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Judge Tanya Chutkan to consider when to hold DC trial as Mark Meadows to argue why his case should be heard in federal court

Georgia residents demand answers in Trump election plot

In Georgia, Donald Trump and 18 others are accused of a carrying out a sprawling plot aimed squarely at disrupting Joe Biden’s election win. But as the Guardian’s Timothy Pratt reports, it also had real consequences for a rural county that found itself entangled in his campaign’s unfounded allegations of vote rigging: On Saturday afternoon, roughly 70 people gathered on folding chairs in a sweltering church meeting room in the small town of Douglas, about 200 miles (322km) south-east of Atlanta, Georgia. Less than a week earlier, Donald Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in Fulton county for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including allegedly entering the Coffee county elections office less than a mile away and copying the state’s voter software and other data. Continue reading...

The defense for former President Donald Trump wants a trial date in April 2026 for his election conspiracy case. D.C. federal Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to set a date Monday. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows could learn if his Georgia election interference case could be moved to federal court. CBS News' Scott MacFarlane reports.

During a visit to Beijing, Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, said the two sides would meet at least annually to discuss export restrictions and intellectual property, among other issues.

The U.S. commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, right is meeting with her Chinese counterparts in Beijing and Shanghai this week.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and top Republicans have begun to strategize about how to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden this fall -- the latest sign that the House GOP is seriously laying the groundwork to initiate rare proceedings against the current president.

The third top ranking House Republican is reportedly planning to flood $100 million of campaign dollars into strategic districts in her home state of New York to hold off the Democratic there offensive next year. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who’s made her northern New York district – which runs through the Adirondacks not far from the Canadian border – a lock for the GOP, revealed her plans in a recent interview with Politico.  Stefanik said she recently brought House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to the Hamptons for a previously unreported fundraiser with wealthy Long Island donors and shared a vast digital database of contributors with the state GOP. Her strategy is to flood key New York swing districts with $100 million in campaign funding, as the Republican control of the House and her own political future depend on the Empire State holding ground.  ELISE STEFANIK BACKS BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY: 'OH, ABSOLUTELY' Last year, the GOP flipped three battleground U.S. House seats in the Hudson Valley and Long Island. After previously supporting Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., in 2022, she is not allowing Long Island Republicans decide his congressional fate as he battles federal indictment.  "It’s a guerilla warfare mentality," an unnamed Stefanik advisor told Politico of the congresswoman’s pledge to ensure her Republican New York colleagues have the resources to win.  "I’ve been underestimated from the beginning," Stefanik reportedly told Politico from a dairy farm in her district. "That’s been a trend my entire time in Congress." SPEAKER MCCARTHY REVEALS RED LINE FOR POSSIBLE BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY More than a year out from 2024 election day, Republican campaign offices are popping up in the Hudson Valley, central New York and Long Island seeding with GOP staffers. Stefanik, who has been a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, will lead the Republican charge in New York at the same time Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries plans an offensive to regain lost seats from last cycle.  New York GOP chairman Ed Cox told Politico that Stefanik’s involvement "is a tremendous asset to our party not just nationally, but here in New York state."  CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The $100 million to be raised through a coordinated effort with the Republican National Committee will help bolster first-year Republican Reps. Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro in the Hudson Valley; Long Island’s Anthony D’Esposito and Brandon Williams in Central New York. Stefanik vowed to raise at least $150,000 for each vulnerable new lawmaker, and Republicans also have their sights on taking on first-term Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan in the Hudson Valley, who won a special election a year ago.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will appear in court in Georgia for the first time Monday, making a bid to transfer the case against him to federal court. Meadows, who faces charges of interfering in Georgia's 2020 election, argues that he was acting in his capacity as a federal official at the time and is therefore immune to prosecution. Meadows' attorneys plan to request that U.S. District Judge Steve Jones move the case to the federal system, at which time they would then move to have the case dismissed, according to the Washington Post. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted 18 people in addition to former President Donald Trump earlier this month. Four of those have adopted Meadows' strategy of attempting to push their case into federal court, including former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and former Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer. GIULIANI MUGSHOT RELEASED AFTER HE TURNS HIMSELF IN ON TRUMP-GEORGIA 2020 CASE Prior to his surrender last week, Meadows had filed an emergency motion seeking to prevent his "imminent arrest," which was denied. Meadows had sought to stall his arrest pending the outcome of an evidentiary hearing over the possibility of his RICO charges being moved from state to federal court, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. 2 TRUMP CO-DEFENDANTS BOOKED IN FULTON COUNTY JAIL The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was also notified last week that he will be subpoenaed to testify during Monday's court hearing. Willis' indictment against Meadows cited a Jan. 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump requested that Raffensperger "find votes" to overturn the state's election results. Meadows was on the phone call as well, and Willis argues that his participation constituted illegal solicitation of a state official to violate his oath. Lawyers for Meadows have responded that the actions he took were "directly related" to his role as White House chief of staff, and that the case constitutes "state interference in a federal official’s duties." Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

Federal district Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia will hear requests from three of the 19 defendants hoping to move their Georgia election subversion cases out of state court.

Alabama would be the first to use that method. And a number of inmates, including one now in focus, agree as they seek to block their executions by lethal injection.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Sunday that many Black Americans live every day with the fear of becoming victims of "hate-fueled gun violence" in response to a gunman in Florida opening fire in a Dollar General and killing three Black people. Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21, arrived at a Dollar General in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, Glock handgun and tactical vest. Palmeter then shot and killed three victims in what Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters described as a "racially motivated" attack. On Sunday, Harris released a statement about the shooting in which she condemned hatred and violent extremism in America, and said that Black people are often concerned about racially motivated gun violence against them when they leave their homes. The vice president pointed out that the shooting Saturday afternoon was happening as many Americans were celebrating the anniversary of the March on Washington, the 1963 march by activists demanding civil and economic rights for Black Americans. FLORIDA SHERIFF REVEALS IDENTITY OF SUSPECT IN 'RACIALLY MOTIVATED' JACKSONVILLE SHOOTING "Already, federal law enforcement has opened a civil rights investigation into this attack and is treating it as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism," Harris said. "As we allow that investigation to proceed, let us continue to speak truth about the moment we are in: America is experiencing an epidemic of hate," she continued. "Too many communities have been torn apart by hatred and violent extremism. Too many families have lost children, parents, and grandparents. Too many Black Americans live every day with the fear that they will be victims of hate-fueled gun violence—at school, at work, at their place of worship, at the grocery store." Harris also urged congressional lawmakers to ban assault weapons and pass "other commonsense gun safety" measures. "Every person in every community in America should have the freedom to live safe from gun violence," she said. The victims of the shooting on Saturday were 52-year-old Angela Michelle Carr, 19-year-old Anolt Joseph Laguerre Jr., and 29-year-old Jerrald De’Shawn Gallion. JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF RELEASES IMAGES OF WEAPON BEARING SWASTIKAS AFTER DOLLAR GENERAL SHOOTING According to officials, Palmeter was once involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident and was once involuntarily committed to a mental hospital for examination. Images of the shooting shared on the sheriff’s Facebook page also show white lettering and symbols painted on the gunman's AR-15 rifle, including what appears to be a swastika. Waters addressed calls for firearm bans in a news conference held Sunday afternoon. "The story's always about guns. People are bad," he said. "This guy's a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now and lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It'll sit there. But as soon as a wicked person grabs ahold of that gun and starts shooting people with it, there's the problem. The problem is the individual." President Biden also released a statement Sunday decrying White supremacy. "Even as we continue searching for answers, we must say clearly and forcefully that white(sic) supremacy has no place in America," Biden said. "We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin. Hate must have no safe harbor. Silence is complicity and we must not remain silent." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican presidential candidate, called the shooter a "scumbag" in remarks on Saturday. "This shooting, based on the manifesto they discovered from the scumbag that did this, was racially motivated," DeSantis said. "He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable."

Top Democratic committees are receiving far more cash from anonymous sources at this point in the 2024 elections than in previous cycles, filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show.  The Sen. Chuck Schumer-affiliated Senate Majority PAC and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries-aligned House Majority PAC have raked in millions in mysterious cash this year from their related nonprofits that conceal their donors' identities. The money ultimately trickles to Democrats in both chambers of Congress, including lawmakers who rail against the impact of secret political donors. Federal Election Commission records show that during the first six months of the year, Majority Forward, an advocacy group linked to the Senate Majority PAC, directed $8.75 million into the Schumer-tied PAC. Meanwhile, House Majority Forward, a nonprofit with ties to the House Majority PAC, has pushed $5.5 million into the Jeffries-aligned PAC. BIDEN ADMIN COORDINATED WITH LIBERAL DARK MONEY BEHEMOTH ON 'TRANSFORMING FOOD SYSTEM,' EMAILS SHOW The more than $14 million in dark funds between the nonprofits and committees is far more than at an identical point in the 2022 and 2020 elections. In 2022, Majority Forward wired $4.3 million to the Senate Majority PAC during the same time frame, while House Majority Forward did not make any transfers to the House Majority PAC. In 2020, neither nonprofit moved donations to the PACs this early into the election, but did send money for salaries, records show. The moves occurred as Schumer regularly criticized dark money, which he says "corrupted our politics." He has also pushed conservative judicial groups to disclose their funders, as he and other Democrats have benefited from several dark money judicial groups of their own.  According to Majority Forward's most recent tax forms obtained by Fox News Digital, the group received $75 million between mid-2021 and 2022. House Majority Forward's tax forms show that the group collected $12 million in 2021, which likely will ramp up as the election draws closer. BIDEN'S PRIMARY 2024 OUTSIDE PAC PROPELLED BY DARK MONEY GROUP FLOODED WITH CASH FROM MYSTERIOUS ENTITY Senate and House Democrats are not the only ones positioned to benefit from unknown donors. President Biden appears set to benefit from immense sums in undisclosed contributions from the primary outside super PAC backing his 2024 candidacy despite his claims that dark money "erodes public trust." Biden's team elevated the Future Forward PAC as the leading outside group to collect cash in support of his candidacy. Future Forward told the New York Times in July that it had raised $50 million this year. The money, however, is likely parked in its related dark money nonprofit, Future Forward USA Action. The PAC reported just $67,000 in contributions during the first six months of the year, which came from a vendor refund and in-kind donations from the nonprofit for staff time and overhead.  Future Forward's nonprofit has moved tens of millions to the PAC for electoral activity in recent years, signaling Biden will also obtain a significant boost from anonymous patrons throughout the 2024 elections. The Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC did not respond to requests for comment.

A new survey provides a portrait of the type of American who serves on a jury and a rare window into the thoughts of the kinds of people who may decide Donald Trump’s fate.

The jury in the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump will be drawn from Fulton County, where the population is left-leaning.

Many carmakers and charging companies are switching to the Tesla plug for electric vehicles. Why are they doing that and what will it mean?

The Florida governor and candidate for the GOP presidential nomination has made anti-"wokeness" a centerpiece of his campaign. That drew the boos, but some in the crowd applauded him.

Proceedings before federal judges in Washington and Atlanta could begin to address some of the many complexities and scheduling challenges in the cases against the former president.

A hearing in federal court in Washington on Monday could determine when Donald J. Trump goes to trial in a federal case related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Sixty years ago, at the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King changed America. But there was more to the day than just his ‘I have a dream’ speech. There was music too One hundred years after the civil war, the treatment of African Americans persisted as a gaping wound in the purported land of the free. Then, suddenly in the 1960s, the bleeding from lynchings, bombings, beatings and shootings finally had a seismic effect. It galvanized the noble group who made the 60s so electric: the nimble, passionate and utterly fearless Black and white citizens who banded together to rescue America’s soul. By 1963, the Rev Martin Luther King Jr had become the leader of the first generation since the abolitionists who truly believed they had the power to heal the nation. Since founding his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, King had worked tirelessly to fulfill its mission: “To save the soul of America.” Continue reading...

Americans are about to learn significant new details on the timing and the substance of the trials of Donald Trump, even as the former president and Republican front-runner steps up his effort to alchemize his unprecedented legal peril to boost his White House bid.

GOP presidential candidates who have publicly gone after former President Donald Trump have seen their popularity among Republican voters suffer, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. CNN data analyst Harry Enten joins CNN's Jim Acosta to break down the numbers.

Conservative lawyer George Conway discusses the Fulton County criminal trial against former President Donald Trump, his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and 17 other co-defendants.

With a tropical storm intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida's largest city reeling from a racially motivated attack that left three Black people dead, Gov. Ron DeSantis left the campaign trail Sunday and returned to his state to navigate the crises.

FIRST ON FOX: Hunter Biden’s former business partner and fellow Burisma board member, Devon Archer, met with then-Secretary of State John Kerry just weeks before the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma was fired in 2016. Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired on March 29, 2016, less than four weeks after Archer met with Kerry at the State Department in Washington, D.C., according to a State Department email. "Devon Archer coming to see S today at 3:00pm - need someone to meet/greet him at C Street," reads the redacted email on March 2, 2016, which was previously released via the Freedom of Information Act. FORMER TOP UKRAINE PROSECUTOR COMES OUT SWINGING AGAINST JOE, HUNTER BIDEN: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Fox News Digital can confirm that "S" refers to Kerry, based on multiple other email communications. However, it is unclear what Archer and Kerry discussed at the meeting or whether Burisma came up in conversation. At the time of the meeting, Archer and Hunter Biden had been sitting on the board of Burisma for about two years, and then-Vice President Joe Biden had recently wrapped up a trip to Ukraine where he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if Ukrainian officials didn’t fire Shokin, claiming he was too lax on prosecuting corruption. During an interview Saturday with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade, Shokin said he was fired at Biden’s insistence because of his investigation into Burisma – a claim the White House has disputed. "I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that [then-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then-Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma," Shokin said in the interview. "[Poroshenko] understood and so did Vice President Biden that had I continued to oversee the Burisma investigation, we would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and others." OBAMA-ERA EMAILS REVEAL HUNTER’S EXTENSIVE TIES TO NEARLY DOZEN SENIOR-LEVEL BIDEN ADMIN AIDES However, in a statement to Fox News, the White House pointed to indications that Shokin was fired because he had been too soft on corruption. The White House also stated that Shokin's office had not been investigating Burisma or Hunter at the time of his ouster in March 2016, and it pointed to three reports published within weeks of each other in 2019 by the Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times that said Shokin's office wasn't investigating Burisma. Archer said in a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee in July that, amid pressure from Shokin's office and other entities investigating Burisma, company leaders turned to Hunter for help. He went on to say that Hunter and Burisma executives "called D.C." in December 2015, just days before the vice president’s trip to Ukraine, to ask the Obama administration to help get Shokin fired. Burisma executive Vadym Pozharsky emailed Hunter Biden, Archer and fellow Hunter associate Eric Schwerin in early November 2015 about a "revised proposal, contract and initial invoice for Burisma Holdings" from lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies. Hunter reportedly connected Burisma with Blue Star Strategies to help the energy firm fight corruption charges levied against Mykola Zlochevsky, the company's owner. Pozharski said in his email that the "ultimate purpose" of the agreement with Blue Star Strategies was to shut down "any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine," referring to Zlochevsky, who also went by Nikolay. "The scope of work should also include organization of a visit of a number of widely recognized and influential current and/or former US policy-makers to Ukraine in November aiming to conduct meetings with and bring positive signal/message and support on Nikolay's issue to the Ukrainian top officials above with the ultimate purpose to close down for any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine," Pozharsky continued. BIDEN'S NARRATIVE ON NEVER DISCUSSING BUSINESS DEALS WITH HUNTER CONTINUES TO CRUMBLE This wasn't the first time that a Burisma board member met with a top State Department official in the middle of a growing pressure campaign to help protect Zlochevsky and Burisma from investigations. In May 2015, Hunter and then-Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken were exchanging emails about setting up a meeting at the State Department. After the first scheduled meeting, which appeared to have been canceled due to the death of Hunter's brother, Beau, the pair rescheduled and met in July 2015. Hunter forwarded Archer a couple of the email exchanges between Hunter and Blinken about planning for the first meeting, prompting Archer to respond, "Roger," in one reply. "12:00-1:30pm- Lunch with Tony Blinken (State Department)," Hunter's schedule reads. "Enter at main entrance ('Diplomatic Entrance'), 22nd & C St, NW. Proceed to receptionist area where Kenny Matthews will be waiting to escort you to Tony's office." The longtime Biden family friend and business partner, who is facing jail time in an unrelated case for his role in a $60 million bond fraud scheme, worked as an adviser to Kerry during his failed 2004 presidential campaign. Kerry now serves as Biden's special presidential envoy for climate (SPEC). In 2013, Archer exchanged emails with Kerry’s then-chief of staff at the State Department, David Wade, organizing a call between Kerry and then-Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrisov. "Devon: understand you spoke to the Secretary re having him call Foreign Minister Idrisov today, can you let me know topics Idrisov wants to talk about/any requests he'll have of the boss, so we can get paper prepared for a call," Wade wrote. Archer told Wade that Idrisov wanted to speak with Kerry about keeping open a direct line of communication between the two of them as well as brief him on a "subject as it relates to Afghanistan." Wade went on to advise Hunter on rapid response related to Burisma after leaving the State Department in June 2015, Fox News Digital previously reported. Archer co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners with Hunter and Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz, his Yale roommate, in 2009. In a 2012 email chain, when then-Sen. Kerry was serving as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Archer listed him as one of his top references for Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) after one of the firm's partners told Archer and Hunter they needed their "bazooka references." An individual with knowledge of the reference list told Fox News Digital they were not aware of Kerry ever vouching for RSTP or its clients. The individual, who requested anonymity, went on to say that Hunter and Archer's role was to help navigate Washington but also said they would sever ties with Hunter after he was kicked out of the Navy Reserve for cocaine in late 2014 and that Archer's position was cut the following year because he wasn't doing any work for RSTP. The State Department and Archer’s lawyer did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report. For more of Fox News Digital’s reporting on the Hunter Biden investigation, please click here.

The chances of a government shutdown on October 1 are high. In fact, the possibilities of a shutdown may be even greater now than they were for the 35-day government shutdown from mid-December, 2018 until late January, 2019. That is not to say the government will shutter. There are just a number of factors which are working against keeping the government open this time around. In fact, few saw the government shutdown of several years ago coming. It was generally thought that the House and Senate reached a spending accord just before Christmas in 2018 – until former President Trump torched the package. That came after the president signaled he would sign the deal. The Senate passed a bill which it presumed the House would adopt. But then the House altered the package over border and immigration provisions. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., punted the measure back to the Senate and the shutdown was on. THE SPEAKER’S LOBBY: ELECTION STRATEGY IF 2024 IS A TRUMP VS. BIDEN REMATCH This year, the problems are more complex.  First of all, there isn’t much time. The House has approved one of the annual spending bills which fund the government: The Senate: zero. That means the only way to keep the government open is to approve a short-term bill (known as a Continuing Resolution or "CR") which funds the government at present levels for a short period of time. The House and Senate could likely approve a CR with the proper mixture of Democrats and some Republicans. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., must be mindful of advancing any measure with significant Democratic support. The Speaker faced backlash from conservatives after cutting a deal with President Biden in the spring to avoid a collision with the debt ceiling. Conservatives didn’t think the spending levels agreed to in the debt ceiling pact showed significant fiscal savings. So they demanded lower spending numbers for the 12 annual appropriations bills heading into the fall. Want to know why the House has only approved one bill? Infighting among Republicans. Remember that the GOP is in the majority in the House. Some Republicans approve of the steep cuts for the appropriations bills. Other GOPers can’t abide the cuts. Democrats won’t sign on because the cuts are really something they’d never agree with. So, there’s an impasse.  But remember: a coalition of Democrats and Republicans could approve a CR. The question is whether McCarthy is willing to do that and what backlash he faces from conservatives and the Freedom Caucus. Recall what I said a moment ago about a CR simply renewing federal spending for all programs at last year’s levels? Well even that is something which many conservatives can’t go for. That’s because the spending from last year is too high for the right. Conservatives may only agree to a package which cuts spending. A CR, by definition, does not.  So here we are. BERNIE SANDERS STICKS UP FOR FELLOW OCTOGENARIAN BIDEN: ‘SEEMED FINE TO ME’ Here’s another set of issues. Republicans loyal to former President Trump are incensed at the spate of indictments over the past five months. Some Republicans want to restrict or withhold funding for the Justice Department because of these inquests. In particular, some Republicans aim to cut money to Special Counsel Jack Smith who is prosecuting the former president. That’s to say nothing of a new front which emerged over the past month: GOP questions about Delaware U.S. Attorney and now Special Counsel David Weiss. Weiss negotiated the initial plea deal for Hunter Biden. A federal judge later torpedoed that agreement. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed Weiss as Special Counsel. Republicans have plenty of questions about the entire exercise. The circumstances surrounding Weiss, Hunter Biden, Garland and funding for the Justice Department are likely to be a donnybrook when it comes to funding measures this fall. This dynamic alone could trigger a government shutdown. Another longstanding grievance for the GOP: the border and funding for the Department of Homeland Security.  TRUMP LAWYER CALLS FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH TO BE INVESTIGATED, SAYS CHARGES ARE ALL 'THEATRICS' Many Republicans are skeptical of how Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas handled the border. Again, GOP issues about the border and funding for DHS may have been enough to prompt a government shutdown before the rhubarbs about former President Trump. The border issue faded slightly into the background for now – only because it can’t maintain the political pace of the Trump indictments and Hunter Biden. But funding for DHS remains a prominent subject. If lawmakers did everything by the book, they’d approve 12 spending bills to operate the federal government each fiscal year. But it’s common for Congress to also okay additional spending measures. These are "supplemental" spending packages, often crafted for wars, the pandemic, 9/11 or natural disasters.  President Biden is pushing Congress to okay a supplemental spending package to assist Ukraine in its battle against Russia. Congress is torn over the issue – especially Republicans. Some Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are vocal advocates for Ukraine. But there is vitriolic opposition to boosting Ukraine from right-wing members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.  Then there is the call for disaster aid – especially after the hellscape which descended on Maui. Some fiscal conservatives oppose latching disaster aid to other spending packages. That’s because it makes the extra money easier to pass. But critics of the congressional spending process refer to this as logrolling. Unpopular items - be it money for the war or something else - are hard to defeat because it’s taped to the rest of the spending package. Hence, logrolling.  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has advocated detaching the war money from the disaster assistance.  But here’s the problem: there are only so many spending bills leaving the congressional train station. So lawmakers must hook war aid and/or disaster aid to something. Congress is reduced in recent years to approving a CR or two, perhaps an omnibus or a few other spending packages where the they lump several bills together. This means there are only so many opportunities to approve disaster or war aid.  It’s unclear how Congress will manage these issues. Proponents of Ukraine aid and the Hawaii delegation will howl if Congress fails to deliver assistance in some form. Those who oppose helping Ukraine, or are enraged at the federal prosecution of former President Trump and wary about how DHS handles the border will be vocal if there aren’t reductions in spending for those areas as well. As written earlier, the obvious way to avert a government shutdown is to find the right blend of Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill. But that could create internal political headaches for McCarthy.  And that’s why many congressional observers believe the chances high for a government shutdown later this fall.

2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy joins CNN's Dana Bash to defend recent comments about White supremacy and comparing Democrats to the Ku Klux Klan.

Political advisers to both President Biden and Vice President Harris were reportedly annoyed with Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom over a planned debate with the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful. "It's disrespectful," an outside adviser to Harris said, according to a report from NBC News on Sunday. "Joe Biden is running with Kamala Harris. That's the Democratic ticket." The adviser is one of several in the Biden and Harris orbit that have begun to view Newsom as a nuisance, according to the report, in part because of the California governor's planned debate with DeSantis. While many Biden advisers no longer see Newsom as a potential primary challenger to the president, they do believe the planned debate would carry more risks than rewards. DESANTIS CAMPAIGN LEANS INTO NEWSOM DEBATE: 'CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER' The debate, which is slated to be televised on Fox News and hosted by Sean Hannity, has the potential to make some voters believe that Newsom is running a shadow campaign against the president in 2024, the report said. The debate comes at a time when many Democrat voters have expressed a desire for change at the top of the ticket, the report noted. The debate has been viewed in an even more negative light by those in Harris' orbit, with some reportedly seeing it as an attempt by the California governor to position himself ahead of the vice president for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. Newsom made the standing challenge to debate DeSantis this month, an invitation that was seemingly accepted by the Florida governor. But the two camps have yet to agree on the rules and format, calling into question whether the event will go ahead as planned. DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment. DESANTIS ON POTENTIAL DEBATE WITH NEWSOM: ‘LET’S GET IT DONE' Not everyone in the Biden camp expressed concern about the prospects of the debate, with some saying such a move could actually be helpful to Biden's reelection chances the report said. "What he's doing here is appropriate for a surrogate. It would not be appropriate for the president or the vice president," one Biden adviser said, according to NBC News. "We're in close touch with him," this adviser continued. "This is the kind of thing we want surrogates to do." Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, expressed a similar sentiment, telling NBC News that Newsom and the campaign have closely coordinated. "Governor Newsom is a strong partner and surrogate for the Biden-Harris campaign," Munoz said. "We coordinate closely on campaigning, whether it's fundraising or media. When he brought the debate idea to us, we endorsed it." The Biden-Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

A white man shot and killed two men and one woman – all three victims were Black – before fatally shooting himself yesterday Joe Biden declared on Sunday that “white supremacy has no place in America” after three people were killed in a racist shooting in Florida and it emerged that the gunman had been turned away from a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) campus moments before opening fire at a discount store. Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Sunday called the gunman in the attack a “hateful lunatic” and said “we will not allow HBCUs to be targeted”. Continue reading...

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin tells CNN's Dana Bash that fake elector mastermind Kenneth Chesebro's early racketeering trial could help give clues about the case to Donald Trump and others.