A Politico Magazine/Ipsos survey finds that 28% of Republican voters and 31% of independents would be less likely to support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election were he to be convicted in the classified document theft case.
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Thursday that he plans to participate in the first GOP presidential debate in August, whether or not former President Donald Trump attends,” the NBC News reports.
Said DeSantis: “I’ll be there, regardless. I hope everybody who is eligible comes. I think it is an important part of the process, and I look forward to being able to be on the stage and introducing our candidacy and our vision and our leadership to a wide audience.”
Nick Catoggio: “The two wings of Ron DeSantis’ base are parties to a high-stakes wager that, if elected, he’ll govern the way they prefer and disappoint the other camp…”
“His supporters are divided in unusual ways by the figure of Donald Trump. DeSantis’ post-liberal populist admirers see him as more Trump than Trump, a man who as president will make good on the frontrunner’s empty promises to use state power against the right’s enemies. DeSantis’ classically liberal conservative fans, like the staff of National Review, perceive him as less Trump than Trump. Yes, the governor sometimes panders to populists in unsavory ways, but as president he’ll govern more responsibly and much less demagogically than Trump would.”
“That’s the wager. Someone will lose, in the increasingly unlikely event that DeSantis is elected.”
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in on whether he’s ‘not connecting’ with voters during his 2024 presidential campaign as he blamed members of the media along with the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador for his low poll numbers,” the HuffPost reports.
Said DeSantis: “Well, I think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after? Who do they not want to be the nominee? They’re going after me.”
He added: “Who’s the president of Mexico attacking because he knows we’ll be strong on the border and hold him accountable and the cartels? He’s going after me. So, I think if you look at all these people that are responsible for a lot of the ills in our society, they’re targeting me as the person they do not want to see as the candidate.”
“Donald Trump is planning to speak at an event at a Las Vegas church on Saturday evening, his first trip to the battleground state this election cycle,” the Nevada Independent reports.
“Donald Trump plans to headline his largest Iowa campaign event in nearly four months with a speech to thousands at an arena in the western part of the state,” the AP reports.
“Trump will use his appearance in Council Bluffs on Friday to attack his top GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for opposing the federal mandate for ethanol, a renewable fuel additive that Iowa leads the nation in producing.”
Donald Trump “has been less enthusiastic” about failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, the Daily Beast reports.
Two Trump advisers said the heart of Trump’s frustration with Lake is that, in his eyes, she always wants attention.
As one of the advisers put it, she’s a “spotlight hound.”
2Q FUNDRAISING:
- MT-Sen: Jon Tester (D-inc): $5 million raised, $10 million cash on hand
- IN-Gov: Mike Braun (R): $2.2 million raised, $4.6 million cash on hand; Eric Doden (R): $1.7 million raised, $3.8 million cash on hand
- CO-03: Adam Frisch (D): $2.6 million raised, $2.5 million cash on hand
- DE-AL: Sarah McBride (D): $414,000 raised (in five days)
- NY-17: Mike Lawler (R-inc): $900,000 raised, $1.5 million cash on hand
- NY-19: Josh Riley (D): $775,000 raised
“Kevin McCarthy is risking Donald Trump’s wrath by not officially endorsing his third White House bid, but the speaker is also fulfilling an important mission: sparing the House GOP a civil war over 2024,” Politico reports.
“While scores of McCarthy’s members have already backed Trump, plenty of other Republicans are steering clear of the polarizing former president in the GOP primary. That camp includes virtually every swing-seat lawmaker, many of whom fear that embracing Trump could spell their electoral doom next fall — as well as allies of Trump’s rivals, from Ron DeSantis to Doug Burgum.”
Explained one GOP lawmaker: “The reality is, if we get Trump, there’s probably a good possibility that we don’t keep the House… McCarthy knows that. He knows that if Trump’s on top of the ticket, that we probably lose New York and California… If we lose the House, there’s no way McCarthy stays as minority leader. He’s gone.”
“An outside group with ties to the conservative Club for Growth has formed in an effort to stop former President Donald Trump from winning the nomination,” Politico reports.
“The group, Win it Back PAC, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. A person familiar with the group said its aim is to target Trump, who maintains a substantial lead over his Republican primary rivals in early state and national polling. It is not clear how much money Win it Back PAC is planning to spend.”
Associated Press: “Some candidates, like former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, are struggling to meet fundraising and polling requirements to make it on stage. He and others are pushing back on a loyalty pledge the Republican Party is insisting candidates sign to participate. And the race’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, is considering boycotting and holding a competing event instead.”
“That’s turning what is typically the highly anticipated opener of the election season into a source of uncertainty for the candidates and broader party. The frustration is particularly acute for candidates who hoped to use the forum as a powerful opportunity to confront Trump and try to blunt his momentum.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) “has about 5,000 of the 40,000 donors needed to reach the debate stage in August,” Politico reports.
“Hutchinson has previously criticized the Republican National Committee’s requirements for candidates to qualify for debates: garnering donations from at least 40,000 national contributors and polling consistently above 1 percent in three national polls or two national polls and a state poll. A mild-mannered candidate, the former governor explained that it might take ‘explosive rhetoric’ that ‘gets people excited’ or millions of dollars to garner those donors.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that “Hitler was a Rothschild” and “Hitler and the Nazis were one hundred percent completely and utterly set up … by the international banking community and the international crony capitalists,” according to Media Matters.
“Chris Christie slammed former President Donald Trump for sharing the Obamas’ purported DC address on social media, a post that prosecutors alleged was followed up by a deranged and armed January 6 defendant staking out their house,” Insider reports.
Said Christie: “This is the problem with someone who doesn’t think about this country and its citizens first. They wind up doing things like this, whether it was intentional or inadvertent, what it shows is a lack of responsibility, a lack of accountability for what you’re saying.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis brought in $20 million in fundraising during the first six weeks of his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Fox News reports.
“Hours after Marianne Williamson announced the hiring of her third campaign manager in five months, six staffers left her team through a round of firings and resignations,” Politico reports.
“Joe Biden is running his reelection bid on the cheap,” Politico reports.
“The president has hired fewer than 20 campaign aides. His team hasn’t yet announced a 2024 headquarters. His first political rally this year was paid for by other organizations.”
“On June 5, at 8:06 p.m., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted that he was sending Florida personnel to assist Iowa with a disastrous building collapse in Davenport,” NBC News reports.
“Yet what DeSantis didn’t say — and what NBC News has learned through a public records request — was that more than 10 hours earlier, the mission had been canceled and Iowa had informed the DeSantis administration that its help was no longer needed.”
“Might I have the fire in the belly? Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know. I can’t tell you.”— Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), quoted by Politico. on whether she might run for president one day.
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “The tipping point state in a presidential election is the state that gets the winning candidate over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.”
“In the last two presidential elections, the tipping point state was Wisconsin.”
“In the postwar era, the tipping point state has frequently tracked closely with the national popular vote, although in 1948 and 2020, the tipping point state was clearly right of the nation.”
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