If it’s WEDNESDAY … Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a joint meeting of Congress at 11 a.m. ET …White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds a briefing at 1 p.m. ET … Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges for the state’s “fake electors” … Tim Scott’s allied super PAC plans a $40-million ad blitz … and DeSantis’ allies are calling for a campaign shakeup, per NBC News’ Matt Dixon, Natasha Korecki and Jonathan Allen.
But FIRST … Another day, another threat of another Trump indictment.
On Tuesday, news broke that former President Donald Trump is a target in the special counsel’s probe into the attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent riot at the Capitol, raising the possibility that Trump, who is also the current GOP presidential frontrunner, could be indicted for the third time this year.
So far, Trump’s legal woes have hardly moved the needle among Republican voters. So will anything change this time?
The potential charges against Trump — and if he’ll be charged at all — are still unclear. But while his first indictment centered on Trump the private individual, and the second indictment charged him for alleged conduct after he left office, this investigation is about his conduct as president, and whether he tried to overrule the will of the American people.
It’s clear that matters, especially to a general electorate — remember that many of Trump’s candidates who questioned the 2020 election results lost competitive races last year. And 56% of registered voters said in last month’s NBC News poll that they’re less likely to back a candidate who says Trump won the 2020 election.
So far, Trump’s GOP rivals might be betting that his legal woes will eventually drag his sky-high poll numbers among Republican primary voters down to Earth. But the candidates aren’t doing much to stack the deck in their favor, declining again to issue a forceful repudiation of Trump.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy took the smallest of steps towards criticizing the former president, but they focused most of their ire on the Justice Department.
DeSantis said at a Tuesday press conference in South Carolina that it was clear Trump “didn’t do anything while things were going on [on Jan. 6]. He should have come out more forcefully.”
But he did not repeat that criticism later in an interview on CNN, instead suggesting that a Trump nomination could hurt Republicans in the general election: “I don’t think it serves us good to have a presidential election focused on what happened four years ago in January.”
The problem for DeSantis, as Trump continues to dominate GOP primary polling? Most Republican primary voters don’t seem to agree with him — at least not yet.
Headline of the day
Data Download: The number of the day is … $700,000
That is how much the average House Republican facing a competitive race in 2024 raised in the second quarter of this year, according to an NBC News analysis.
Those same lawmakers, who face races rated as competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, ended the fundraising period with $1.2 million on hand, on average.
Meanwhile, Democratic House members in competitive races raised less, hauling in an average of $444,000 from April through June.
The top-raising Democrat in this category was Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, who raised $840,000, and the-top raising Republican was California Rep. Michelle Steel, who brought in $1.1 million.
Check out more about the money raised in House races so far this year on the Meet the Press Blog.
Other numbers to know:
16: The number of people in Michigan charged on Tuesday for signing documents that falsely claimed Trump won the 2020 election there. They are facing eight felony counts, including forgery.
250: The number of military promotions GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville has held up over his objections to the Pentagon’s abortion policies, a move he’s betting will be popular among the Alabamians that elected him, NBC News’ Kate Santaliz and Jake Traylor report from Montgomery, Ala.
Over 9,800: The number of civilians who have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February of 2022, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, NBC News’ Sean Nevin reports.
36,400: The number of inmates in California who have been released since 2019 with no fixed addresses.
1 trillion: The number of trees Speaker Kevin McCarthy said should be planted when he was asked how he would address global climate change and wildfires.
70,000: The number of petition signatures activists are seeking so they can request a ballot measure about a public safety training center being built on public land in DeKalb County, which they’ve dubbed “Cop City,” the Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports.
Eyes on 2024: DeSantis on the trail amid campaign concerns
While the Trump indictment news dominated the headlines on Tuesday, DeSantis continued to refocus his campaign after his fundraising report raised some concerns about the state of his operation.
DeSantis officially filed to run in the South Carolina primary, underscoring his team’s emphasis on the Palmetto State. And he unveiled a plan to “rip the woke” out of the military.
He also made a return to the mainstream media by sitting down for an interview with CNN, an institution he has repeatedly bashed, per NBC News’ Matt Dixon.
Asked about concerns that DeSantis may not be electable as he focuses on controversial social issues, DeSantis said, “Well, I don’t think that’s true. I mean, the proof is in the pudding. I mean, I took a state that had been a one-point state, and we won it by 20 percentage points, 1.5 million votes. Our bread and butter were people like suburban moms.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis’ allies and donors are continuing to raise concerns about his campaign. Some are calling for his campaign manager, Generra Peck, to be demoted or let go entirely, per NBC News’ Dixon, Natasha Korecki and Jonathan Allen.
“It’s time for that kind of change,” said one DeSantis bundler. “It’s time for a shake-up at the top.”
In other campaign news …
A different Trump trial: Federal prosecutors and Trump’s legal team met in court Tuesday to discuss how to address classified material in the case, where Trump has been indicted for his handling of classified documents.
Calendar questions: Iowa’s GOP caucus date is set, but New Hampshire’s primary date is still in flux, NBC News’ Emma Barnett and Mike Memoli report.
$40 million man: A super PAC backing South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is reserving $40 million in digital and TV ads through January, as Politico reports on how Scott has so far struggled to separate from the pack in the polls.
First State for the second run: President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign announced Tuesday that it will be headquartered in Wilmington, Del. Biden’s 2020 campaign headquarters were in Pennsylvania.
All hat, no cattle?: Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy purchased a cattle ranch back in 2019, but he has not reported any livestock to the state, per the Daily Beast. Sheehy’s spokesperson said that was “an oversight.”
He’s running: Virginia Republican Hung Cao announced Tuesday that he is running against Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine. Cao, a Navy veteran, lost to Democratic Rep. Jennfer Wexton by nearly 7 percentage points in 2022.
Eyes on 2026?: Georgia GOP Gov Brian Kemp met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday, NBC News’ Frank Thorp and Ryan Nobles report. Kemp is also meeting with National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines on Wednesday. Georgia’s next Senate race isn’t until 2026. But asked if he was interested in running for Senate, Kemp said, “I am focused on ’24, winning Georgia in ’24, the road to the White House is coming through Georgia.”
The buzz in Mississippi: Democrat Brandon Presley, who is running for governor in Mississippi, released a new TV ad on Tuesday that features Presley cutting a car in half with a buzzsaw.
A possible rematch: Democrat Rudy Salas announced he’s running for the House again against Republican Rep. David Valadao, hoping for revenge after the Republican defeated him in 2022.
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world:
An American soldier snuck onto a tour and entered North Korea “willfully and without authorization,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Tuesday. The soldier had been facing possible disciplinary action in America after a recent release from prison in South Korea.
A Charlottesville man who carried a tiki torch during the racist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 was charged Tuesday in connection with his actions during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
