Summary of the day
Here’s a quick recap of today’s developments:
Several Republican candidates have showed willingness to challenge Donald Trump’s claims of “political persecution” since the indictment was unsealed on Friday, revealing the full extent of the serious charges Trump faces. Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president who has broken with him, tried to thread the needle, simultaneously calling the allegations “very serious” while worrying about the politicization of the justice department.
Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor who is among the most anti-Donald Trump candidates standing for the Republican presidential nomination, said he would not vote for the former president if he is convicted of a felony.
But Trump has reportedly raised more than $7m since he was indicted last week, including more than $2m at a fundraising event at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, hours after appearing in a Miami federal court on Tuesday.
A new poll showed that, for Republican voters, Trump’s federal indictment over the Mar-a-Lago documents changes little. He remains the most popular GOP candidate for president, with 53% support, against runner-up Ron DeSantis’s 23%.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, defended special counsel Jack Smith in the Department of Justice’s indictment of Trump. Smith was a “veteran career prosecutor” who has “assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity and the rule of law”, Garland said in his first public comments about the indictment since Trump pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges on Tuesday.
The House voted to reject a Republican resolution to censure the California congressman Adam Schiff over his comments about Trump and investigations into his ties to Russia. The Republican-led chamber defeated the motion by a vote of 225 to 196, with 20 Republicans joining 205 Democrats in opposition.
Joe Biden vetoed a Republican-led resolution that would have overturned his administration’s new limits on emissions from heavy-duty trucks. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) heavy-duty vehicle emissions rule will “make our air cleaner and prevent thousands of premature deaths by limiting hazardous heavy-duty vehicle pollution,” Biden posted to Twitter.
Fox News labelled US president Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator” who attempted to have “his political rival arrested” during a live broadcast of Trump’s post-arraignment speech.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has become the latest Republican to seek the 2024 GOP nomination, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. Suarez is expected to give a speech on Thursday in California, during which he is expected to formally announce his candidacy. He is the only Hispanic candidate seeking the GOP nomination and the third candidate from Florida, along with frontrunner Trump and Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.
