Election 2024 updates: Trump gag order hearing in documents case ends without a ruling

MILWAUKEE — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, campaigning in Wisconsin for Biden on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, remained bullish on Democrats’ chances to codify Roe-era protections at the federal level, despite an uphill electoral battle to keep their majority in the Senate.

“It is absolutely realistic. In fact, it is a promise. If Joe Biden is elected to the White House and we have a Democratic majority in the House — even a skinny, skinny Democratic majority in the House — and we have a Democratic majority in the Senate, then we are going to make Roe v. Wade the law of the land. Count on it,” Warren said in an interview at the Broken Bat Brewery.

A previous attempt to pass a bill to codify Roe's protections failed to secure the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

In a new digital video released on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's super PAC is calling on people to vote against "MAGA extremists."

The 60-second ad from Think Big America features a video of a young woman taking a pregnancy test. After she sets a timer to wait for the results, the woman starts to scroll through her phone, looking at videos featuring the repercussions of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision.

The video closes with text on the screen saying: "MAGA extremists want to enforce a national abortion ban, putting millions of lives at risk. Only we can stop them."

Hunter Biden’s attorneys today filed a motion for the president's son to be acquitted in his gun case on Second and Fifth Amendment grounds.

Biden's attorneys cited the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Rahimi on Friday that challenged the domestic violence prohibition on gun restrictions, arguing that while the high court had upheld a federal law barring people subjected to domestic violence restraining orders from having firearms, the ruling demonstrated that the firearm statute Biden was accused of violating was unconstitutional.

"The Supreme Court again emphasized that firearm possession is presumptively a constitutional right and the only valid exceptions must be analogous to a historical exception that existed when the Second Amendment was adopted," they wrote.

Biden is preparing to face a few different Donald Trumps on Thursday’s debate stage: the more bombastic and “unhinged” one known for his grievance-filled, stem-winding rallies and a fairly disciplined version who largely refrains from tirades and sticks to policy.

If Trump is more sedate than incensed, the goal for Biden will be to elicit what his aides see as “the true Trump,” according to three people familiar with his prep.

Biden’s advisers have been meticulously studying and combing through all of Trump’s recent comments, these people said, to best identify what might get under his skin and what might “trigger” him the most if he does demonstrate some self-control.

Read the full story here.

Vice President Kamala Harris is criss-crossing the country today to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, as Biden remains hunkered down at Camp David, Maryland, prepping for Thursday’s debate.

“In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty,” she told a crowd at the University of Maryland.

While Biden posted a video to mark the anniversary, it’s Harris who’s speaking directly to voters at events in Maryland and Arizona — making the case that Trump orchestrated the dismantling of abortion rights and that a second Trump term would be “even worse.”

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Bernie Sanders has lined up on one side of the race, Hillary Clinton on the other. A Democratic House primary in New York is in many ways a redux of the 2016 presidential primaries — with much of the familiar vitriol.

Tomorrow's election between progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and centrist challenger George Latimer — which has attracted the most ad spending of any House primary in history — has re-exposed fault lines from that bitterly fought race eight years ago and highlighted the gaping divide in the Democratic Party over the Israel-Hamas war.

Bowman, one of the fiercest critics of Israel in Congress, is fighting for his political life as he tries to fend off an onslaught of attack ads and win a third term. United Democracy Project, a super PAC tied to the powerful pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, alone has poured nearly $15 million into ads to oust Bowman and elect Latimer, the Westchester County executive who has spent more than three decades in local politics.

Read the full story here.

In a filing with the Georgia Court of Appeals, Trump argued that a lower court should have dismissed his interference case in Georgia and disqualified Fulton County DA Fani Willis from prosecuting the criminal case after allegations of misconduct and an improper relationship with now-former special prosecutor Nathan Wade emerged.

“Make no mistake: Willis, by persistently untethering herself from the legal, ethical, and professional constraints of her powerful position, has decimated the integrity of these proceedings,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow wrote in the filing. “Sadly, the circumstances that require her disqualification are entirely self-inflicted wounds that were within her power to avoid. DA Willis disqualified herself. Absent the removal of Willis and her office, a pall and the ‘odor of mendacity’ will continue to loom.”

In a separate statement, Sadow referred to Wade as Willis' "lover and taxpayer-funded financial benefactor," adding that Trump's defense team was "optimistic that the Court will favorably decide the appeal in our favor.”

Oral arguments before the appeals court are scheduled for Oct. 4.

As Biden holes up at Camp David, Maryland, for debate prep, a familiar face is playing Trump in mock debate sessions — Biden's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer.

Bauer played Trump during Biden's 2020 debate prep sessions, too.

Over a dozen top aides joined Biden and Bauer to assist with the preparations over the weekend, a source familiar with the debate prep said.

MINNEAPOLIS — Democratic governors said today that they see abortion rights as a winning issue for the party across the country in this year's elections.

"We're going to have Democrats winning at a pace that we haven't seen in decades," Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers told reporters at a policy conference here.

Referring to new legislative maps in Wisconsin that reduced pro-Republican gerrymandering across the state, Evers said, "The issue around reproductive rights is going to be talked about by every one of those Democrats that are running for office, and that will make a difference in each race."

Judge Cannon didn't issue a ruling on whether she'll grant prosecutors' request to modify Trump's conditions of release to include a ban on further statements about the FBI agents who carried out a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022.

The judge noted at the end of the 90-minute hearing that both sides have until Wednesday to file additional evidence for her to consider.

Prosecutor David Harbach pushed back against Trump's First Amendment arguments, telling the judge that despite Trump's claims to the contrary there is "nothing" about the statements that he has made about the FBI agents that "are legitimate campaign speech." He urged Cannon to act now, saying we shouldn’t “wait for tragedy to strike.”

Defense attorney Todd Blanche urged the judge overseeing the classified documents case to deny the prosecution's gag order request, arguing that Trump's comments cited by government attorneys were aimed at Biden and not the FBI.

“If you look at the actual posts, there’s no threats to FBI agents," Blanche told Cannon. "The attacks are against Joe Biden.”

One of Trump's Truth Social posts in May falsely claimed “that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Democratic governors attending a policy conference here today railed against Republicans by blaming them for the Supreme Court's 2022 decision that eliminated a constitutional right to an abortion.

Trump "is so proud to be the architect to bring down Roe vs. Wade," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, said at a news conference.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear didn't mention Trump by name, but he brought up Trump's stance on abortion — supporting exceptions for rape, incest and danger to the life of the woman and letting states legislate the issue.

Beshear told reporters, "If you are a candidate right now and you are saying leave things to the states, then you are not pro-exceptions, because it leaves my people out. It leaves the women of Kentucky out. It leaves the victims in Kentucky out."

The judge presiding over Trump's classified documents case reprimanded a prosecutor from special counsel Jack Smith's office today as he was arguing the judge should bar Trump from making more inflammatory statements about FBI agents who worked on the investigation.

"I don't appreciate your tone," U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon told David Harbach when he appeared to get exasperated as she questioned the need to modify Trump’s conditions of release because of his false claims about FBI agents being prepared to kill him while they were executing a 2022 search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.

Cannon had noted that the names of the agents were redacted in court filings, while Harbach was pointing out the agents were doxxed shortly after the search. Cannon told Harbach that his behavior was unprofessional and warned she would require someone else to make his arguments if he didn't correct his behavior.

Harbach later apologized. "I didn't mean to be unprofessional," he said.

The Commission on Presidential Debates’ board announced today that it will no longer hold debates at four sites that were contracted to host them in the fall.

The CPD said it had "released" three universities from their contracts to host the presidential debates: Texas State University in San Marcos on Sept. 16, Virginia State University in Petersburg on Oct. 1 and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Oct. 9.

The vice presidential debate, scheduled for Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 25, was also dropped.

The Office of Congressional Ethics said “there is substantial reason to believe” that Republican Reps. Ronny Jackson and Wesley Hunt of Texas “converted campaign funds” for personal use at social clubs. 

Separate reports on both members by the independent, nonpartisan OCE were released today by the House Ethics Committee, which said it continues to review both matters. The OCE sent referrals on Jackson and Hunt to the Ethics Committee in March. 

Trump is building a relationship with Virginia's popular Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, in the hope that he can help bring Virginia into play this fall.

Youngkin’s election in 2021 made him the first Republican to win statewide in Virginia since 2009, but he won by running a campaign that kept Trump at an arm’s length. Youngkin also waited to endorse Trump in this year's race until after the Super Tuesday primaries, when Trump easily won Virginia.

While Trump has poked fun at Youngkin’s name and made note of him for keeping his distance, the two are now slowly starting to work together. They recently held a private meeting at Trump’s golf club in Virginia — sources from both sides said it went well — but at this stage Youngkin is not being vetted as a potential running mate, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the process.

Read the full story here.

Trump is expected to appear alongside House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana at a campaign fundraiser in New Orleans tonight. The event is closed to the media.

Hunter Biden, through his attorneys, has filed a motion asking the judge in his Delaware criminal case to grant him a “new trial on all counts,” citing what they consider to be a lack of jurisdiction.

The president's son was found guilty of three gun-related charges earlier this month.

Hunter Biden's lawyers made a similar filing a week ago but quickly removed it from the docket before refiling it today with only minor changes. Prosecutors will have to respond before Judge Maryellen Noreika can rule.

Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon had a one-word answer when asked in a new Puck interview if Florida is a battleground state in the 2024 election: “No.”

Her remarks came a few months after a April 1 memo by Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez insisted Florida could be competitive: “Make no mistake: Florida is not an easy state to win, but it is a winnable one for President Biden, especially given Trump’s weak, cash-strapped campaign, and serious vulnerabilities within his coalition,” she wrote at the time.

Biden lost Florida by about 3.5 points in 2020, and Democrats have been on a losing streak there since Barack Obama’s successful re-election bid in 2012. Biden has various paths to re-election without Florida, and they require winning battleground states he carried last time where current polls show him barely ahead or trailing Trump.

The Supreme Court on Monday indicated that it will not finish deciding all its cases by the end of the week, meaning it will miss its usual end of June deadline and continue to announce decisions into July.

The court announced that it will issue rulings on Thursday and Friday, in addition to the previously announced Wednesday. But there was nothing to suggest that Friday will be the last ruling day.

Under the court's normal procedure, it is Chief Justice John Roberts who announces the final day of rulings from the bench in the courtroom. The announcement of the additional ruling days came this week via an unobtrusive update on the court's website.

The court has 14 cases left to decide, with all eyes on how it will rule on whether former President Donald Trump's election interference trial can move forward.

Rep. Bob Good said Monday his campaign would file a legal challenge to “try to block certification” of the Republican primary election in a key city in Virginia’s 5th District as he trails his opponent in the vote count.

NBC News has not called the race between Good, the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, and his Trump-backed GOP challenger, John McGuire, a state senator who currently leads by a few hundred votes following last Tuesday’s election.

Good is at risk of becoming the first member of Congress to lose to a primary challenger this election cycle. The winner of the GOP primary in Virginia’s 5th District will be heavily favored in the general election. 

Read the full story here.

The judge in Trump's Florida case, Aileen Cannon, is hearing oral arguments around 3 p.m. on the special counsel’s request to place a gag order on Trump following false statements that he made about the FBI's search on his Mar-a-Lago property in August 2022.

On Friday night, the special counsel’s office filed its reply to that request, arguing that prior threats against the FBI can be directly tied to Trump’s rhetoric. In addition to highlighting a recent threat to an FBI agent involved in the Hunter Biden case, the special counsel points to posts from Ricky Schiffer, who attempted an attack on a Cincinnati FBI office just three days after the Mar-a-Lago search.

According to the filing, Schiffer, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, posted on Truth Social hours after the Aug. 8 search: "Kill FBI on sight." Days later, Schiffer was killed by police officers after he shot a nail gun into an FBI office.

In the Florida hearing this morning, Trump's lawyer Emil Bove argued that criminal charges brought by Jack Smith in the documents case should be tossed because Smith's appointment as special counsel is not valid.

Emil Bove contended that Attorney General Merrick Garland's appointment of Smith as special counsel was not constitutional, that Smith is not truly independent and that his office should not have a unlimited budget from the Justice Department.

James Pearce of the special counsel's office countered that Smith's appointment is constitutional, and that the special counsel “strikes that balance of independence and accountability.”

Cannon did not rule on the motion at the 100-plus-minute hearing. She'll hear Smith's arguments for a gag order on Trump in another hearing scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein paid a political consultant indicted for deepfaking Biden more than $150,000 for ballot access work, according to her latest campaign finance reports. 

The new FEC report shows the third-party candidate paid $150,015 to Steve Kramer, a longtime Democratic get-out-the-vote consultant who admitted to NBC News in February that he had commissioned a robocall impersonating Biden’s voice that urged New Hampshire Democrats not to vote ahead of that state’s primary in January. 

The Supreme Court today turned away two Covid-related appeals brought by Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The decision by the justices not to hear the cases leaves in place lower court rulings against the group.

One case challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization of Covid vaccines in December 2020, while the other was brought against Rutgers University in New Jersey over its Covid vaccine mandate.

Read the full story here.

Vice President Kamala Harris hosted an event in support of abortion rights in College Park, Maryland, today. During her speech, Harris, a former prosecutor, outlined how Trump is "guilty" of creating a "health-care crisis" following the reversal of Roe v. Wade two years ago.

"Let's look at the facts," Harris said. She called Trump's appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices a "premeditated" strategy and cited "extremist legislatures" that have passed abortion bans as "accomplices."

"In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty," she said.

As Biden continues to highlight Trump’s role in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Democrats are also taking the former president’s prospective running mates to task over their records on abortion rights.

In a memo set to publish today and first reviewed by NBC News, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Aida Ross highlighted comments and actions made by some of Trump's rumored VP picks, including the near-total abortion ban that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed into law last year and Sens. Marco Rubio and JD Vance’s votes this month to block the Right to IVF Act from moving forward in the Senate.

Biden shared a post on his X account today blaming Trump for the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade two years ago.

The post showed a map of the U.S. showing several states that have partial or full abortion bans in place.

The judge overseeing Trump's classified documents trial is holding two hearings today, the second of three days of hearings in the Florida case.

The first hearing began around 10 a.m. and is focusing on a defense motion to dismiss the indictment against Trump based on the constitutionality of special counsel Jack Smith.

The next hearing, expected to begin around 3 p.m., will deal with a request by the special counsel for a gag order on Trump to restrict him from making statements endangering law enforcement agents participating in the case. Smith's office made the request after the former president falsely claimed that the FBI agents who conducted the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search were planning to use deadly force against him. 

Trump and his co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos DeOliveira are not required to attend today’s hearings. Trump is not expected to attend either hearing, a person familiar with the plans said.

Planned Parenthood Votes, the reproductive health care organization's political arm, said today that it is planning to spend $40 million on the 2024 election to re-elect Biden and other "abortion rights champions," pass abortion rights ballot measures and other initiatives.

A press release announcing the effort, which it refers to as the “We Decide” program launched by the advocacy group Planned Parenthood Votes, was timed for the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations are fighting to elect abortion rights champions, up and down the ballot," Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, said in a statement.

She added, "We demand the power to decide what’s best for our families, our bodies, our lives, and our futures. When we decide — we win."

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., tweeted today that he's endorsing George Latimer, the Democrat challenging Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York's 16th Congressional District, which covers a part of the Bronx and Westchester County.

"I’m proud to endorse @LatimerforNY. We need more commonsense leaders and problem solvers in Congress. I know George will fight hate in all forms, and stand up for the values we all believe in," Gottheimer wrote in a post on X.

Bowman is facing a tough re-election fight in tomorrow’s Democratic primary.

Fellow New York Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres also criticized Bowman for comments he made over the weekend at a campaign rally criticizing AIPAC, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group. Torres has not made an endorsement in the race.

North Dakota GOP Gov. Doug Burgum will attend Thursday's debate in Atlanta, a spokesperson told NBC News.

NBC News reported last week that Trump had narrowed his vice presidential shortlist to Burgum and GOP Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and JD Vance of Ohio.

GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, a former White House physician, suggested yesterday that Biden should submit to drug tests immediately before and after Thursday’s presidential debate.

“I’m going to be demanding on behalf of many millions of concerned Americans right now that he submit to a drug test before and after this debate, specifically looking for performance-enhancing drugs,” Jackson told Fox News.

Baseless accusations that Biden has used performance-enhancing drugs have dovetailed with attacks on his age and mental fitness as he seeks another term at 81. Trump, who just turned 78, has also faced questions about his cognitive abilities, including when he misidentified Jackson as “Ronny Johnson” at a rally in mid-June.

Read the full story here.

Two years after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade forced abortion-rights advocates to rethink their messaging, Democrats are leaning into the issue, hoping to sway enough swing voters to propel Biden to a second term.

But in a tight election that could be decided on several issues that voters rank as more important than abortion, it’s unclear whether Democrats can tap into enough conservative-leaning votes to keep them in the Oval Office.

Read more here.

The Biden-Harris campaign releases a new TV ad today as part of its organizing push to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

The new ad features Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana woman who says she was turned away from two emergency rooms while experiencing a miscarriage due to the state’s abortion law.

"I was right around 11 weeks when I had a miscarriage. The pain that I was feeling was excruciating. And I was turned away from two emergency rooms. That was a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade," Joshua says in the ad. "He’s now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions, but he will let women and doctors be punished. We want to support someone that does have our best interests at heart. And that’s why I’m so adamant about supporting President Biden."

This ad is part of a $50 million ad buy this month. The campaign also plans to release videos today featuring other women who have “personally experienced the devastating impacts of Dobbs.” 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said yesterday that Trump should pick a running mate who “will help him win” and indicated that she has not been formally vetted for the position.

“I haven’t received any paperwork. No, I haven’t,” Noem said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding: “I’ve had conversations with the president, and I know that he is the only one who will be making the decisions on who will be his vice president.”

Read the full story here.

Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu yesterday hinted that Biden will hit Trump on his legal troubles at Thursday’s presidential debate in Atlanta.

“Meet the Press” guest moderator Peter Alexander brought up a new Biden campaign ad that calls Trump “a convicted criminal” and asked Landrieu whether that line of attack would make it to the debate stage Thursday.

“I’ll let the president say what he’s going to say, but the fact of the matter is that the sky is blue sometimes and Donald Trump is a convicted felon,” Landrieu said.

Read the full story here.

At two events Saturday, Trump attacked Biden, calling him “crooked,” a “Marxist,” “incompetent" and “a threat to democracy.”

At an evening rally in Philadelphia, the former president also insinuated that Biden would be on drugs at Thursday's debate, "to strengthen him up."

The rally came a few hours after Trump spoke at the conservative Faith & Freedom Coalition's conference in Washington, telling supporters, "We need Christian voters to turn out and the largest numbers ever to tell crooked Joe Biden, ‘You’re fired. You’re fired, Joe. Get out of here.'"

WASHINGTON — The Biden campaign and its allies plan to hold 1,600 events and run a new slate of TV and digital advertisements ahead of Thursday’s presidential debate, which they called “one of the first moments ... where a larger slice of the American electorate” will tune in to the campaign, according to a new memo obtained first by NBC News.

The events will include a nationwide mobilization of surrogates; events targeting groups the campaign sees as crucial to its coalition, such as members of the LGBTQ community and college students; and 300 watch parties on debate night.

Read the full story here.