President Donald Trump’s poor approval rating is weighing down the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections, a new NBC News poll has found.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is engaging with staff on Senate matters following yesterday’s hospitalization, his spokesperson said.
“Senator McConnell is fully engaged with staff on Senate business and Kentucky matters and is very appreciative of the outstanding care he is receiving,” David Popp said in a statement this evening.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told NBC News that he spoke with McConnell, the previous Senate Republican leader, this afternoon and he “sounded good.”
“He was dialed in, watching what’s going on up here and reacting to the news today and all that,” Thune added.
McConnell was not on Capitol Hill today.
A Republican candidate named Dan Sullivan who’s challenging GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan for a Senate seat in Alaska has been deemed ineligible for this year’s primary by a top state elections official.
In a letter today, Alaska’s Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher told the challenger that his candidacy “was not filed in good faith for the purpose of genuinely pursuing election as Alaska’s U.S. Senator.”
Beecher added that his declaration to run for the office was “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”
The Division of Elections received two complaints from the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, Beecher said, about Sullivan’s eligibility to run for senator. She said she gave the candidate until the evening of June 11 to respond to the complaints and defend himself but did not receive additional information or evidence.
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The fireworks display set for the Fourth of July on the National Mall is expected to last about 40 minutes and will use 860,754 fireworks shells or effects, according to Pyrotecnico, the company running the event.
Jodi Dague, the company’s marketing director, shared details about the show with NBC News. Axios was first to report on them.
The company is working with Freedom 250 to launch the fireworks celebration for the 250th anniversary event and they’re going to attempt to break a world record.
“Making history beyond the celebration itself, Pyrotecnico will join Freedom 250 in an attempt to break the current world record for the largest fireworks display, a title currently held by Iglesia Ni Cristo in the Philippines since 2016, making the July 4th show not only a once-in-a-generation patriotic spectacle but a landmark moment in fireworks history,” Pyrotecnico said in a release.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said today that he’s being investigated by the Justice Department and accused Trump of targeting him for political reasons.
“Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us,” he said in a post on X.
Agents have “knocked on the doors on family friends and former employees. Not because they’ve found a crime, but because they’re trying to find one,” Newsom said in a video, also posted on X. He said the investigators have demanded records and “random documents.”
Newsom, a Democrat who has repeatedly clashed with the president, said the probe is politically motivated because of his criticisms of Trump and because he is also considering a run for the Oval Office.
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Rick Jackson lacks Trump’s endorsement. But as a wealthy businessman who’s never previously held elected office, he has leaned heavily into a message comparing himself to the president in his campaign for Georgia governor.
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Vice President JD Vance now concedes that it was “boneheaded” of him in 2021 to call Kamala Harris and other Democrats “childless cat ladies.”
The admission comes in Vance’s forthcoming memoir, “Communion,” which is set to be released tomorrow.
“One of the dumbest things I ever said came when I argued that ‘childless cat ladies’ across the Democrat Party were running our country into the ground,” Vance writes in the book, a copy of which was obtained and read by NBC News.
“The comment caused two firestorms: the first when I made it, the second years later during a political campaign,” Vance adds. “It was a boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating.”
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A pair of senators plans to introduce a bill today that would centralize federal efforts to fight scams and help Americans obtain information about how to identify fraud.
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., are set to introduce the ReportScams.gov Act, which would require the federal government to establish a centralized reporting website and direct the government to create a new Federal Scams Action Plan to thwart fraud and support victims.
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As they walked through the bowels of the Kennedy Center, Trump asked Sen. Lindsey Graham his opinion on something that might mean a lot one day to an audience sitting through three hours of Les Mis.
Try out some of the new seats being considered for the building’s renovation, Trump told the South Carolina Republican. Graham obliged, plunking himself down in different chairs and telling Trump which one he liked best.
“He couldn’t make up his mind,” Graham said of the president, recounting a trip to the performing arts center earlier this year.
“I don’t know which one he [ultimately] picked, but only in America would I be picking the seats for the Kennedy Center,” laughed Graham, a Trump ally.
Facing one of the roughest patches of his second term, Trump is devoting outsized energy to giving Washington its biggest facelift in living memory. He is punctuating his public appearances with long digressions about the ballroom he’s building at the White House, the resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, a 250-foot arch he hopes to build near the Lincoln Memorial and fountains that his administration is repairing across the city.
Yesterday, he celebrated a birthday, and thus joined an 80-or-above age group in which only 6% are employed, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. With no more races to run and the clock ticking on his final term, Trump wants to cement a legacy that includes remaking Washington in keeping with his personal aesthetic, people close to him say.
Trump told reporters during his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron that he spoke yesterday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We had a very good conversation yesterday with President Zelenskyy and President Putin and I see, maybe, we can do something there, I really do, I think they’re both open to it,” Trump said.
“Now that this is finished, we’re going to be focusing on that, see if we can get that one done,” Trump said, referring to the U.S. agreement with Iran to end the war against that country and open the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite his administration’s efforts, there has not been a breakthrough in the effort to end the war in Ukraine. During his campaign, Trump said he would be able to end the war quickly.
As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, a yawning chasm has emerged between younger and older Americans on their feelings about their country, its core values, its past and its future.
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The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a New York law that sets out a legal pathway to hold gunmakers accountable for harm caused by their weapons.
The court’s decision today not to intervene means the 2021 law remains in effect. It allows for various legal claims against gun manufacturers under state law, including alleged conduct that endangers the public health of New Yorkers.
The law, which was immediately challenged in court after being enacted, was written specifically to circumvent a 2005 federal law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that created a liability shield for gunmakers.
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The day after Trump endorsed Rep. Mike Collins in the Senate race in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp held news conference with Collins’ opponent, Derek Dooley, to tout his candidacy.
“I was very clear with the president of why I thought we needed a political outsider in this race,” Kemp said. “Obviously he disagreed with that. And the voters are going to weigh in tomorrow to settle that score.”
When asked if the absence of a Trump endorsement could help or hurt Dooley if he were to win tomorrow’s runoff election, Gov. Kemp said: “I’m not worried about any political equations or keeping score. Everything I’m doing is to make sure we win in November.”
He added, “I know there’s some people that may like the decisions I’ve made, some of them that may not. But at least people know where I am.”
Both Dooley and Kemp used a line they’ve repeated throughout the campaign as Trump sat on the sidelines of the race.
“The most important endorsement I’ve been working toward every single day is that of the people of Georgia, because that’s what matters most,” Dooley said. “And that’s what I will continue to focus on for these next 24 hours.”
Kemp agreed, “The real endorsement is tomorrow.”
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was hospitalized yesterday. There’s no word on his condition or why he was hospitalized but his spokesperson says the 84-year-old is “receiving excellent care.”
The Supreme Court rejected former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page’s attempt to revive a lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and others over their roles in a federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Page’s lawsuit focused on inaccuracies in warrant applications that sought permission from a judge to carry out surveillance on him as part of the probe. An investigation carried out by a Justice Department watchdog later found that the warrant applications were faulty.
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The president said in a post on Truth Social that the event he plans to host on the National Mall on the Fourth of July will be “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all.”
The president said the rally will take place near the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument at around 7 p.m. and will feature military bands, orchestras and ceremonial units.
“This ensemble will be the largest formation of Joint Military Music and Ceremonial performances in History,” he wrote. “There will be incredible Flyovers and Airshows featuring our Top Military Pilots and Equipment, and I will deliver keynote remarks that you will not want to miss.”
“To conclude the program, and commemorate this Historic Occasion, I will be launching, what will be, the LARGEST FIREWORKS SHOW IN HISTORY, right here in our Nation’s Capital. Do not miss it. See you on JULY 4th in Washington, D.C,” he added.
Americans have a bleak outlook on the nation’s future ahead of its 250th birthday next month, with most saying the U.S. has already seen its best days and a record-low number saying they are extremely proud to be Americans, according to a new NBC News poll.
Overall, the survey — sponsored by More Perfect, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to advancing democracy — shows that Americans believe their country has achieved many of the goals of its founders, but it is now falling short in living up to certain central tenets of the democratic experiment. They are split almost evenly over whether the Constitution has stood the test of time.
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Trump has endorsed GOP Rep. Mike Collins in the Georgia Senate race, giving the two-term congressman a last-minute boost ahead of tomorrow’s primary runoff.
Collins is facing former football coach Derek Dooley in the runoff after the May 19 primary, when none of the GOP candidates won a majority of the vote. Collins finished first in that contest, with 40% of the vote to Dooley’s 30%, followed by Rep. Buddy Carter with 25%.
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Two presidents walked side by side as they made their way through the Oval Office and down to the South Lawn.
Crossing a red carpet adorned by red and blue stars atop a white border, America’s Donald Trump and the UFC’s Dana White soon arrived at a 30-foot cage where men were moments away from punching, kicking and choking each other until someone either went to sleep, tapped or a referee stepped in to stop it.
And that was just the start of UFC Freedom 250.
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Trump’s poor approval rating continues to weigh down his party ahead of the midterms — though the GOP has a slim measure of separation from the president, with Democrats holding a 5-point lead in the battle for control of Congress, according to a new national NBC News poll.
The poll — which was sponsored by More Perfect, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to advancing democracy — found 49% of registered voters say they prefer to see Democrats control Congress as a result of this year’s elections, compared to 44% who prefer Republican control and 7% who are unsure.
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President Donald Trump will touch down in France today for a summit with allies who are at odds with him over a pair of wars: one they don’t believe he should have started, and another they want him to do more to stop.
Trump will spend two days at the Group of Seven meeting of advanced industrialized nations in the resort town of Evian-les-Bains, in which both the Iran war and Russia-Ukraine war figure to loom large.
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