NationalWatch

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he will not attend remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint session of Congress, calling him a “war criminal.”

“It is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited – by leaders from both parties – to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” Sanders said in a statement on Saturday. 

Netanyahu was officially invited to speak to Congress on Friday in a letter signed by the Republican and Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate. 

ROMNEY SCORCHES BRAGG’S ‘POLITICAL DECISION’ IN TRUMP CASE: ‘MALPRACTICE’

Sen. Bernie Sanders said he won’t attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress. (Getty Images)

The formal letter came after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had made his intention to extend the invite clear for several weeks. It wasn’t initially certain whether Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would sign on, especially after calling on Israel to hold new elections during wartime to replace Netanyahu. However, his signature ultimately appeared on the invitation.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend,” Sanders said in the conclusion of his lengthy statement. He referenced the recent requests from the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking warrants against Netanyahu and other Israeli and Hamas leaders for “war crimes.”

GOP’S MURKOWSKI LAMENTS TRUMP’S ‘BAGGAGE’ FOLLOWING GUILTY VERDICT

Johnson led the effort to invite Netanyahu.  (Getty Images)

“The ICC is right,” Sanders said. 

Sanders is Jewish but has previously said that he is no longer involved in organized religion. 

After receiving the invitation, Netanyahu said in a statement, “I am excited to represent Israel before both houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those seeking our lives to the representatives of the American people and the entire world.”

SOROS HEIR URGES DEMOCRATS TO HAMMER TRUMP AS ‘CONVICTED FELON AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY’

Sanders has been a vocal critic of Israel. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

His speech will make Netanyahu the first head of state in the world to address both houses of Congress on four different occasions. 

President Biden recently endorsed an Israeli-proposed ceasefire deal, urging Hamas’ leaders to accept it. He called for an end to the war and claimed that “at this point, Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another October 7.”

SENATE DEMS IN BATTLEGROUND RACES CAREFUL TO WEIGH IN ON TRUMP VERDICT

Biden and Netanyahu may not be on the same page about a proposed deal. ((Fox News/Getty Images))

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The deal on the table is understood to include the release of hostages as well as a lasting ceasefire. It’s not clear whether Biden and Netanyahu are on the same page, as the prime minister released a statement following Biden’s remarks, claiming that Israel is still committed to “the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities,” in addition to bringing home all hostages. 

According to Netanyahu’s office, “The exact outline proposed by Israel, including the conditional transition between the stages, allows Israel to maintain these principles.”

Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report. 

Over 3,500 Chinese nationals were encountered crossing the southern border illegally in May, along with hundreds of Jordanian, Turkish and Mauritanian nationals, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources who spoke to Fox News.

The vast majority (98%) were encountered in the San Diego Sector, which has emerged as a top border-crossing point, even as numbers across the border have decreased in recent months. 

While the Tucson Sector in Arizona saw the most encounters, with over 33,000 illegal encounters, San Diego was a close second with over 32,000.

MAYORKAS SAYS SOME MIGRANTS ‘TRY TO GAME’ ASYLUM SYSTEM, AS BORDER CRISIS REMAINS TOP POLITICAL ISSUE

Migrants are processed by the U.S. Border Patrol at a new makeshift camp after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on May 26, 2024, in Jacumba Hot Springs, San Diego, California. ( (Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images))

In the San Diego sector, there were over 770 Jordanians, more than 670 Turkish, and over 500 Mauritanian nationals recorded crossing illegally in the sector in May, giving a glimpse into the global nature of the U.S. migrant crisis, which has expanded beyond the Western Hemisphere.

The influx of Jordanian nationals was put in the spotlight last month when two people from Jordan were arrested for attempting to breach Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. One of those nationals had crossed into the U.S. illegally in April and had then been released into the interior of the U.S.

The number of Chinese nationals has increased enormously since 2021. There were 1,970 encounters in FY 2022 and over 24,000 in FY 2023, and so far there have been over 24,200 encounters so far this fiscal year.

Fox News is told that approximately 118,000 migrants crossed the U.S. illegally and were apprehended by Border Patrol in May. Over 6,300 of those were “special interest aliens” coming from countries with potential national security concerns. 

The ongoing crisis at the border threatens to be a major issue for President Biden’s re-election campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said recently that some migrants crossing the southern border “try to game” the U.S. asylum system – a hardening of rhetoric as the crisis at the border remains a top political issue going into the November presidential election.

Migrants arrive at a makeshift camp after crossing the nearby border with Mexico near the Jacumba Hot Springs on February 23, 2024, in San Diego, California. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

SPIKE IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THIS US ADVERSARY BLOWS LID OFF PREVIOUS YEAR’S RECORD 

“The reality is that some people do indeed try to game the system,” Mayorkas told CBS News. “That does not speak to everyone whom we encounter, but there is an element of it, and we deal with it accordingly.”

The administration has demanded reform from Congress, including the bipartisan Senate bill. It has also pointed to 720,000 removals or returns of illegal immigrants since May 2023, more than in every full fiscal year since 2011.  

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Mayorkas said in the interview that a recent bipartisan border security proposal, which has failed to pick up support in the Senate, “would have equipped us with more tools to deal with those individuals who seek to game the system.”

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Republicans have blamed the policies of the administration, including the rollback of Trump-era policies such as wall construction, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and increased interior enforcement. They have passed their own legislation in the House that would significantly limit asylum claims and restart border wall construction and similar measures. It has not yet been taken up by the Senate.

Former President Trump was found guilty on felony charges Thursday, raising potential challenges for the Secret Service responsible for protecting him just as a top Democrat is seeking to yank that protection from him.

Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York v. Trump. The charges were related to alleged payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence pornographic performer Stormy Daniels about an alleged 2006 extramarital sexual encounter with Trump. Trump denied all charges and any affair with Daniels.

But the conviction raises the possibility the presumed 2024 Republican nominee could end up being bars. That unprecedented development would raise a number of additional questions, including how his Secret Service protection would adapt.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN WARNS BIDEN TO ‘BUCKLE UP’ AFTER HE’S RELEASED FROM ‘FREEZING’ COURT TO HIT CAMPAIGN TRAIL 

Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the agency said the outcome of the case “has no bearing on the manner in which the United States Secret Service carries out its protective mission.”

“Our security measures will proceed unchanged,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has previously said the city’s Department of Corrections and the Rikers Island prison in New York are “ready” to receive Trump. 

Asked if Trump would be housed by himself or with the general population, a Department of Corrections spokesman said last month, “The Department would find appropriate housing for him if he winds up in our custody.” 

The New York Times reported that there had been conversations involving the Secret Service and other law enforcement about how to move and protect Trump if he were briefly jailed for contempt, but the challenge of a longer prison sentence has yet to be addressed.

TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL

This could be in part because, even though the sentencing is in July, a series of lengthy Trump appeals that could rise to the Supreme Court would likely follow.

A.T. Smith, a former deputy director at the agency, said that while the territory may be uncharted, the Secret Service would not allow the mission to be compromised.

A Secret Service agent stands guard as former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign event at Big League Dreams Las Vegas Jan. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (David Becker/Getty Images)

“They’ll rise to the occasion. They will work with the counterparts that may become necessary depending upon the judge’s decision … in order to accomplish their mission, which is the protection of the former president,” he told The Telegraph.

One potential impediment to that protection could come from Democrats, who have introduced a bill in the House to strip Secret Service protection from convicted felons sentenced to prison.

CNN LEGAL GURU SAYS NEW YORK TRUMP PROSECUTORS ‘CONTORTED THE LAW,’ CASE WAS ‘UNJUSTIFIED MESS’

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act.

“Unfortunately, current law doesn’t anticipate how Secret Service protection would impact the felony prison sentence of a protectee — even a former President,” Thompson said in a statement. 

“It is regrettable that it has come to this, but this previously unthought-of scenario could become our reality.”

An accompanying fact sheet said the bill deals with the possibility the logistics of Secret Service protection would result in Trump getting home confinement rather than prison time. 

“This bill would remove the potential for conflicting lines of authority within prisons and allow judges to weigh the sentencing of individuals without having to factor in the logistical concerns of convicts with Secret Service protection,” the document states.  

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign says it has been energized by the trial’s conclusion and is confident that it takes him a step closer to reclaiming the White House.

“Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats confined President Trump to a courtroom for more than eight hours a day for more than six weeks, and he’s still winning,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “Now that he is fully back on the campaign trail, Biden and the Democrats better buckle up.” 

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Leavitt told Fox News Digital Trump “generated billions of dollars in earned media coverage throughout the trial, hosted massive rallies and impromptu campaign stops in New York and beyond, increased his lead over crooked Joe Biden in the polls and raised more money than Biden and the Democrats in the month of April. Not even a witch hunt trial could slow him down. In fact, it only made him stronger.” 

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, Michael Dorgan and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

A House Democrat who previously posed a primary challenge to President Biden called for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon former President Donald Trump for “the good of the country,” insisting his conviction is only helping the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign.

“Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., wrote in a post to X on Friday. “@GovKathyHochul should pardon him for the good of the country.”

In a follow-up post to social media on Saturday, Phillips wrote: “You think pardoning is stupid? Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different.)”

“It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost,” Phillips added.

TRUMP TURNS CONVICTION INTO CASH, SPOTLIGHTS RECORD FUNDRAISING IN WAKE OF GUILTY VERDICT

Rep. Dean Phillips, President Biden’s former primary challenger, called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon former President Donald Trump for “the good of the country.” (Getty Images)

Phillips’ remarks about the “record” fundraising came after the Trump campaign announced Friday evening that it had raised nearly $53 million in the 24 hours after Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in his criminal trial in New York City.

The campaign, as reported by Fox News Digital, had previously announced it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6 p.m. ET to midnight on Thursday, immediately after the verdict in the case was made public.

The campaign touted that the fundraising was “nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform” and emphasized that the guilty verdicts “have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.”

Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Phillips’ plea for a pardon.

BIDEN URGES RESPECT FOR LEGAL SYSTEM AFTER TRUMP CONVICTION WHILE PUBLICLY FLOUTING SCOTUS RULINGS

Phillips launched an unsuccessful primary challenge against Biden in October but dropped out of the race in March. (Getty Images)

“I think the New York cases, if anything, may have backfired against those who thought that it would be the salvation. But I don’t think the New York cases are exactly what Democrats were hoping they would be,” Phillips told CNN’s Manu Raju.

Phillips launched an unsuccessful primary challenge against Biden in October. He dropped out of the race in March, saying it “is clear that Joe Biden is OUR candidate and OUR opportunity to demonstrate what type of country America is and intends to be.”

“I ask you join me in mobilizing, energizing, and doing everything you can to help keep a man of decency and integrity in the White House. That’s Joe Biden,” he added at the time.

Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee for the first time out-raised the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee for the first time out-raised the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee. (Getty Images)

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While Trump has stepped up his fundraising, the Biden campaign still enjoyed an $84 million to $49 million cash-on-hand advantage at the end of April.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

A new poll conducted immediately following former President Trump’s criminal conviction in New York found a significant number of Republicans say they are less likely to vote for him in November.

One in 10 registered GOP voters said Trump’s felony conviction for falsifying business records would make them less likely to support him for president, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Friday. The two-day poll was conducted hours after a jury in Manhattan on Thursday found Trump guilty on all counts brought against him by District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The poll also found that a majority of Republican voters, 56%, said the outcome of the case would have no effect on their vote and 35% said they were even more likely to support Trump, who maintains his innocence. 

Even so, the potential loss of a tenth of Republican voters could decimate the presumptive GOP nominee’s chances to win back key battleground states President Biden claimed in his 2020 victory over Trump. That year, just 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College, according to NPR. 

TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT REVEALS SPLIT AMONG FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY OPPONENTS

Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

Among independent registered voters, 25% said Trump’s conviction made them less likely to support him in November, compared to 18% who said they were more likely and 56% who said the conviction would have no impact on their decision.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey showed Biden and Trump nevertheless remain in a tight race, with 41% of voters saying they would vote for Biden if the election were held today and 39% saying they would pick Trump. The poll surveyed 2,556 U.S. adults nationwide with a 2 percentage point margin of error for registered voters. 

ROMNEY SCORCHES BRAGG’S ‘POLITICAL DECISION’ IN TRUMP CASE: ‘MALPRACTICE’

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as the verdict is read in his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at Manhattan state court in New York City on May 30, 2024, in this courtroom sketch.  (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)

The presidential election is a little more than five months away. Many Republicans have said outrage over Trump’s conviction has cemented support behind the former president. The Trump campaign posted impressive fundraising numbers a day after his conviction, totaling $53 million in the first 24 hours after the guilty verdict came down. 

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Survey respondents were divided on whether he should go to prison for his crimes, with 53% of registered voters saying he should not be jailed over the hush money case and 46% saying he should serve time.

BILL MAHER STRUGGLES WHETHER TRUMP SHOULD GO TO JAIL FOLLOWING GUILTY VERDICT: ‘MAGA NATION WILL GO NUTS’

Trump’s conviction, and even imprisonment, would not prevent him from continuing to run for president. The Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin four days after Trump is sentenced. The RNC adopted rules last year that did not include any specific provisions that address what happens if the presumptive nominee is convicted of a crime. 

Trump has repeatedly called his prosecution a “witch hunt” and insisted that Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan, who donated to an anti-Trump group, were politically motivated. Voters were split, with 52% saying the prosecution was mainly about upholding the rule of law and 46% saying it was about trying to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.

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Trump has been indicted in three other criminal cases, but legal wrangling could keep those trials from occurring before the November election. Legal scholars consider the pending trials — which involve charges Trump engaged in electoral fraud and that he mishandled classified documents after leaving office — to be more serious than the hush money case. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

Most registered voters, 60%, said it was important for the three pending Trump trials to take place before the election, compared to 39% who said it was not important and 1% who did not answer the question.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Biden said on Friday that the justice system “should be respected” and that it was “reckless” for former President Donald Trump to claim that the verdict in his New York trial was “rigged,” just days after he told his supporters the Supreme Court could not “stop” him from carrying out his agenda.

“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said in response to the former president’s remarks about the NY v. Trump verdict, which found Trump guilty Thursday on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.

“Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years, and it literally is the cornerstone of America. Our justice system, that justice should be respected. And we should never allow anyone to tear it down. It’s as simple as that,” Biden added.

TRUMP TURNS CONVICTION INTO CASH, SPOTLIGHTS RECORD FUNDRAISING IN WAKE OF GUILTY VERDICT

President Biden said Friday that the justice system “should be respected” and that it was “reckless” for former President Donald Trump to claim that the verdict in his New York trial was “rigged.” (Getty Images)

Biden’s remarks came just two days after he bragged to his supporters at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that the Supreme Court ruling his student debt relief plan was unconstitutional did not “stop” him from canceling student loans.

“The Supreme Court blocked me from relieving student debt, but they didn’t stop me,” Biden said Wednesday from Girard College.

Biden, like several other Democrat and Republican presidents throughout history, has taken aim at the Supreme Court for a number of rulings they have made during his tenure in the White House.

During his State of the Union address in March, Biden took direct aim at the justices and insisted they had underestimated the “electoral and political power” of women in their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. During an interview with MSNBC about his remarks directed at the justices, Biden said, “Look, I think they made a wrong decision, think they read the Constitution wrong, I think they made a mistake.”

Biden made similar comments on how the high court’s ruling “didn’t stop” him from canceling student loans in February while speaking at the Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, California.

BLACK VOTERS CRITICIZE BIDEN FOR ‘PANDERING’ AS SUPPORT SHIFTS TO TRUMP: ‘IT’S INSULTING’

The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

“Early in my term, I announced a major plan to provide millions of working families with debt relief for their college student debt,” Biden said at the time. “Tens of millions of people in debt were literally about to be canceled in debts. But my MAGA Republican friends in the Congress, elected officials and special interests stepped in and sued us. And the Supreme Court blocked it. But that didn’t stop me.”

Last June, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that federal law does not allow Biden’s Secretary of Education to cancel more than $430 billion in student loan debt. Biden promised at the time that his administration would continue to push for his student debt relief plan.

Shortly after the court’s ruling, Biden said: “I think the court misinterpreted the Constitution.”

Earlier this year, Biden announced the Savings on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan that cancels debt for enrolled borrowers who have been in repayment for at least 10 years and hold $12,000 or less in student loan debt. Those with larger debts will receive relief after an additional year of payments for every additional $1,000 they borrowed.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said: “Expressing disagreement with a Supreme Court decision – as all Presidents do – is not the same as attacking the rule of law and undermining our judicial system.”

Following the verdict in Trump’s trial, Biden took to social media on Friday to claim, “No one is above the law.”

President Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2024. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

He has also used Trump’s remarks to raise funds for his re-election campaign, claiming in another post on X that Trump “questioned our judicial system.”

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“Donald Trump is threatening our democracy. First, he questioned our election system. Then, he questioned our judicial system,” Biden wrote Friday.

Biden said Friday that Trump, who is the first president to be convicted of a felony, will “be given the opportunity, as he should, to appeal” the conviction.

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.

Former President Trump will not lose his right to vote in Florida, where he resides, despite his felony conviction in New York, thanks to his former 2024 rival.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who made an unsuccessful bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, on Friday said that Trump has not lost his voting rights in Florida and will not lose them so long as DeSantis chairs the Florida Clemency Board.

“Former President Donald Trump hasn’t lost his voting rights in Florida. Rights are not removed in Florida where they haven’t yet been stripped in the convicting jurisdiction,” DeSantis said on X.

“That said, given the absurd nature of the New York prosecution of Trump, this would be an easy case to qualify for restoration of rights per the Florida Clemency Board, which I chair,” he continued. 

RFK JR. WARNS TRUMP CONVICTION WILL ‘BACKFIRE’ ON DEMOCRATS AND IS ‘BAD FOR OUR DEMOCRACY’

FILE- U.S. President Donald Trump introduces Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a homecoming campaign rally at the BB&T Center on November 26, 2019, in Sunrise, Florida. President Trump continues to campaign for re-election in the 2020 presidential race. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“The bottom line is that Donald Trump’s vote this November will be one of millions that demonstrate Florida is now a solid Republican state!” 

Trump on Thursday was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in what prosecutors called a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through payments to silence porn star Stormy Daniels about their alleged 2006 sexual encounter. The former president maintains his innocence. 

It is common practice in most states that convicted felons are disenfranchised, sometimes permanently. In New York, felons lose the right to vote while incarcerated, but those rights are automatically restored upon release, even if they’re on parole, because of a 2021 law passed by the state’s Democratic-majority legislature. 

A lifelong New Yorker, Trump established residency in Florida in 2019, while he was in the White House.

TALES FROM THE TRAIL: TRUMP ‘UNLEASHED’ WITH CRIMINAL TRIAL OVER

Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

Florida state law defers to other states’ disenfranchisement rules for residents convicted of out-of-state felonies. So long as Trump is not sent to prison, he will retain his right to vote in Florida with no action needed from DeSantis or the clemency board. 

Trump is scheduled to appear for a sentencing hearing on July 11. DeSantis’ promise makes it so that no matter the sentence, Trump will be able to vote in Florida in the November election.

TRUMP TURNS CONVICTION INTO CASH, SPOTLIGHTS RECORD FUNDRAISING IN WAKE OF GUILTY VERDICT

Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York. Trump maintains his innocence after his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.  (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Trump’s conviction, and even imprisonment, would not prevent him from continuing to run for president. The Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin four days after Trump is sentenced. The RNC adopted rules last year that did not include any specific provisions if the presumptive GOP nominee is convicted of a crime.

Delegates are able to change the rules before Trump is formally nominated, but there appears to be little support for nominating another candidate. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said Trump’s verdict was “handed down by a partisan and biased judge” and claimed Democrats have “weaponized” the justice system to attack Trump. 

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“The real verdict will take place on November 5 when Americans vote for a president they trust to bring down prices, secure the southern border, restore America’s leadership around the world and Make America Great Again,” Whatley said in a statement after the jury found Trump guilty on all counts. 

Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is co-chair of the RNC. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a longtime political moderate, on Friday announced he is leaving the Democratic Party and has registered as an independent.

Manchin, who is not running for re-election, will continue to caucus with Senate Democrats until the end of his term, his office confirmed to Fox News Digital, meaning the balance of power in the upper chamber will not change significantly. He is currently chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“From my first day in public service in 1982, I have always focused on doing what’s best for my state and my country, without regard to party or politics. Throughout my days in elected office, I have always been proud of my commitment to common sense, bipartisanship and my desire to bring people together. It’s who I am. It’s who I will always be. I have never seen America through a partisan lens,” Manchin said. 

“However, since becoming a United States Senator in 2010, I have seen both the Democrat and Republican parties leave West Virginia and our country behind for partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy. Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground. To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”

JOE MANCHIN FACES PRESSURE FOR 11TH-HOUR RUN TO SECURE CRITICAL SEAT FOR DEMOCRATS

Sen. Joe Manchin registered as an independent in the West Virginia State Capitol on Friday. (@Sen_JoeManchin)

Manchin’s surprise decision comes amid reports that he is being encouraged to run for governor of West Virginia by moderate Republicans dissatisfied with the party’s nominee, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. It also comes ahead of a deadline for filing as an independent in West Virginia. 

Questioned about those reports last week, Manchin downplayed the rumors but would not rule them out. He said the Democratic nominee, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, is a friend. 

MANCHIN ON 2024 PROSPECTS: I’D NEVER BE A SPOILER

Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., speaks during a “Politics & Eggs” event at the New Hampshire Institute Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Jan. 12. Manchin has stated that he is not running for re-election in November. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

“I heard that this morning, the rumors. I’ve supported my friend Steve Williams, we’ve known each other for 40 years, got him involved. He’s a good person. I don’t know what’s going on. So basically, I’ll just wait until I go home,” Manchin said. 

The West Virginia MetroNews report quoted sources “close” to the senator who said at least 20 Republicans “with financial resources” have encouraged Manchin to run for governor.

WEST VIRGINIA’S MANCHIN ADDRESSES REPORT HE’S BEING RECRUITED TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR

Manchin previously declined to run for president as a third-party candidate challenging Democratic incumbent President Biden and presumptive Republican nominee former President Trump. (Getty Images)

Since that report was published, Manchin was reportedly bombarded by people urging him to run at an event at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, according to WVMetroNews. The Greenbrier is notably owned by the state’s current governor, Democrat-turned-Republican Jim Justice, who is term-limited and now is the GOP’s Senate nominee to replace Manchin.

“The talk about the possibility of Joe Manchin running for West Virginia governor again is real,” wrote Hoppy Kercheval, a news anchor and one of the state’s most recognizable media figures.

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The Democratic primary is over and Manchin could not run for governor as a Democrat. But his sudden and unexpected decision to become an independent opens the door for a bid for the governor’s mansion, or even a re-election effort for Senate. 

Manchin will have several more weeks to decide whether to run for Senate or mount a bid for his old job as governor. 

Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

Former President Trump is widely expected to appeal his conviction in his New York criminal trial after this week, launching the case to the New York appeals courts and potentially beyond.

Trump’s appeal would send the case to the First Judicial Department of New York’s Appellate Division, a group of 21 justices. The presiding justice is Dianne Renwick, who was appointed by Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023.

Of those justices, just one was appointed by a Republican: Justice David Friedman, who was appointed in 1999 by then-Gov. George Pataki. Each of the others was appointed by a Democratic governor.

A sizable majority were appointed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, however, with 14 justices owing their appointments to the now-disgraced politician. Hochul has appointed three justices to the division in addition to Renwick. Two were appointed by David Paterson, who left office in 2010.

LEGAL EXPERTS SAY TRUMP CONVICTION IS A ‘TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT’ FOR APPEAL

Former President Trump is widely expected to appeal his conviction in his New York criminal trial after this week, launching the case to the New York appeals courts and potentially beyond. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

This does not mean that the court will automatically be stacked against the former president. Trump and his legal team have presented cases to the First Department before, and as recently as this week they have had some success. On Thursday, a five-judge panel from the First Department sided with Trump in a ruling clearing the way for him to sue his niece, Mary Trump.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SHOWS IN THE BIDEN-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REMATCH

The five judges included Associate Justices Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, Barbara Kapnick, Ellen Gesmer, Linet Rosado and Friedman.

The judges upheld a prior ruling with their decision, saying that Trump has standing to sue his niece for breaching confidentiality agreements made in a 2001 settlement over the estate of Fred Trump Sr., the former president’s father.

The court’s ruling had no impact on whether Trump’s lawsuit will be successful. His original lawsuit called for his niece to hand over $100 million in damages. The court says he may still be successful in securing funds.

“At a minimum, nominal damages may still be available on the breach of contract claim even in the absence of actual damages,” the court wrote.

Trump appeals are headed deeper into New York state’s legal system. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

If Trump’s case goes beyond the Appellate Division, it would head to the New York State Court of Appeals. That court includes seven judges, all of whom were appointed by a Democratic governor: Shirley Troutman, Madeline Singas, Jenny Rivera, Rowan Wilson, Michael Garcia, Anthony Cannataro and Caitlan Halligan.

WARNING SIGNS FOR TRUMP AND BIDEN AS THEY CAREEN TOWARD NEXT MONTH’S FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Troutman joined the court after a nomination from Hochul in 2021. Hochul also nominated Halligan in April 2023. Meanwhile, Singas received her nomination from Cuomo. Cuomo is once again responsible for a majority of the court’s members, nominating Rivera in 2013, Garcia in 2016, Wilson in 2017 and Cannataro in 2021.

Should Trump remain unsuccessful through those two courts, he could try to have his appeal heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, of which six out of nine justices were appointed by Republicans — three by Trump himself.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is responsible for nominating five of the seven judges who would handle Trump’s case in the New York State Court of Appeals. He also appointed 14 of the 21 justices in the appellate division. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Some legal experts say the case brought against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will have “reversible problems” when appealed.

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“I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems,” Jonathan Turley, constitutional law attorney and Fox News contributor, said Thursday. “However, this was the worst expectation for a trial in Manhattan,” he said. “I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes.” 

“The trial is a target rich environment for appeal. However, that appeal will stretch beyond the election. In the meantime, Democrats and President Biden can add ‘convicted felon’ to the political mantra,” he added.

Donald Trump is wasting no time in getting back on the campaign trail now that the verdict is in and his historic criminal trial in New York City is over.

The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee headlined a campaign fundraiser just a couple of hours after being convicted. On Saturday he’ll attend a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) match in Newark, New Jersey, Fox News confirmed. And on Sunday he’ll sit for a “Fox and Friends” interview.

“We’ll be fighting hard,” Trump told Fox News’ Brooke Singman in an interview soon after he was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in his case, the first in which a former or current president stood trial.

Trump emphasized that he was excited to get back on the campaign trail. 

2024 SHOWDOWN: TRUMP CASHES IN ON THE CONVICTION IN HIS CRIMINAL TRIAL

Former President Donald Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York City. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

On Friday, as he addressed reporters from the atrium of his Trump Tower in New York City, where he launched his first White House bid nine years ago, the former president vowed that “we’re going to fight.”.

For six weeks, Trump had been confined to the courtroom in Lower Manhattan, which prevented him from campaigning across the country other than on weekends and Wednesdays, when there was no trial.

But Trump’s campaign touted that even during the duration of the trial, the candidate was able to generate “billions of dollars” in media coverage as well as host rallies and fundraisers.

HOW TRUMP GUILTY VERDICTS MAY IMPACT THE 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

The former president’s tenure in court also didn’t seem to put a dent in the slight edge he enjoys in the polls over President Biden in the key battleground states that will likely decide the outcome of their rematch.

And the former president’s top pollsters put out a memo on the eve of the verdict arguing that a conviction would not have any electoral consequences.

“We are already back to the mission,” the Trump campaign told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening. “President Trump won’t let this sham stop the movement of this campaign to save the nation.”

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New  York City on May 30, 2024 after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

Longtime Republican strategist David Carney, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns who is now steering a pro-Trump super PAC, told Fox News that “the show trial is over and Trump is unleashed to campaign at will again. With the miscarriage of justice out in the open, he will have the wind to his back.”

Trump enjoyed an initial burst of fundraising courtesy of his guilty verdicts.

The former president’s campaign announced on Friday morning that it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6pm ET to midnight on Thursday, immediately after the verdict went viral.

On Friday evening, the campaign updated their fundraising total – nearly $53 million over 24 hours.

WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL FOLLOWING THE VERDICT

The campaign highlighted in a release that they raked in “a record shattering small dollar fundraising haul and said it was “nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform.” They emphasized that the guilty verdicts “have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.”

Trump will continue his fundraising blitz with a swing at the end of next week in California.

The former president heads to the blue bastion of San Francisco on June 6 for a fundraising dinner hosted by tech investors David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, two of the heaviest hitters in Silicon Valley and co-hosts of the hot “All-In” podcast.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower, Friday, May 31, 2024, in New York. A day after a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee addressed the conviction and likely attempt to cast his campaign in a new light. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson) (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a Trump ally and potential 2024 running mate who spent time a few years back in San Francisco working for hedge funds in the tech sector, was instrumental in putting the top dollar fundraising together.

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Trump heads south to Beverly Hills for a June 7 fundraiser and a June 8 finance event in Newport Beach in Orange County.

The trip doesn’t mean the Trump campaign thinks overwhelmingly blue California may be in play. 

Instead, Trump’s swing and two fundraisers in the Bay Area on June 5 headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris are the latest proof that the Golden State remains a crucial ATM for campaign cash.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former President Trump delivered lengthy remarks Friday morning from Trump Tower in New York following his unprecedented trial resulting in the conviction of 34 counts of falsifying business records. 

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 election, said that he wished he testified in his criminal trial N.Y. v. Trump, though it appears he was given counsel otherwise.

“I would have testified. I wanted to testify,” Trump said from the podium. 

“The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify – anybody, if it were George Washington — don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong, and then they’ll sue you for perjury.”

“But I didn’t care about that. I wanted to,” Trump reiterated. 

LEGAL EXPERTS SAY TRUMP CONVICTION IS A ‘TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT’ FOR APPEAL

Former President Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower on Friday, May 31, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

However, he said, Judge Juan Merchan “allowed them to go into everything that I was ever involved in. Not this case – everything that I was ever involved in, which is a first.”

“In other words, you could go into every single thing that I ever did. Was he a bad boy here? Was he a bad boy there? And my lawyer said, ‘Why do you need to go through it? All you wanted to do is testify simply on this case.’” 

“Because I would have loved to have testified, to this day I would have liked to have testified,” Trump said. 

“But you would have been, you would have said something out of whack like it was a beautiful sunny day, and it was actually raining out,” Trump said, seemingly recalling a conversation with his legal counsel.

“And I very much appreciate the big crowd of people outside. That’s incredible what’s happening. The level of support has been incredible,” Trump immediately added. 

Trump was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL

Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, May 30, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a former porn star, in the lead-up to the 2016 election – in an effort to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. They were ultimately successful. Trump has denied the affair throughout the trial. 

“So the whole thing is this legal expense was marked down as legal expense,” Trump said on Thursday. “Think of that.”

Trump said fighting the case against him is “very important, far beyond me. And this can’t be allowed to happen to other presidents. It should never be allowed to happen in the future. But this is far beyond me. This is bigger than Trump. This is bigger than me. This is bigger than my presidency.” 

Sentencing is slated for July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years behind bars. 

NY V TRUMP: PROSECUTION SAYS THEY HAVE PRESENTED ‘POWERFUL EVIDENCE’ AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT

Former President Trump holds a rally in the historically Democratic South Bronx on May 23, 2024 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“We’re losing our country,” Trump said during his remarks that lasted roughly 40 minutes. He took no questions from the media.

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“And I really think that this is an event… what took place yesterday with this judge that we have conflicted… he’s a crooked judge. And you’ll understand that. And I say that knowing that it’s very dangerous for me to say that. And I don’t mind because I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and to save our Constitution. I don’t mind,” Trump added. 

President Biden said Friday after former President Donald Trump was found guilty in his New York criminal trial “he’ll be given the opportunity, as he should, to appeal that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity.”

Biden added that it was “reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”

A jury on Thursday convicted Trump on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

“The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed. Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself. It was a state case, not a federal case. And it was heard by a jury of 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you, like millions of Americans who’ve served on juries,” Biden said at the White House. “This jury is chosen the same way every jury in America is chosen. It was the process that Donald Trump’s attorney was part of.”

LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP RAILS AGAINST ‘RIGGED’ CONVICTION

President Biden pauses to react to a reporter’s question as he leaves the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“The jury heard five weeks of evidence, five weeks. And after careful deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous verdict. They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts. Now, he’ll be given the opportunity, as he should, to appeal that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity. That’s how the American system of justice works,” he continued. 

“And it’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden concluded. “Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years and it literally is the cornerstone of America. Our justice system, that justice should be respected. And we should never allow anyone to tear it down. It’s as simple as that. That’s America. That’s who we are. And that’s who will always be, God willing.”

Biden then spoke about a proposal to bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

TRUMP SAYS HE WOULD HAVE ‘LOVED’ TO TESTIFY IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL

WATCH: BIDEN ADDRESSES THE TRUMP CONVICTION:

Following those remarks, reporters in the room asked Biden again about the Trump verdict, but he refused to respond.

“Mr. President, can you tell us, sir, Donald Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What’s your response to that, sir?” one reporter asked Biden as he was walking away.

Biden then turned around and cracked a grin at the media before heading out of the room. 

President Biden delivers remarks on the verdict in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial and on the Middle East from the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign warned Biden on Friday to “buckle up” following the verdict. 

“Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats confined President Trump to a courtroom for more than eight hours a day for more than six weeks, and he’s still winning,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “Now that he is fully back on the campaign trail, Biden and the Democrats better buckle up.” 

Then at a press conference at Trump Tower in New York, the former president said he “wanted to testify” on his own behalf, but that “the theory is you never testify.” 

“It’s very important, far beyond me,” Trump said about the case. “And this can’t be allowed to happen to other presidents. It should never be allowed to happen in the future. But this is far beyond me. This is bigger than Trump. This is bigger than me. This is bigger than my presidency,” he said. 

Trump’s campaign also announced Friday that it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6 p.m. ET to midnight on Thursday, in the hours after the verdict was read.

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

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They said the haul was “nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform” and emphasized that the guilty verdicts “have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.” 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Brianna Herlihy and Kyle Morris contributed to this report. 

The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign on Friday responded to former President Donald Trump’s “unhinged” speech from Trump Tower, accusing him of being “confused” and “desperate” while “sowing chaos.”

“America just witnessed a confused, desperate, and defeated Donald Trump ramble about his own personal grievances and lie about the American justice system, leaving anyone watching with one obvious conclusion: This man cannot be president of the United States,” Biden-Harris 2024 Communications Director Michael Tyler said in a statement. “Unhinged by his 2020 election loss and spiraling from his criminal convictions, Trump is consumed by his own thirst for revenge and retribution. He thinks this election is about him. But it’s not. It’s about the American people: lowering their costs, protecting their freedoms, defending their democracy.

“That’s what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are fighting for. Donald Trump is sowing chaos, attacking the rule of law, and fighting for the only thing in the world he gives a damn about: Donald Trump.”

HOW TRUMP GUILTY VERDICTS MAY IMPACT THE 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

President Biden and former President Donald Trump have scheduled two debates in June and September as Biden trails Trump in key swing states. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The campaign’s comments came after Trump delivered lengthy remarks on Friday morning from Trump Tower in New York following his unprecedented trial resulting in the conviction of 34 counts of falsifying business records. 

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 election, said that he wished he testified in his criminal trial, though it appears he was given counsel otherwise.

“I would have testified. I wanted to testify,” Trump said from the podium. 

WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL FOLLOWING THE VERDICT

President Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards in Atlanta on March 9. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

“The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify — anybody, if it were George Washington — don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong, and then they’ll sue you for perjury.”

“But I didn’t care about that. I wanted to,” Trump reiterated. 

Trump was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

LEGAL EXPERTS SAY TRUMP CONVICTION IS A ‘TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT’ FOR APPEAL

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

Sentencing is scheduled for July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention opens in Milwaukee. Each count carries a maximum prison term of four years, resulting in Trump facing a potential total of 136 years behind bars.

Following the verdict, support from Republican lawmakers poured in on social media. 

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“Today is a shameful day in American history,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement. “Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon.”

GOP lawmakers in both chambers have rallied behind Trump and called for their colleagues to endorse the former president in the November election over the last year. Over 100 House Republicans and over two dozen Senate Republicans — including the Senate GOP Conference — endorsed Trump.

Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to hold a town hall with former President Donald Trump, as reported shortly after the former president was criminally convicted in New York City on Thursday.

Trump is expected to answer submitted questions with Musk on a live stream that will also be broadcast on NewsNation, The New York Post reported on Friday.

It is expected that Trump will answer submitted questions during the live stream event, which will also be broadcast in a partnership deal with cable channel NewsNation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The exact timing of the town hall on X, a platform Trump was suspended from three years ago, is not clear.

‘RIDICULOUS’: TOP BIDEN STAFFER GRILLED FOR ‘ASTOUNDING’ CLAIM ABOUT NOT TARGETING ELON MUSK

Donald Trump (left) and Elon Musk (right) have reportedly developed a friendly relationship and talk on the phone multiple times per month. (Fulton County Sheriffs Office / Chesnot / Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to Musk’s team and the Trump campaign but did not immediately receive a response.

“This will be interesting,” the tech billionaire posted on X.

ELON MUSK FIRES BACK AT ROBERT DE NIRO FOR COMPARING TRUMP TO HITLER, MUSSOLINI: ‘MAKES NO SENSE’

Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

The original plan was for the event to be a debate before the Biden campaign declined an invitation due to the previously negotiated debates scheduled with Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the event and the Biden campaign’s thinking. 

Musk is also reportedly planning a similar town hall with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk  (Getty Images)

Musk spoke out on X following the news of Trump’s conviction in his criminal trial, arguing that the development chips away at the faith Americans have in their legal system.

“Indeed, great damage was done today to the public’s faith in the American legal system,” Musk posted on the platform he owns. “If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate.”

Trump and Musk have recently developed a friendly relationship, and they reportedly speak on the phone several times a month. Musk is also believed to be under consideration for an advisory role if Trump returns to the White House. 

President Biden took heat on Friday for his strange response to a question about his political rival’s historic criminal conviction following remarks from the White House, flashing what some called an “evil” grin. 

Biden said Friday after former President Donald Trump was found guilty in his New York criminal trial that “he’ll be given the opportunity, as he should, to appeal that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity.” The president added that it was “reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”

As Biden walked away from the podium, a reporter shouted out a question: “Donald Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What’s your response to that, sir?”

The president paused, turned to the reporters and flashed what some called a “disturbing” smile for almost 10 seconds before walking away, not offering a verbal response. 

BIDEN SAYS TRUMP ‘SHOULD’ HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO APPEAL CONVICTION, GRINS AND IGNORES QUESTIONS

President Biden, left, pauses to react to a reporter’s question about former President Donald Trump, right, as he leaves the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday. (Getty Images)

“Do you think a conviction will have an impact on the campaign?” the reporter pressed, without a response from the president. 

Sage Steele, a former ESPN reporter, reacted to the video on X, saying, “Honestly, I rarely use the word evil to describe another human being but…..”

Amber Duke, an editor for The Spectator, posted similarly on X, “The President of the United States’ disturbing reaction to being asked if Trump is a political prisoner and if he is responsible for Trump’s criminal conviction.” 

LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP RAILS AGAINST ‘RIGGED’ CONVICTION

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York on Friday. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Jason Miller, a senior Trump campaign official commented on the site, “where was the senile fool shuffling off to???”

Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the Trump campaign commented, “Evil.” A Republican National Committee X account posted, “Pure Evil.” 

TRUMP SAYS HE WOULD HAVE ‘LOVED’ TO TESTIFY IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL

President Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards in Atlanta on March 9. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

“He’s NOT even trying to hide it anymore . . . Biden’s grin is all American voters need to see,” Rep Wesley Hunt, R-Texas., said.

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Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said, “Joe Biden is a clear and present threat to democracy.”

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.  

Donald Trump is touting “record shattering” fundraising fueled by his convictions in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

The former president’s campaign announced on Friday morning that it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6 p.m. ET to midnight on Thursday, immediately after Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in his criminal trial in New York City.

And on Friday evening, the Trump campaign announced an update — nearly $53 million raised in the 24 hours following the verdict through their online digital fundraising platform.

The campaign touted that the fundraising was “nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform” and emphasized that the guilty verdicts “have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.”

HOW TRUMP GUILTY VERDICTS MAY IMPACT THE 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

The surge in contributions comes as Trump aims to close the fundraising gap with President Biden as they face off in a 2024 election rematch.

“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a statement on Friday morning.

WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL FOLLOWING THE VERDICT

They spotlighted that “not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of [Thursday’s] donors were brand-new donors to the WinRed platform.”

And pointing to the autumn election, LaCivita and Wiles reiterated that “President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict.”

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower, Friday, May 31, 2024, in New York. A day after a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee addressed the conviction and likely attempt to cast his campaign in a new light. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Minutes after the verdict was read in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history, Trump’s team put out a fundraising appeal to supporters.

“Friend: Is this the end of America?,” Trump asked in the email. “I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial.

“My end-of-month fundraising deadline is just DAYS AWAY!” Trump emphasized in the email, which included a photo of the former president labeling him a “political prisoner.”

WinRed, the GOP online fundraising platform used by Trump’s campaign, among others, briefly shut down within an hour of the verdict.

Former President Trump appears in court for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita advised donors encountering a WinRed error message to sign up for Trump’s text messaging list or log back onto the site and try again. 

“If you are one of the millions of American Patriots wanting to donate to Donald Trump’s campaign and you get an error message from @WINRED …don’t give up! Log back on and try again ! or Text TRUMP to 88022,” LaCivita wrote in a tweet.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN QUICKLY POUNCES ON TRUMP TRIAL GUILTY VERDICTS

Trump’s campaign website also directed donors to Anedot, another fundraising platform used by various GOP campaigns.

Trump’s team also fired off a warning shot to the campaigns of down-ballot Republicans not to try and raise money directly off of the former president’s conviction, to prevent the “siphoning” of donations headed to Trump’s coffers.

Meanwhile, the former president’s top pollsters put out a memo on the eve of the verdict arguing that a conviction would not have any electoral consequences.

Trump holds a trio of top dollar fundraisers in California at the end of next week.

President Biden speaks at a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris used the rally to launch a nationwide campaign to court Black voters. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Biden’s re-election campaign also quickly sent out fundraising appeals following the verdict.

“Despite a jury finding Donald Trump guilty today, there is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,” the Biden campaign wrote in a fundraising text to supporters Thursday evening. 

And it urged that “if you have been waiting for the perfect time to make your first donation to Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, we’re here to tell you today is the day.”

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Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee for the first time out-raised the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

While Trump has stepped up his fundraising, the Biden campaign still enjoyed an $84 million to $49 million cash-on-hand advantage at the end of April.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Following his unprecedented felony conviction, former president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has to wait to find out what his sentence will be. But even if it involves time behind bars, that doesn’t mean his campaign to return to the White House comes to an end.

He wouldn’t even be the first candidate to run for that office while imprisoned. That piece of history belongs to Eugene V. Debs, who ran on the Socialist Party ticket in 1920 — and garnered almost a million votes, or about 3 percent.

AMERICANS MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD ON THE TRUMP VERDICT

The circumstances are obviously different. Debs, despite his influence and fame, was effectively a fringe candidate that year; Trump has already held the office and is running as the near-certain nominee of one of the country’s two major political parties. But there are similarities, too.

FILE – This is an undated portrait of socialist Eugene Debs. Following his unprecedented felony conviction, former president and current Republican front-runner Donald Trump has to wait to find out what his sentence will be. But even if it involves time behind bars, that doesn’t mean his campaign to return to the White House comes to an end. He wouldn’t even be the first candidate to run for that office while imprisoned. That piece of history belongs to Eugene V. Debs, who ran on the Socialist Party ticket in 1920 — and garnered almost a million votes, or about 3 percent. (AP Photo, File)

Who Was Debs?

Debs, born in 1855, became a strong voice advocating for labor causes from the time he was a young man. A staunch union member and leader, he was first sent to prison for six months following the 1894 Pullman rail strike, on grounds he violated a federal injunction against the strike.

He became a committed socialist, and a founding member of the Socialist Party of America. He ran for president as a socialist in 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1912.

In 1918, though, he was sent to prison for speaking out against American involvement in World War I, which was a violation of the recently passed Sedition Act. But being locked up in a federal prison in Atlanta didn’t lower Debs’ profile at all, and in 1920, he was once again nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.

How Did He Handle Running While in Prison?

Being in prison didn’t make campaigning impossible, either. While Debs obviously could not travel around the country himself, his party turned his status into a rallying point, using his convict number on campaign buttons. Surrogates spoke for him, as well as a film clip of him being told of his nomination that played around the country, said Thomas Doherty, professor of American Studies at Brandeis University.

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“The fame of Debs and the novelty of him running for president from prison gave him a sort of purchase,” Doherty said. “It was a credible campaign, considering you’re running from prison.”

Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

Former President Trump’s conviction in New York had an immediate windfall of campaign cash to both his own campaign and other Republican election funds. Within hours of the conviction, both the Trump and Biden campaigns were raising money on the news.

VERDICT CASH DASH: Trump quickly gets ‘back to the mission’ following his guilty verdicts …Read more

Plenty of Democrats and anti-Trump figures have celebrated former Trump’s conviction in a New York court on 34 counts of falsifying business records — a felony under New York state law when done to conceal another crime. But the jury didn’t have to agree, or even declare, what that other crime was. 

Numerous legal scholars — including an analyst at CNN who called it an “unjustified mess” — have pointed to severe flaws in the case, despite the jury’s unanimous verdict. Get the latest live updates of the Trump trial fallout on Fox News.

GRIN AND ‘BARE’ IT: President Biden himself said Trump has the right to appeal. But when asked Friday to comment on Trump’s claims about being a political prisoner, Biden grinned — and ignored the question.

 President Joe Biden pauses to react to a reporter’s question about Trump Friday. (Getty Images)

SILENT MINORITY: 2024 GOP rival remains mum on Trump’s NYC conviction …Read more

‘GREAT DAMAGE’: Elon Musk set to host Trump town hall after ripping NYC guilty verdict …Read more

‘CONVICTED FELON’: Schumer urges Trump to avoid ‘outside political influence’ as he appeals conviction …Read more

‘OUTRAGE’: Trump guilty verdict reveals split among former GOP presidential primary opponents …Read more

‘I WANTED TO TESTIFY’: Trump says he would have ‘loved’ to testify in New York criminal trial …Read more

PENCE-IVE RESPONSE: Pence breaks silence and responds to Trump’s NYC conviction …Read more

WHAT’S NEXT? A look at the New York appeals system that awaits Trump after his conviction …Read more

OUR ‘GREATEST ENEMY’: Biden moves to open US banks to Cuba’s private sector …Read more

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A moderate Republican senator finally broke her silence on former President Trump’s conviction on Friday, lamenting the focus “Trump’s legal drama” takes away from President Biden’s “indefensible record.”

“These distractions have given the Biden campaign a free pass as the focus has shifted from Biden’s indefensible record and the damage his policies have done to Alaska and our nation’s economy, to Trump’s legal drama,” wrote Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on X. “A Republican nominee without this baggage would have a clear path to victory.”

The Republican, who frequently emerges as a detractor from her party in divisive matters, did not say whether she approved of the verdict or not. 

SOROS HEIR URGES DEMOCRATS TO HAMMER TRUMP AS ‘CONVICTED FELON AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY’

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, issued a statement on Friday reacting to former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict. (Getty Images)

The Alaska senator notably issued a last-minute endorsement of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for the Republican nomination for president shortly before her campaign ended. 

Haley often pointed to Trump’s legal troubles and the “chaos” she said follows him on the 2024 campaign trail, while similarly avoiding taking a position on whether the cases were right or wrong. 

SENATE DEMS IN BATTLEGROUND RACES CAREFUL TO WEIGH IN ON TRUMP VERDICT

“Yesterday, a New York jury found former president Trump guilty of falsifying business records,” Murkowski wrote on Friday. “This is the first step in the legal process. The former president has the right to appeal and I fully expect him to exercise that right.”

However, she said, “It is a shame that this election has focused on personalities and legal problems rather than a debate about policies that would lift up Americans.”

SCHUMER URGES TRUMP ALLIES TO LET LEGAL PROCESS ‘MOVE FORWARD’ AFTER GUILTY VERDICT

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was more forthcoming with her opinion on the verdict than Murkowski. (Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Many of Murkowski’s fellow Senate Republicans issued their responses to the verdict promptly, with most of them objecting to the outcome. Even Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is often on the same page as Murkowski, denounced Thursday’s verdict. 

“It is fundamental to our American system of justice that the government prosecutes cases because of alleged criminal conduct regardless of who the defendant happens to be. In this case the opposite has happened. The district attorney, who campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump, brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct,” the lawmaker said in a statement. 

“The political underpinnings of this case further blur the lines between the judicial system and the electoral system, and this verdict likely will be the subject of a protracted appeals process,” Collins said. 

‘BOOM’: DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT AS BIDEN WEIGHS REMAINING THREAT

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, did not issue a statement on the verdict. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Collins similarly did not back Trump for president in the GOP primary and admitted to voting for Haley. 

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has emerged as someone often in line with Murkowski and Collins on certain issues, but did not release his own statement on the Trump guilty verdict. 

Romney’s office did not immediately provide comment when contacted by Fox News Digital. 

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However, earlier this month, Romney claimed President Biden made a mistake by not pardoning Trump. “You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him,” he said in an interview on MSNBC. 

“I’d have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy,” Romney explained. 

Progressive megadonor George Soros’s son and heir to his enterprise advised Democrats on Friday to emphasize former President Trump’s status as a “convicted felon,” after he was found guilty by a New York jury on charges filed by a district attorney that the powerful Soros family helped elect. 

“Democrats should refer to Trump as a convicted felon at every opportunity,” Alexander Soros wrote on X.

SENATE DEMS IN BATTLEGROUND RACES CAREFUL TO WEIGH IN ON TRUMP VERDICT

Alexander Soros gave Democrats a piece of advice after Donald Trump was found guilty by a New York jury. (Getty Images)

“Repetition is the key to a successful message and we want people to wrestle with the notion of hiring a convicted felon for the most important job in the country!” Soros said. 

The Soros family has bankrolled campaigns of prosecutors across the country blamed for being lax on crime. 

Fox News previously reported that George Soros gave Color of Change PAC $1 million in 2021, which spent a significant sum in support of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s candidacy. 

Fox News Digital reviewed campaign finance records that showed his son and daughter-in-law Jonathan and Jennifer Allan Soros donated directly to the then-candidate’s campaign. 

SCHUMER URGES TRUMP ALLIES TO LET LEGAL PROCESS ‘MOVE FORWARD’ AFTER GUILTY VERDICT

Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who the former president allegedly had an affair with. 

“I did my job. Our job is to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor. And that’s exactly what we did here,” Bragg told reporters following the guilty verdict being reached on Thursday. 

‘BOOM’: DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT AS BIDEN WEIGHS REMAINING THREAT

Alex Soros’ own words indicate he’ll be “even more radically leftist than his father,” according to a study of rhetoric and social media activity. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“What I feel is gratitude to work alongside phenomenal public servants who do that each and every day in matters that you all write about.… I did my job. We did our job. Many voices out there. The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury. And the jury has spoken,” he added. 

‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ CLAIMS MUDDY BATTLEGROUND STATE POLITICS AMID COMPETITIVE RACES

Former President rump reacts as the verdict is read in his criminal trial at Manhattan state court in New York City, May 30, 2024, in this courtroom sketch. (Reuters/Jane Rosenberg)

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Republicans overwhelmingly took issue with the verdict, slamming the trial as politicized. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio demanded on Friday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo testify next month at a hearing on “the unprecedented political prosecution of President Trump.”