Closing summary
Ron DeSantis will announce his campaign for president tomorrow, not at a public event surrounded by well-wishers and allies, but on Twitter with the company’s owner Elon Musk. We’ll see how that goes for him. Meanwhile, in Washington, negotiations between Joe Biden’s team and deputies of Kevin McCarthy over raising the debt ceiling continued, with the Republican speaker sounding optimistic about their prospects by the afternoon. Remember: 1 June remains the best estimate of a deadline for a deal, after which the US government could default and potentially send the economy crashing down.
Here’s what else happened today:
A Trump-allied Pac called DeSantis’s announcement plans “one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history.”
Mitch McConnell thinks everyone should “relax”.
Special counsel Jack Smith may soon wrap up his investigation of the classified documents Trump kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and recommend whether to charge the former president or his allies, according to a report.
House Republicans auctioned off chapstick used by McCarthy. No idea why they did this. Rightwing representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was the winner, and paid $100,000 for it.
House Democrats rallied their troops to oppose spending cuts the GOP is likely to demand in exchange for supporting a debt limit increase.
Updated
Ron DeSantis has spent months positioning himself for his imminent presidential run – much to the displeasure of Donald Trump, who has taken to hurling insults at him.
Thus, it’s no surprise that the former president’s allies have hurled vitriol at DeSantis’s reported plans to announce a president campaign on Twitter.
“This is one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history. The only thing less relatable than a niche campaign launch on Twitter, is DeSantis’ after party at the uber elite Four Seasons resort in Miami,” read a just-released statement from Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Make America Great Again Inc political action committee supporting Trump’s bid for president.
It continues:
Everyday more and more Americans are realizing just how out of step Ron DeSantis is with their values and how unelectable he really is. From his votes to cut Social Security and Medicare, to his support of a national sales tax that would raise taxes on 90% of families, to his vote in support of Obama’s TPP which sent jobs to China, to his vote against funding for President Trump’s wall, Ron DeSantis just isn’t ready to be President. President Trump is ready on day one to turn our country around, reverse Biden’s disasterous policies and make America great again.
