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The Guardian - US
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Johana Bhuiyan (now); Chris Stein and Fran Lawther (earlier)

FBI investigation into Trump-Russia collusion relied on shaky intelligence, says John Durham report – as it happened

Donald Trump United States Abortion Ron DeSantis Joe Biden Florida
Donald Trump speaking at Mar-a-Lago.
Donald Trump speaking at Mar-a-Lago. The Durham report into Trump-Russia collusion has found the FBI relied on uncorroborated intel. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Closing summary

That’s all from us today. The day started off slow but ended with a few major events.

Here’s what happened:

  • Staffers in House Democrat Gerry Connolly’s office were attacked by a person wielding a baseball bat. This is a developing story, and we’ll let you know when more facts about the assault become public.

  • John Durham released his long-awaited report on the findings of his investigation into an investigation. While he criticized the FBI for launching an inquiry into Trump’s connections to Russia during the 2016 election based on uncorroborated evidence, the report did not recommend any new charges. Representative Jim Jordan has invited Durham to testify at a 25 May hearing about the report.

  • Rudy Giuliani has been sued by a former employee and client for sexual abuse, harassment and other misconduct. In the 70-page-lawsuit, Noelle Dunphy alleged Giuliani “abused his position as Ms Dunphy’s lawyer to pressure her into sex”. The lawsuit claims that many of his remarks were recorded.

  • Some House Republicans are demanding that expanded border security and the construction of Donald Trump’s border wall be included in their demands to raise the debt ceiling.

  • There’s no sign yet of the predicted surge in border crossings after the pandemic-era Title 42 expired last week, a top homeland security official said.

  • The powers that be in Washington still have not reached an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, but Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy will sit down tomorrow as the 1 June deadline for a potential US government default grows ever nearer.

Updated

Rep. Jim Jordon has officially requested John Durham testify about the findings of his investigation at a hearing scheduled on 25 May, according to a letter Jordon tweeted out.

In other news, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill banning Florida state universities from promoting, maintaining or supporting any programs that “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism”.

According to CNN, the law also dictates that classes “may not distort significant historical events” with “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities”.

DeSantis said DEI programs are a “distraction” and can be “better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, and that has no place in our public institutions”.

Updated

Senator Lindsey Graham said the Durham report was a “damning indictment of the FBI under James Comey”, and called on Senator Dick Durbin to hold a Senate judiciary committee hearing on its findings.

“Sadly, this report – that shines a bright light on problems at the FBI and DOJ – reinforces the narrative that the rule of law in America is subservient to political outcomes,” Graham said in a statement. “It is a very dangerous development and moment in American history.”

“Finally, my advice to those unfairly maligned by the bogus Crossfire Hurricane investigation would be to hire a good lawyer and sue the hell out of them,” the statement continues.

Updated

The Durham report, which didn’t recommend any wholesale changes at the FBI except to suggest the creation of a position to oversee politically sensitive investigations, was recorded as costing about $6.5m as of last December, according to my colleague Hugo Lowell.

More from his story here:

“Much of the criticism of the FBI in the roughly 300-page report was already known when the justice department inspector general issued its own report, which raised similar concerns but ultimately concluded that the FBI investigation into Trump was justified.

The Durham report was more scathing, finding that the FBI moved quickly on a vague tip about potential contacts between a Trump campaign aide and Russian officials in July 2016 based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated evidence” in a “departure from how it approached” the Clinton campaign.

Also contained in the report:

  • Durham said the FBI was more cautious of allegations of foreign influence when it came to the Clinton campaign, and did not pursue evidence in two cases of foreign governments trying to gain influence with Clinton while providing defensive briefings, unlike with the Trump campaign;

  • Durham said the FBI was overly reliant on investigative tips from Trump’s political opponents and did not rigorously analyze the information it received, which extended the investigation and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump;

  • Durham said the FBI decided to move ahead with Crossfire Hurricane despite a lack of information from the intelligence community that corroborated the hypothesis on which it was predicated and FBI agents ignored information that exonerated key people in the case.

The top FBI officials who oversaw the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and left the bureau years ago have long maintained that they had a duty to investigate allegations that Russia, a strategic US adversary, was seeking to garner influence with Trump, who had no experience in government.”

Updated

Trump has posted to Truth Social in response to the Durham report, according to CNN.

“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!” Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday. “In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!”

Updated

The White House has released the 2022 financial disclosures for President Biden.

His finances have seen little change year-over-year, according to a Reuters report.

More from Reuters:

Book royalties for both the president and first lady Jill Biden, however, fell compared with a year earlier.

Biden earned between $2,500 and $5,000 in book royalties in 2022 compared with $30,000 a year earlier. He also earned less than $3,000 in “speaking and writing engagements,” the disclosures show.

Rudy Giuliani sued by former associate for alleged sexual abuse and harassment

In a new and graphic lawsuit, Noelle Dunphy, a former employee of Rudy Giuliani, is alleging the former New York City mayor and lawyer for Donald Trump made sexual demands, was constantly drunk and “abused his position as Ms Dunphy’s lawyer to pressure her into sex”. The lawsuit claims that many of his remarks were recorded.

According to the lawsuit, “Giuliani began abusing Ms Dunphy almost immediately after she started working for the Defendants. He made clear that satisfying his sexual demands – which came virtually anytime, anywhere – was an absolute requirement of her employment and of his legal representation.” In one graphic example, the lawsuit details allegations of how Giuliani forced Dunphy to perform oral sex on him.

“It became clear to Ms Dunphy that there was no way out of giving him oral sex,” the lawsuit reads. “She did so, against her will.”

The lawsuit seeks at least $10m in damages from Giuliani and three of his companies.

The full lawsuit can be found here.

Updated

The FBI has released a statement in response to the Durham report saying, “FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time.”

“Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the statement reads. “This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect.”

Updated

For those just catching up, the Durham report is an investigation compiled over the course of three years by John Durham, a Trump-appointed special counsel brought on in 2020 to, as my colleague Martin Pengelly put it, investigate an investigation.

From Pengelly’s report:

His new mission was to look for political bias in the federal investigation which ensnared Trump and aides including Michael Flynn, the national security adviser fired for lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Durham’s appointment came in the immediate aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Trump and Russia.

Mueller did not find evidence of collusion but did lay out extensive evidence of Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice.

Trump and his allies predicted Durham would reveal systemic wrongdoing, proving the rightwing conspiracy theory that a “deep state” of bureaucrats and intelligence operatives was thwarting Trump’s every move.

Some Democrats cautiously welcomed the appointment. Critics said Durham was being sent on a retaliatory political mission.

In October 2020, shortly before the presidential election, Barr made Durham a special counsel, thereby ensuring he could continue should Trump lose the White House to Joe Biden. On Monday, nearly two and a half years into Biden’s presidency, Durham released his report.

It was highly critical of FBI and justice department practices but it did not reveal systemic wrongdoing or recommend new charges.

As the Associated Press put it, the investigation had wrapped up after delivering “underwhelming results, prosecutors securing a guilty plea from a little-known FBI employee but losing the only two criminal cases they took to trial”.

Updated

More Republicans are beginning to respond to the Durham report.

Arizona Republican congressman Andy Biggs is calling for the defunding of the FBI, while Illinois representative Mary Miller called the investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia during the 2016 election a “partisan witch hunt”.

As a reminder, the Durham report found that the FBI used uncorroborated evidence as the basis to open the Crossfire Hurricane investigation but did not recommend any additional charges.

Updated

If you want to read the Durham report – all 306 pages of it – the link is here.

Or you can hold off till next week, when John Durham might take Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Jim Jordan, up on his offer to testify:

Updated

Durham report faults origins of Trump-Russia investigation, does not recommend charges

Special counsel John Durham’s report uncovering the origins of the justice department’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election found the FBI was relying on shaky intel, but does not recommend that charges should be pursued, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports.

The Guardian has obtained a copy of the report, which the government will release at 4pm ET today. Durham was appointed by the justice department during Donald Trump’s presidency to look into how the initial investigation began, but his inquiry became mired in allegations of unethical conduct as well as two failed prosecutions.

Updated

Police name attack suspect as 49-year-old Xuan Kha Tran Pham

The United States Capitol Police (USCP) have named 49-year-old Xuan Kha Tran Pham as the suspected assailant at Representative Gerry Connolly’s office.

In a statement, the USCP said Pham lived in Fairfax, Virginia, and is facing one count of malicious wounding, and another count of aggravated malicious wounding. They note that they do not know what his motivation was.

Updated

Congressional staffer suffered head wound, attacker used metal bat: CNN

CNN spoke with Representative Gerry Connolly, who gave details about today’s attack at his office, including that the assailant struck staff with a metal bat, and that an intern on her first day at work was among the victims:

Updated

The top Democrat in the House Hakeem Jeffries has condemned the attack on Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly.

“Earlier today, I spoke to Congressman Connolly to offer him and his staff the full support of the House Democratic Caucus family in the aftermath of this horrific attack. We are grateful for the members of law enforcement and medical professionals who swiftly acted to apprehend the suspect and care for the affected members of our Capitol Hill community,” Jeffries, who serves as House minority leader, said in a statement.

“The safety of our Members and of our staff remains of paramount importance, particularly given the increased instances of political violence in our country. I have asked the House Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police to continue their focus on collaborating with our Members. We must collectively take every available precaution to protect Members and our staff, who serve the American people with patriotism and passion and deserve to do so without fear for their safety.”

My colleague Martin Pengelly has the full report on the assault in Fairfax:

A person wielding a baseball bat sought out a Democratic member of Congress at a district office in Virginia before “committing an act of violence” against two staff members, the representative said, adding that both people attacked suffered “non-life-threatening injuries”.

“The thought that someone would take advantage of my staff’s accessibility to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating,” the congressman, Gerry Connolly, said in a statement to media.

Acts of political extremism, including ones targeting lawmakers, have become increasingly common in the US.

Fellow Virginia congressman Don Beyer has expressed his support for Connolly and his team after the incident in Fairfax.

He tweeted: “This is very, very scary. Sending my best wishes to @GerryConnolly and his team, with hopes for swift recoveries of his staffers who were injured in this violent attack.”

Fairfax police have confirmed they have taken a suspect into custody and are investigating an assault of two people who work for Connolly.

The day so far

Spoiler alert: the powers that be in Washington still have not reached an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, but Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy will sit down tomorrow as the 1 June deadline for a potential US government default grows ever nearer. Will it be enough to break the logjam? You’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find that out.

There’s been plenty of news thus far today:

  • Staffers in House Democrat Gerry Connolly’s office were attacked by a person wielding a baseball bat. This is a developing story, and we’ll let you know when more facts about the assault become public.

  • Some House Republicans are demanding that improved border security and the construction of Donald Trump’s border wall be included in their demands to raise the debt ceiling.

  • There’s no sign yet of the predicted surge in border crossings after the pandemic-era Title 42 expired last week, a top homeland security official said.

Democratic congressman says staff attacked by person with baseball bat in office

Gerry Connolly, a House Democrat representing Virginia, said two staffers were attacked by a person wielding a baseball bat who broke into his district office in the city of Fairfax.

In a tweet, he said: “This morning, an individual entered my district office armed with a baseball bat and asked for me before committing an act of violence against two members of my staff.

“The individual is in police custody and both members of my team were transferred to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.”

Here’s the congressman’s full statement:

Updated

Biden announces Tuesday meeting with McCarthy amid debt limit deadlock

Joe Biden said he would meet with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday ahead of the 1 June deadline when the US government could default on its obligations if the debt limit is increased.

While the president didn’t specify the subject of the talks, the two men met last week with other congressional leaders to find a way out of the logjam, though it’s unclear if the two sides are any closer to an agreement.

Biden wants the debt ceiling increased without preconditions, arguing the US government should be able to borrow to pay for spending Congress already approved. McCarthy and the Republicans, meanwhile, want Democrats to support cutting spending and enacting conservative priorities in exchange for their votes.

Updated

A pair of Republican lawmakers is circulating a letter that calls on Congress’s leadership to include measures intended to strengthen border security in the ongoing negotiations over the debt ceiling.

House Republicans last week passed the Secure Our Border Act, a conservative measure that would limit migrants’ ability to seek asylum, bolster border security funding and force the construction to restart on Donald Trump’s border wall, which Joe Biden cancelled when he took office. Democrats controlling the Senate have shown no interest in considering the bill and Biden said he would veto it, so Kevin Hern, chair of the influential Republican Study Committee, and Ben Cline are circulating a letter calling on its measures to be included in the debt ceiling talks.

“American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for the rapidly growing illegal immigration crisis. Thus, we support the inclusion of common-sense border security and immigration reforms in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling,” the pair write in a text of the letter obtained by the Guardian.

“Negotiators should also consider other common-sense policies, such as ensuring taxpayer funded welfare programs and tax credits are not available to illegal immigrants, restoring the Trump Administration’s public charge rule, and preventing relevant federal funding from flowing to sanctuary cities that harbor illegal aliens, among others.”

A source familiar with the letter said it is being circulated among members of the Republican Study Committee, which is the largest ideological caucus in Congress. It is expected to be sent to congressional leadership and the White House on Wednesday.

The early months of the GOP’s nomination process often bring candidates out of the woodwork, as (occasionally surprising) old names look for another shot at the White House. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry is considering a third run for president:

The former Texas governor Rick Perry’s announcement on Sunday that he could mount a third run for the Republican presidential nomination encountered widespread mockery over a famous debate stage gaffe in which he forgot the name of a government department he said he would abolish.

But Perry, 73, also ran into stormier waters, being accused of lying regarding his alleged involvement in Donald Trump’s election subversion.

Perry is the longest-serving Texas governor, in office between 2000 and 2015. A telegenic ex-air force pilot, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and 2016.

Both campaigns flopped but, speaking to CNN on Sunday, he said a third run was “something that I haven’t taken off the table”.

In response, many observers pointed to Perry’s debate stage nightmare in Rochester, Michigan, in November 2011.

Perry said then: “It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, education, and the uh ... what’s the third one, there? Let’s see … Commerce, education and the, uh, um uh … The third agency of government I would do away with, uh, education, commerce, and, let’s see … I can’t. The third one. I can’t.

“Oops.”

Iowa’s Republican senator Joni Ernst had the following to say about Ron DeSantis’s visit to the state this weekend.

She spoke to the conservative Newsmax channel:

We are nearing the time of year when Americans hear a lot more about Iowa than they usually do. The reason? Its role as an early voting state in the presidential primary process. And while polls shows Florida governor Ron DeSantis has a significant hill to climb to reach the same levels of popularity as Donald Trump, the Guardian’s Maya Yang reports his swing through the Hawkeye State this weekend appeared to be a success:

Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, has rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from Iowa lawmakers as he visited the crucial early-voting state on Saturday in an attempt to garner support for his potential Republican presidential campaign.

The pro-DeSantis Super Pac Never Back Down announced endorsements from 37 Republican Iowa state senators and representatives, including the Iowa senate president, Amy Sinclair, and the state house majority leader, Matt Windschitl.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Sinclair praised DeSantis, saying that he stands “head and shoulders” above other Republican presidential candidates including Donald Trump and that the choice is “an easy endorsement for me”.

Over the weekend, Joe Biden (while on a bike ride) was asked by reporters about the situation at the southern border.

Here’s what he had to say, including his response to the oft-repeated demand from Republicans that he visit the frontier with Mexico:

The Guardian’s Alexandra Villarreal has more on just how Joe Biden is trying to discourage migrants, and why advocacy groups say in this area, he’s not that different from Donald Trump:

Last week, the Biden administration toughened its stance against migration at the US-Mexico border through a new federal regulation that severely restricts access to asylum. This “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule effectively replaces the Title 42 public health order, which Donald Trump introduced ostensibly to stem Covid-19 but has functioned increasingly as an immigration enforcement tool, allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants without the chance to request asylum in the US. Title 42 ended on 11 May.

The new regulation means people fleeing their home countries because of unlivable violence and instability are rendered ineligible for asylum unless they can meet one of a handful of exceptions.

As a result, the US will probably return many more vulnerable people to dangerous situations. The rule is being challenged in federal court by advocacy groups.

US border crossings dropped by 50% since Title 42 ended: DHS

Unauthorized border crossings have fallen by about half since the United States ended pandemic-era restrictions known as Title 42 and replaced them last week with new, stringent rules, a top homeland security official said.

“Over the last three days, we have seen approximately a 50% decrease in encounters compared to the days leading up to the end of Title 42,” the department’s assistant secretary for border and immigration policy Blas Nuñez-Neto told reporters.

“It is important to note that while Title 42 has ended, the conditions that are causing hemispheric migration at unprecedented levels have not changed. We continue to see more displaced people in the hemisphere than we have in decades.”

First imposed by Donald Trump as the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, Title 42 allowed the United States to turn away many asylum seekers. The rule expired at midnight last Friday, raising fears of a new surge in migrants across the southern border. Under Joe Biden, authorities announced new restrictions on migrants, including banning asylum seekers who passed through another country on their way to the United States but did not seek refuge there.

“Since Friday, individuals who crossed the border unlawfully to enter the United States without using the lawful pathways that we have significantly expanded over the last two years now face tougher consequences at the border, including a minimum five-year bar on reentry and the potential to be criminally prosecuted if they try again,” Nuñez-Neto said.

He noted that since Friday, US authorities returned hundreds of people including Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans to Mexico, and sent thousands of others from Peru, Colombia and Honduras to their home countries.

One of the biggest legacies of Donald Trump’s presidency is the supreme court’s large conservative majority, which has already handed down decisions with major import to life in the United States. The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports on a new book that explores one of the tools that conservative justices have used to get their way:

Conservative justices on the US supreme court consciously broke with decades-old congressional rules and norms to shift laws governing religious freedom sharply to the right through a series of shadowy unsigned and unexplained emergency orders, a new book reveals.

Five of the six conservatives who now command the majority on the US’s most powerful court have rammed through some of their most contentious and extreme partisan decisions using the so-called “shadow docket” – unsigned orders issued frequently late at night, in literal and metaphorical darkness. The orders do not reveal who voted for them or why, often providing one-line explanations of the legal thinking behind them.

The switch from openly argued cases, aired in public, to the unaccountability of the shadow docket was made purposefully during the pandemic in cases dealing with religious liberty, concludes Stephen Vladeck, an authority on the federal courts at the University of Texas law school. He warns that the trend is merging with the current ethics scandals surrounding the conservative justice Clarence Thomas to damage the legitimacy of the court and threaten a full-blown constitutional crisis.

Besides negotiating over the debt ceiling, House Republicans have been preoccupied with a campaign of investigations targeting the Biden administration. But as the Guardian’s David Smith reports, the evidence they’ve turned up thus far doesn’t quite deliver on their promise:

“This is a very serious investigation,” James Comer, chairman of the US House of Representatives’ oversight committee, told the rightwing channel Newsmax recently. “The allegations and the things that we’re investigating make Watergate look like jaywalking.”

The Watergate scandal needed a whistleblower, John Dean, to bring down President Richard Nixon half a century ago. Republican Comer claims that he, too, has a “highly credible” whistleblower who will provide evidence that Joe Biden has been compromised by a foreign power.

Such a monumental allegation from such a senior politician would once have been front page news. Even if Republicans were assumed to have partisan motivations, many observers would have begun with the premise that there is no smoke without fire.

McCarthy says still 'far apart' with Democrats on debt ceiling

Despite encouraging signs from the White House over the weekend, the Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, gave a gloomy assessment of talks on raising the debt ceiling when CNN caught up with him today:

The US government earlier this year hit the legal limit on how much debt it can accrue, and around 1 June is expected to exhaust its cash on hand and potentially default on its obligations for the first time in history. McCarthy has demanded Democrats agree to spending cuts and other conservative priorities in exchange for the GOP voting to raise the limit.

Joe Biden and Senate Democrats, meanwhile, say the limit must be raised without preconditions. The two sides met last week and continued talking, and over the weekend, Biden administration officials signaled some progress was being made.

“I’m hopeful. I think the negotiations are very active. I’m told they have found some areas of agreement,” Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Saturday.

Updated

While Donald Trump presses ahead with his new presidential campaign, Florida governor Ron DeSantis continues laying the groundwork for his, The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports, with a formal announcement of candidacy expected within weeks:

Ron DeSantis is using the final weeks before he reportedly launches a presidential campaign to modify Florida law to allow him to run while serving as governor and reduce transparency over political spending and his travel.

DeSantis is poised to sign a bill that would exempt him from Florida’s “resign-to-run” law, so that he won’t have to give up his office in order to run for president. Under existing state law, if he were to run, DeSantis would have had to submit a resignation letter before Florida’s qualifying deadline this year and step down by inauguration day in 2025. Last month, Republicans in the state legislature passed a measure that says the restriction does not apply to those running for president or vice-president.

Speaking of last week’s CNN town hall, Axios has more details this morning of why Donald Trump acted the way he did at the much-critiqued event.

As the first half of the town hall concluded, Trump was met backstage by adviser Jason Miller, Axios reported, who “as if psyching up a boxer in his corner or egging on a bully – showed Trump moments-old tweets from Democrats blasting CNN and saying Trump was winning.”

He then came back out swinging, metaphorically. His tone grew more combative, and he at one point called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person”.

“He was the leader of the free world again,” a confidant of the former president told Axios.

The tweets Trump was shown included one from progressive House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as another from his foes at The Lincoln Project.

Updated

We’ve wrung most of the news out of the Messenger’s interview with Donald Trump, but the former president makes one policy announcement in the piece that’s worth mentioning.

If returned to the White House next year, Trump pledged to release the rest of the US government’s classified files related to president John F Kennedy’s assassination. He had overseen the declassification of some of the documents during his time as president, as has Joe Biden.

“I will tell you that I have released a lot. I will release the remaining portion very early in my term,” Trump told the Messenger.

Updated

Trump fears rebuke if he dropped 2020 election lies, bashes DeSantis: interview

In his interview with the Messenger, Donald Trump stuck to his guns when it came to his 2020 election lies and dislike of Florida governor Ron DeSantis. But in a sign of the former president’s reported unease over Roe v Wade’s end last year, he stayed evasive on just how far he would go in cracking down on abortion.

“He has to do what he has to do,” Trump said when asked if he supported the ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy DeSantis signed into Florida law. “He signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”

Pushed further by interviewer Marc Caputo on whether he thought the law was “too harsh”, Trump said, “I’m looking at many alternatives. But I was able to get us to the table by terminating Roe v. Wade. That’s the most important thing that’s ever happened for the pro-life movement.” Again, Caputo pressed, asking him to say definitively whether or not he’d sign such a bill into law. “I’m looking at all [options].” Trump said.

That evasiveness is in line with how he reacted when questioned about the subject at the CNN town hall last week. Last year, the New York Times reported the former president worried Roe v Wade’s end could hurt Republicans, and indeed, the party performed worse than expected in the midterm elections held later in 2022.

For all his waffling, the former president’s was much more definitive in how he feels about DeSantis, who has used his governorship of Florida over the past few years to position himself to succeed Trump as the GOP standard bearer.

“He’s got no personality. And I don’t think he’s got a lot of political skill,” Trump said.

Those who watched the CNN town hall last week will notice just how closely Trump stuck to his guns when it came to repeating his debunked theories that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Caputo unearths one potential reason why.

The interviewer asks Trump is he doesn’t worry that the constant election fraud talk might pose a liability. “No. Because if you look at the polls, almost 80% in our party think the election was rigged,” he replies, adding that if he stopped talking about it, “I think if I didn’t I would actually be rebuked by a large portion of the Republican party.”

Updated

Trump remains evasive on six-week abortion ban in new interview

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Days after participating in a contentious and criticized town hall with CNN, Donald Trump continued what appears to be a mainstream media blitz by granting an interview to online startup The Messenger. Journalist Marc Caputo is not successful in getting the former president to clarify his stance on abortion, including the six-week ban now in place in Florida, but Trump does hold forth on potential primary foe Ron DeSantis, and shines some light on why he remains so adamant with his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Here’s a rundown of what we expect to happen today:

  • Debt limit talks continue and comments from Joe Biden and his top officials over the weekend indicate progress may actually be being made ahead of the 1 June deadline for a potential US government default.

  • There’s no White House press briefing today, and Biden is spending it flying from Delaware to Philadelphia and finally back to Washington DC.

  • Kamala Harris is having a similarly quiet one, at least when it comes to interactions with the masses. She has no public events scheduled.

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