The Big Story 

Former President Trump's announcement Tuesday that he had been contacted by the special counsel over his involvement in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, is the latest legal bombshell to roil the 2024 race.

© Greg Nash

Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform, saying that special counsel Jack Smith had sent him a "target letter" informing him he's a focus of the Justice Department investigation.

The receipt of such a letter indicates that Trump could soon face federal charges in the DOJ probe, which is investigating his efforts to stay in power following his loss to President Biden in the 2020 election.

“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an arrest and indictment," Trump said in his statement.

It would be the third time Trump was charged with a crime this year, and the second time he was hit with federal charges. Yet the impact it could have on the 2024 election remains unclear, and Trump continues to lead in most state and national polling.

Some of his GOP rivals in the 2024 primary have already responded to the news, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) saying Trump "should have come out more forcefully" against the Capitol rioters on Jan. 6. 

Nikki Haley, who served as Trump's ambassador to the U.N. and later criticized Trump in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, bemoaned the "drama" surrounding her ex-boss in an interview after news of the letter.

“It’s gonna keep on going,” she said in an interview on Fox News. “I mean the rest of this primary election is gonna be in reference to Trump. It’s gonna be about lawsuits, it’s gonna be about legal fees, it’s gonna be about judges, and it’s just gonna continue to be a further and further distraction.” 

Trump himself is likely to further address the possible charges during a town hall in Iowa with Fox's Sean Hannity. The event will be pre-taped and is set to air tonight at 9 p.m. ET.

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, we’re Julia Manchester, Caroline Vakil and Jared Gans. Each week we track the key stories you need to know to stay ahead of the 2024 election and who will set the agenda in Washington. 

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Key election stories and other recent campaign coverage:

DeSantis says Trump ‘should have come out more forcefully’ on Jan. 6

Trump holds lead over DeSantis in New Hampshire primary poll

Haley slams Trump ‘drama’ after Jan. 6 probe target letter

The Countdown 

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DeSantis Watch 

© AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will do an interview with  CNN's Jake Tapper set to air at 4 p.m. today after the Florida governor wraps up a South Carolina campaign stump. It will be the first time that DeSantis will chat with a major news network other than Fox since launching his campaign.  
 

The interview comes at a critical moment in DeSantis's campaign. Roughly eight weeks since the Florida Republican launched, he's struggled to make a dent in 2024 GOP polling against former President Trump. Some local polls in South Carolina and New Hampshire in recent weeks have suggested he's lost ground. 
 

Adding to the lackluster polling, DeSantis's campaign confirmed last week that it had shed less than a dozen staffers. Federal campaign filings from the latest quarter of fundraising indicated that his campaign was burning cash quickly — taking in $20.1 million in the last quarter and spending close to $8 million. 
 

As our Caroline Vakil reported on Monday, DeSantis's move to sit down with CNN suggests his campaign is revamping its strategy ahead of next month's GOP debate in Milwaukee.
 

The strategy is being welcomed by many Republicans. 
 

“I would not have advised him to have started doing this three or four or five months ago,” Republican strategist Justin Sayfie, who's donated to DeSantis, told The Hill. “I think that there is a crescendo that will take place over the next six months and you want to peak at the right time,” he added. 
 

But others see the CNN interview as a make-or-break moment for DeSantis. 

If DeSantis does well, one Florida GOP operative said, “the Republican is gonna gain the attention of a lot of Republican voters. At the same time, if you don’t do well, it’s going to be a lot like a Twitter Spaces moment.” 

Dem Primary Drama 

© Associated Press/Hans Pennink

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing intense backlash following comments he made during a press event last week that has led to accusations of antisemitism and racism.

For Kennedy, who launched an insurgent primary challenge against President Biden earlier this year, the timing is unfortunate. He had just come off a relatively strong fundraising quarter in which he raised $6 million, an impressive haul for a candidate seen as a long-hot.
 

But the latest news could spell trouble for the Democrat.

Audio obtained by The New York Post revealed that Kennedy said COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to attack Caucasian and Black people while mostly avoiding Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
 

Kennedy later sought to walk back his remarks, arguing that the Post story was mistaken and that he “never” argued the virus was engineered to target Jewish people nor that it was “deliberately engineered.” 
 

But he failed to quell the fallout from his remarks, as Hanna Trudo reported on Monday. The House Democrats’ campaign arm declared him “unfit for office” and condemned his comments as antisemitic and fueling anti-Asian hatred. Members of Kennedy’s family, including his sister Kerry Kennedy and nephew, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), also denounced his comments. 

Kennedy has performed decently well in polls against Biden. He has received close to 20 percent in many polls despite Biden maintaining a large lead. 
 

But Kennedy’s comments could prove to be a critical moment for his campaign, one that could cut into his numbers with such strong criticism from notable Democrats. 

In Other News 

Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

CNN, DeSantis reach inflection point of 2024 campaign

CNN is set to air an interview Tuesday with a subject who has been in recent weeks a rare “get” for mainstream media outlets: Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The interview, which will be conducted by CNN’s lead political anchor Jake Tapper following a DeSantis campaign stop in South Carolina, is a significant moment for the candidate and the network. DeSantis is trying to break through the …

Megyn Kelly: Beef with Trump is ‘under the bridge’

Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly says after a recent conversation with the former president, she and Donald Trump are back on good terms. “Now one of the most interesting things I did was have a private audience with former President Donald Trump,” Kelly said on an episode of her podcast this week, referring to a meeting at a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) conference in Florida over the weekend. “When he came into …

Around the Nation 

Local and state headlines regarding campaigns and elections:

What We're Reading 

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Elsewhere Today 

Key stories on The Hill right now:

Republicans defend Trump, criticize DOJ over news he’s target of Jan. 6 investigation

Republicans defended former President Trump after he announced Tuesday he was the target of the federal Jan. 6 investigation focusing on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, criticizing the government for his prosecution. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested Tuesday that the government was targeting Trump out of fear he could … Read more

Trump notified he is target in DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigation

Former President Trump said Tuesday morning that he has been alerted he is a target of the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation focusing on his efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.  Trump said he received the “target letter” Sunday evening. “Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a … Read more

What People Think 

Opinions related to campaigns and elections submitted to The Hill:

The Big Story 

As Democrats stare down the likelihood of President Biden taking on former President Trump again, concerns are growing that a third-party candidate could act as a spoiler for the party in 2024.

© AP

Cornel West, a philosopher, Ivy League academic and leftist, recently announced his presidential run with the Green Party, raising the stakes for Democrats in an already precarious election. 

As The Hill’s Hanna Trudo reports, West’s challenge as a third-party candidate is stirring up unpleasant flashbacks to Hilary Clinton’s loss in 2016. Many in Clinton’s orbit blamed Green Party nominee Jill Stein as a factor in her loss to Trump. 

“In 2016, the Green Party played an outsized role in tipping the election to Donald Trump,” wrote David Axelrod, who served as former President Obama’s chief strategist, on Twitter last weekend. “Now, with Cornel West as their likely nominee, they could easily do it again. Risky business.” 

In response to West's bid, Biden’s allies are calling for unity ahead of what could be an unpredictable fight against the twice-impeached former president. 

“This is not the time in order to experiment. This is not the time to play around on the margins,” warned DNC Chairman  Jaime Harrison, a close Biden confidant, over the weekend. 

West is not the only third-party challenge Democrats may face.  

No Labels, an organization advocating for a third-party candidate, is hosting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) at its New Hampshire town hall next Monday. The senator’s appearance as a keynote speaker adds to growing speculation that he will make a third-party run.  

Manchin is up for reelection next year and while he has yet to announce his 2024 plans, he has not ruled out a presidential bid.

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, we're Madeleine Simon and Amee LaTour. Each week we track the key stories you need to know to stay ahead of the 2024 election and who will set the agenda in Washington. 

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Key election stories and other recent campaign coverage:

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New York court rules in favor of Democrats in redistricting battle

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The Countdown 

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Hawkeye Update 

© Greg Nash

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will host six of the 11 Republican presidential candidates at the Family Leadership Summit on Friday – kicking off a jam-packed summer of campaign events for the early primary state.  

The forum will feature one-on-one conversations between Carlson and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Pence, Sen Tim Scott (S.C.), former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.  

Former President Trump is notably absent. 

But he won’t be away from the state for long. On Tuesday, he'll be taking part in a town hall in the Hawkeye State with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Then, he and DeSantis are set to share the stage later this month, headlining the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner.

A number of Republican presidential candidates are also expected to attend the Iowa State Fair beginning Aug. 10.

Candidate Watch 

© Associated Press/Paul Sancya

State Sen. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who's running to be the first openly transgender member of Congress if she wins her race for Delaware's House seat, emphasized that she's “a multidimensional human being” in an interview with Daily Kos’s Downballot podcast. 

“[T]he most formative experience in my life is not my gender identity,” but rather “serving as a caregiver to my husband,” McBride said. 

McBride’s late husband, Andy Cray, was diagnosed with cancer before they were married. She says they were lucky Cray had access to health care and they both had “access to flexibility with our jobs that allowed us to focus on the full-time job of trying to get Andy better without having to sacrifice our income.” 

McBride said such access shouldn’t be “a matter of luck” but “the law of the land.” In the state Senate, she worked to pass the Healthy Delaware Families Act, which Gov. John Carney (D) signed into law last year. 

While it’s not the main focus of her campaign, McBride said it’s necessary to have transgender representation in Congress. 

She said recent anti-trans policies are “part of a longstanding, right-wing, reactionary strategy to divide and conquer, to find a scapegoat … and to distract people from what is actually making their life harder[.]” 

Filling the “knowledge gap” about transgender people among voters, McBride said, “will help to create the sort of emotional and intellectual foundation for voters to just totally reject this type of politics.” 

She said having transgender representation in Congress is a “foundation” and “not a destination.” While it wouldn’t solve everything, McBride said that “in the absence of an impacted community being at the table, it becomes exceptionally easy to go after them. And at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be easy.” 

McBride has already made history once, when she became the first openly transgender state senator in the country. 

The Cook Political Report rates Delaware’s U.S. House seat as "solid Democratic." Incumbent Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) is running for the U.S. Senate seat, from which Sen. Tom Carper (D) is retiring. 

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Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

Christie, Scott notch RNC donor requirement for first GOP debate

Both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) have reached over 40,000 donors for their respective campaigns – the minimum number of donors deemed necessary in order to qualify for the first GOP presidential debate next month. “I’m glad to be able to tell people tonight, Anderson, that last night, we went past 40,000 unique donors in just 35 days,” Christie told CNN’s Anderson Cooper …

Tim Scott raises $6.1 million in Q2 fundraising

Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) presidential campaign announced Wednesday that he raised $6.1 million in the second quarter of fundraising for this year. The campaign noted more than 53,000 unique donors have contributed to his campaign, and he’s received more than 75,000 contributions. Scott has met the 40,000 donor threshold needed to qualify for the first GOP debate in Milwaukee next month, though he will also need …

Around the Nation 

Local and state headlines regarding campaigns and elections:

What We're Reading 

Election news we've flagged from other outlets:

Elsewhere Today 

Key stories on The Hill right now:

Legal experts see strong potential for Trump charges in Jan. 6 probe

Former President Trump could face charges under at least three statutes in connection with his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election, according to a review of the case by legal experts.  The analysis, offered in a model prosecution memo akin to what is typically prepared by prosecutors ahead of bringing charges, determines … Read more

Putin ‘already lost’ war in Ukraine, Biden says

President Biden said Thursday there is “no possibility” of Russian President Vladimir Putin winning the war in Ukraine while adding he’s “already lost” the conflict as Biden capped a trip to Lithuania and Finland as a show of strength against Russian aggression. Biden, in a joint press conference with Finnish … Read more

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The Big Story 

Former President Trump's rival are betting the political winds will start to blow their way as the 2024 primary heats up — even as Trump's lead has grown over the last several months. 

© AP

As The Hill's Brett Samuels reports, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley have both argued the dynamics of the GOP primary are set to change in the coming months.

Republicans will hold their first debate in August and candidates are also poised to ramp up campaigning in the early voting states.

“I know that by mid-fall, this is going to be totally different. Once you pass Labor Day, the numbers start to shift. And you can look at history for that,” Haley told The New York Times in an interview. "That’s not me just hoping, that’s me knowing."

DeSantis similarly predicted the fundamentals in the race are poised to change soon.

Referring to the first GOP debate Aug. 23, DeSantis told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo: "I think really, Maria, that’s when people are really going to start paying attention to the primary."

“I think up to this point, a lot of that has been about some of these legal cases," he said, a nod to the legal scrutiny facing former President Trump. "And I think a lot of the voters’ concern about that and understandably so.”

Still, some Republicans are unconvinced that Trump's rivals can continue to wait out the primary, especially since the indictments against Trump have so far only boosted his momentum in the race.

“You cannot depend on the way things have always happened,” Doug Heye, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told Brett. “If you want to change the campaign, you have to go out and change it. You can’t depend on someone changing it for you.”

Of course, early frontrunners in GOP primaries have risen and fallen before. But Trump occupies a unique space as a former incumbent and a two-time GOP nominee, meaning that dethroning him will prove no easy feat for his Republican challengers.

Added to the mix is whether Trump will participate in the first primary debate at all, which would offer his rivals the opportunity to directly contrast themselves with Trump. But as The Hill's Alex Bolton reports, while some Republicans argue he should attend, others concede he's not beholden to going given his frontrunner status in the race.

“The best thing is to get the candidates and their ideas in front of Republican voters in this country, and that includes him. It’s a very deep field this year and a lot of good candidates, and a robust debate that highlights their views and their differences is good for the process,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told Alex. “I’m all for everybody being on the stage.”  

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, I'm Caroline Vakil. Each week we track the key stories you need to know to stay ahead of the 2024 election and who will set the agenda in Washington. 

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Essential Reads 

Key election stories and other recent campaign coverage:

Trump lands endorsements from six GOP reps in Michigan

Trump slips behind Biden in hypothetical match-up: poll

Youngkin, Virginia Republicans encourage early voting with new program

The Countdown 

Upcoming news themes and events we're watching:

Hawkeye Help 

© AP

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) is finding herself at the center of a skirmish between former President Trump and the rest of the 2024 GOP field.

A report from The New York Times over the weekend noted that Reynolds appeared alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis several times this year in The Hawkeye State and the reporting suggested the two have built a familiar bond, with the Trump campaign taking notice.

The report noted Reynolds has also made appearances with other candidates, too, but the Times' reporting suggested "the warmth of her embrace of Mr. DeSantis has become conspicuous." 

In a Truth Social post on Monday, apparently confirming the Times' reporting, Trump lashed out at Reynolds, saying in part, "I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won. Now, she wants to remain 'NEUTRAL.' I don’t invite her to events! DeSanctus down 45 points!" 

That broadside led DeSantis and others to defend Reynolds, who helms the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“She earned a landslide re-election because she delivered big results, and she is poised to deliver even more for Iowans in the special session,” DeSantis tweeted.

"Governor @KimReynoldsIA is a conservative rockstar who has delivered for the people of her state. Like I always say, Iowa grows strong women!" Haley said in her own tweet.

Though Trump's lead over his rivals has only grown in the last few months, targeting a popular red state governor could be a risky move for the former president in a state that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 primary. 

In Other News 

Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

Christie: Trump goes to bed every night ‘thinking about the sound of the jail cell door closing’ 

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie said Tuesday that former President Trump goes to bed every night thinking about the threat of going to jail over his 37-count federal indictment in the classified documents case. Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, said based on the indictment, he believes Trump would be convicted and ultimately face jail time if he went to trial. During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” …

Former Rep. Mayra Flores announces 2024 election bid

Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) announced Tuesday that she’s running for Texas’s 34th Congressional District, setting up a rematch against Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas). “The people of South Texas, the American people deserve to have a voice in Washington. We want to empower our border patrol agents, strengthen our border security, of course, our economy as well and protect the children like I mentioned …

Around the Nation 

Local and state headlines regarding campaigns and elections:

What We're Reading 

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Elsewhere Today 

Key stories on The Hill right now:

Five things to know about UPS strike as Teamsters contract talks fail

Talks between shipping giant United Parcel Service (UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters fell apart last week, upping the possibility that the union could strike in a massive walkout when their current contract expires at the end of this month.  The union, which represents roughly 340,000 members working for UPS, voted … Read more

Democrats want DOJ to turn over info on Barr, Durham trip to Italy

House Judiciary Committee Democrats are asking the Justice Department (DOJ) to turn over information about a trip former Attorney General Bill Barr and special counsel John Durham took to Italy after reviewing a tip about possible financial crimes carried out by former President Trump. Durham was appointed to investigate the FBI’s handling … Read more

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