(WASHINGTON) — The Republican National Committee is launching a nationwide recruitment effort for poll workers ahead of November’s election as former President Donald Trump continues to spread doubts about election security.
The RNC says it has promised Trump it will enlist at least 100,000 people to serve as poll watchers, poll workers, and poll judges — and have kicked off what they are calling the “Protect Your Vote” tour, holding in-person and virtual training sessions in battleground states such as Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
On Friday, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley emphasized the committee’s commitment to the effort above nearly all others, stressing a refocus of priorities at a stop on New York’s Long Island.
“We cannot be all things to all people. We are going to do two things, and we are going to do only two things. We are going to get out the vote, and we are going to protect the ballot — that’s it,” Whatley told a packed room of volunteers in Westbury Friday morning, flanked by top local Republican brass. “The most important thing we can do is get back to basics.”
(New York, notably, has been a reliably Democratic haven for decades, though Trump now says he believes a major flip is within his grasp, following a string of down-ballot GOP wins in The Empire State’s “purple” suburbs during the midterm elections.)
Part of Whatley’s retooled approach at the RNC is an emphasis on early, mail-in voting, a practice Trump once called “corrupt.” Trump has now shifted his stance, and Whatley hopes voters will follow suit. To this end, the committee has launched “Swamp the Vote USA,” a website that instructs supporters how to submit their ballots before Election Day, featuring a video of Trump endorsing those various methods.
Whatley told ABC News after Friday’s event he sees no indication that supporters are being sheepish about early voting. In fact, he expects nearly half of all votes to be cast before Election Day.
“We want to make sure that everybody understands on the Republican side, as the president has said, multiple times, it’s great to vote early. It’s great to vote by mail. It’s great to vote on Election Day,” Whatley said.
He’s also directing resources to ensure the “right rules of the road” are in place, meaning interfacing with various boards of elections, secretaries of state, governors, and local and state parties to alter or add laws that align with their efforts to monitor voting.
The goal is to have volunteers supervise polling sites in order to monitor early and Election Day voting in order to ensure that elections are “secure and transparent and inspire voter confidence.”
“You have to be in the room,” stressed Whatley. “We need Republican attorneys and Republican volunteers serving as poll workers and poll judges and poll observers in any room where voting is taking place or votes or being counted. It’s absolutely critical for us to be in the room.”
In these training sessions, volunteers learn about how to monitor polling sites in accordance with state law and interact with Whatley and RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, as well as other local GOP officials, to increase engagement.
The committee has also set up an “election integrity” department with staff deployed across the nation to keep in constant contact with the trained volunteers.
“No one can sit idly by during this election, and we are excited to help every patriot play a role in the most important election of our lifetime,” Lara Trump said in a press release announcing the Protect the Vote tour.
Whatley denied criticism that he, and the Republican Party broadly, are participating in election denialism.
“I’m not an election denier, I’m an election winner,” said Whatley. “Republicans, Independents, and Democrats want to know that the sanctity of their ballot is going to allow their vote to count.”
Even still the initiative comes as Trump and his Republican allies have continued to spread unfounded claims about prior and forthcoming elections.
“We need to watch the vote. We need to guard the vote,” Lara Trump said while speaking at Turning Point’s “The People Convention” in Michigan last weekend. “It’s so corrupt, the whole election process.”
(NEW YORK) — Facing 16 felony charges in federal court, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez launched a long-shot bid for reelection earlier this month as an independent, but he appears to have held no campaign events, raised almost no money through the first quarter of this year, reportedly has no paid staff and — by siphoning votes from the Democratic Party’s Senate nominee, Rep. Andy Kim, could hand a safe-blue seat to Republicans.
New Jersey Democrats ABC News spoke with are split over Menendez’s motivation.
Some — including Kim — speculate his independent campaign could help him fundraise to cover mounting legal costs. Others said they believe he could be seeking leverage with the Democratic Party. And some state Democrats can’t even agree on whether Menendez will go through with the race at all.
“It’s unfathomable to think I’m running for reelection for any reason other than to continue to uphold my oath of office to help and protect New Jerseyans,” Menendez said to ABC News in an emailed statement. “My candidacy is not, and never was, about leveraging my fellow Democrats.”
Many of those fellow Democrats disagree.
Kim, who won the New Jersey Democratic Senate primary earlier this month, said in an interview with ABC News that he assumed Menendez was running as an independent because he needed money to pay legal fees — incurred in his ongoing trial.
Menendez is charged with allegedly accepting cash, gold bars, luxury wristwatches and other perks from a New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official favors to benefit the businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.
“Depending on what happens with this trial, there could be a long appeals process or other things, so he may have to fundraise for a while,” Kim said.
Julie Roginsky, a veteran New Jersey Democratic political strategist, said she agreed.
“Bob Menendez is staring down millions and millions of dollars in legal fees” and, not being independently wealthy, he has to raise funds to cover them, Roginsky said.
Campaign funds can be used to cover some legal expenses under Federal Election Commission rules, according to former FEC Chairman Michael Toner.
In New Jersey, independent candidates can remove their names from the ballot up until Aug.16. Even if Menendez were to withdraw before that deadline, lobbyists and supporters who might be unwilling or unable to contribute to Menendez’s legal defense fund could donate until then to his campaign instead, Roginsky said.
Toner confirmed that a candidate cannot raise funds for a campaign once they fail to qualify for the ballot in an upcoming cycle. By qualifying for the ballot as an independent, Menendez can therefore continue to raise funds.
Two Democratic operatives close to New Jersey Democratic leadership have a different theory.
New Jersey is a reliably blue seat, and if Menendez pulls votes from Kim, it could imperil that standing — and potentially the U.S. Senate majority in Washington.
Democrats currently hold a narrow 51-seat majority in the Senate but are facing long odds to keep it, with Cook Political Report rating one currently Democratic seat as solid for Republicans and a three others as toss-ups.
Roginsky said she thinks Menendez would not want to cost Democrats the Senate majority.
Knowing that, Menendez could be looking for leverage to extract concessions in exchange for dropping out of the race before late summer, the operatives said. Concessions Menendez might seek, the operatives speculated, could range from financial support to even a pardon from President Joe Biden — as politically improbable as that might be — especially in an election year.
But for many of the state Democrats ABC News interviewed, the question is not why, but whether Menendez will go through with the reelection bid.
“He’s not running again,” said David Wildstein, the editor-in-chief of the New Jersey Globe and a longtime observer of New Jersey politics who says he has known Menendez for 35 years. “I just don’t believe that he’ll want to suffer the indignity of a defeat.”
Kim, for his part, said he isn’t listening to the speculation surrounding Menendez.
“My working assumption right now is that he will be on the ballot,” said Kim, who previously told ABC News “everyone knows Bob Menendez isn’t running for the people of New Jersey, he’s doing it for himself.”
And, Kim said, he will have the support of national Democrats in the event that Menendez does go through with the reelection bid.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer drew criticism for declining to immediately endorse Kim after his primary victory — and still has not done so. But Kim said that he spoke with Schumer after his victory last Tuesday and that they have been “talking more and more” since.
“I’ve certainly felt like we’re getting the support that we need,” Kim said. “And if there are things that we need going forward, I think that we’ll certainly be able to have that kind of coordination.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday won the coin toss to secure a podium position on the right side of the stage during the CNN debate next week, but by doing so gave Donald Trump the final closing statement of the 90-minute matchup.
According to CNN, the coin landed on tails — the side chosen by the Biden campaign. The team then got to choose between podium placement or the order of closing arguments, picking to have Biden be on the right side of television and other screens but deliver his closing statement first.
Trump’s podium will be on the left side, and he will have the last word by delivering his closing statement after Biden.
The 90-minute CNN debate, starting at 9 p.m. ET, will take place on June 27 in Atlanta. It is the first of two debates between Biden and Trump, the second taking place on Sept. 10 and hosted by ABC News.
The CNN debate is being simulcast on ABC and ABC News Live with pre-coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET on the network and 7 p.m ET on ABCNL.
Earlier this week, other rules were announced by CNN such as muting the candidates’ microphone unless it is their turn to speak and allowing no props, only pen, paper and a bottle of water.
There will be no opening statements, two commercial breaks and no studio audience.
Biden and Trump will be given two minutes to answer questions posed by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, followed by one minute each to respond and rebut. There will be a red light flashing to indicate to candidates they have five seconds remaining of their allotted time. When their time is over, the light will turn solid red.
With exactly a week to go until the debate, both campaigns are beginning to prepare.
President Biden is huddling at Camp David with former chief of staff Ron Klain and other longtime advisers and aides.
Toward the end of his debate prep, Biden will take part in a 90-minute mock debate where he’s standing the whole time, according to Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, who’s been in close contact with Biden’s team.
“You got to get used to doing that, and we made Obama do that, too,” Messina told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang. “That’s another advantage for Trump, because he does stand up at those lecterns and gets his two- or three-hour rambling monologues at his rallies.”
As to why Biden chose the right-side podium after winning the coin flip, Messina said Biden just “likes” that side and it’s a “personal preference.”
Meanwhile, Trump is holding policy meetings with advisers and congressional allies on issues like immigration, the economy and democracy. He’ll also campaign in Philadelphia over the weekend and attend fundraisers next week.
Biden and Trump will be the only candidates on stage after the qualification window closed at midnight, CNN said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., running as an independent, fell short of meeting the network’s polling and ballot access requirements. He called his exclusion from the stage “undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly.”
ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — One Secret Service office in Chicago is responsible for securing both the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention and no stone is left unturned — from large-scale security measures to making sure residents in Chicago and Milwaukee aren’t missing trash pickup.
The Secret Service Chicago Field Office is responsible for the entire states of Illinois, Wisconsin, the Quad Cities portion of Iowa and the northern part of Indiana, a “huge land mass” according to the Deputy Special Agent in Charge Derek Mayer, who spoke with ABC News in an exclusive interview.
By law once a National Special Security Event (NSSE) has been established by the secretary of homeland security, the Secret Service becomes the coordinator of the event. Other NSSE’s include the presidential inauguration and the State of the Union. There will be five NSSE’s this year, one of the busiest.
“It’s unprecedented that a field office has had two NSSE events this close that were both conventions,” he said.
Mayer said the office has fewer than 100 agents, and most agents are working to help secure both conventions in which they’ve been planning for it since last April.
“In our world, security comes first, but we also we don’t want a disruption to the public,” he said. “We want everybody to still be able to live their daily lives while we still secure events.”
Part of that is working with the Postal Service, trash pickup services and package delivery services to ensure residents are still able to live normally.
“One thing that we have been doing the last several months is public outreach, community outreach, to make sure that the business owners and the public are well informed about what our expectations are and what their expectations are to us,” he said. “So we can avoid as many disruptions as possible”
Mayer said the office has been working with state and local police department including the Milwaukee and Chicago Police Departments, to help secure the Conventions.
In addition to security preparations for the conventions, the Chicago field office has been busy with everyday tasks such as protecee visits and investigating cyber and financial crimes.
“We’re a very active investigative office, one of the most active in the United States,” he said. “We do we open over 100 investigative cases a year. These cases include counterfeit cyber, financial crime, and other types of financial crimes.”
Last year, the Chicago field office cyber team says it prevented more than $119 million in losses.
The office also does protective intelligence, meaning every threat made to the current or former president and first lady has to be investigated, if they are in their coverage area.
Mayer said the visits from protecees have already doubled since last year.
“We do have protectee visits and Wisconsin is a battleground state,” he said. “So, we are consistently getting protected visits there. So, last year, 2023 Chicago field office had over 80 protected visits. Obviously, we’re going to crush that in 2024.”
(WASHINGTON) — Just two months ago, when former President Donald Trump had just begun raising money with the Republican Party as its new presumptive nominee, his team was trailing President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party by nearly $100 million in campaign cash on hand. Now Trump has rapidly outpaced Biden in fundraising.
This new surge in the Trump campaign’s fundraising effectively closes the money edge Biden’s campaign had boasted earlier this election cycle as the competitive November general election looms. The Trump fundraising boost gives him plenty of fresh cash to potentially spend on advertising after next week’s debate.
The Biden campaign on Thursday announced that the campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s joint fundraising operation raised $85 million in May — significantly less than the whopping $141 million total the Trump campaign claimed it raised the same month.
The Trump campaign and the Republican Party’s joint fundraising committee have now outraised the Biden campaign and the Democratic Party two months in a row. Major Republican donors that had been sitting on the sidelines earlier this year are now rallying behind Trump; small-dollar donors are fired up after the former president’s conviction in his hush-money trial.
Full fundraising figures won’t be available until both sides’ joint fundraising committees file their quarterly reports next month, but Trump appears to have caught up on or is at least close to catching up on Biden’s cash on hand. The Trump campaign and the RNC are reporting a combined cash-on-hand of more than $172 million compared to the just under $157 million in cash-on-hand the Biden campaign reported.
The Biden campaign announced that their total cash-on-hand including joint fundraising committees is $212 million, but the Trump campaign has yet to voluntarily announce a comparative number — which will be released next month.
Trump’s latest fundraising boost comes on the heels of his guilty verdict in his New York criminal trial, which was a major fundraising boon for Trump’s campaign. The Trump campaign claimed that his team raised a massive $53 million from online fundraising in just 24 hours after he was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Both the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign have been holding multiple ritzy high-dollar fundraisers with tickets going up to $840,000, Trump in particular kicking off his joint fundraising with the Republican Party in April with a Palm Beach fundraiser that raked in $50 million just in one night.
Despite the trial schedule that confined Trump into a Manhattan courtroom most days of the week earlier this year, Trump criss-crossed the country on days off the trial courting wealthy donors in Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, Florida and New York — even attending a Manhattan fundraiser the day his guilty verdict dropped.
Trump ramped up fundraising even more once the trial ended, bringing in $27 million from a West Coast fundraising swing earlier this month, while Biden too raised more than $30 million from his star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser last weekend, joined by former President Barack Obama, Julia Roberts and George Clooney.
Both the campaigns also recently had dueling fundraisers in London with surrogates and former ambassadors, courting wealthy Americans abroad.
Meanwhile, pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again also outpaced pro-Biden super PAC Future Forward PAC last month, the pro-Trump group raising $68 million in May, including a whopping $50 million donation from major Trump ally Timothy Mellon. The pro-Biden group raised $39 million last month, including a $19 million donation from Michael Bloomberg.
Trump’s big hauls over the past couple of months reflect an influx of cash from previously untapped big Republican donors that had either turned away from Trump or had been sitting on the sidelines during the primary season. They finally returned to Trump after he became the party’s last-standing presidential candidate — raising the question of whether Trump will be able to continue to expand his donor base.
Regardless, the cash flow has helped Trump gear up for the general election after coming out of the primary and is expected to boost the former president ahead of critical moments in the coming months including the upcoming first presidential debate in Atlanta as well as the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.
“We are moved by the outpouring of support for President Donald J. Trump,” Trump Campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a statement earlier this month when they announced the May fundraising figures. “The American people saw right through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged trial, and sent Biden and Democrats a powerful message – the REAL verdict will come on November 5th.”
The Biden campaign claims its battleground infrastructure is making up for the slower fundraising, saying Trump is doing little to expand his voter base in battleground states.
“For months, the Biden-Harris campaign has been on the ground talking to the voters who will decide this election, and Donald Trump’s been nowhere to be found,” Biden-Harris 2024 Battleground States Director Dan Kanninen wrote in a statement. “Now, with just over four months until the election, Donald Trump couldn’t match our battleground infrastructure if he tried. While Trump’s team is desperately trying to spin their lack of infrastructure as ‘strategic,’ the bottom line is that Donald Trump cannot buy back the time he has lost — and invisible campaigns don’t win.”
“In an election sure to be decided by tens of thousands of voters, Team Trump is doing little to nothing to expand their base or court the battleground voters who will decide this election,” Kanninen continued.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday clarified his immigration proposal to give green cards to all noncitizen college students who graduate from American universities, arguing there would be an “aggressive vetting process.”
“He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to ABC News on Friday. “This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
Leavitt went on to say, “radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters” would be excluded from Trump’s proposed plan.
Trump deviated from his usual anti-immigrant rhetoric and advocated for “automatically” giving noncitizens in the U.S. green cards when they graduate from college — not just people who go through the vetting process, he said in an episode of the “All In” podcast that was released on Thursday.
“[What] I want to do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes junior colleges, too,” Trump said in the episode, which was taped on Wednesday.
“Anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years, if you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country,” he continued.
The Biden campaign responded to Trump’s comments, saying the former president is making an “empty promise.”
“Trump’s empty promise is both a lie and an insult, especially to the countless people that have been permanently damaged by his first-term in office,” Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said.
Trump’s response came after one of the hosts, Jason Calacanis, asked Trump if he could promise to “give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America.”
On the campaign trail, Trump has frequently disparaged undocumented immigrants, labeling them as violent criminals who are stealing jobs, resources and housing away from American citizens as he vows at almost every campaign stop to lead the largest deportation operation if reelected.
His comments seemed to be an attempt to further court the Silicon Valley businessmen, three of whom are immigrants, and the broader tech industry, which heavily relies on work visas for employment.
David Sacks, one of the podcast hosts, asked if he would expand H-1B work visa for tech workers after fixing the border — to which Trump said “yes,” going on to complain that “highly skilled people” were leaving the United States due to immigration issues.
“Somebody graduates at the top of the class, they can’t even make a deal with the company because they don’t think they’re going to be able to stay in the country. That is going to end on Day 1,” Trump said.
“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” he added.
Trump’s various personal businesses have frequently hired foreign workers, including using the H-2B visa program that allows American companies to hire low-wage foreign nonagricultural workers to hire workers at Mar-a-Lago during the “Palm Beach season,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in 2016. Trump, however, has criticized the program for taking jobs away from Americans.
In the past, Trump advocated for merit-based immigration plans, signing the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order, which sought to award business visas to high-skilled workers.
“You need a pool of people to work for your companies. You have great companies and have to be smart people. Not everybody can be less than smart. You need brilliant people,” Trump said on the podcast.
