NationalWatch

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a top ally and potential running mate of former President Trump, is making the case for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Scott, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2024 nomination but remains a very popular figure in the GOP, on Wednesday convenes a one-day summit that is drawing top figures in the Republican Party as well as mega-donors who have yet to commit to Trump’s White House campaign.

The all afternoon and evening gathering of Great Opportunity Policy, a Scott-aligned non-profit group that supports his political and policy agendas, will also double as a fundraiser for the former president as Trump enters his final phases in his search for a running mate.

THESE REPUBLICANS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE ON TRUMP’S SHORT LIST 

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., right, speaks in front of former President Trump during a campaign rally on Feb. 28, 2020 in North Charleston, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

The senator helped organize a major fundraiser for Trump earlier this year ahead of the South Carolina primary, and he attended a top-dollar fundraiser in New York City for the former president last month. Additionally, Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, earlier this month launched a $14 million effort to help the former president win over Black and other non-White working class voters that Scott argues could be the deciding factor in November’s elections.

On Wednesday, he will be making the case for Trump to a number of top donors and billionaires, including Ken Griffin, the founder of the Citadel hedge fund, who spent tens of millions during the 2024 Republican primaries in support of Trump’s rivals, and hedge fund executive Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital, who helped finance the campaigns of GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley and Democrat turned independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

VP STAKES: TRUMP MEETS WITH POTENTIAL RUNNING MATES

When asked what his message is to top donors who have yet to fully commit to the former president, Scott told Fox News Digital last month that “it is in the best interest of the United States of America to have four more years of President Donald Trump. It is in the best interest of our economy to have four more years of Donald Trump.”

“The one thing you can discern as a top donor and Republican and, frankly, a strong business person is that a strong economy makes all things possible,” 

Then-GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina speaks with members of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women at an event at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, on May 25, 2023 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Fox News )

Scott, who was one of roughly a dozen Republican candidates who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before ending his White House bid late last year, endorsed the former president in January.

The conservative senator from South Carolina over the past five months has become a top Trump surrogate and is considered to be among a small group of contenders on the short list as Trump’s running mate on the 2024 Republican ticket.

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Political analysts say that Scott, as a Black evangelical, could help the former president make a sizable dent in President Biden’s lead with minority voters.

Republican presidential candidate former President Trump, right, looks to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., during a Fox News Channel town hall on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024 in Greenville, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

His campaign trail efforts on behalf of Trump appear to have impressed the former president.

“You are a much better candidate for me than you are for yourself,” Trump has said to Scott a handful of times.

However, pundits question whether Scott’s uneven debate appearances during the Republican presidential primaries could be an issue for him if he faces off against Vice President Kamala Harris this summer in a general election running mate debate.

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

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is pressing her fellow Democrats to take tough stances on new tax policy as lawmakers prepare for the expiration of part of the Trump-era tax cuts after 2025. 

Speaking at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth during its event titled, “The Promise of Equitable and Pro-Growth Tax Reform,” the progressive lawmaker is expected to stress the importance of championing tax reforms to crack down on corporations.  

REPUBLICANS BACK STOPGAP SPENDING BILL INTO 2025 IN ANTICIPATION OF GOP WINS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushed Democrats to be tough on their tax stance. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“At the end of the 2025 tax reform process, large corporations must pay higher taxes. A typical billionaire must pay a higher tax rate than a typical middle-class family. Wealthy tax cheats must be sweating because the IRS has enough money to enforce the law,” Warren will say, reported Punchbowl News.

The former presidential candidate is going to make clear to her party that they cannot compromise too much of their goal. “A little money for poor children or a modest tax cut for middle-class families is still a lousy deal when we can’t fund childcare or infrastructure because the wealthiest among us are still sucking up billions in tax breaks,” she will reportedly explain.

TRUMP SELLS SENATE REPUBLICANS ON PLAN TO WIN OVER WORKERS IN CLOSED-DOOR MEETING

Part of the tax law will expire at the end of 2025. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

“Better to let all the Trump tax cuts expire than be accomplices to another slash-and-burn tax bonanza for America’s billionaires,” she will reportedly say, referring to the tax cuts afforded to Americans in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, often referred to as Trump tax cuts. The cuts will expire after 2025, and many Republicans are working to renew them as Democrats plot a different tax policy direction. 

TOOL TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT EMPLOYMENT COMES TO SENATE AS BORDER CRISIS RAGES

Sen. Ron Wyden has been negotiating a bipartisan tax framework. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Warren is also reportedly planning to criticize the tax framework that her Democratic colleague Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has been working on for months. Wyden has been engaged with House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., on a potential bipartisan tax deal. 

The Massachusetts senator is expected to claim Republicans “tanked the deal because they believe they can get even more next year, and Democrats won’t have the spine to stop them,” in a jab at her own party. 

RIOTER VANDALISM TARGETED AFTER DC STATUES DEFACED: ‘LONG LIVE HAMAS’

President Biden plans to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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Warren’s significant push for Democrats to dig in their heels on tax priorities comes as the Senate Finance Committee’s Democrats are reportedly expected to meet Thursday to plan for 2025.

President Biden, who is vying for a second term in the White House, has said his plan is to allow former President Trump’s tax cuts to expire when 2025 comes to a close. He would additionally increase the tax burden on companies and people making more money.

Warren’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore plans to pardon more than 175,000 marijuana convictions on Monday in one of the most sweeping rollbacks of drug policy in the country.

Moore’s plan would apply to some 100,000 people who were convicted of low-level marijuana possession charges. Marijuana has been increasingly legalized across the country as both a medicinal and recreational drug. 

“I’m ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what I’m signing to right a lot of historical wrongs,” Moore said. “If you want to be able to create inclusive economic growth, it means you have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately sit on communities of color.”

Moore’s office says the wave of pardons is timed to coincide with Wednesday’s Juneteenth holiday.

EXPERTS PREDICT INFLATION ELECTION TROUBLE FOR BIDEN: ‘TOO LATE’ TO FIX

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore plans to pardon more than 175,000 marijuana convictions on Monday in one of the most sweeping rollbacks of drug policy in the country. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

Maryland has fully legalized the cannabis trade within its borders since 2023, though its nearby neighbors like Washington, D.C. and Virginia still have some restrictions. Neither of the latter jurisdictions have issued pardons for marijuana-related crimes.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, praised Moore’s pardon.

TRUMP RALLY DRAWS SWING STATE VOTERS ANGRY OVER ‘SHAM’ CONVICTION: ‘BIGGEST SCAM EVER’

Maryland has fully legalized the cannabis trade within its borders since 2023, though its nearby neighbors like Washington, D.C. and Virginia still have some restrictions. Niether of the latter jurisdictions have issued pardons for marijuana-related crimes. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

“While the pardons will extend to anyone and everyone with a misdemeanor conviction for the possession of marijuana or paraphernalia, this unequivocally, without any doubt or reservation, disproportionately impacts — in a good way — Black and Brown Marylanders,” Brown said.

BIDEN CAMP JABS AT TRUMP’S ‘FAILED’ BUSINESS RECORD AS FORMER PRESIDENT LOOKS TO SWAY NATION’S TOP CEOs

“We are arrested and convicted at higher rates for possession and use of marijuana when the rate at which we used it was no different than any other category of people,” he added.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, praised Moore’s pardon for disproportionately helping “black and brown” residents. (getty images)

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Maryland officials clarified that none of the pardons will result in people being released from prison because none are currently incarcerated, according to the Washington Post.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nikki Haley announced on Sunday that her father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, has died. 

The announcement came as the U.S., as well as Canada and the United Kingdom, celebrated Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June.  

“This morning I had to say goodbye to the smartest, sweetest, kindest, most decent man I have ever known,” Haley wrote in an X post, sharing a February 2023 photo from a campaign event in her native South Carolina, where she announced that she was running for president. 

“My heart is heavy knowing he is gone,” Haley continued Sunday. “He taught his kids the importance of faith, hard work, and grace. He was an amazing husband of 64 years, a loving grandfather and great grandfather, and the best father to his four children. He was such a blessing to all of us. Happy Father’s Day Dad. We will miss you dearly.” 

HALEY, CHRISTIE STAY QUIET ON TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT AS GOP OUTRAGE GROWS OVER ‘UN-AMERICAN’ SILENCE

Nikki Haley embraces her father Ajit Singh Randhawa during a campaign event to launch her presidential bid, at the Charleston Visitor Center in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 15, 2023. (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images)

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations did not disclose her father’s age or cause of death in the post. 

Haley was the last Republican primary presidential contender to drop out of the 2024 race, eventually bowing out and giving a clear path to former President Trump in March.  

In January, Haley briefly left the campaign trail to visit her father in the hospital in South Carolina, Politico reported. Reports at the time said he had an unspecified type of cancer. 

Nikki Haley during a news conference in Sderot, Israel, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

NIKKI HALEY SILENT ON TRUMP’S NYC CONVICTION AS OTHER PROMINENT REPUBLICANS SPRING TO HIS DEFENSE

Randhawa, who was originally from India’s Punjab region, first moved to Canada to get a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia, then moved to South Carolina in 1969 and taught at Voorhees College, according to Politico.

Nikki Haley meets with a Hamas attack survivor, Tali Biner, during a visit to the ‘Nova’ Festival site on May 27, 2024 in Re’eim, Israel. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

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Haley, who would go on to become the state’s governor, was born three years later.

The Biden campaign released a new ad Monday morning as part of a $50 million ad blitz ahead of the first presidential debate later this month, highlighting former President Trump’s conviction, and saying “character” is the central dynamic of the 2024 presidential race. 

The new ad, titled “Character Matters,” highlights the verdict in New York v. Trump, when a jury found the former president and presumptive Republican nominee guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and has vowed to appeal the decision. 

President Biden waves as he arrives, Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Los Angeles, where he attended a campaign event. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

BLACK MALE VOTERS SOUR ON BIDEN, TRUMP: ‘TIRED OF BEING FORCED TO CHOOSE THE LESSER OF THE GREATER EVILS’

“This election is between a convicted criminal who is only out for himself, and a president who is fighting for your family,” the ad says, highlighting Trump’s legal challenges and saying the president has been focusing on “lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share.” 

The ad comes ahead of next week’s first presidential debate, which is set for June 27. 

The ad is part of the Biden campaign’s June $50 million paid media campaign. The campaign said the ad will run on general market television and Connected TV in all battleground states and on national cable.

Former President Trump, left, and President Biden. (Getty Images)

“Trump approaches the first debate as a convicted felon who continues to prove that he will do anything and harm anyone if it means more power and vengeance for Donald Trump,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said. “That’s why he was convicted, that’s why he encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol on January 6, and it’s why his entire campaign is an exercise in revenge and retribution; because that man is blind to the people a president should be serving and will do absolutely anything for his own personal gain and for his own power.” 

Tyler stressed that, in the 2024 presidential campaign, “character matters, and the President of the United States should be someone who understands that the highest office in the land is about you and your family – not a vehicle to enrich yourself.” 

President Biden, left, and actor George Clooney. (AP/Getty)

BLACK VOTERS UNHAPPY WITH BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGISTS FEAR IT COULD ‘THREATEN HIS RE-ELECTION’: NY TIMES

“That is the ethos Joe Biden puts into the job every day: to fight for safer communities, for the middle class, and to ensure that corporations are paying their fair share. It’s a stark contrast, and it’s one that matters deeply to the American people,” he said. “And it’s why we will make sure that every single day we are reminding voters about how Joe Biden is fighting for them, while Donald Trump runs a campaign focused on one man and one man only: himself.”

The Biden campaign on Monday also said the media campaign will target voters in battleground states for June as part of its “aggressive and comprehensive efforts to engage and activate voters who will decide this election.”

The ad blitz also includes a “historic” investment to reach Black, Latino, and Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander voters, with the campaign calling it the “largest investments to date.” 

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The ad campaign comes after the Biden campaign raised a record $30 million at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Big names, including former President Obama and Hollywood actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, were in attendance. 

The massive haul comes after Biden attended a star-studded fundraiser in New York City in April, where he raised more than $25 million. 

Meanwhile, the first presidential debate will be hosted by CNN on June 27 in Atlanta.

Nikki Haley announced on Sunday that her father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, has died. 

The announcement came as the U.S., as well as Canada and the United Kingdom, celebrated Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June.  

“This morning I had to say goodbye to the smartest, sweetest, kindest, most decent man I have ever known,” Haley wrote in an X post, sharing a February 2023 photo from a campaign event in her native South Carolina where she announced that she was running for president. 

“My heart is heavy knowing he is gone,” Haley continued Sunday. “He taught his kids the importance of faith, hard work, and grace. He was an amazing husband of 64 years, a loving grandfather and great grandfather, and the best father to his four children. He was such a blessing to all of us. Happy Father’s Day Dad. We will miss you dearly.” 

HALEY, CHRISTIE STAY QUIET ON TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT AS GOP OUTRAGE GROWS OVER ‘UN-AMERICAN’ SILENCE

Nikki Haley embraces her father Ajit Singh Randhawa during a campaign event to launch her presidential bid, at the Charleston Visitor Center in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 15, 2023. (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images)

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations did not disclose her father’s age or cause of death in the post. 

Haley was the last Republican primary presidential contender to drop out of the 2024 race,eventually bowing out and giving a clear path to former President Trump in March.  

In January, Haley briefly left the campaign trail to visit her father in the hospital in South Carolina, Politico reported. Reports at the time said he had an unspecified type of cancer. 

Nikki Haley during a news conference in Sderot, Israel, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

NIKKI HALEY SILENT ON TRUMP’S NYC CONVICTION AS OTHER PROMINENT REPUBLICANS SPRING TO HIS DEFENSE

Randhawa, who was originally from India’s Punjab region, first moved to Canada to get a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia, then moved to South Carolina in 1969, and taught at Voorhees College, according to Politico.

Nikki Haley meets with Hamas attack survivor, Tali Biner, during a visit to the ‘Nova’ Festival site on May 27, 2024 in Re’eim, Israel.  (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

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Haley, who would go on to become the state’s governor, was born three years later.

Republican senators are anticipating GOP wins in the upcoming November elections, enough so that some of the usual opponents are willing to pass a stopgap spending bill in September that would push off appropriations bills until 2025, when a potentially Republican Senate majority and White House could play a part in crafting them. 

“I do happen to believe that the continuing resolution that we ought to be looking at come September 30th, when our current spending bills run out of steam, is a spending bill that I think should take us into 2025, probably into March or April of 2025,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. 

TRUMP SELLS SENATE REPUBLICANS ON PLAN TO WIN OVER WORKERS IN CLOSED-DOOR MEETING

Sens. Lee and Marshall are expressing support for a stopgap spending bill that goes into 2025 so that Republicans can craft it – if they win in November. (Getty Images)

The Utah Republican has been a vocal critic against a cycle of continuing spending resolutions and omnibus bills frequently used in recent years to pass the all-important annual appropriations measures. According to him, a move like this would serve to avoid “the possibility of a lame duck omnibus” bill crafted by a Democratic Senate majority under the Biden administration. 

He said that such a measure would be “put in place, probably after some pretty significant Republican victories” during the 2024 elections “that will lead to Republicans having control of the Senate next year.”

TOOL TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT EMPLOYMENT COMES TO SENATE AS BORDER CRISIS RAGES

Republicans are focusing on several vulnerable incumbent Democrats and open seats, putting significant resources into Senate candidates such as Bernie Moreno, Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy and Kari Lake.  (Getty Images)

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., has repeatedly sounded the alarm about returning to a process of regular order, particularly when it comes to appropriations. The continuing resolution suggested by Lee “makes sense to me,” he said, adding that he “absolutely” sees himself pushing for it come September. 

The fiscal hawk explained the stopgap spending bill would “slow down the spending up here,” noting that “Anything other than a continuing resolution—folks up here are going to increase the spending.”

RIOTER VANDALISM TARGETED AFTER DC STATUES DEFACED: ‘LONG LIVE HAMAS’

Marshall has been a proponent of ensuring a regular order appropriations process. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Then, we need a commitment when we come back here to go through some type of regular order on the budget process and then work really hard on being ready for budget reconciliation, assuming we win all three levers.”

Republican senators met with former President Trump on Thursday at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) headquarters in Washington, D.C., with the exceptions of Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who did not attend. The majority of attendees seemed to emerge from the meeting feeling optimistic about Republicans’ odds in the upcoming elections. 

FBI DIRECTOR WRAY PRESSED ON 8 ISIS-LINKED BORDER CROSSERS RELEASED INTO US

Trump leads Biden in several key polls.  (Left: Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Right: (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))

The Senate is currently led by a Democratic majority, with a 51-49 split. But Republicans are looking at a much more advantageous Senate election map than their Democratic counterparts, five of whose incumbent senators are in tough battleground state races. Democrats are also losing three caucus members in Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, I-W.Va. The West Virginia Senate seat is expected to be an easy Republican pick up, with non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report rating it as “Solid Republican.” As for the seats being vacated in Michigan and Arizona, they are both only considered “Lean Democratic.” 

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Further, Trump has a significant chance of retaking the White House, leading President Biden in polls of several critical battleground states, giving both himself and Republican lawmakers hope. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Former President Donald Trump’s trial in Manhattan was a “modern day Salem witch trial” that has opened the floodgates to district attorneys across the nation prosecuting former presidents, experts told Fox News Digital. 

“No matter how you twist and warp the traditional role of the prosecutor, it’s always going to have a bad outcome. It’s bad for the legal system. And you now see two DAs — both of whom are Soros, rogue prosecutors — using their office to go after somebody who, if his name had not been Trump, no DA would have even blinked an eye his way. [They are using] the law in a perverted way for purely political reasons,” Heritage Foundation legal fellow Charles “Cully” Stimson told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. 

“It doesn’t even pass the laugh test,” he added. 

WHO HAS THE ‘KEYS TO THE WHITE HOUSE’? HISTORIAN WITH ACE RECORD CALLING ELECTIONS WEIGHS IN ON TRUMP VERDICT

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 21, 2024. After approximately five weeks, 19 witnesses, reams of documents and a dash of salacious testimony, the prosecution against Donald Trump rested its case May 21, 2024, handing over to the defense before closing arguments expected next week.   (Michael M. Santiago/PoolAFP via Getty Images)

Bragg charged former Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree last year, with Trump pleading not guilty and slamming the case as a “scam.” He was found guilty on May 30 by a Manhattan jury.

Trump has maintained his innocence since the verdict, and he has launched an appeal in the case. 

Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified 34 business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornography actor Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.

The House Judiciary, which is chaired by Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, held a hearing Thursday regarding Trump’s prosecution, hearing from four experts on the matter, including Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission Trey Trainor. The committee will hold another hearing next month, one day after Trump is sentenced, when it will host Bragg himself, as well as prosecutor and former DOJ official Matthew Colangelo. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, listens as Attorney General Merrick Garland appears before a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“With his unprecedented politicized indictment of President Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg has opened the door for politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials by state and local prosecutors. Other ambitious state prosecutors have already followed Bragg’s lead and pursued politically motivated indictments of President Trump,” committee Republicans said of the hearing Thursday. 

“On April 4, 2023, after campaigning on his experience in investigating President Trump and in response to intense pressure from left-wing activists, Bragg charged President Trump with 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. Falsifying business records is ordinarily a misdemeanor subject to a two-year statute of limitations, which would have expired long ago. While Bragg is systematically downgrading most felonies in Manhattan to misdemeanors, he used a novel and untested legal theory—previously declined by federal prosecutors—to upgrade the charges against President Trump to felonies. Bragg’s case against President Trump has beset by due process and procedural irregularities,” they added. 

Fox News Digital spoke to the authors of “Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities,” Stimson and fellow Heritage senior fellow Zack Smith, who explained that the role of the district attorney is to prosecute cases and keep the community safe. The pair both agreed in separate interviews that the case was one that weaponized the legal system. 

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“This clearly is essentially a weaponization of the legal system. And I think if we zoom out and look at the 40,000-foot perspective, I think it quickly becomes clear, that if the defendant wasn’t named Donald Trump, this case never would have been brought. And that’s particularly apparent if you look at the other policies and actions Alvin Bragg has taken since he’s been elected District Attorney,” Smith said. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to the media after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York.  (AP/Seth Wenig)

Smith pointed to Bragg’s “day one memo,” back when he took the office in 2022, which detailed that he would not prosecute those charged with low-level misdemeanors and felonies.  

TRUMP RILES UP FIERY SWING STATE CROWD IN FIRST RALLY SINCE NEW YORK CONVICTION

He pledged “not to prosecute most other misdemeanors there in Manhattan, pledging not to prosecute many low-level felonies, even many serious felony offenses. Or if he did prosecute them, not to seek a sentence of incarceration by default, and often to seek very lenient sentences for individuals accused of even very serious crimes,” Smith said. 

“So, I think any reasonable observer would look at this and say, that unless this was Donald Trump being prosecuted, this case wouldn’t have been brought.”

Smith explained that while Bragg pursued the lengthy case against Trump, New York City likely suffered as other violent crime continue to play out on the Big Apple’s streets. 

TRUMP PROSECUTOR QUIT TOP DOJ POST FOR LOWLY NY JOB IN LIKELY BID TO ‘GET’ FORMER PRESIDENT, EXPERT SAYS

“I don’t think it will come as a shock that there’s no shortage of violent crime in New York City today — watch the news, look at the stories that are out there. You’ll see often very violent criminals committing acts and being released back into the community again,” he said. 

People stand in Central Park in front of buildings along Billionaires’ Row as trees begin to turn color on October 29, 2023, in New York City.  (Getty Images)

Stimson penned an op-ed with legal scholar John Yoo this month outlining that the NY v. Trump case effectively declared “open season” for America’s more than 2,300 elected district attorneys to pursue cases against former presidents. 

“President Trump’s enemies have been so busy celebrating his conviction in New York last week that they don’t seem to realize what a double-edged sword they’ve unsheathed. Regardless of Trump’s fate on appeal, one or more of the 2,300 elected district attorneys across the country may now feel liberated. They can now pursue former presidents, including President Biden, regardless of the merits of the case, purely for political gain or retribution,” the pair wrote in the op-ed. 

TRUMP VERDICT HAS STARTED ‘WAR OF WEAPONIZATION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM,’ LEGAL EXPERTS WARN

Stimson and Yoo pointed specifically to Bragg and Fulton County, Georgia, DA Fani Willis for opening the flood gates to DAs prosecutors pursuing cases against other former presidents. Willis brought forth the election inference case against Trump, charging him and 18 co-defendants with racketeering over allegations that they had tried to overthrow the 2020 election. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)

“We are not suggesting that any county prosecutor must retaliate against Biden simply because Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Fulton County DA Fani Willis prosecuted Donald Trump—though it is hard to see what else would stop rogue progressive prosecutors from continuing to charge Republican presidents. Rather, we are suggesting that the likelihood of other county prosecutors charging former presidents has gone from zero to some undetermined percentage,” they highlighted. 

ANTI-TRUMP DA BAILED ON DEBATE TO ‘SCHMOOZE’ WITH CELEBS, IS CHALLENGED TO A REMATCH

DAs, they speculated, could open an investigation into the Biden family regarding whether Hunter and James Biden “were taking money from foreign governments and companies to influence U.S. government decisions,” which would thus involve President Biden. They noted: “A DA would already have the paper trail set out by congressional investigators and IRS whistleblowers.”

James Biden arrives in federal court on hearing there was a verdict, Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware.  (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Or a “creative county prosecutor in Texas” could pursue a case against President Biden for “any number of crimes for his immigration policies on the border,” they added. 

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“Trump’s foes can cheer all they want, but the short-term political gain Bragg and those who support him may reap from this flawed and unorthodox prosecution will potentially be dwarfed by the long-term damage to stability of the Office of the President,” they added. 

Former President Trump courted Black voters in Detroit Saturday, when he raised President Biden’s authorship of the 1994 crime bill, which remains a sore point after three decades.

Headlining a roundtable discussion at the predominantly Black 180 Church as his campaign was announcing the launch of a Black voter coalition, Trump noted that rising crime rates hurt his audience’s community the most.

“Look, the crime is most rampant right here and in African American communities,” Trump said Saturday in Detroit. “More people see me, and they say, ‘Sir, we want protection. We want police to protect us. We don’t want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread.’”

Trump took aim at Biden and the Biden-Harris campaign during his remarks, recalling how Biden, as a senator in 1994, authored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which Biden has since called a “mistake.” 

BIDEN CALLS SUPPORTING 1994 CRIME BILL A ‘MISTAKE’ DURING ABC TOWN HALL

Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a campaign event Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Detroit, as Itasha Dotson and Carlos Chambers listen.  (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

“Biden wrote the devastating 1994 crime bill, talking about ‘super predators.’ That was Biden. You know, he walks around now talking about the Black vote. He’s the king of the ‘super predators,’” Trump said during the event. 

Biden authored the Senate’s version of the bill when he served as a senator from Delaware. Signed into law by President Clinton, the bill has been blamed for mass incarceration that disproportionately affected the Black community. 

BIDEN’S SENATE RECORD, ADVOCACY OF 1994 CRIME BILL WILL BE USED AGAINST HIM, EX-SANDERS STAFFER SAYS

Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, is presented with a birthday cookie after participating in a community roundtable at the 180 Church in Detroit June 15, 2024.  (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The bill’s passage came on the heels of the crack cocaine epidemic that throttled Black communities in the 1980s and early 1990s.

BIDEN, IN 1992, TOUTED CRIME BILL DOES ‘EVERYTHING BUT HANG PEOPLE FOR JAYWALKING’ 

Biden had a long history of authoring legislation viewed at the time as tough on crime but now seen as controversial and contributing to the spike in America’s incarceration rates. 

As the consumption of crack cocaine spiraled in the 1980s, for example, Biden co-sponsored another bill that soon became controversial, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. That legislation, which was signed into law by President Reagan, established harsher sentencing penalties for possession of crack cocaine than the drug’s powder form. Crack cocaine and cocaine have a similar chemical makeup, but Black Americans disproportionately used crack cocaine compared to their White counterparts, leading to an outcry that the bill unfairly targeted Black Americans. 

President Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Philadelphia April 18, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Biden has since distanced himself from the 1986 and 1994 legislation, saying of the 1986 drug bill that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” The Washington Post reported in 2019. He added ahead of the 2020 election that the 1994 crime bill was a “mistake” due to its effect on the Black community. 

DETROIT PASTOR WELCOMES TRUMP REACHING OUT TO BLACK VOTERS, SAYS BIDEN ‘HAS FORGOTTEN WHY HE’S IN OFFICE’

Trump in his comments suggested Biden referred to criminals in the 1990s as “super predators.” Biden did refer to criminals in that era as “predators” who were “beyond the pale,” but the specific phrase “super predators” was not used by Biden. 

Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, arrives to participate in a community roundtable at the 180 Church in Detroit June 15, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Instead, first lady Hillary Clinton used the phrase in 1996 while speaking favorably of the legislation signed into law by her husband in 1994 and has since apologized for the phrase. 

​​”Just as in a previous generation, we had an organized effort against the mob. We need to take these people on,” she said at the time. “They are often connected to big drug cartels; they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators. No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”

NEW POLL REVEALS DEMS ARE LOSING SIGNIFICANT SUPPORT FROM THESE 2 KEY DEMOGRAPHICS: ‘ESPECIALLY CONCERNING’

Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a campaign event at 180 Church Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Amid Clinton’s failed bid for the White House against Trump in 2016, a Black Lives Matter activist confronted her about the phrase, prompting the former secretary of state to walk back the comment. 

“Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today,” Clinton told The Washington Post in 2016. 

TRUMP ENLISTS PROMINENT BLACK REPUBLICANS TO APPEAL TO THEIR PEERS: ‘FISHING WHERE THE FISH ARE’

Trump’s pitch to Black voters in Detroit comes as polling indicates Trump is gaining popularity among the voting bloc. Last month on CNN, a data analyst appeared stunned as the network explained Trump’s support among Black voters more than doubled to 22% compared to 2020, while Biden saw a 12% drop. Overall, Biden still holds a strong lead over Trump among Black voters. 

President Biden speaking in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Biden won Michigan by three points in the 2020 election, but recent New York Times polling conducted in six battleground states last month found Trump leading in a handful of key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. The poll, published last month, found Biden holds more favorability in one battleground state — Wisconsin. 

BIDEN CAMPAIGN ‘RATTLED’ AS PRESIDENT ‘HEMORRHAGES VOTES’ IN BLACK COMMUNITY TO TRUMP, SAYS REP. HUNT

Following the roundtable discussion, the Biden-Harris campaign hit back that the 45th president’s audience at the church was “noticeably empty and white” and that his “eleventh hour” outreach to Black voters “isn’t fooling anyone.” 

Guests pray at the close of a roundtable discussion with community leaders and former President Trump, a presidential candidate, at the 180 Church June 15, 2024, in Detroit. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“Donald Trump thinks the fact that he has ‘many Black friends’ excuses an entire lifetime of denigrating and disrespecting Black Americans, but Black voters know better — and Trump’s eleventh hour attempt at Black ‘outreach’ isn’t fooling anyone,” Biden-Harris 2024 Director of Black Media Jasmine Harris said in a press release. 

“Black voters haven’t forgotten that this man entered public life calling for the death penalty for the innocent Central Park 5 and entered political life spreading racist conspiracy theories about Barack Obama. We haven’t forgotten that Black unemployment and uninsured rates skyrocketed when Trump was in the White House. And we sure haven’t forgotten Trump repeatedly cozying up to white supremacists and demonizing Black communities to his political benefit — because that’s exactly what he’ll do if he wins a second term. Black voters sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020, and they’re ready to make Donald Trump a two-time loser in 2024.” 

Former President Trump headlines a Republican National Committee spring donor retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., May 4, 2024  (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

Trump’s newly-formed Black coalition, Black Americans for Trump, was launched just days ahead of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end to slavery in the U.S. and is celebrated June 19 each year. 

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SETS UP SHOP IN BLUE PHILADELPHIA IN FIGHT FOR KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE

“Never has it been more clear that Joe Biden’s reckless reversal of President Trump’s America First policies is the very reason why Black communities have been utterly decimated under his Administration with sky-high grocery and gas prices, untenable housing costs, an invasion of illegal migrants and rampant violent crime,” Team Trump Senior Advisor Lynne Patton said in a statement in the campaign’s press release. 

“On day one, Donald Trump will reinstate all his proven policies on immigration, law and order, energy and the economy and put Black America First.” 

The Detroit skyline May 12, 2020 (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

Trump was joined by Black leaders and supporters during the roundtable discussion Saturday, including former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Republican Michigan Rep. John James and former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. 

The pastor of 180 Church, Lorenzo Sewell, joined “Fox & Friends First” Friday ahead of the roundtable, lauding Trump’s visit as one that “means so much” to the community.

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“Sometimes we forget about the Black vote. Sometimes we forget about the power of what it means to vote for those who are in office and, in urban America, our voice matters. That’s why it means so much to us that the former president will come and value our voice,” Sewell said. 

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remains unbowed in his support for Israel despite nearly two dozen anti-Israel protests staged outside the Houston-area home he shares with his wife and their two children, Fox News Digital has learned.

Protesters have gathered to shout slogans outside Cruz’s home since February as outcry surrounding Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel mounted. The demonstrations came in response to Cruz’s staunch support of Israel during the war and as the Texas senator railed against “cultural Marxism” promoted in the classrooms of the nation’s elite universities. 

“It doesn’t matter how long this anti-Israel, pro-terrorist harassment continues. Sen. Ted Cruz will continue to fight antisemitism and stand for Texas values. He’s proud to stand with Israel as the country fights to utterly eradicate Hamas for as long as it takes,” a Cruz spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

The latest incident came Friday evening, when anti-Israel protesters gathered outside Cruz’s Texas home for the 23rd time since Feb. 10. 

‘SCREAMING AND CURSING’ ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS DESCEND ON SENATOR’S HOME MORE THAN A DOZEN TIMES

Anti-Israel agitators have staged 23 protests outside Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s home since February.  (Sen. Cruz’s office )

Photos and video show about a dozen protesters outside Cruz’s home Friday chanting and clapping while holding signs such as “Cease Fire Now,” “No rest for the wicked, Ted” and “Israel bombs playgrounds.” The protesters were also seen ringing bells as they chanted and wore masks.  

Cruz posted to X about the agitators Friday evening, saying they have shown up to his home most weekends this year and “scream, disturb the peace & wake the neighbors.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, attends a Senate Judiciary Committee markup in Hart Building May 11, 2023.  (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“For the past 6 months, anti-Israel protestors have come to my home just about every Sat morning at 7 am and most Fri nights until 10 or 11 pm. They scream, disturb the peace & wake the neighbors,” he posted. “No matter how much these antisemites cheer Hamas, I will stand with Israel.”

During the college school year, agitators and student protesters flooded college campuses nationwide to protest the war in Israel, which also included spiking instances of antisemitism and Jewish students publicly speaking out that they don’t feel safe on some campuses. 

TED CRUZ UNLEASHES ON BIDEN, DEMS OVER ‘REPULSIVE’ PROTESTS, SAYS US LACKING ‘REAL PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP’

Radicals on Columbia University’s campus, for example, took over the school’s Hamilton Hall building, while schools such as UCLA, Harvard and Yale worked to clear spiraling student encampments where protesters demanded their elite schools completely divest from Israel. 

Student protesters gather inside their encampment on the Columbia University campus April 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Terrorist organization Hamas launched a war in Israel Oct. 7, which initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses in the form of protests, menacing graffiti and students reporting that they felt as if it was “open season for Jews on our campuses.” The protests then heightened to the point Jewish students at some schools, including Columbia, were warned to leave campus for their own safety. 

ROWDY ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP GATHERS OUTSIDE TED CRUZ’S HOME FOR EARLY MORNING PROTEST: ‘HARASSING MY FAMILY’

Anti-Israel agitators protesting outside Sen. Ted Cruz’s home for the 23rd time since February.  (Sen. Cruz’s office )

The college protests were tied to far-left organizations backed by dark money and liberal mega-donor George Soros, Fox News Digital previously reported. The National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) had a large presence amid the protests on Columbia University’s campus and on the campuses of UCLA, Tufts and the University of Texas at Austin in Cruz’s home state. 

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a flag on the rooftop of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York April 30, 2024.  (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The national chapter celebrated Hamas’ initial attack on Israel in October, describing it as a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance,” The New York Times reported in October. 

NYPD RELEASES VIDEO SHOWING PROFESSIONAL ‘PROTEST CONSULTANT’ AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The protesters outside Cruz’s home in recent months are tied to Students for Justice in Palestine, law enforcement told the senator earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported last month. 

An anti-Israel protester holds a sign outside Sen. Ted Cruz’s home in Texas.  (Sen. Cruz’s office )

Cruz has previously been the target of liberal protesters working to stage demonstrations outside his house in the Houston area, including in 2021, when 60 to 70 climate activists gathered. 

Amid the protests at his home and on college campuses, Cruz has reiterated his support for Israel, slamming the agitators as people “whose minds have been poisoned” to “hate America.” 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROTESTS: REP. ELISE STEFANIK URGES TRUSTEES TO REMOVE SHAFIK AFTER MOB SEIZES BUILDING

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walks out of a meeting room for the lawyers of former President Trump and back to the Senate floor through the Senate Reception room on the fourth day of the Senate impeachment trial for Trump on Capitol Hill Feb. 12, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Jabin Botsford/Pool/Getty Images)

“The protests, the antisemitic protests, the anti-Israel protests we’re seeing have been disgusting,” Cruz told Fox News host Brian Killmeade on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” last month. “They have been repulsive. These are radicals whose minds have been poisoned. They have been taught to hate Israel, and they’ve been taught to hate America. 

“And they are chanting in support of Hamas and in support of vicious terrorists. You look at a university, the Orthodox rabbi at Columbia advising them to stay home because they said Columbia cannot and will not protect your safety. That is utterly unacceptable. And the university administrators side with the radicals.

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“Joe Biden and the entire Democrat Party leadership has been AWOL as we are seeing this horrific antisemitism erupting on college campuses across the country.”

Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and former President Trump’s daughter-in-law, vowed Friday to prosecute anyone who cheats in an election.

“This year is the year we do it,” Lara Trump said at Turning Point USA’s convention in Detroit, Michigan. “We are also sending a loud and clear message out there to anyone who thinks about cheating in an election, we will find you, we will track you down and we will prosecute you to the full extent of the law.”

The RNC on Friday launched a swing state initiative to mobilize thousands of polling place monitors, poll workers and attorneys to serve as “election integrity” watchdogs in November. 

Lara Trump said the goal is to recruit more than 100,000 poll watchers and 500 lawyers to deploy at election sites across the country. 

TRUMP HAS ‘SORT OF A PRETTY GOOD IDEA’ OF VP PICK, WILL PROBABLY ANNOUNCE DURING RNC CONVENTION

Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, speaks on stage during “Turning Point’s The Peoples Convention” on June 14, 2024 at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan.  (JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

For decades, the RNC was limited in its ability to coordinate poll watching and other election integrity activities by a federal court consent decree established to stop Republican-backed voter intimidation efforts. The decree was lifted in 2018. 

“We have a unique opportunity right now that we have not had in 40 years as a party. For 40 years, there was a consent decree placed on the RNC that did not allow us to train people to work as poll workers,” Lara Trump said at the Turning Point USA event. “Who was training all the people for the last 40 years? Not the RNC. Think about how many people the DNC got to train.”

“So now we have this amazing opportunity so we can train you to work in a polling location. We can train you to work in a tabulation center when the mail-in ballots come in. We also want attorneys to work in every major polling location so we are not reactive, we are proactive,” she said. 

The RNC has said its new effort will focus on stopping potential “Democrat attempts to circumvent the rules.” The party will deploy monitors to observe every step of the election process, create hotlines for poll watchers to report perceived problems and escalate those issues by taking legal action. 

The RNC’s kickoff event took place at the headquarters of the Oakland County GOP, one of Michigan’s most influential local parties. Oakland County is an affluent Detroit suburb that for decades was one of Michigan’s premier bellwether counties. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said Friday that the committee will place election integrity directors in 15 states, including the most hotly contested battlegrounds, and work with state parties to set up similar programs in the other states.

“What we need to ensure is integrity in our electoral process,” Lara Trump said during the kickoff event in Bloomfield Hills, in a suburban county that is crucial for winning Michigan. “We can never go back and repeat 2020, but we can learn the lessons from 2020.” She said most of the RNC is currently focused on the committee’s election integrity program.

Eric Trump, executive vice president of Trump Organization Inc., left, and Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, right, during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York on Friday, May 31, 2024.  (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Both parties have a long history of organizing supporters to serve as poll monitors, and the Democratic National Committee said it plans its own volunteer recruitment effort. 

RNC OPENS LATINOS FOR TRUMP FIELD OFFICE IN BATTLEGROUND PENNSYLVANIA

The launch of the RNC initiative comes as the GOP faces a significant disadvantage compared to Democrats in traditional political infrastructure on the ground in key states, such as campaign offices, community centers and canvassers, according to the Associated Press. President Biden’s campaign and his allies on the Democratic National Committee have opened hundreds of campaign offices nationwide, while Republican officials in many cases are still waiting for the Trump campaign and the RNC to engage.

Lara Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at on Feb. 22, 2024 in National Harbor, Maryland.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said the DNC, “alongside our partners at the state and local level, won’t let MAGA Republicans get away with these baseless attacks on our democracy, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that all Americans can make their voice heard at the ballot box.” 

RNC leadership, which former President Trump handpicked in a major overhaul of the committee earlier this year,  has followed his lead in forecasting the potential for foul play in this year’s election. Lara Trump qualified her answer on CNN earlier this month when asked if she would accept the election’s results.

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“I can tell you, yes, we will accept the results of this election if we feel that it is free, fair and transparent,” she said. “And we are working overtime to ensure that indeed that happens.”

Asked Friday whether the committee planned to challenge the election certification process in any swing states Trump might narrowly lose, Whatley said, “We’re not going to cross any of those bridges right now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a series of profiles of potential running mates for presidential candidate Donald Trump on the 2024 Republican Party ticket.

The race to determine who will be Donald Trump’s running mate this November is continuing to heat up, with the former president telling Fox News last week he has “sort of a pretty good idea” who he’ll select.

The identity of that person remains a mystery, but a number of prospective contenders were recently asked to provide documents to Trump’s team as part of the vetting process, including firebrand Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who some insiders say could be the key to flipping working-class Democrat voters in a number of consequential battleground states.

“J.D. Vance has become a fixture on the road for Donald Trump and is extremely popular with the Trump base,” one top GOP strategist told Fox News Digital, referencing Vance’s frequent appearances with Trump on the campaign trail and beyond.

DEMOCRATS ‘FEAR’ THIS POSSIBLE TRUMP VP PICK WHO ‘SOULD SPELL THE END FOR BIDEN’: INSIDERS

From left to right: Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. (Getty Images)

“He would be a lot of help across the entire Rust Belt and could help pick up working-class Democrat votes in places even outside his own state of Ohio. He would be an asset everywhere, really, but especially in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.”

The three states mentioned were all won by Trump in 2016 when they constituted part of the so-called “blue wall” for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton but flipped to President Biden in 2020.

All three are once again taking center stage in the presidential race and could be the deciding factor for who wins the presidency this year. Vance’s blue-collar upbringing, which he detailed in his bestselling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” particularly appeals to many voters across those states in the same fashion Trump did during his first presidential run, another insider argued.

INSIDERS PREDICT THIS POSSIBLE TRUMP VP PICK POSES ‘EXISTENTIAL THREAT’ TO KEY AREA OD BIDEN SUPPORT

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, speaks to the press at a town hall event with former President Trump, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Ariz., June 6, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

“[Vance] capably handles hostile media interviews with the poise and precision of a Yale Law School graduate while also sharing an authentic connection with blue-collar voters in the key states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. So, it’s easy to see why he’s on Trump’s list of potential picks,” said GOP strategist Matt Wolking, who served as deputy communications director for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.

“A combat veteran and a good friend of Donald Trump Jr., Vance is a fresh face from the populist, noninterventionist, union-friendly wing of the new Republican Party,” Wolking added, referencing Vance’s service in the Marine Corps and deployment to Iraq.

Wolking noted some potential downsides to Vance’s selection include that he would be the youngest vice president in 70 years, and, considering he was elected to the Senate in 2022, has only held elected office for 18 months as of June.

EXPERTS REVEAL MAJOR ‘DOWNSIDE’ TO POTENTIAL TRUMP VP PICK: ‘NO WOW FACTOR’

Senator J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, speaks to members of the media outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York May 13, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“He has only one general election under his belt in a state Trump won by eight points,” he added.

Another GOP strategist with experience in presidential campaigns told Fox that because Trump is working hard to court the business community, Vance’s “anti-big business inclinations would give some of those potential donors major heartburn.”

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Others who have been floated as possibilities to join Trump on the Republican ticket include House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Trump has suggested he will likely wait until July’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to name his pick.

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

EXCLUSIVE: CONCORD, N.H. — As she runs this year in one of the top gubernatorial elections in the country, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte is making clear she supports former President Trump’s bid to win back the White House.

“Under Joe Biden things cost more, we’re less safe. There’s no question that we are worse off than we were than when President Trump was in office,” Ayotte charged in a national interview with Fox News Digital. “I’m supporting President Trump because I believe we need to change courses for the nation.”

While support for the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee — thanks to his immense grip over the party — seems like a no-brainier for nearly all Republicans running in 2024 for elective office, for Ayotte, it takes on heightened importance.

Ayotte was a rising star in the Republican Party in 2016 as the former state attorney general and first-term senator with a burgeoning profile on national security was running for re-election.

REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS TAKE AIM AT BIDEN OVER ENERGY

Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican candidate for governor, is surrounded by supporters as she files her candidacy at the Secretary of State’s office in Concord, New Hampshire, on Thursday. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

But just ahead of the 2016 election, she withdrew her support for Trump over the “Access Hollywood” controversy, in which Trump in a years-old video made extremely crude comments about grabbing women without their consent.

“I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ayotte said at the time. 

Ayotte lost re-election by a razor-thin margin of just over 1,000 votes at the hands of then-Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.

But Ayotte slightly outperformed Trump in New Hampshire, as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton edged the White House winner by less than 3,000 votes.

TRUMP SUPPORTS THIS BLUE-STATE REPUBLICAN CRITIC OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT

Before retiring full time to New Hampshire, Ayotte stuck around Washington briefly after the end of her term, shepherding then-Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch (Trump’s first high court nominee) through his successful Senate confirmation process.

In her post-Senate career, Ayotte enjoyed a lucrative period as she served on corporate boards and in advisory roles at both public and private companies. Among them was News Corp., which at one time was the parent company of Fox News.

Ayotte during the intervening years also kept a close eye on New Hampshire politics, and would occasionally appear at Republican Party events in the state. She also continued to write opinion pieces on major state, national and international issues.

The former senator announced her gubernatorial bid nearly a year ago, after popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2024 to what would have been an unprecedented fifth two-year term.

Ayotte stayed neutral in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary, but she endorsed Trump in early March, right after he clinched the GOP nomination.

“He’ll fix the disaster over the southern border and we’re also seeing it on the northern border, to keep the country safe,” Ayotte told Fox News on Thursday. 

She added that Trump “also has a different vision in terms of freedom and taxes” and argued that President Biden “has really, unfortunately, been a disaster for the country, and we need a change.”

Ayotte was interviewed minutes after she was greeted by a large crowd of supporters as she arrived at the Secretary of State’s office at the Statehouse in Concord, New Hampshire, to officially file her candidacy for governor.

While she’s the polling and fundraising front-runner for the GOP nomination in New Hampshire’s early September primary, she’s come under repeated attack by her rival, former longtime state Senate president Chuck Morse, who came in second in a crowded field of contenders in the 2022 U.S. Senate Republican primary.

Former New Hampshire state Senate president Chuck Morse, a Republican candidate for governor, shakes hands with a supporter as he arrives at the Secretary of State’s office to file his candidacy in Concord, New Hampshire, on June 5. (Chuck Morse gubernatorial campaign )

“I think there’s a big difference between myself and Kelly Ayotte,” Morse said last week as he filed at the Statehouse. “I started as a conservative, and I finished as a conservative as Senate president, and I promise you, I will be a governor that’s a conservative.

“That’s not what Kelly did when she went to Washington.”

And hours before she arrived to file, a Morse campaign memo asked which Ayotte would show up, “the so-called conservative candidate Kelly or the moderate establishment she has always been in office.”

THIS FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR NOW LAUNCHES BID FOR GOVERNOR IN KEY SWING STATE

Ayotte pushed back on Thursday, emphasizing, “I am a commonsense, strong conservative, and I’m going to continue this state down the path that Gov. Sununu has. And we’re going to have even brighter days ahead.”

And pointing to Morse, she argued, “I’ve known Chuck a long time, and this is a sad way for him to end his political career.”

Morse, in a statement to Fox News, fired back, charging that “Governor Chris Sununu followed a path blazed by conservative leaders like me, while Kelly’s record is littered with bad policy choices and voting with [Barack] Obama over 260 times. This state deserves leaders who face tough questions, not those who hide from accountability. I’m here, ready to answer to the people and continue moving New Hampshire forward. If Kelly can’t face her own record, how can she lead?”

Morse, who wasn’t particularly close to Trump when the former president first ran for the White House, endorsed Trump in December. He’s showcased his backing of Trump and for months questioned Ayotte’s support for the former president.

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While he’s made dozens of endorsements in competitive Republican primaries across the country, Trump remains neutral in the New Hampshire gubernatorial race.

Asked if she’d embrace a Trump endorsement and if she’d campaign with him in the Granite State, Ayotte told Fox News she would “certainly appreciate” the former president’s backing. “Anyone who is offering their support, I’d love to have their support,” she said.

“But on the other hand, you think about what’s the most important issue in this race and it’s the people of New Hampshire,” she emphasized. “So I’m campaigning every day to get the support and earn the support of the voters in this race, and that’s what I’m doing on the campaign trail and will continue to do.”

Ayotte also praised Sununu, who to date has remained neutral in the race to succeed in New Hampshire’s governor’s office.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu speaks with Fox News during a Republican Governors Association news conference at an oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, on June 3. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

“The path that Gov. Sununu has us on is one of prosperity, one of more freedom… I want to continue us down that path,” she said. “I appreciate his leadership and the work that he’s done, and I want to continue his success for his state.”

Ayotted added that “he and I see each other all the time. We see each other on the campaign trail. We’ve known each other a long time. I respect him and we have a great relationship.”

In her Fox News interview and speaking to reporters at her filing, Ayotte also took aim at former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and executive councilor Cinde Warmington, the two main Democrats running for governor.

“My Democratic opponents have a very different vision for New Hampshire. They actually think that the Massachusetts model is better,” she reiterated. 

Since launching her campaign, Ayotte has targeted her Democratic rivals over New Hampshire’s progressive neighbor to the south, which has long been a target for Granite State conservatives.

The Democratic Governors Association, in a statement, charged that Ayotte “is a self-serving politician who will say or do anything to win, even lying to Granite Staters about her dangerous record of restricting reproductive freedom.”

Asked about her stance on abortion as she filed, Ayotte emphasized that she would protect New Hampshire’s state law that allows abortions through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

“As governor, I will protect that law. I will not change it. So they’re misleading the women of New Hampshire right now by making them think that there’s going to be something else that will happen. I want them to know what our law, that I will protect it and that I won’t change it,” she said.

Ayotte added that she “would pledge to veto restrictions” to the current state law.

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

Former President Trump attended a roundtable discussion at a church in Detroit on Saturday afternoon in an effort to reach out to Black voters.

During the discussion, 180 Church Pastor Lorenzo Sewell told Trump that he was “humbled” by the former president’s visit. 

President Trump speaks with 180 Church Pastor Lorenzo Sewell (far right).  (Fox News Digital)

“President Obama never came to the ’hood, so-to-speak, right? President Joe Biden, he went to the big NAACP dinner, but he never came to the ’hood. So thank you,” Sewell said, eliciting applause from the audience. 

Later Saturday, Trump appeared at the “People’s Convention” of Turning Point Action. 

GEORGE CLOONEY RUBS ELBOWS WITH BIDEN AT STAR-STUDDED LA FUNDRAISER AFTER CALLING WHITE HOUSE WITH COMPLAINT

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Biden campaign for a response to Sewell’s remarks. 

Sewell told “Fox & Friends First” on Friday that he couldn’t remember the last time a president laid out a plan for the Black community until Trump created the Platinum Plan, which included approximately $500 billion for Black businesses and churches. 

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at 180 Church, Saturday, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

“Those metrics matter to us. So we’re going to hold him accountable to the Platinum Plan that he produced,” Sewell said. 

TRUMP SAYS SUPREME COURT’S DECISION STRIKING DOWN HIS ADMIN’S BUMP STOCK RULE ‘SHOULD BE RESPECTED’

Biden was in Detroit last month, where he spoke at the NAACP’s 69th Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner, repeating talking points about bringing people together and slamming Trump for being too divisive.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at 180 Church, Saturday, in Detroit, as Itasha Dotson and Carlos Chambers listen.  (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Trump’s appearance comes as Biden is set to attend a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles later Saturday, headlined by Hollywood actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, alongside former President Obama.     

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The Biden campaign said Saturday night’s event is expected to raise at least $28 million. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this report. 

After former President Trump’s lucrative, three-day swing through California, President Biden has returned to the West Coast to tap into the Democrat-dominated state’s political ATM.

With less than five months to go until the November election, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel will interview Biden and former President Obama as they team up with Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts at a star-studded fundraiser the president’s campaign said is already breaking records.

Biden’s campaign boasted “the event has already raised over $28 million and counting — making it the biggest fundraiser in Democratic Party history.”

The haul tops a fundraiser with Biden, Obama and former President Clinton in March at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, which raked in $26 million.

TRUMP HAULS IN PLENTY OF GREEN DURING SWING THROUGH LONGTIME BLUE STATE

Former presidents Clinton (right) and Obama (left) and President Biden (center) headline a Democratic Party fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall March 28, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images)

But Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, hauled in over $50 million in early April at a fundraiser at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor and hedge fund founder John Paulson. It was the most money ever brought in at a single fundraising event and shattered the record Biden set just a week and a half earlier at Radio City Music Hall.

It’s the latest case of national politicians coming to California to pad their campaign coffers. According to figures from the Federal Election Commission, Biden and Trump have raked in more money in California this cycle than any other state.

“When politicians look to the west, they see a field of green,” veteran California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College told Fox News.

President Biden and former President Trump have both hauled in millions at fundraising events in California as they face off in their 2024 election rematch. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson and Evan Vucci)

Tickets for Saturday’s gala at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, which an invitation describes as a “historic night,” ranged from $250 for a single person to get in the door to half a million dollars for special access, photos with Biden and Obama and invitations to an after-party.

The president arrived in California one week after Trump left the Golden State.

Trump’s team said when all the money is counted, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was expected to haul in roughly $27.5 million from three fundraisers in California and one in Las Vegas, a senior campaign official told Fox News.

WHY TRUMP’S SAN FRANCISCO FUNDRAISER WAS FRUITFUL IN MORE THAN ONE WAY

And the Trump campaign said an additional $6 million was raised for outside groups supporting his 2024 election rematch with Biden.

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

Trump’s campaign announced a week ago it and the RNC hauled in a stunning $141 million in May, fueled in part by the former president’s guilty verdicts in his recently concluded criminal trial.

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

Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

The former president’s campaign noted that, in the first 24 hours following the verdict, it and the RNC brought in nearly $53 million, which counted toward May’s total. 

The Biden campaign has also been raising money from the Trump verdict, and a source told Fox News “the 24 hours after the verdict were one of the best fundraising 24 hours of the Biden campaign since launch.”

While Trump’s California fundraising haul was fueled by top-dollar GOP donors, including tech industry investors and hedge fund giants, Saturday’s fundraising for Biden is being orchestrated by the Democratic Hollywood machine.

It’s no surprise. The entertainment industry, which showered presidents Clinton and Obama with campaign cash, has long been known for its Democratic leanings.

And while the 81-year-old Biden doesn’t have the tight relationships with Hollywood that his Democratic predecessors enjoyed, he can still draw a crowd.

“Any Democratic presidential candidate is going to be able to raise a lot of money in California, and an incumbent president has a big advantage. When the president enters a room, it fills up with cash,” Pitney said.

President Biden waves as he arrives on Air Force One June 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. Biden will attend a campaign event Saturday night. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Major strikes by two Hollywood labor unions representing film and television writers and actors from May through November of last year delayed Biden from raising money in Los Angeles entertainment circles.

But the president started making up for lost time in December with a major fundraiser hosted by famed directors Steven Spielberg and Rob Reiner. Saturday’s mega-fundraiser was orchestrated by media mogul and Democratic rainmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s a Biden campaign co-chair. Katzenberg also put together the Radio City Music Hall fundraiser.

The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have enlisted the help of plenty of stars and well-known performers from the entertainment world as the president runs for a second term.

Among those lending a hand is famed actor Robert De Niro, who headlined a Biden campaign news conference outside the New York City courthouse during the final days of Trump’s trial. 

The news conference went viral after De Niro, who portrayed mobsters in such cinematic masterpieces as “The Godfather Part II” and “Goodfellas,” screamed at nearby Trump supporters that “You are gangsters” as they yelled obscenities at the actor.

Actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, made a recent unannounced appearance at the White House briefing room to praise the president and called Biden “Joe-Bi-Wan-Kenobi.”

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Spielberg has helped the DNC with its storytelling efforts, and Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris on a recent swing through battleground Michigan.

Trump, whose final California fundraiser took place last weekend at a tony gated community in upscale Newport Beach, California, and included veteran actor Jon Voight, will spend this weekend in Michigan, holding multiple events, including a roundtable discussion at a northwest Detroit church.

Supporters of former President Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, react to his motorcade on the day he visits to raise money in Newport Beach, Calif., June 8, 2024. (REUTERS/David Swanson)

The Trump campaign argued the former president will be meeting with “everyday Americans” while “Biden will be at a glitzy fundraiser in Hollywood with his elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors that own him.”

The Trump campaign and Republican allies also criticized the president for skipping a peace conference on Ukraine being held this weekend in Switzerland to appear at the California fundraiser. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the U.S. at the peace talks.

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

FIRST ON FOX: The White House is taking aim at congressional Republicans over their support for “MAGAnomics” and former President Donald Trump’s “across-the-board tariffs” plan, which it claims would raise prices for families and worsen inflation.

In a Friday memo to “allies and interested parties,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates slammed Republicans for “targeting Medicare and Social Security for cuts, pushing tax welfare for the super-rich, and supporting across-the-board tariffs that would raise costs and taxes for hardworking families.”

“Yesterday congressional Republicans met to plot a 2025 agenda that involves historic tax increases on the middle class in the form of high tariffs, then gives tax handouts to big corporations that are overcharging Americans despite inflation decreasing,” Bates wrote.

Trump met with both Senate and House Republicans on Thursday during his trip to Capitol Hill. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said afterward that the former president “briefly floated the concept of eliminating the income tax and replacing it with tariffs.”

TRUMP SELLS SENATE REPUBLICANS ON PLAN TO WIN OVER WORKERS IN CLOSED-DOOR MEETING

President Biden, left, and former President Donald Trump, right. (Getty Images)

“What’s more, the lead House Republican for budget issues, Jodey Arrington, recently wrote, ‘Unchecked mandatory spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and welfare represent a growing threat to our economic security and potentially our way of life,’” Bates said in the memo.

Pointing to other recent reporting, Bates claimed that “in addition to extending the Trump tax giveaway for billionaires and multinational companies, congressional Republicans want even further corporate tax windfalls that will add another $1 trillion to the deficit.”

President Biden “rejects this dangerous MAGAnomics agenda,” Bates noted.

“His plan would protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, further cut the deficit by making rich special interests pay their fair share, and to crack down on the corporate greed that is ripping off American families as inflation falls,” he wrote in the memo. “Republican officials have stood against every aspect of that plan, even defending junk fees and price gouging.”

‘TOTAL LIE’: TRUMP CAMPAIGN, GOP LAWMAKERS BLAST REPORT CLAIMING HE CALLED MILWAUKEE A ‘HORRIBLE CITY’

President Joe Biden speaks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C, on May 17, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Bates insisted the “MAGAnomics summit puts into relief the stark choice between President Biden’s plan for an economy in which economic growth flows to the middle class, and an economy in which hardworking families are sold out to billionaires and the biggest corporations, forced to pay whatever big corporations want to charge while stripped of the Medicare and Social Security benefits they pay to earn.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary said, “The Biden campaign is lying because they are losing. President Trump’s first-term pro-growth economic policies created record-low mortgage, interest, and unemployment rates and made inflation virtually non-existent. Americans can expect President Trump’s second-term economic agenda will have the same impact and end Joe Biden’s inflation crisis that continues to rob working families of thousands of dollars every month.”

She added, “President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.”

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, speaks with reporters at the NRSC on June 13, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Leavitt insisted the “only candidate who poses a threat to Social Security and Medicare is Joe Biden – whose mass invasion of countless millions of illegal aliens will, if they are allowed to stay, cause Social Security and Medicare to buckle and collapse.”

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Trump’s trip to the nation’s capital this week made numerous headlines, as he met for the first time in several years with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

Trump told Republican senators that there was tremendous unity in the party, and promised to “bring back common sense to the government” if he’s elected in November.

CNN has finalized the rules for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, which is less than two weeks.

The campaigns of President Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to the rules, CNN said on Saturday, noting that it is not “impossible” for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to join the pair on stage.

To qualify for the CNN showdown, a candidate must have received 15% support in four separate national polls, and be on the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral college votes. Currently, Kennedy is on the ballot in six states, totaling 89 potential electoral college votes.

The 90-minute debate, scheduled to take place on June 27 in Atlanta, will be hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. It will be the first in-person face off between Biden and Trump since they stood alongside one another on debate stages during the 2020 cycle.

TRUMP PREDICTS THERE’S A ‘10% CHANCE’ CNN WILL BE FAIR TO HIM AT FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Former President Donald Trump, left, and President Joe Biden. (Getty Images)

Both candidates accepted the network’s invitation to debate last month, agreeing to certain rules and formats that were outlined in CNN letters to their respective campaigns.

CNN said there will be two commercial breaks during the debate, and candidates are not allowed to consult with other members of their campaign during that time.

The network also noted that candidates’ podiums and positions will be determined by a coin flip, their mics will be muted outside of speaking time, and that candidates will be provided only with a pen and a pad of paper.

Candidates will not be allowed to bring props or prepared notes. 

Former President Donald Trump offered rare words of empathy to President Biden this week regarding the impacts of addiction.

Trump told Fox News during a Thursday interview that he understood well the negative effect that addiction can have on a family, speaking from personal experience.

“I understand it pretty well, because I’ve had it with people who have it in their family,” Trump told Fox News. “It’s a very tough thing.” 

TRUMP HAS ‘SORT OF A PRETTY GOOD IDEA’ OF VP PICK, WILL PROBABLY ANNOUNCE DURING RNC CONVENTION

Former President Donald Trump giving a speech at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Trump did not offer specific details regarding which member or members of his family he was referring to — but his brother, Fred Trump, openly wrestled with alcoholism for years.

Fred Trump’s addiction eventually compromised his day-to-day life and contributed to the heart attack that took his life in 1981.

“It’s a very tough situation for a father; it’s a very tough situation for a brother or sister; and it goes on, and it’s not stopping, whether it’s alcohol or drugs or whatever it may be,” Trump continued in the interview with Fox News.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SAYS SUPREME COURT’S DECISION STRIKING DOWN HIS ADMIN’S BUMP STOCK RULE ‘SHOULD BE RESPECTED’

Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, arrives to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

He added, “It’s a tough thing, and so that’s a tough moment for the family. It’s a tough moment for any family involved in that.”

Trump has previously attributed his decision to refrain from alcohol to his brother, who he says warned him to never drink alcohol.

First son Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday on all charges related to making a false statement about the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

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

Hunter Biden has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things.” 

The memoir walks readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a “crack daddy” to drug dealers, and anecdotes revolving around drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Hunter nicknamed “Bicycles.”

President Biden has expressed unconditional love and support for his son despite the high-profile battle with substance abuse.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.