Trump freewheels towards debate as Biden rehearses at Camp David

Political surrogates hit Sunday talkshows as candidates take different approaches before next week’s face-off

Presidential political surrogates fanned out across the Sunday talkshows to prepare the ground for next week’s televised debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which could help the Democratic incumbent and his Republican predecessor focus the minds of undecided or unengaged voters on November’s election.

But the candidates themselves are taking strikingly different approaches. Biden is hunkered down at Camp David in debate preparation, reportedly with his personal attorney Bob Bauer standing in for Trump in mock exchanges.

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No props, no notes, no audience – but Trump-Biden debate will have ad breaks

After chaos in 2020, the switch from non-partisan overseer to commercial TV has some critics fearing a slippery slope

“Will you shut up, man?” It was hardly oratory worthy of Abraham Lincoln, but Joe Biden’s primal plea in the face of relentless interruptions and heckling from Donald Trump provided a defining soundbite of the 2020 presidential debates.

The two will face each other again on Thursday for the first of two head-to-head debates for the 2024 campaign, under new rules designed to prevent matters degenerating as they did four years ago. The US president and the former president will meet in a TV studio without the presence of a partisan audience, which some saw as an essential ingredient of Trump’s rabble-rousing approach. And to counteract the repeated butting-in that so irked Biden, the candidates will have their microphones muted when they are not speaking.

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Trump announces Teamsters union chief to speak at Republican convention

Sean O’Brien accepts invitation as union says its message ‘needs to be heard by as wide an audience as possible’

Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union, will speak at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee next month, a move that could spell trouble for Joe Biden’s support among blue-collar workers ahead of the November election.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced on Friday on his Truth Social platform that O’Brien had accepted his invitation to speak at the convention and that he was looking forward to seeing him represent the Teamsters.

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Biden says supreme court preserved ‘critical protections’ for domestic violence survivors – live

President vows to continue work to stop ‘epidemic of gun violence’ after praising supreme court ruling that disarms domestic abusers

The supreme court’s chief justice John Roberts wrote the opinion in United States v Rahimi, which upheld a law that bans domestic abusers from carrying guns.

“An individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment,” Roberts wrote.

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Manhattan district attorney asks judge to extend gag order against Trump

Alvin Bragg has received onslaught of threats against him and other officials since guilty verdict in hush-money trial

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump in his felony trial, has asked a judge to extend a gag order against the ex-president after an onslaught of threats and harassment against him and other officials since the guilty verdict.

The gag order was placed on Trump before the start of the felony trial. It prevented the former president from attacking witnesses, court staff, jurors and relatives of Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial.

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Tense wait in tight Virginia primary for House Republican who crossed Trump

Incumbent Bob Good, chair of far-right Freedom Caucus, appeals for patience as votes counted in congressional race

The conservative US representative Bob Good is asking for “patience from the people of Virginia’s fifth district over the coming weeks” as he hopes the final ballot count from Tuesday’s primary will allow him to fend off a fellow Republican challenger endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

Good, who chairs the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, currently trails state senator John McGuire by a little more than 300 votes as elections officials finalize their vote counts and mail-in ballots continue to trickle in.

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Winklevoss twins donate $1m each to Trump as champion of cryptocurrency

Crypto tycoons claim Biden has ‘openly declared war against crypto’ in lengthy critique of administration policy

Cryptocurrency tycoons the Winklevoss twins have each donated $1m in bitcoin to Donald Trump’s campaign and pledged to vote for the former president in November, claiming Joe Biden had “openly declared war against crypto”.

Trump is “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, pro-business”, Cameron Winklevoss declared on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “And he will put an end to the Biden Administration’s war on crypto.”

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Former Trump national security adviser urges resumption of nuclear testing

Robert O’Brien says US should abandon moratorium but experts say proposal would hasten global nuclear arms race

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, widely tipped to play a leading role in a second Trump presidency, has advocated the resumption of nuclear testing, and the possible renewed production of plutonium and weapons-grade uranium.

Arms control experts said O’Brien’s proposals would accelerate the global nuclear arms race and backfire in terms of US security, handing greater advantages to Russia and China.

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Trump declares love for Milwaukee at rally days after calling it a ‘horrible city’

Ex-president blames Democrats and offers conciliatory remarks to city hosting Republican national convention

Donald Trump made a brazen bid for support in the vital swing state of Wisconsin on Tuesday by declaring his affection for its biggest population centre, Milwaukee, just days after denigrating it as “a horrible city”.

Needing to explain his own words to a city that will host the Republican national convention next month, the former president predictably chose to tackle the problem head on at a campaign rally in neighbouring Racine, about 30 miles from Milwaukee along the shore of Lake Michigan.

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Biden pledges citizenship pathway for spouses and children of US citizens

President touts ‘commonsense fix’ that would provide relief for more than half a million ‘mixed-status’ families

Joe Biden on Tuesday announced an expansive new plan to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented spouses of US citizens, calling it a “commonsense fix” that would provide relief to more than half a million “mixed-status” families in the country.

The move comes as the Democratic president tries to strike a balance before the 5 November election: confronting rising public concern over the unprecedented levels of migration at the southern border, while appeasing progressive Democrats and Hispanic leaders furious over Biden’s aggressive asylum crackdown, which they likened to Trump-era policies.

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Mark Rutte lined up to be Nato secretary general after Orbán deal

Netherlands PM will replace Jens Stoltenberg after making promise not to deploy Hungarian forces in Ukraine

Mark Rutte, the outgoing Dutch prime minister, is expected to become the next head of Nato after winning over Hungary’s prime minister with a promise not to deploy Budapest’s forces or spend its money supporting Ukraine.

Viktor Orbán, the leader in Nato seen as closest to Russia, announced he had dropped his objections after discussions with Rutte, prompting the current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to declare that the selection process would end “very soon”.

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Megachurch pastor and ex-Trump adviser admits child sexual abuse

Robert Morris, of Greenway church in Dallas, accused of sexual abuse of girl in 1980s, beginning when she was 12

A Texas evangelical pastor and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump has confessed to sexually assaulting a young girl in his past.

Robert Morris, a founding pastor of the Dallas-based Gateway megachurch, was accused by an Oklahoma woman of sexual abuse in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 and continuing until the age of 16.

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Nigel Farage claims young people have had their minds ‘poisoned’ with negative views about Britain – UK general election live

Farage launches party manifesto in traditional Labour stronghold of Merthyr Tydfil

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been campaigning in Hampshire this morning. Stefan Rousseau from PA Media took this picture of them on the train.

The SNP has called for a social tariff that would guarantee cheap energy bills for people who are poor, disabled or elderly.

We believe that there are certain things that every citizen should have access to as a right. Healthcare free at the point of need, a social security safety net, pensions for older people, and free education including free university tuition.

But it is time that we recognised that these rights need to go further, to reflect the realities of the modern world.

Connectivity – fast broadband and good mobile phone connections – are critical to modern life. In fact, in rural Scotland and the Isles, it is critical to the whole future of the economy.
As more and more people work from home at least part of the week, often you literally cannot do your job without a decent internet connection. That’s why, to help people get jobs, keep jobs and keep more of their hard-earned cash, there should be a social tariff for broadband and mobile charges too.

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Donald Trump looking for ‘fighter’ as Republican running mate

Sources close to ex-president say gender and race irrelevant over pick who’s ‘America first’ and believes in agenda

Donald Trump is looking for a “fighter” as his running mate in this year’s presidential election and regards factors such as their gender or race as irrelevant, according to sources close to the former US president.

Conventional wisdom used to hold that Trump was likely to choose a woman or a person of color as his potential vice-president in an effort to broaden his appeal. But aides close to the presumptive Republican nominee currently say he will not take so-called identity politics into account.

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Muted mics, no props: CNN details rules for Biden and Trump debate

Network says no studio audience in Atlanta and moderators ‘will use all tools at disposal to ensure a civilized discussion’

The first US presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump on 27 June will include two commercial breaks, no props and muted microphones except when recognized to speak, CNN said Saturday.

The rules, agreed outside the Commission on Presidential Debates, are designed to reduce fractious interruptions and cross-talk that have often marred TV encounters in recent presidential election cycles.

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Trump gets name of his doctor wrong as he challenges Biden to cognitive test

Gaffe came as 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate sought to bolster his support among Black and Latino voters in Michigan

Donald Trump has made a point in recent months of deriding his rival Joe Biden as being cognitively impaired, mocking the 81-year-old US president for his verbal stumbles and accusing him of falling both up and down stairs.

But people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

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Former White House staffer says Trump called for leaker to be executed

Trump’s demand that 2020 leaker be punished with death raises questions about retribution if he is re-elected

Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin has disclosed that Donald Trump repeatedly mused out loud about executing people at several meetings while she worked for him during his presidency.

Griffin’s claim, which she made in a podcast recording with Mediaite released on Friday, is likely to add to concerns that a return for Trump to the Oval Office could be characterized primarily by political retribution.

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Biden wishes Trump a happy 78th birthday as campaign goes into offense over age

Dogged by age issue, president, 81, is now highlighting Trump’s many peculiarities, from hair style to Bible sales

Taking a line out of Donald Trump’s playbook, Joe Biden offered his rival a tongue-in-cheek birthday greeting on X on Friday, saying: “Happy 78th birthday, Donald. Take it from one old guy to another: Age is just a number.”

The president then coupled his thoughts with a caustic video sarcastically touting “78 of Trump’s historic … ‘accomplishments’” before a Biden re-election campaign spokesperson added: “On behalf of America, our early gift for your 79th: making sure you are never president again.”

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Justice department won’t pursue criminal contempt charge against Merrick Garland – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For more on this story, you can read our full report:

Joe Biden released a statement in light of the supreme court’s latest decision on bump stocks, saying:

“Today’s decision strikes down an important gun safety regulation. Americans should not have to live in fear of this mass devastation.”

“I have used every tool in my administration to stamp out gun violence. I nominated the first Senate-confirmed director of the ATF since 2015. My administration ensured that the ATF has the funding it needs to address emerging firearm technologies like machine-gun conversion devices and ghost guns that pose a unique and acute threat to public safety.

Notwithstanding this decision, my administration will continue to take action. I took on the NRA and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the most significant gun violence reduction legislation to pass Congress in nearly 30 years. My administration established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, made historic investments in mental health to support people in times of crisis, and expanded background checks to keep firearms out of the wrong hands.”

“Weapons of war have no place on the streets of a civil society. That is why Democrats and Republicans alike supported the federal government banning bump stocks after they were used to fire over 1,000 rounds into a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

Unfortunately, today’s supreme court ruling strikes down this important, commonsense regulation on devices that convert semiautomatic rifles into weapons that can fire hundreds of bullets per minute.

While the supreme court has once again rolled back progress, we will not allow the victims and survivors of 1 October to be forgotten. President Biden and I fought to pass the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, but our work is not done. We are calling on Congress to immediately ban bump stocks. We do not have a moment to spare nor a life to spare.”

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Democrats seize on Trump’s ‘horrible city’ remark about Milwaukee for ads

Wisconsin city will host Republican national convention next month, a key swing state Biden won in 2020

US Democrats have seized on Donald Trump’s dismissal of Milwaukee as “a horrible city” by trumpeting the unflattering description on advertising hoardings – a month before the city in the swing state of Wisconsin hosts the Republican national convention, where the former president is set to be the party’s presidential nominee this November.

Trump reportedly made the comment in a meeting with congressional Republicans in Washington on Thursday, his first return to Capitol Hill since extremist supporters broke into Congress on 6 January 2021, to try to stop Joe Biden’s victory over him.

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