Trump files legal challenge to block Harris from accessing Biden’s $90m war chest

The 78-year-old narrowly avoided being fatally shot while standing on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 as local resident Thomas Crooks opened fire with a semi-automatic assault rifle from a rooftop.

On Monday, during a pre-recorded prime-time interview with Fox News, seated next to his nominated running mate JD Vance, the former president revealed the seven words Biden said to him following his near-death experience.

James Liddel has the story.

Following the shocking incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, the agency has communicated its concerns with Trump officials about holding such events with big crowds, sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

Less than two weeks after the shooting, it is understood the Trump campaign is now scouting indoor venues for upcoming events, including sports arenas and other large spaces. No outdoor events are currently scheduled, a source told the newspaper.

My colleague Mike Bedigan has more:

The Donald Trump campaign has filed a complaint against Kamala Harris accusing her of perpetrating “a $91.5m heist” by improperly accessing Joe Biden’s campaign fund after he stepped out of the race on Sunday.

In a complaint moved to the Federal Election Commission, Trump campaign’s general counsel David Warrington seeks to block the transferring of funds, alleging that the “brazen money grab” was in violation of FEC campaign Act of 1971.

Mr Warrington accused Mr Biden, the vice president and the campaign treasurer of “flagrantly violating the Act by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one hundred million dollars, and for filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate.”

Calling the legal claims “baseless”, Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, told the New York Times that the complaint is likely because “Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energised to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies”.

Donald Trump’s newly minted running mate JD Vance is going viral yet again for past sexist comments about Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 election.

In a resurfaced clip from 2021, Vance told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the country was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”

“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance continued. “How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Donald Trump is expected to direct his ire towards his likely new opponent, vice president Kamala Harris, during his campaign in North Carolina on Wednesday.

The former president’s trip to the swing state, one that he won in 2016 and – by a whisker – in 2020, shows he’s still concerned about keeping it in his column this November, even as his team reaches for wins in traditionally Democratic-leaning states like Minnesota, where Trump is set to visit Saturday.

With Mr Biden’s abrupt departure from the presidential race and Ms Harris edging closer to officially securing Democrat’s nomination, Trump has ramped up his criticism of the vice president, someone he has characterised as “the same as Biden but much more radical”.

He has blamed her for what he portrays as the Biden administration’s failures, particularly on security along the US-Mexico border.Trump has also hedged on plans for an expected debate with Ms Harris, first saying that he wanted Fox News, not ABC, to host the matchup he had originally scheduled for September with Mr Biden.

On Tuesday, Trump appeared to tweak that message again, saying on a call with reporters that he’d like to debate Ms Harris “more than once” but not committing to appearing at the debate currently on the books and saying he’d only agreed to debate Mr Biden twice, not Ms Harris.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” she said in remarks from Milwaukee on Tuesday, just two days after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed his vice president.

Harris, who secured enough delegate pledges to clinch the Democratic Party’s nomination within a little over 24 hours after announcing her candidacy, linked Trump to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed plan for his administration, and one that his campaign is now furiously trying to distance itself.

Alex Woodward watched the vice president’s remarks.

Comments JD Vance made in 2021 questioning vice president Kamala Harris’ leadership because she did not have biological children have resurfaced, testing the young conservative senator in his early days campaigning as part of the Republicans’ presidential ticket.

During Mr Vance’s bid for the Senate in Ohio, he said in a Fox News interview that “we are effectively run in this country via the Democrats,” and referred to them as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.

He said that included Ms Harris, US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat.

“How does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” asked Mr Vance, who is now Donald Trump’s running mate.

Ms Harris became stepmother to two teenagers when she married entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014. And Mr Buttigieg announced he and his husband adopted infant twins in September 2021, more than a month before Vance made those comments.

The clip has started to spread online, with Hillary Clinton sharing it in a Tuesday post on X and adding sarcastically “what a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms”.

Keen listeners at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and Trump rally in Michigan this week may have noticed a subtle development on the campaign trail: JD Vance officially has a walk-on song.

On the surface, the track, 2005’s “America First” by country legend Merle Haggard, seems like a solid fit.

Josh Marcus takes a deeper look.

Donald Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Palm Beach resort on Friday, said the Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday.

“Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” the former US president said in a post on Truth Social, referring to the Israeli prime minister by his nickname.

The meeting will be their first since the end of Trump’s presidency, during which the two forged close ties, and comes at a time of strains also between Mr Netanyahu and Democratic president Joe Biden over Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

Late on Tuesday, Trump also posted a letter written to him by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas from a day after the former US president had been shot at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Mr Abbas wished Trump “strength and safety,” according to the letter Trump posted. In the same post Trump also said that he looked forward to meeting Netanyahu and working toward achieving peace in the Middle East.

Secret Service officials have urged Donald Trump’s campaign to stop scheduling large outdoor rallies outdoors, after the attempted assassination of the former president.

Following the shocking incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, the agency has communicated its concerns with Trump officials about holding such events with big crowds.