Trump looks to carry debate momentum into a critical stretch before GOP convention
CNN
As nerves grew in the lead-up to the first general election debate of the cycle, some close to Donald Trump considered whether the former president might announce his running mate from the stage or shortly thereafter, should the evening take an unfavorable turn.
As nerves grew in the lead-up to the first general election debate of the cycle, some close to Donald Trump considered whether the former president might announce his running mate from the stage or shortly thereafter, should the evening take an unfavorable turn. The wild-card scenario was one of several ideas for post-debate distractions batted around by Trump allies still rattled from the Republican’s uncontrolled first debate appearance in 2020. But that card would ultimately be left in the deck. Rather than managing fallout over Trump’s performance at Thursday’s event, the former president and his team now face an unexpected challenge: keeping the attention on President Joe Biden while navigating a busy sprint to next month’s Republican National Convention, a time during which Trump will be sentenced for his felony convictions and must pick a running mate. The confidence-shattering struggles of the 81-year-old incumbent have swallowed up the post-debate discourse, and the Democratic hand-wringing over the presumptive nominee’s capacity to fight on threatens to overshadow Biden’s campaign for the foreseeable future. Taking a victory lap from a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday, Trump called Biden “grossly incompetent” while poking fun at the president’s weeklong debate prep at Camp David. “He studied so hard that he didn’t know what the hell he was doing,” Trump said. Behind the scenes, Trump’s advisers are plotting how best to wield Biden’s underwhelming display to maximum effect in hopes of shifting momentum in a race unmoved for months by external forces. Asked whether clips of Biden from Thursday night would make their way into upcoming ads, Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita told Fox News: “Duh.”
Democrats are getting the news they’d been hoping for out of Alaska, with former US Rep. Mary Peltola launching a Senate campaign on Monday morning.
When the Supreme Court, led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, ruled in 2020 that federal law protected transgender workers from discrimination, the justices appeared to launch a new era of rights for a historically shunned group.
Cuba’s leader has pushed back on US President Donald Trump’s demand that the Caribbean nation “make a deal” with Washington, as Trump said Havana would be cut off from the Venezuelan oil and money that it’s relied on for decades.
Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.
A suspect has been arrested after a fire tore through Beth Israel, the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, on Saturday, leaving the congregation forced to rebuild from the ashes — again.
The Smithsonian has taken down details about President Donald Trump’s impeachments from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery,
President Donald Trump is weighing a series of potential military options in Iran following deadly protests in the country, two US officials told CNN, as he considers following through on his recent threats to strike the country should they use lethal force against the Iranian people.
Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.
Since early December the US Coast Guard and other military branches have boarded and taken control of five oil ships that had previously been sanctioned, all either accused of being in the process of transporting Venezuelan oil or on their way to take on oil that has been subject to US sanctions since President Donald Trump began a pressure campaign against the leadership of the country during his first term.
This high school sophomore is aiming for a Supreme Court upset in transgender sports case
A Virginia man accused of plotting with his family’s au pair to kill his wife and another man, who had been lured to the home via a sexual fetish website, is set to face trial this week.
Miami’s exile politics forged Marco Rubio’s worldview. Now they’re shaping Trump’s foreign policy.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute said the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared, or revoked, following remarks by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado suggesting she might give her 2025 award to US President Donald Trump.