
Biden outraises and outspends Trump in June as questions loom about the president’s political future
CNN
President Joe Biden outraised – and dramatically outspent – the campaign of Republican rival Donald Trump last month, new campaign reports filed Saturday show, raising questions about how long the president’s political team can operate at full throttle if donations dry up.
President Joe Biden outraised – and dramatically outspent – the campaign of Republican rival Donald Trump last month, new campaign reports filed Saturday show, raising questions about how long the president’s political team can operate at full throttle if donations dry up. Some of the Democratic Party’s big-dollar donors have raised alarms about Biden’s poor performance at last month’s presidential debate, and he faces growing calls from elected officials to abandon his bid for a second White House term. Biden’s campaign stepped up its spending in June, the new filings with the Federal Election Commission show, plowing through more than $59 million as it advertised heavily. His principal campaign committee entered July with nearly $96 million remaining in its bank account – a substantial sum but not enough to sustain June’s blistering spending pace for long without fresh cash infusions. By contrast, Trump’s campaign spent just shy of $10 million, leaving $128 million in its war chest. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, raised nearly $67 million in June – one of its strongest fundraising months in recent years, far surpassing the $39.2 million collected by the Democratic National Committee last month – as Trump’s political apparatus built up a cash advantage over Biden and the Democratic Party heading into July and the general election showdown. Biden’s campaign aides argue that they have capitalized on the fundraising advantage that the president held during the early months of this year to build out a robust ground operation in key battleground states that will help them prevail. And they said the campaign collected $38 million in the four days following Biden’s widely panned debate performance. The reports filed late Saturday, however, include only the final few days of last month after the June 27 faceoff in Atlanta. The full impact of the debate – and other key campaign milestones, including the just-concluded Republican National Convention and the announcement of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as Trump’s running mate – won’t be evident until the campaigns file fundraising and spending details with federal regulators in August.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.

As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.









