Trump VP pick looms ahead of upcoming debate with Biden (2024)

Barbershop owner who hosted Trump campaign event isn't sure whom he'll vote for

Emma Barnett

Zoë Richards

Emma Barnett and Zoë Richards

Biden engaged in mock debates at Camp David, Maryland, and Trump was at home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida preparing for tomorrow’s first presidential debate. Speculation mounted over whom Trump will choose as his running mate. The candidates will try to appeal to so-called double haters who are disappointed with both candidates. NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports.

WASHINGTON — The Biden campaign hopes voters who aren’t yet paying attention tothe presidential racewill watch at least some of tomorrow’s debate, but it’s not taking any chances.

Campaign officials have created a digital strategy to try to ensure that voters — whether they tune in that night or not — see the best version of Biden.

From the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and at the debate site in Atlanta, Biden officials will be working with social media content creators with large followings to help capture significant moments in the debate, a campaign spokesperson said. The hope is that posts get quickly amplified by the Biden campaign’s accounts and — perhaps more critically — the creators’ large followings, the spokesperson said.

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The Secret Service removed a protester who interrupted first lady Jill Biden's speech today at the White House's National Pride Month celebration.

The pro-Palestinian protester, who wore a shirt that read "Rabbis for Peace," was drowned out by supporters chanting "four more years."

Pro-Palestinian protesters have previously interrupted Joe Biden's campaign events and have chanted anti-war slogans outside venues hosting him.

Some Pennsylvania Republicans who voted for Nikki Haley in the presidential primary are conflicted over whom to support come November. NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns spoke to some of those voters.

Reporting from Atlanta

ATLANTA — Ahead of the presidential debate, both Republicans and Democrats are using the attention around the high-profile matchup to further their Black voter outreach efforts, with a particular focus on Black men.

Trump’s campaign deployed several high-profile Black surrogates — Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, along with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson — here today for a Black American Business Leader Roundtable.

The event, which took place at Rocky’s Barbershop, a Black-owned business in Atlanta, featured several local business owners, all of whom are men.

Read the full story here.

On the day that the U.S. Supreme Court accidentally posted a document online about an Idaho abortion case that may preview a big win for the Biden administration, the Wisconsin Supreme Court experienced its own major abortion-related leak.

In a statement, state Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler said that "today the entire court was shocked to learn that a confidential draft document was ostensibly leaked to the press."

"I have contacted law enforcement to request that a full investigation be conducted," Ziegler said, adding that "we are all united behind this investigation to identify the source of the apparent leak."

"The seven of us condemn this breach," she said.

The statement was in reference to a story published earlier in the day by Wisconsin Watch, an online news site. The site published a draft order by the court accepting a high-profile case in which Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is seeking recognition of a state constitutional right to abortion care.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsinhad filed a petitionseeking that right with the state Supreme Court in February.

During a roundtable with Black voters at a barbershop in Atlanta, Trump credited his legal troubles and his mug shot with increasing his support among Black and Hispanic voters.

"The mug shot is the best ev — it just beat Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra by a lot. That’s the No. 1 mug shot of all time. It’s really an amazing thing. Since it happened, the support among the Black community and Hispanic community has skyrocketed,” Trump said over the phone when he called into the event, which featured former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and GOP Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida as surrogates for his campaign.

Trump's remarks follow past comparisons about the "discrimination" he says he has found in the legal system that Black people also face.

“I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he said in February.

Steve Bannon should report to prison as scheduled on Monday, the Justice Department said in a filing with the Supreme Court.

“This Court recently denied a similar application for release by another defendant who engaged in complete defiance of a subpoena issued by the same committee that subpoenaed applicant,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar writes in the filing, referring to Peter Navarro. “For reasons set forth in more detail below, the same result is warranted here.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., appeared at a Biden campaign news conference at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta with two other Biden backers, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, and former police officer Harry Dunn, who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Kinzinger warned swing states to “be ready and be prepared” for election meddling or potential violence if Trump loses in November, “because the forces of Donald Trump have already had a dry run.” After the 2020 election, Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” him enough votes to overturn his election loss in the state.

“They were kind of inventing the plane as we went between the Election Day and Jan. 6. They’ve now thought through their plans when they lose,” Kinzinger told reporters. “How are they going to convince a statehouse or state representative to vote against how the people in their state voted? ... Can they show up and occupy a state capitol?”

Biden's campaign is out with a new ad ahead of the debate that includes video from the 2021 riot at the Capitol, with images from the attack running over Trump's remarks in a nearby speech just hours earlier.

The video includes Trump supporters storming into a restricted area around (and inside) the Capitol and attacking police.

The spot features a Michigan sheriff criticizing the conduct that day, saying, "I have no desire to work with somebody who divides," as video of Trump walking out of a New York City court plays. The sheriff goes on to say he's supporting Biden.

Trump's presidential campaign notified the media that he'll arrive in Atlanta on "Trump Force One" tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. ET, ahead of the debate.

This comes as sources have said he could announce his vice presidential running mate ahead of the debate and Trump has signaled that the person would attend the debate.

Trump has said that the announcement would take place before the Republican National Convention in July or before that.

Biden said today that he will use clemency authority to pardon former service members who were convicted of crimes because of their sexual orientations or gender identities.

He will issue a proclamation pardoning veterans who were convicted under a provision of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibiting gay sex, senior administration officials said on a call with reporters.

Service members who meet certain eligibility requirements will be able to obtain certificates of pardon and apply to have their discharge characterizations changed within their branches, officials said.

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today acknowledged that it inadvertently posted online a document related to a pending abortion case, which was obtained by Bloomberg Law before it was removed from the website.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe confirmed that a document was “inadvertently and briefly uploaded” to the court website, but added that the ruling “has not been released.”

NBC News has not seen a copy of the document and could not independently verify the document. It is not known if it was a draft decision, the actual decision or neither.

Read the full story here.

The Trump campaign threatened to sue Democratic super PAC Pennsylvania Values yesterday, claiming that a digital ad it ran on Google violates the Klu Klux Klan Act, a federal law against political intimidation.

Let's review.

Statement

“MAGA Patriots, listen to our president,” the ad begins in on-screen text, before splicing together sound bites of Trump.

“Mail in voting is totally corrupt, get that through your head. It has to be. There's fraud, they found them in creeks, they found some with the name Trump just the other day in a waste paper basket. All the things that are happening with votes by mail — I'm not going to say which party does it — but thousands of votes are gathered and they're coming and they're dumped in a location and all of a sudden you lose an election that you think you're going to win."

The 30-second ad ends with the on-screen text: “Stand strong with President Trump against mail in voting!”

It's unclear if the president and former president will shake hands at the debate tomorrow night.

“I don’t know”and “we will see tomorrow" were the responses from multiple sources in both campaigns when asked about the possibility.

In 2020, there was no handshake over concerns about contracting Covid. In 2016, Trump and Hillary Clinton did not shake hands either.

In earlier presidential elections, a handshake between the two main party candidates before and/or after has been a fixture of the event and a note of civility and respect for the process and for a worthy opponent that may seem quaint and outdated in this political environment.

Trump could announce his choice for vice president as early as this week, and possibly before tomorrow’s first debate with Biden, according to people familiar with the matter. NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell reports.

The Biden campaign is previewing its rapid response strategy today with a look at the “lies, misstatements and exaggerations” it believes Trump is most likely to raise on the debate stage in Atlanta tomorrow, according to a memo first shared with NBC News.

The re-election effort is highlighting seven key topic areas that will probably come up: abortion, crime, the economy, immigration, social security and Medicare, Trump's false election claims and foreign policy. While the campaign will blast corresponding fact checks during the prime-time event, officials stressed they also wanted to get ahead of some of the comments Trump may make to arm voters with background and research in advance.

Biden has been participating in formal mock debates at Camp David.

At least one was held yesterday and one is expected today, according to a source familiar with the preparations there.

Biden's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, is playing Trump, and the setup includes lecterns and lighting to simulate a TV studio setting, the source said.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for the majority in Snyder v. United States, a case about the legality of a public corruption law. The 6-3 decision narrows the scope of the law.

There was no decision today in the Trump presidential immunity case.

Reporting from the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today rejected claims that the Biden administration unlawfully coerced social media companies into removing contentious content.

In reaching its conclusion, the court overturned an injunction that would have limited contacts between government officials and social media companies on a wide range of issues if allowed to go into effect. The Supreme Court had previously put the injunction on hold.

The court on a 6-3 vote found that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.

Read more about the decision here.

Reporting from the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will begin delivering decisions in a moment. There is one box of printed decisions — which often means there will be one or two cases announced today.

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said in an interview on Fox News that he would be disappointed if Trump doesn't select him to be his vice presidential running mate.

"If it doesn’t happen, there’s certainly going to be a little bit of disappointment," he said.

Vance added, "But the bigger thing is, it’s such a cool thing to get to do the job that I do. And frankly, more importantly than that, I love being a dad and Usha loves being a mom. I think we’d love doing that together. And that’s not going to change whether Trump asked me to be vice president or not."

Adam Kinzinger, the former congressman from Illinois who forcefully repudiated Trump as a GOP lawmaker, announced his endorsem*nt of the Biden-Harris ticket this morning, blasting the presumptive GOP nominee as a "direct threat to every fundamental American value."

"I certainly don’t agree with President Biden on everything — and I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for president — I know that he will always protect the very thing that makes America the best country in the world: our democracy," Kinzinger said in a video message. "Donald Trump poses a direct threat to every fundamental American value. He doesn’t care about our country. He doesn’t care about you.He only cares about himself, and he will hurt anyone or anything in pursuit of power."

Kinzinger was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection — the former president's second impeachment. He also voted to create the select committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and served on the panel alongside former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., another prominent "Never Trump" conservative. Kinzinger did not seek re-election to the House in 2022.

"There is too much at stake to sit on the sidelines," Kinzinger said in closing. "So to every American of every political party and those of none, I say: Now is not the time to watch quietly as Donald Trump threatens the future of America. Now is the time to unite behind Joe Biden, and show Donald Trump off the stage once and for all."

Rep. Lauren Boebert defeated five other Republicans for the party’s nomination in Colorado’s 4th District, which opened up after Rep. Ken Buck announced this year that he would resign.

WASHINGTON — A trio of House progressives is forming a caucus aimed at reframing the national immigration debate away from controls on the southern border and toward fixing the root causes of migration to the U.S.

The new Congressional Caucus on Global Migration will be co-chaired by Reps. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., Greg Casar, D-Texas, and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif. In a one-page memo, first reported by NBC News, the Democrats say families around the world are migrating at unprecedented levels “in search of safety and stability” because of a mix of global “violence, civil wars, human rights violations, democratic backsliding, economic exclusion, and climate instability.”

Read the full story here.

WASHINGTON — For all the memos and briefing books that presidential candidates absorb, there comes a time during debate prep when an aide simply needs to step forward with a bit of helpful, plainspoken encouragement.

“At some point, you have to walk into the room and say, ‘We’re going to kick his f------ ass,’” James Carville, an architect of Bill Clinton’s White House victory in 1992, said in an interview. “‘We’re going to clock this mother------, you understand?’”

Ahead of the first general election debate tomorrow, Biden has been holed up at Camp David, Maryland, with advisers, scripting put-downs and one-liners that they hope will trigger a tantrum that makes Trump sound unglued.

Trump is taking a more casual approach, mixing private policy sessions with campaign appearances in which he has predicted without evidence that Biden will be “jacked up” on drugs that sharpen his performance on the debate stage.

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