Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Perspective on a presidential debate

David Rothkopf/Daily Beast:

All Signs Point to a Trump Debate Meltdown

Biden is eager for the chance to stand toe-to-toe with his predecessor because it will be incredibly hard to look worse in comparison.

Of course, Biden actually isn’t behind Trump in the polls, with most showing the race essentially tied—and several including the most recent NYT Ipsos poll showing Biden up by 3. Further, the idea that “age” is an issue for two guys who are essentially the same age, is one that does not stand up to the slightest scrutiny. But never mind all that.

No, after talking to a number of Biden administration officials, it is clear that the primary reason Joe Biden chose to debate Donald Trump is… because he can win.

Republicans pitch plan to replace Rebel leader with Hank Aaron statue. ‘It’s time Georgia unites,’ the GOP sponsor says, ‘and recognizes one of our favorite sons on Capitol Hill.’ #gapol https://t.co/a9aQRBZjtw

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) May 16, 2024

Bill Scher/Washington Monthly:

The Biden Campaign Is Worried  

The decision to propose two debates with Donald Trump is a clear sign the president’s reelection team knows it’s behind.  
It might be true that no course corrections are necessary. Simply staying on message for the next six months might be all the 81-year-old president and his campaign need to reach minimal news-consuming swing voters in time for Election Day.

Think back to 2012, when Democrats were panicking about President Barack Obama’s prospects and questioning his ability to communicate economic improvement coming out of the Great Recession. In the CBS/New York Times poll, from 2010 through much of 2012, Obama’s handling of the economy was significantly underwater. To make matters worse for the Obama-Biden ticket, Mitt Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan, had a solid bounce in late August following the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, and caught Obama in the poll average.  

If the “Biden is doomed” public polls are accurate, why aren’t we seeing stories about Dems freaking/distancing themselves from Biden/retiring, & why aren’t Repubs gloating (in fact, it’s the _Repubs_ who are retiring)? https://t.co/J1UCjROheG

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 16, 2024

Washington Post:

Pentagon says Gaza pier anchored, but U.N. casts doubt on distribution

U.S. officials said aid deliveries could start “within days,” but it was unclear whether there was a firm deal with the U.N. to distribute the food once it arrives on land.

About 90 trucks per day are expected to come over the pier via an attached floating causeway before ramping up to 150 trucks daily, officials have said. After the operation was announced by President Biden in early March, the Pentagon said up to 2 million meals per day could eventually be moved into Gaza via this “maritime corridor.”

Yet even as the U.S. military has said delays in getting the deliveries underway were largely due to poor weather and sea swells, the United Nations continued to hedge Thursday on whether it has fully agreed to deliver the aid brought from the pier.

In a news briefing later in the day, Farhan Haq, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, characterized the negotiations as “still going on.

There’s still a tremendous amount of uncertainty about these arrangements, in no small part due to the ambivalence of the Israeli government.

Anshel Pfeffer/Haaretz:

Why Israel's Defense Minister Just Broke His Silence About Netanyahu's Gaza War Paralysis

Israeli Defense Minister Gallant's press conference calling for a 'day after' plan in Gaza was his third time publicly putting Netanyahu on blast. While it won't take Netanyahu down, it portends more turmoil

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has made little secret of his contempt for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout this war. Long before his bombshell of a press conference on Wednesday night, in one of the very rare occasions over the past seven months in which the two were seen together in public (at a press conference on October 28), a reporter asked Gallant, "You've expressed confidence in the [Israel Defense Forces] chief of staff and in the directors of the Shin Bet and Mossad. Do you have confidence in the prime minister as well?"

Gallant hesitated for a second and answered, "I spoke about what I'm responsible for – the security establishment." Israel was at war and its defense minister was refusing to say that he had confidence in the prime minister. Not that it came as much of a surprise to anyone. Seven months earlier, Netanyahu tried to fire Gallant over his open objections to the judicial overhaul and backed down only in the wake of a night of massive protests that rocked his government and forced him to suspend the legislation. Netanyahu may have rescinded the dismissal, but that hardly restored confidence.

Todd Blanche’s opening gambit in his cross of Michael Cohen will go down in the annals of oratory, eclipsing Clarence Darrow, Daniel Webster—nay, Cicero himself: “You went on Tik Tok and called me a ‘crying little shit,’ didn’t you?” 😂

— Roger Parloff (@rparloff) May 15, 2024

John Harwood/Zeteo:

"Accusation as confession": Biden isn’t "weaponizing" the DOJ but Trump has and will again The briefest review of Trump's and Biden's records puts the lie to Republicans' "weaponization" claims.

The deeper Trump-era Republicans fall into aberrant behavior, the more they lean on a single answer to Democrats: whatever we do, you do - and vice versa. Call it false equivalency, or whataboutism, or accusation-as-confession by an extremist party trying to pass as a normal one. Republicans’ attempt to justify their behavior to Washington reporters like me has become an all-season reflex.

When President Joe Biden pressured Israel to dial back its assault on Gaza, former Vice President Mike Pence likened it to former President Donald Trump’s attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian president for political dirt on Biden. When Senate Democrats dismissed their meritless impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Republicans declared it a permission slip for sidetracking future impeachments of Republicans.

National security, government finance, social policy – Republicans apply false equivalence to any political jam.

Randall Eliason/Sidebars:

Unpacking the Cuellar Indictment

Husband and wife corruption

On April 30 federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas indicted U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife Imelda on corruption charges. Cuellar is a Democrat who has represented Texas’s 29th Congressional District since 2005. The District is in Southern Texas, stretching from the Mexican border to the Houston suburbs. He and Imelda have been married since 1992. She worked for 25 years in Texas state government before retiring in 2012.

Prosecutors charge that beginning in 2014, the Cuellars engaged in two separate years-long bribery schemes. One alleged scheme involved a state-owned oil and gas company in Azerbaijan, and the other involved a large retail bank chain based in Mexico. The Cuellars allegedly accepted nearly $600,000 from these companies in exchange for the Congressman’s agreement to perform official acts on their behalf and unlawfully act as their agent.

The case looks compelling. Much of the evidence comes from the Congressman’s own emails and text messages, which appear to demonstrate his eagerness to work on behalf of these foreign interests. There’s a long paper trail of bank records and money transfers that appear to lack any innocent explanation. At least three other people involved in the schemes have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty and Cuellar has said he still intends to run for re-election in the fall.

Cliff Schecter features Jasmine Crockett (she is well worth featuring):

Inside Donald Trump and Speaker Johnson’s mutually beneficial relationship

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was in New York for various events when he reached out to former President Trump to inform him he would be at the Manhattan courthouse, where Trump's criminal trial was taking place the very next morning.

Johnson made the decision himself and contacted Trump directly, a source close to the speaker told Fox News Digital. Multiple people said he rode with Trump in his motorcade on Tuesday morning.

"I came here… today on my own to support President Trump because I am one of hundreds of millions of people and one citizen who is deeply concerned about this, so I’m glad to be here," he told reporters afterward.

Johnson was the highest-ranking federal lawmaker to show up at Trump’s criminal proceedings so far – a public symbol of the staunch alliance the two have built since Johnson became speaker after a tumultuous series of events in October.

SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS 'ATROCITIES' AGAINST TRUMP AT MANHATTAN HUSH MONEY TRIAL

Multiple people close to Trump and Johnson told Fox News Digital that they speak frequently, with one GOP lawmaker estimating they talk "at least weekly" but added "it depends on the issue."

The source close to Johnson told Fox News Digital that the speaker keeps Trump in the loop on the major moves being made in the House of Representatives.

Those same allies stressed that the relationship, a close one for an elected congressional leader and their party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is positive for both the House and the GOP as a whole.

"It helps both sides. It helps the House, but it also helps the party, because you're coming in from two different directions at the same general goal," Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who previously served in Trump’s Cabinet, told Fox News Digital.

Zinke said Trump and Johnson have a very good working relationship, arguing their "uniquely different" personalities make for a good match.

SPEAKER JOHNSON TO ATTEND TRUMP TRIAL IN MANHATTAN IN SHOW OF SUPPORT

"I think they both understand that unity of effort is required, and it has to be a cordial relationship… I think there's a realization that if we hold the House, that would be an imperative for the America First agenda," Zinke said. "You have a 100% New Yorker with high elbows and a lot of bravado. And then you have a Louisiana son of a firefighter that is kind and low-key. So maybe it's a good match."

Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital, "President Trump, behind the scenes and in public, speaks well of [Johnson]. I think, like a lot of people, he trusts him."

Meuser added, "[Trump] thinks he could probably improve in certain areas. As I’ve said, some of those bills, I just think we should have fought harder for. But I think they really have a special relationship."

Indeed, Trump has exercised his powerful influence to help Johnson out of legislative jams before – like expressing public support against GOP rebels’ threats to oust the speaker from leadership, and showing tacit support for Johnson’s plan on foreign aid.

Johnson, for his part, has vehemently defended Trump amid his criminal trials and even recently floated defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith. 

TRUMP REBUKES MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE'S FAILED ATTEMPT TO OUST SPEAKER: 'NOT THE TIME'

That support extends behind closed doors as well – Johnson touted Trump’s poll numbers in critical swing states during a members-only House GOP Conference meeting on Wednesday morning, multiple people said.

And while he was not the first House GOP leader to endorse Trump’s re-election, his decision to do so was swift and, like much of Johnson’s political calculus surrounding the ex-president, appears to have been a unilateral decision.

Ahead of his November CNBC interview when Johnson made news by endorsing Trump, the source close to him recalled it was suggested that the speaker wait until his political team could put together a formal rollout. 

But Johnson argued that it made no sense to wait because he already supported the ex-president’s re-election, the source said, and then caught staff off guard when he told "Squawk Box," "I'm all in for President Trump."

Multiple lawmakers categorized Trump and Johnson's relationship as a productive but working one – the GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital said they started out at "nearly zero" – but the source pushed back, citing a recent interview in The Atlantic where Johnson said Trump called him the day after Johnson had to abruptly leave a meeting because his sons had almost drowned.

JOHNSON WARNED AGAINST MAKING 'SIDE DEALS' WITH GOP REBELS: DON'T 'GREASE A SQUEAKY WHEEL'

"President Trump heard about it somehow – miraculously, this never made the news," Johnson had said. "He was just so moved by the idea that we almost lost them… and we talked about the faith aspect of that, because he knows that I believe that, you know – that God spared the lives of my sons. That’s how I understand those events, and we talked about that."

Trump also had a good relationship with Johnson when the latter was part of Trump’s impeachment defense team in 2020, the source said.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, another staunch Trump ally, told Fox News Digital, "I think it's a healthy relationship. I think they both respect each other. And they don't always agree, but who does? But you know, I think that they’ve got a relationship where they can get together in person or get on the phone and talk about stuff and come up with a common plan, a common strategy."

Rep. Andy Barr, of Kentucky, another Republican close to both, said their relationship was "very beneficial" to both sides.

"A lot of credit [goes] to both gentlemen for recognizing that they need each other. We need to collaborate and not just politically, but we want to have an effective first 100 days. We want to grow our majority, take back the White House and flip the Senate, and we want to be ready day one," Barr said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

GOP turns up heat on House Dems with high-pressure Israel vote Thursday

The House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill to stop President Biden from blocking offensive weapons aid to Israel on Thursday.

Biden has faced bipartisan backlash for withholding a bomb shipment from Israel over fears it could be used in Rafah, as well as for warning Israel that the U.S. would not send offensive weapons if they were used on population centers in the southern Gaza Strip. 

The Israel Security Assistance Support Act would condemn the president’s posture on Israel’s Gaza invasion while compelling the Biden administration to expeditiously send any weapons shipments already approved by Congress.

REPORTS OF BIDEN WHITE HOUSEKEEPING ‘SENSITIVE’ HAMAS INTEL FROM ISRAEL DRAWS OUTRAGE

It would also withhold funding from the secretary of defense, secretary of state and the National Security Council if there was any delay in weapons aid. 

Democrat leaders in the House and White House are actively opposing the bill, but it’s expected to have at least a few supporters on the left.

One House Democrat aide told Fox News Digital they anticipate roughly 10 left-wing lawmakers to join Republicans in supporting the bill.

 BLINKEN DELIVERS STRONGEST REBUKE OF ISRAEL YET: ‘GET OUT OF GAZA’

A second House Democrat aide put the number at under 20, noting that the White House was "pushing hard" against the bill.

At least two Democrat lawmakers – Reps. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Greg Landsman, D-Ohio – have told Axios that they are voting for the bill.

The issue of Israel has proven to be a potent political cudgel for the GOP as Democrats wrestle with a growing chorus of voices who are increasingly critical of the U.S.’s traditionally unconditional support for Israel.

MIKE PENCE ACCUSES BIDEN OF IMPEACHMENT HYPOCRISY

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., said Wednesday morning, "We know this is a political sham bill. And really, when you look at this bill, they are looking to [the Pentagon], State Department, the NSC, in this time of global conflict. It's shameful."

The White House called the bill a "misguided reaction to a deliberate distortion of the administration’s approach to Israel" in its veto threat.

The vote comes days after Biden announced he was moving forward with a $1 billion weapons shipment to Israel, according to reports.

House GOP targets attorney general after failing to dig up dirt on Biden

The House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are holding hearings Thursday to consider holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. The Department of Justice has refused to provide recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden and his ghostwriter in the classified documents probe, having already provided the transcripts of those interviews. 

The outcome of these meetings isn’t in question; committee chairs Jim Jordan and James Comer will push the contempt vote to the House floor. They remain intent on finding anything that they can use to impeach Biden and/or members of his administration, and they won’t let the fact that their efforts so far have been ridiculous stop them. 

It took them two tries to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, only for the Senate to swat it away. The star witness in their Biden impeachment case turned out to be a Russian mole. And they’ve already been down the road of trying to use Hur’s report to prove Biden unfit for office—a game that Hur refused to play in Jordan’s disastrous hearing. But no embarrassing defeat is going to stop them.

“These audio recordings are important to our investigation of President Biden’s willful retention of classified documents and his fitness to be President of the United States,” Comer said in a press release. 

The DOJ has in fact been providing information to Comer and Jordan. In February, it even gave them access to two of the classified documents Biden had from his time as vice president, which Comer insisted were critical to his investigations. 

But Comer “has not yet taken us up on our offer,” DOJ Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in refusing the team’s subpoena for more information. 

Uriarte detailed all of the information they had provided in response to their demands and subpoenas in his initial letter to Jordan and Comer in April and concluded “we are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed not because you didn’t receive information, but because you did.”

In his second letter to the chairs, Uriarte reiterated that point.

“It seems that the more information you receive, the less satisfied you are, and the less justification you have for contempt, the more you rush towards it,” he wrote. “[T]he Committees’ inability to identify a need for these audio files grounded in legislative or impeachment purposes raises concerns about what other purposes they might serve.”

The purpose, of course, is having audio and video that they can chop up to show Biden unfavorably in their televised hearings. They got the transcripts for their hearing with Hur, but they didn’t find anything, so of course they’re doubling down. It’s Jordan and Comer—what else are they going to do?

But this latest sham does at least give Democrats on the committees yet another opportunity to own Republicans in the hearings.

RELATED STORIES:

Democrats are blowing up House GOP efforts to take down Biden

The Biden impeachment is a huge failure. The GOP is looking for a way out

House GOP manufactures new fight after Biden impeachment fails

Ian Bassin is the former associate White House counsel and co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy. Protect Democracy is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group focused on anti-authoritarianism, how to protect our democracy, and safeguarding our free and fair elections.

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It’s money vs. the establishment in unpredictable Senate primary in Maryland

Voters in Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia pick their nominees Tuesday in a set of high-profile primaries for state and federal offices where it takes just a simple plurality to win.

That's not all that's in store, though. North Carolina will host runoffs in contests where no one earned at least 30% of the vote in the first round of the primary on March 5—though only in races where the runner-up officially requested a second round. Finally, voters in Anchorage are taking part in a competitive general election to determine the next leader of Alaska's largest city.

Below, you'll find our guide to all of the top races to watch arranged chronologically by each state’s poll closing times. When it’s available, we'll tell you about any reliable polling that exists for each race, but if we don't mention any numbers, it means no recent surveys have been made public.

To help you follow along, you can find interactive maps from Dave's Redistricting App for Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia. You can find Daily Kos Elections' 2020 presidential results for each congressional district here, as well as our geographic descriptions for each seat. You’ll also want to bookmark our primary calendar, which includes the dates for primaries in all 50 states.

We'll be liveblogging all of these races at Daily Kos Elections on Tuesday night, starting when the first polls close at 7:30 PM ET. Join us for our complete coverage!

North Carolina

Polls close at 7:30 PM ET.

• NC-LG (R) (50-49 Trump): The main contest on a mostly quiet night in North Carolina is the race to succeed far-right Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is the Republican nominee for governor. (Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately.)

Hal Weatherman, who has worked as a top staffer for several extremist politicians, led Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill 20-16 in the first round on March 5. Robinson went on to endorse Weatherman for the second round. The winner will go up against state Sen. Rachel Hunt, who won the Democratic nomination two months ago.

The GOP primary for the 13th Congressional District will also be on the ballot, but the race ended in early May when wealthy attorney Kelly Daughtry ended her campaign and endorsed former federal prosecutor Brad Knott. Another congressional district that had been slated to host a runoff, the 6th, won't have one because former Rep. Mark Walker dropped out in March when there was still time to call off a second round.

West Virginia

Polls close at 7:30 PM ET.

• WV-Sen (R) (69-30 Trump): Republicans were well-positioned to flip West Virginia's Senate seat even before Democrat Joe Manchin announced his retirement in November, and there was never much suspense about who the GOP's nominee will be: Gov. Jim Justice, who is termed out of his current post, has the support of Donald Trump and the GOP establishment in a seven-way primary. 

Rep. Alex Mooney hoped to position himself as a hardline alternative to Justice, who was elected governor as a Democrat in 2016 and switched parties the next year, but the one-time Maryland legislator has failed to reverse his massive deficit in the polls. The typically free-spending Club for Growth all but gave up on Mooney well before Election Day, telling Politico that Trump's endorsement of Justice left the congressman without "a viable path forward."

• WV-Gov (R) (69-30 Trump): Republicans have an ugly and expensive six-person race to replace Jim Justice as governor that's been defined by escalating transphobic campaign ads from the three main candidates. That trio consists of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, former Del. Moore Capito, and wealthy car dealership owner Chris Miller.

Morrisey, despite his failure to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in 2018, has been the frontrunner from the start. The Club for Growth and an affiliated organization have spent $10 million on ads praising the attorney general or attacking his rivals, which is far more than any other campaign or group has deployed.

The other main candidates, though, have prominent connections. Capito is the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and the grandson of the late Gov. Arch Moore, and he earned Justice's endorsement a month ahead of the primary. Miller, whose mother is Rep. Carol Miller, has used his wealth to finance ads touting himself as an outsider. 

Secretary of State Mac Warner is also in the hunt, but he's struggled to bring in money and has aired few ads. Morrisey's backers started running ads targeting Warner in the final days, though, a sign that they believe he could cost their candidate votes. Two little-known Republicans also are on the ballot.

Almost every poll has shown Morrisey in the lead, though surveys disagree about both the size of his advantage and whether either Capito or Miller is his main opponent. A late April survey for a pro-Capito group showed the former legislator beating Morrisey 31-23, but no one has released corroborating data.

• WV-01 (R): Rep. Carol Miller faces an intra-party challenge from former Del. Derrick Evans, who served 90 days in prison for his participation in the Jan. 6 riot, in a constituency based in the southern half of the state.

Miller, who voted against recognizing Joe Biden's victory hours after the attack on the Capitol, doesn't appear to have done anything obvious that might alienate hardliners, but she's still taking Evans seriously. The congresswoman began airing ads late in the contest reminding viewers that Evans ran for the legislature as a Democrat in 2016.

• WV-02 (R): Five Republicans are campaigning to replace Senate candidate Alex Mooney in the district located in the northern half of West Virginia, but there's been one obvious frontrunner from the beginning. 

Treasurer Riley Moore, who is the nephew of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, started running in November of 2022 and enjoys the support of both Mooney and Speaker Mike Johnson. Moore has also benefited from over $1.1 million in outside spending, with most of that coming from a crypto-aligned group called Defend American Jobs.

Moore's main opponent appears to be retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chris Walker, who would be the state's first Black member of Congress. Walker has raised a credible sum of money despite entering the race just four months before the primary, but he's gotten no notable outside support in this uphill battle.

Maryland

Polls close at 8 PM ET.

• MD-Sen (D) (65-32 Biden): Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Rep. David Trone are the main candidates in a closely watched 10-person primary to succeed retiring Sen. Ben Cardin, a fellow Democrat who has not taken sides in the contest. The winner will likely take on former Gov. Larry Hogan, who should have no trouble winning the Republican primary.

Alsobrooks would be both Maryland's first Black senator and the first woman to represent the state in either chamber of Congress in eight years. She's benefited from high-profile support from Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and most of Trone's colleagues in the state's House delegation, as well as an endorsement from the Washington Post.

But Trone, who is a co-founder of the liquor retailer Total Wine, is using his personal resources in a bid to overcome Alsobrooks's extensive establishment support. The congressman has poured over $60 million of his own money into his campaign, which is more than any candidate for Senate has ever self-funded for a primary.

Trone began running TV ads a full year before the primary, and according to AdImpact, he's outspent Alsobrook on commercials by a lopsided $46 million to $4 million spread as of Friday. Alsobrook's allies at EMILYs List have deployed over $2 million to help her overcome this gap, though there's been no other major outside spending on her behalf. Trone, who is white, has used many of his ads to tout his support from Black figures like state Attorney General Anthony Brown.

During the final weeks, the congressman has argued that he'd be a stronger opponent for Hogan and that Alsobrooks has done a poor job in elected office, though some of his messages attracted the wrong type of attention. His team edited a commercial to remove a line arguing that the Senate "is not a place for training wheels," a phrase Alsobrooks' allies charged was racist and sexist. EMILYs, meanwhile, has highlighted Trone's past donations to Republicans in its ads.

Almost every survey has shown Trone ahead, with an independent poll from early April placing his advantage at 48-29. However, there has been little data from the final weeks of the race.

• MD-02 (D) (59-39 Biden): Retiring Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger and much of the state's Democratic establishment are supporting Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski in the six-person primary for this suburban Baltimore seat. The only other notable contender is Del. Harry Bhandari, but he faces a wide financial and institutional disadvantage against Olszewski.

• MD-03 (D) (62-36 Biden): There are 22 names on the Democratic primary ballot to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. John Sarbanes, but most of the attention has centered on two of them: retired Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who helped defend Congress during the Jan. 6 riot, and state Sen. Sarah Elfreth.

Dunn's national fame helped him raise over $4.5 million from his campaign launch in January through April 24, a truly massive sum for a House candidate in such a short amount of time. But while that's about three times as much as Elfreth brought in, she's benefited from another $4.2 million in outside spending from the hawkish pro-Israel group AIPAC.

Dunn has responded by airing ads blasting Elfreth for the help she's received from the organization, which he characterized as a "right-wing SuperPAC funded by Trump donors." Elfreth, who has Sen. Ben Cardin's support, has emphasized her roots in the district, which includes the state capital of Annapolis and several of Baltimore's suburbs—a not-too-subtle contrast to Dunn, who does not live in the 3rd District. (Members of Congress do not need to live in the district they represent.)

Dunn and Elfreth have overshadowed the rest of the field, but it's possible someone else could pull off an upset in this packed race. The roster includes state Sen. Clarence Lam, labor attorney John Morse, and three members of the state House of Delegates: Mark Chang, Terri Hill, and Mike Rogers.

• MD-06 (D & R) (54-44 Biden): Democratic Rep. David Trone's decision to run for the Senate has set off a pair of busy primaries to replace him in a constituency that contains the western part of the state and a slice of the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

There are 16 names on the Democratic ballot (though some of those candidates have dropped out), though former U.S. Commerce Department official April McClain Delaney is the frontrunner. Delaney is the wife of former Rep. John Delaney, who represented the previous version of the 6th District for three terms before leaving office in 2019 for an ill-fated bid for president, and she's brought in considerably more money than her opponents thanks in part to self-funding.

Delaney's main intra-party opponent looks to be Del. Joe Vogel, a 27-year-old who identifies as Jewish, Latino, and gay. Thanks in part to the unique profile he'd have in Congress, he's attracted national attention. He's also benefited from about $400,000 in support from Equality PAC, which is affiliated with the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus, while there's been no comparable outside spending for anyone else.

Vogel has aired ads attacking Delaney for her past donations to and friendships with hard-right Republicans, but both sides disagree on the state of the race. A late April survey for Equality PAC found the two deadlocked 24-24, but a Delaney internal conducted a week from Election Day placed her ahead 37-24

What both polls do agree on is that the rest of the field is mired in the single digits. This roster includes Del. Lesley Lopez, Hagerstown Mayor Tekesha Martinez, and Montgomery County Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles.

The two most familiar names on the GOP side are former Dels. Dan Cox and Neil Parrott, who both lost high-profile elections in 2022. Cox, an election conspiracy theorist, was the party's disastrous nominee for governor, while Parrott lost to Trone by a 55-45 margin. Both men, though, brought in considerably less money than Navy veteran Tom Royals, who would give his party a comparatively fresh face.

• Baltimore Mayor (D) (87-11 Biden): First-term Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott faces a competitive primary battle against one of the most prominent and controversial figures in local politics, former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Dixon resigned as mayor in 2010 after she was convicted of stealing gift cards that were supposed to help needy families, but she's retained a loyal base of support among voters who remember her as a leader who helped bring down the city's murder rate. Dixon came close to winning back her old post in the 2016 primary and again in 2020, when Scott narrowly beat her 30-27.

Scott himself has touted a drop in the homicide rate, but critics still argue he's done a poor job addressing crime. Those naysayers include Baltimore Sun co-owner David Smith, a prominent conservative who has financed a super PAC that's labeled Scott a "nice guy, bad mayor."

The incumbent has enjoyed a sizable fundraising advantage over Dixon, though his lead in two April polls that showed him ahead by single-digit margins was less decisive. There haven't been any more recent surveys, though, in a contest that's been overshadowed by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Eleven others are on the ballot, including former federal prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah, who dropped out and endorsed Dixon in early May. Scott and Dixon, however, are the only serious contenders. Winning the Democratic primary has long been tantamount to election in this loyally blue city, and that remains the case in 2024.

Nebraska

Polls close at 9 PM ET. While Nebraska is split between the Central and Mountain time zones, polls close in the entire state at the same time.

• NE-02 (R) (52-46 Biden): Both parties are preparing for a competitive rematch between Republican Rep. Don Bacon and Democratic state Sen. Tony Vargas two years after Bacon's 51-49 victory, but the congressman first must dispatch a far-right candidate from yesteryear.

Businessman Dan Frei campaigned against then-Rep. Lee Terry in 2014 for the previous version of this Omaha-based seat and held that incumbent to a shockingly close 53-47 victory. Many Republicans still blame Frei for Terry's defeat that fall, so his decision to take on Bacon left his detractors with some uncomfortable déjà vu.

Bacon, though, has tried to dispel worries of a repeat by releasing a pair of surveys showing him easily defeating Frei, who has acknowledged he doesn't have the money to pay for his own polls. Trump, despite his past feuds with Bacon, has not backed Frei.

Alaska

Polls close at 12:00 AM ET Wednesday / 8 PM Tuesday local time.

• Anchorage, AK Mayor (49-48 Biden): Far-right Mayor Dave Bronson faces a difficult reelection battle against former Anchorage Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, an independent who has the support of the local Democratic Party. The winner of this officially nonpartisan election will serve a three-year term, as Anchorage is the rare major American city where terms last an odd number of years.

LaFrance, whose previous role made her the leader of the local equivalent of a city council, led Bronson 36-35 in the first round of voting on April 2. Former Anchorage Economic Development Corp. CEO Bill Popp, an independent who took third with 17%, went on to endorse LaFrance for the second round. However, former Democratic state Rep. Chris Tuck, who took 8%, has remained neutral.

LaFrance, who has outraised Bronson, has argued he's been an "incompetent" and divisive leader who's done a poor job addressing issues like homelessness and snow removal. The mayor has hit back by arguing that, with progressives already in charge of the city's governing body, "our ultra-woke Assembly will have a rubber stamp at City Hall" if he's not reelected.

White House walks diplomatic tightrope on Israel amid contradictory messaging: ‘You can’t have it both ways’

The Biden administration has been taking criticism as of late for what some have described as conflicting messaging on key subjects relating to the United States' top Mideast ally: Israel.

During a daily briefing last week, Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the administration's attestation to an "ironclad commitment" to Israel while "slow-walk[ing] arms sales."

Jean-Pierre replied, in part, by reiterating America's commitment to Israeli security remains "ironclad."

Meanwhile, President Biden himself pledged that if the Israel Defense Forces incur substantively into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, "I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem."

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Several lawmakers have taken issue with the administration's stance, including Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chair of the House Armed Services Committee, who called the president's recent tack "another shortsighted decision by Biden that undermines our allies, emboldens our adversaries, and sends the message that the U.S. is unreliable."

"Our adversaries would love nothing more than to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Israel," Rogers told Fox News Digital in a statement Friday. "Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas and Iran."

Rogers' counterpart in the Senate, Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also called out Biden over a May 8 Associated Press report that the U.S. indeed paused a shipment of bombs in response to Israel potentially making a decision on a "full-scale assault" on Rafah.

"If Hamas laid down its weapons, the war would be over. But if Israel lays down its weapons, it would be the end of Israel," Wicker said. 

MIKE PENCE ACCUSES BIDEN OF IMPEACHMENT HYPOCRISY

"Unfortunately, President Biden has this backwards. He has withheld arms for our staunchest ally one day then professed solidarity with the Jewish people the next," the Magnolia State lawmaker added.

Former National Security Council official Victoria Coates said of the administration's conflicting messaging, "you can't have it both ways."

"You're going to have to pick a team and put on a jersey and get in a fight. And the administration is desperately trying to please both sides," Coates said.

"And what they've achieved is that both sides are very angry with them. So, you know, it's it's just a massive failure both on the policy and the political front."

Two other GOP senators, Ted Budd of North Carolina and Joni Ernst of Iowa, wrote the White House a detailed letter demanding issue-specific answers from Biden on his comments on arms sales and Rafah.

Some of the questions posed included demands on which types of ammunition are reportedly being withheld, whether any arms withheld were part of those directly approved by Congress in a recent supplemental appropriation, and how such reports square with the president's April 23 pledge to "make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists it supports."

"Why did your administration fail to notify Congress about this decision to withhold assistance to Israel?" Ernst and Budd asked in the letter. 

"We must give Israel the arms it needs to fight the Hamas terrorists that continue to hold Americans hostage. We call on your administration to immediately restart the weapons shipments to Israel today."

In a statement, Budd told Fox News Digital one of his constituents, Keith Siegel, remains in Hamas captivity along with seven other U.S. citizens.

"President Biden is making it harder to secure the hostages’ freedom," Budd said.

Another Republican lawmaker, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul of Texas, called the threat of an arms embargo a "dangerous mistake" and "shortsighted."

On his Fox News program, "Life, Liberty & Levin," former Reagan Justice Department chief of staff Mark Levin went so far as to say Biden's actions have renewed "ancient blood libels against Jews."

Stateside, Biden has condemned the "ferocious surge of antisemitism in America" and said that "there’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos" only after he tried to clean up comments made during a press gaggle where he said, "I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians …"

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The administration has been criticized for declining to take a tough stance against criminal acts committed by some anti-Israel agitators on college campuses or call on law enforcement to step in.

In April, 27 Republican senators wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to demand an update on any efforts to curb the "outbreak of anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs on college campuses."

"These pro-Hamas rioters have effectively shut down college campuses and have literally chased Jewish students away from our schools," the letter reads in part. "The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students."

In response to the protests, Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., of whose district 90,000 Jewish U.S. citizens call home, drafted the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which successfully passed the House, 320-91, with some "nay" votes falling on grounds the bill would purportedly infringe upon First Amendment rights. Lawler's office did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich, Bradford Betz, Greg Norman and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

Biden torched by Republicans for tougher immigration rule ahead of November election

Republicans slammed President Biden for a newly proposed Department of Homeland Security rule that they claim is just an election-year move to help him in a close match with former President Trump. 

"Biden is announcing these new rules on criminal migrants because they have released migrants with links to terrorism into America and are now scrambling to cover themselves in case we have an attack before the election," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on X, formerly Twitter.

DHS announced the proposed rule change, which would move up "statutory bars to asylum" in the evaluation process, last week. 

DEMS PLAN TO REVIVE BORDER BILL REJECTED BY REPUBLICANS AHEAD OF NOVEMBER ELECTION

A DHS official told Fox News Digital that the proposed rule would not change any eligibility standards but would only move the assessment of security threats up in the process. 

"This rule would enable DHS to more quickly remove those who are subject to the bars and pose a risk to our national security or public safety," read a press release from the department. 

"During his first 100 days, President Biden took 94 executive actions to OPEN the border," wrote Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., on X. "Now, just months before an election, he finally took an obvious step that should have been taken years ago."

She called the move "small and necessary," but claimed, "It does nothing to address the larger border crisis he created."

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This sentiment was echoed by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who said on X: "Less than 6 months before an election, he is attempting 1 small change the narrative on our chaotic border – they already have the authority to do so much more, but they won’t." 

The White House did not provide comment to Fox News Digital over the criticism. 

VULNERABLE DEMOCRATIC SENATOR BACKS LAKEN RILEY IMMIGRATION BILL AHEAD OF TOUGH RE-ELECTION IN RED STATE

While Republicans were suspicious of the Biden administration's motivations for the change, not every Democrat was happy with it either. 

An advocate for the rights of asylum-seekers, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said on X: "I’m closely reviewing the Administration’s proposed rule. Concerned that moving the asylum bars to the initial credible fear interview stage risks returning legitimate asylum seekers to danger."

"To improve the asylum system we must fully fund it and provide access to counsel," he added. 

"The proposed rule we have published today is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement regarding the rule. "We will continue to take action, but fundamentally it is only Congress that can fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system."

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION GRANTED SANCTIONS RELIEF TO ARAB NATIONS JUST BEFORE PRESIDENT'S ISRAEL AID THREAT

Mayorkas recently made history by becoming only the second Cabinet official to be impeached, with the House passing two articles against him. The previous Cabinet-level impeachment occurred more than 100 years prior. However, the secretary was not removed from office as Senate Democrats were able to swiftly dismiss the articles upon delivery. 

The proposal comes just months ahead of the presidential election in November, which is shaping up to be a close rematch between Biden and Trump. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is also seeking to shift attention back to the border in the legislature, where he is strongly considering reviving a border bill that nearly all Republicans opposed, per a source familiar. 

Several incumbent Democratic senators face significant challenges in the upcoming elections, where the party will fight to hold onto its Senate majority.