and other legislation, priorities that have proven popular in recent polling.

Having left COVID-19 isolation over the weekend, Biden will sign the PACT and CHIPS Acts — for veterans and computer chip manufacturing, respectively — on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the White House. The House will take up the IRA on Friday before sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature.

Here’s an overview of the notable measures Congress has passed this summer.

The IRA

Democrats’ latest reconciliation spending bill raises taxes on large corporations and the wealthy, allows Medicare to negotiate down some prescription drug costs, extends Affordable Care Act subsidies to make health insurance cheaper, makes major investments in combating climate change and opens millions of acres in federal property to oil and gas drilling, among other things, while cutting hundreds of millions from the federal deficit.

The IRA passed along party lines, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. Its passage comes off the heels of turbulent negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and then the addition of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.; both Manchin and Sinema are centrists in the Democratic caucus whose approval was key in the divided Senate.

The legislation’s tax provisions, prescription drug-pricing reform, as well as boosted IRS tax enforcement measures, are anticipated to raise an estimated revenue of $739 billion — $300 billion of which Democrats say would go toward reducing the deficit.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would have a minimal affect on high inflation in the short-term but would reduce federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years.

“It’s been a long tough and winding road, at last we’ve arrived,” Schumer said on Sunday. “Our bill reduces inflation, lowers costs, creates millions of manufacturing jobs, enhances our energy security and is the boldest climate action in US history.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who led Republicans in uniform opposition to the IRA, took another view: “Democrats’ policies have torn down the savings, the stability, and the lifestyles that families worked and sacrificed for years to build up. The effect of this one-party government has been an economic assault on the American middle class,” he said in a statement.

PACT act

PACT expedites care and disability payments to veterans related to illnesses caused by toxic exposure from so-called “burn pits” during their service.

The proposal initially passed the Senate earlier this year. But after a small fix in the House required the bill to be voted on again, 26 Republican senators then changed their votes and blocked swift passage last week, objecting to a so-called “budget gimmick” they argued could be exploited by Democrats.

Amid outcry from veterans’ advocates, including comedian Jon Stewart, the Senate took up PACT again.

A final 86-11 vote on the passage of the bill came Tuesday, after long hours of emotional lobbying.

“Every so often folks, America lives up to its ideals, and those are days that we savor,” Schumer said at a press conference outside the Senate after the vote.

CHIPS

A bipartisan group in the House passed a bill in late July that boosts the domestic production of crucial semiconductor — computer — chips, along with funding the nation’s science and technology industries with additional research and development.

CHIPS cleared the chamber in a 243-187 vote (with one “present” vote) despite late-hour pushes from GOP leadership against the legislation Twenty-four Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure out of what would have been additional GOP support, curbed because of the surprise development that Schumer and Manchin had brokered a deal on the IRA, despite many conservatives believing Manchin had killed hopes of a party-line reconciliation bill.

Supporters of the $280 billion proposal highlight the roughly $52 billion it provides to incentivize the creation of semiconductor facilities, increasing American competitiveness in an industry where countries like China dominate.

There’s a nationwide shortage of the needed computer chips, which has caused production delays, stalling industries from automotive to medical and spurring already-punishing inflation rates.

Gun control

In late June, Biden signed the first major piece of federal gun legislation in almost 30 years, after Congress swiftly passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

The Senate approved the anti-gun violence package by a vote of 65-33, including the entire Democratic caucus and 15 Republicans like Minority Leader McConnell.

A group of senators began crafting the legislation in the aftermath of the May mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers.

But the law doesn’t go as far as Democrats — and Biden — wanted, excluding measures such as universal background checks and a reinstating a federal ban on assault-style weapons (as well as banning high-capacity magazines). But it does support the implementation of so-called “red flag” laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, as well as other violence prevention programs.

It also provides funding for a variety of programs aimed at shoring up the nation’s mental health apparatus and securing schools.

“At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential,” Biden has said.

ABC News’ Alliison Pecorin, Alexandra Hutzler and Trish Turner contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Since news broke that the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, a growing number of Republicans have spoken out against the raid.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., took to Twitter, posting a statement that read in part: “I’ve seen enough.”

“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” McCarthy continued. “When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., took it a step further, tweeting: “DEFUND THE FBI!”

A Twitter account for Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee run by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tweeted: “This is what happens in third world countries. Not the United States.” Another tweet read: “If they can do it to a former President, imagine what they can do to you.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a series of tweets that “launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic.”

“We’re 100 days away from midterm elections. President Trump is likely going to run again in 2024,” Graham tweeted. “No one is above the law. The law must be above politics.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called the raid “incredibly concerning.”

“We need answers NOW,” Scott tweeted. “The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why.”

Several Republican senators used the raid to further criticize President Joe Biden’s sweeping climate, health care and tax bill, which Senate Democrats passed on Sunday and which includes nearly $80 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service. For instance, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted: “After todays raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?”

Other Republicans, including potential 2024 presidential candidates, continued to attack the Justice Department and the FBI.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted that the raid “is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies,” then said: “Banana Republic.”

Former Secretary of State and ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo said executing a search warrant against a former president “is dangerous.”

“The apparent political weaponization of DOJ/FBI is shameful,” Pompeo tweeted. “I served on Benghazi Com where we proved Hilliary possessed classified info. We didn’t raid her home.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., called the raid “unprecedented.”

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also released a statement, asserting — without evidence — that the search was an attempt by Democrats to “weaponize the bureaucracy against Republicans.”

“Countless times we have examples of Democrats flouting the law and abusing power with no recourse. Democrats continually weaponize the bureaucracy against Republicans,” McDaniel said. “This raid is outrageous. This abuse of power must stop and the only way to do that is to elect Republicans in November.”

Multiple sources confirmed to ABC News that Trump’s residence in Palm Beach was raided by FBI agents on Monday, starting around 10 a.m. local time. The former president was not there at the time.

Sources said the search of Mar-a-Lago was related to the 15 boxes of documents that Trump took there when he departed the White House, some of which the National Archives has said were marked classified. In January, Trump handed over the documents to the National Archives, and his attorneys said they were searching for any more records they may have.

The former president issued a statement Monday evening, saying Mar-a-Lago “is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.” He added: “They even broke into my safe!”

Later Monday, during a planned tele-rally with Sarah Palin ahead of her upcoming special election in Alaska, Trump didn’t specifically mention the raid but appeared to briefly reference it when saying: “Another day in paradise. This is a strange day.”

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that the FBI’s activities at Trump’s compound are court-authorized.

The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.

A senior official briefed on Monday’s events told ABC News that the Secret Service was notified by the FBI a short time before agents arrived that they would be coming. The Secret Service validated the search warrant and facilitated entry into the residence, in accordance with a court order, the official said. Secret Service agents were not involved in the search.

The Secret Service declined to comment.

A Biden administration official told ABC News that the White House received no advanced notice of the raid.

The White House has otherwise referred requests for comment on the investigation to the Justice Department.

ABC News contributor and former federal prosecutor Kan Nawaday said the raid is “extraordinary” but not “that surprising.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen this,” Nawaday told ABC News Live Prime on Monday night. “At the same time, to me, it doesn’t seem that surprising, given all the evidence that the Jan. 6 committee has set forth about possible crimes relating to [the Capitol riot].”

“I think the indication is that it’s moving forward. They are taking active action and following the leads and following the evidence,” he added. “It’s only a matter of time, in my view, that they’re going to work up the chain to other potential targets.”

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(WASHINGTON) — As the United States faces decades-high inflation, people across the country are looking to lawmakers for respite.

Democratic Rep. Colin Allred of Texas joined ABC News on GMA3 to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping climate, tax and health care package that the Senate passed over the weekend. The bill is now set for a vote in the House this week.

GMA3: So many American families are in a financial crisis right now. Tell us what makes this bill historic and what it’s actually going to do for those families who need some relief?

ALLRED: Well, it’s going to help you lower the cost of your health care. For the first time in so long, that we’ve been pushing for this, Medicare is going to have the ability to negotiate to lower the cost of prescription drugs. And it will be the drugs that we don’t have the market mechanisms to hold down the costs… So those are the ones that are really hitting families the hardest.

It’s also going to make sure that, if you’re using the individual market, that your rates stay low. That’s something we started in the American Rescue Plan. It’s extended those benefits.

But also for your homes, it’s going to encourage you — to give you tax credits toward getting more efficient energy use in your home, but also more efficient energy grids. So it should lower your costs overall in terms of what you’ll be paying to keep the lights on and the AC on, which we’re needing a lot of here in Texas right now.

GMA3: It is called the Inflation Reduction Act. You didn’t mention inflation in that answer… So are you comfortable selling this to your constituents as something that’s going to bring down inflation?

ALLRED: Well, it lowers costs. And that’s also a way of combating inflation, because when you have to spend more in some areas, if you can lower costs in other areas, that’s basically the same thing in terms of balancing out your budget and trying to help working families get by.

I was raised by a single mother who was a public school teacher here in Dallas. I know what it’s like to go to the store and wonder, are you going to be able to get all the things you need for the week? And so this is what we’re trying to do, is find areas that we can control, where we can lower your costs.

So much of what we’re dealing with in terms of inflation is a global issue that’s happening around the world caused by the pandemic and also the war that Russia [caused by] invading Ukraine.

So there’s some things that we can’t control. The areas where we can, that’s what we should target. And that’s all we’re trying to do here.

GMA3: How confident are you that this bill will make it to the president soon and in its current form? What still needs to be done?

ALLRED: Well, now that it’s gotten through the Senate, we have to get it through the House. And there’s always going to be some back and forth with my colleagues. That’s just the way that the House works. But I do think that we’ll pass it this week and send it to the president’s desk.

This is a huge win for President Biden but, more importantly, for the American people. This is the biggest investment that we’ve ever made in combating climate change.

[The bill is] going to allow us to do so many things that we need to do to try and really head off what we know is a coming climate disaster for us down the road.

GMA3: Congressman, while we have you here… Brittney Griner, who is still being held in prison in Russia… Are you comfortable right now, relatively speaking, with where this process is?

ALLRED: Yeah, well, listen, I’ve known of Brittney since she was in high school when I was playing football at Baylor University. And she was a standout basketball player in Houston. And we were going to try and recruit her to come to Baylor to be part of our incredible women’s basketball team, which she eventually did. And she’s one of the best basketball players in the world. She’s a Texan, and she’s somebody who we’re working extremely hard to get home.

Everybody should just know that the trial, so to speak, that you just saw was a sham. In Russia, if you reach that point, you have about a 98% chance that you’re going to be convicted. So it’s not really a trial.

And also that she was held, and is still being held, basically to exert pressure on the United States. And so we are doing everything we can to get her and Paul Whelan home.

But I actually do think that it’s a positive that we’re through the trial and sentencing phase, because we’ve known from the beginning that the Russians weren’t going to seriously discuss a swap with us until that happens.

So as sad as it’s been to see her receive a nine-year sentence and all of those things and to see the stress that she’s been under, it also means that we are closer to getting her home.

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(WASHINGTON) — Two House Democrats — from New Jersey and Minnesota — are appealing to members of their own party in Wyoming to “consider” changing their affiliations ahead of the state’s contentious Republican primary on Aug. 16 in order to back incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney.

In separate advertisements from an organization called Wyomingites Defending Freedom And Democracy, Reps. Tom Malinowski and Dean Phillips asked Wyoming Democrats to “consider temporarily switching parties” in order to vote for Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, over Cheney’s Trump-backed opponent.

“Liz Cheney and I don’t agree on everything, but we’re on the same side today, fighting for our country,” Malinowski said in his ad.

“Wyoming Democrats can put country over party too, by registering to vote for her in the Republican primary,” he said. “I hope you do.”

In his ad, Phillips said: “Principle must always come before politics. And nobody has shown more honor, integrity and courage than [Cheney].” He also asked Wyoming Democrats to switch their political parties for Aug. 16.

Cheney, a three-term Republican congresswoman — as well as the vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee and former No. 3 House Republican — faces a serious challenge to hold Wyoming’s only congressional district against Harriet Hageman.

Cheney’s intense criticism of Trump’s election denial and behavior around Jan. 6 earned her the scorn of the GOP base as well as some Republican colleagues, who booted her from House leadership.

Wyomingites Defending Freedom And Democracy has spent $26,698 on ads over the last week, according to Facebook analytics, beginning to run the ones with Malinowski and Phillips over the weekend.

On their website, the group has links available for Wyoming Democrats to complete voter registration applications and change forms, along with information on how to submit that to relevant county clerk offices no later than 14 days before the primary election.

Wyoming voters can also change party affiliations at polling locations on the day of the primary or general election or when requesting an absentee ballot, the website notes. Wyoming law allows voters to switch their party affiliations back for future elections.

Malinowski, the Democratic incumbent of New Jersey’s recently redrawn 7th Congressional District, is vulnerable himself to a GOP victory in the seat he flipped blue in 2018.

Moderate Democrat Phillips separately made news last week for saying that he would not support President Joe Biden in 2024 in hopes of a “new generation” of leadership.

The new campaign to get voters to switch parties may have begun to work — at least for a few thousand registered Democrats over the past month, according to the state.

In July, 43,285 Democrats were registered to vote in Wyoming, with 200,579 registered Republicans and 34,925 unaffiliated. In August, 39,753 Democrats were registered in the state, with 207,674 registered Republicans and 33,769 unaffiliated, Wyoming elections data shows.

Still, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis earlier this year, Cheney has only a small chance of switching enough Democrats to make up for any Republican deficit — simply given how many Republicans are in the state.

Cheney and her defenders have been actively campaigning on a “pro-democracy” message, attempting to pit her and her anti-Trump minority faction of the Republican party against the former president.

Cheney released a new ad herselfon Thursday in which her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, came out in support of his daughter’s reelection campaign.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump,” Vice President Cheney said. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Multiple sources confirm to ABC News that former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was raided by FBI agents on Monday.

The sources told ABC News that the search began at around 10 a.m.

The former president put out a statement Monday evening saying federal investigators were there and that they had even gotten into his safe.

Trump was not there at the time of the search.

Sources tell ABC News that the search of Mar-a-Lago was related to the 15 boxes of documents that Trump took to Mar-a-Lago when he departed the White House — some of which the National Archives has said were marked classified.

In January, Trump handed over the documents to the National Archives, and attorneys for Trump said they were searching for any more records they may have.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News the FBI activities at Trump’s compound are court authorized.

The FBI and Justice Department declined to comment.

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(WASHINGTON) — As President Joe Biden was leaving for Kentucky to survey flood damage, he was asked about China’s live fire military drills near the island of Taiwan.

“I’m not worried but I’m concerned that they’re moving as much as they are,” the president responded.

He added that he doesn’t believe the situation will escalate much further.

The war games are in response to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, which China views as its own territory and not a sovereign state.

Despite President Biden’s doubts, China said it’s extending its military exercises, and Taiwan expressed concern that the exercises appear to simulate an attack.

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(WASHINGTON) — Joe Biden on Monday traveled to Kentucky to survey damage from severe flooding in the state — a visit that also marks his first presidential trip since he tested positive for COVID-19 last month.

He landed in Lexington on Monday morning to talk with local officials about the flooding, which killed at least 37 people after rain soaked the eastern part of the state. On Sunday, the president amended an existing emergency declaration for Kentucky to free up additional disaster assistance.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to meet with Gov. Andy Beshear and Kentucky first lady Britainy Beshear, according to the White House. The Bidens will also visit families affected by the flooding.

The president previously visited Kentucky in December to survey tornado damage in the state.

Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base before flying on Monday that he felt “great” and again tested negative for COVID that morning.

He was first cleared to leave isolation Sunday after testing negative for a second time following a so-called rebound case of the virus.

The president tested positive last month and, according to his doctor, experienced mild symptoms including a slight fever, cough and sore throat. He tested negative less than a week after that first positive test but received another positive test just days after that.

During his initial bout with COVID, Biden took Paxlovid, which is a key therapeutic for high-risk patients in preventing hospitalization and other severe outcomes. But it at times produces a rebound case after a patient finishes their course of treatment.

After he got the green light to leave isolation, Biden traveled to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, before traveling Monday to Kentucky.

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