Election 2024 latest news: Biden gathers with steelworkers in battleground state of Pennsylvania

President Biden is gathering Wednesday with steelworkers in Pittsburgh. The event is part of three consecutive days of appearances in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania. Biden is expected to outline new protections for the U.S. steel industry to combat what the White House calls “unfair” competition from China.

Here’s what to know

• The judge overseeing former president Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York said opening statements could begin as soon as Monday. Court is not in session Wednesday. Jury selection is expected to resume Thursday.

1:49 PM: Analysis: Trump’s court outbursts come with increasing risks — for all

Election 2024 latest news: Biden gathers with steelworkers in battleground state of Pennsylvania

During the E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial back in January, the judge issued a warning to Donald Trump. Carroll’s lawyers had complained that Trump repeatedly injected commentary from the defense table, notably calling the proceedings a “witch hunt.”

“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial,” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said, adding: “I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that.”

Trump shot back: “I would love it. I would love it.”

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By: Aaron Blake

1:23 PM: Barr, a vocal Trump critic, says he will ‘support the Republican ticket’ in November

Attorney General William P. Barr in September 2020.

Former attorney general William P. Barr effectively endorsed former president Donald Trump on Wednesday, despite having previously criticized Trump’s conduct while in office and once comparing him to a “defiant, 9-year-old kid.”

Asked Wednesday whether he would vote for Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, in November, Barr told Fox News that he would vote for the Republican ticket.

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By: Amy B Wang

1:08 PM: Analysis from Caroline Kitchener, National reporter covering abortion

In recent days, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, who once described an 1864 measure that nearly bans abortion in the state as a “great law,” has been personally lobbying some Republicans to repeal it.

According to one lawmaker who received such a call and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, Lake made it clear that she “understands [the pre-Roe v. Wade ban] will be bad for her and for [Donald] Trump.” They discussed how Arizona is essential for Trump to secure the presidency, the lawmaker said. Trump lost the state to Joe Biden in 2020 by only 10,457 votes.

12:45 PM: Sen. Ricketts funds competing abortion ballot measure in Nebraska

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) and James E. Risch (R-Idaho) chat as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds a Nov. 8 hearing on Capitol Hill. (Haiyun Jiang for The Washington Post)

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) is funding a competing ballot initiative in his state to ban abortion after the first trimester, as Republicans nationwide look to counter Democratic-backed measures asking voters to expand abortion rights.

Ricketts, Nebraska’s former governor and a wealthy businessman, gave $500,000 to the campaign for the initiative last month, according to a recent campaign finance filing. He was the only donor listed on the report for the period, which covered Feb. 25 to March 26.

The Protect Women and Children Initiative would outlaw abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies. The effort, backed by antiabortion groups, was launched after another group, Protect Our Rights, put forward a constitutional amendment to protect a right to abortion until “fetal viability.”

Nebraska currently bans abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Ricketts told Nebraska media in a statement that he supports the competing initiative “because it protects Nebraska values and is a contrast to the extreme initiative the abortion lobby is pushing.”

Abortion rights supporters have been racking up electoral wins since the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 — including on ballot measures in Republican-leaning states. The GOP strategy of fielding dueling ballot initiatives may also play out in Arizona, where GOP state lawmakers are reportedly mulling their options to counter a proposal to expand abortion rights there.

In Nebraska, the deadline is July 3 for organizers to submit a proposed constitutional amendment for the November election. They must collect signatures from at least 10 percent of Nebraska voters, or more than 120,000 voters under the latest registration total.

By: Patrick Svitek

12:23 PM: Biden’s handling of Gaza shakes his support in the Black community

Chikondi Rose Nanaafua and Samuel Kuttab prepare dates to serve during the About Palestine Iftar at the Masjidullah center in Philadelphia on April 6.

PHILADELPHIA — The symbolic mix of soul food and Palestinian dishes had been eaten to conclude the Ramadan fast, and remarks from Palestinian Americans about the war in Gaza had just wrapped up at the Masjidullah community center when Suad Islam stepped to a microphone seeking some political advice.

“This presidential election is very disappointing. Is there a candidate that you would suggest that we vote for? Because I don’t know any Muslim that could vote for Biden,” said Islam, who is Black and a lifelong Philadelphia resident. “Who should we vote for? I’m just very disappointed.”

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By: Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

11:58 AM: How Biden’s abortion stance has shifted over the years

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago, abortion has become a top campaign issue. Since then, President Biden has vociferously defended the right to choose an abortion and attacked former president Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, for eroding reproductive rights.

It might come as a surprise that Biden once opposed abortion and believed that Roe was wrongly decided. Here is how Biden’s stance on abortion has evolved over the decades.

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By: Amy B Wang and Blair Guild

11:47 AM: Analysis: The Trump GOP’s inverted perception of crime in America

Former president Donald Trump visits with business owners and local politicians at a bodega in Upper Manhattan after leaving his criminal trial Tuesday.

During a visit to a small convenience store in Upper Manhattan on Tuesday, Donald Trump distilled his party’s approach to crime — and, really, everything else.

Trump had come directly from the courthouse where, for the second day in a row, he observed as prospective jurors were questioned for the trial in which he stands accused of falsifying business records, part of an effort before the 2016 election to hide an alleged sexual encounter with an adult-film actress.

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By: Philip Bump

11:29 AM: In new ad, Kari Lake puts a spotlight on President Biden

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake has a new ad attacking her Democratic opponent on pocketbook issues and repeatedly links him to President Biden. Lake is running against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) for an open Senate seat in Arizona that could help determine which party controls the chamber.

In the ad, Lake seeks to link Gallego to Biden’s tax policies. At one point a narrator says, “Joe Biden destroyed our economy, and Ruben Gallego is nothing but a rubber stamp for his disastrous Bidenomics.” To underscore the connection, the ad repeatedly shows images of Biden, who trails Republican Donald Trump in Arizona, according to a Wall Street Journal poll from earlier this month.

The ad comes as Republicans in Arizona grapple with a state Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for an 1864 law to take effect banning nearly all abortions in the state and punishing doctors who perform the procedure.

By: Azi Paybarah

11:10 AM: Analysis from David J. Lynch, Financial writer covering trade and globalization

President Biden’s likely opponent this fall, former president Donald Trump, is also courting the steelworkers with his own brand of economic nationalism. The Republican has said he will impose an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent on all foreign products and a 60 percent levy on Chinese imports, a move many economists say would stoke inflation.

10:45 AM: Analysis: Most reject Trump’s claims of persecution. Some still have concerns.

A heckler yells at television crews and reporters outside the courthouse moments after former president Donald Trump arrived at Manhattan criminal court Tuesday.

For the better part of the past eight years, Donald Trump has laid the groundwork to get voters to dismiss any adverse result in a court of law as the product of a political “witch hunt” or a “weaponized” justice system.

Now the effort is reaching its culmination, with Trump suffering multiple major losses in civil court and his first criminal trial starting in Manhattan this week, 6½ months before the presidential election.

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By: Aaron Blake

10:26 AM: As Biden heads to Pennsylvania, his new ads emphasize infrastructure and jobs

As President Biden continues his three-day swing in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, his campaign released a pair of ads featuring a Black steelworker from the state who credits Biden with delivering money for infrastructure projects and blue collar jobs.

The ads are part of a six-figure buy that will last five days in Pennsylvania, according to the campaign. The campaign is expected to spend $30 million over five weeks targeting voters in battleground states.

“I see jobs coming to the area. I see infrastructure being fixed up,” steelworker JoJo Burgess says in one of the ads, which is a minute long. Later he adds, “You tell me an investment that the previous administration made that is even close to what Joe Biden has done.”

Burgess, wearing a shirt that says United Steelworkers, calls Biden “the most pro-American-worker president in office that we’ve ever had in this country’s history.”

In another ad, which is about 30 seconds long, Burgess says Biden “is as sharp as a knife,” a rebuttal to critics who question the 81-year-old’s mental acuity and fitness for office.

By: Azi Paybarah

10:05 AM: Biden turns sharply to populism with Scranton vs. Mar-a-Lago

President Biden walks with children in front of his childhood home in Scranton, Pa., on Tuesday.

SCRANTON — President Biden’s schedulers did not publicly announce his second stop Tuesday during his visit to his hometown, but it came as little surprise that he’d end up at the gray house with black shutters where he spent the earliest years of his life. He even nodded to the visit in a speech that mixed his biography with his thoughts on tax policy.

“Scranton is a place that climbs in your heart, and it never leaves,” Biden said. “For me it was 2446 North Washington Avenue.”

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By: Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

9:46 AM: Analysis: The trial we’re watching in the Senate today

Leading the House impeachment managers to the Senate chambers on Tuesday, House Sergeant-at-Arms William P. McFarland, front left, and Acting Clerk of the House Kevin F. McCumber, front right, carry the articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Senate will begin the impeachment trial of Alejandro Mayorkas, President Biden’s homeland security secretary, at 1 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. All senators have to be at their desks to begin the proceedings.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will swear in President Pro Tempore Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Murray will administer the oath to all senators, and then four at a time, they will sign the oath book.

The sergeant-at-arms will proclaim: “Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! All persons are commanded to keep silence on pain of imprisonment, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States the article of impeachment against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security.”

A group of Republicans led by Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) is expected to raise multiple points of order to delay the proceedings and draw attention to the challenges at the border.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is expected to dispense with the process today, before the substance of the trial truly begins, by moving to either a vote to table or a vote to dismiss. (Tabling would mean there is no debate on the measure; dismiss would allow debate.)

We are watching to see how many Republicans — if any — vote to end the proceedings before a trial begins in earnest.

By: Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer

9:18 AM: Analysis from David J. Lynch, Financial writer covering trade and globalization

In remarks scheduled for the United Steelworkers Union in Pittsburgh, President Biden will call for more than tripling the existing 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum imports, new pressure on Mexico to prevent China from shipping metals to the United States via Mexican ports, and an investigation of Chinese subsidies for its shipbuilding industry. That probe, to be launched Wednesday by the office of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, could lead to the imposition of fresh tariffs or other penalties on Chinese vessels.

8:57 AM: Kari Lake reportedly tells supporters to ‘strap on a Glock’ for 2024

Kari Lake speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 24.

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake told supporters at a rally on Sunday to “strap on a Glock,” among other things, to prepare for the “intense” six months leading up to the November election, according to NBC News.

Lake, a fervent supporter of former president Donald Trump, who has similarly pushed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, blamed the “swamp” in Washington for wanting to keep her and Trump out.

“That’s why they’re coming after us with lawfare, they’re going to come after us with everything. That’s why the next six months is going to be intense,” Lake said at the rally in Mohave County. “And we need to strap on our — let’s see. What do we want to strap on?”

Lake paused and motioned with her arms across her chest to her side, before telling the crowd “our seat belt,” to some laughter.

“We’re going to put on our helmet or your Kari Lake ball cap. We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side of us just in case,” she continued. “We’re not going to be the victims of crime. We’re not going to have our Second Amendment taken away. We’re certainly not going to have our First Amendment taken away by these tyrants.”

NBC News reported that an AR-15-style rifle was raffled off at the event, and that at least one supporter in the crowd interpreted Lake’s speech as a warning that there could be violence leading up to the election.

“The next six months are going to be difficult. If you are not ready for action, and I have a feeling with as many veterans and former law enforcement, active law enforcement [here] … you guys are ready for it,” Lake said during the rally. “It’s going to be a crazy run, the next six months. This is the moment we have to save our country.”

By: Amy B Wang

8:37 AM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

President Biden is in the middle of his three-day swing through the battleground state of Pennsylvania, with a planned appearance in Pittsburgh on Wednesday to meet with steelworkers. On Tuesday, Biden gave a speech in his hometown of Scranton, in which he contrasted his economic policies with those of former president Donald Trump. On Thursday, Biden plans to make a campaign stop in Philadelphia.

8:14 AM: Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat draws national spending as primary looms

Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) talks with a reporter after a roundtable on Latino issues at a library in Hyattsville, Md., on Oct. 15.

A month ahead of the primary election that will set up Maryland’s race for an open U.S. Senate seat, campaign filings show millions of dollars pouring into candidates’ coffers — including big donations from national groups banking on the seat’s significance for control of the chamber.

The large fundraising sums, from financial reports due Monday, reflect the escalating attention on what had largely been seen as a sleepy contest for a reliably blue seat until former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R) launched a surprise bid two months ago.

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By: Katie Shepherd

7:54 AM: Trump trial further splinters his relationship with his beloved New York

Donald Trump stands next to a model during a 2005 news conference presenting a proposed rebuilding plan for the World Trade Center.

NEW YORK — He was a publicity hound and a tabloid star. He was a developer who bragged about his acquisitions and exaggerated his wealth, emblazoning his name on towers that scraped the sky. He was a Queens boy made good — with no small amount of help from his father’s money — bursting onto the Manhattan scene through sheer force of personality.

Donald Trump was, in short, a certain type of New Yorker — brash, boorish, bombastic.

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By: Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker

7:35 AM: Biden wants to hike tariffs on Chinese steel as U.S. election looms

U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., in December.

President Biden plans to unveil on Wednesday a series of new protections for the U.S. steel industry, as he moves to combat what the White House calls “unfair” Chinese competition and shore up his political fortunes in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

In remarks scheduled for the United Steelworkers Union in Pittsburgh, the president will call for more than tripling the existing 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum imports, new pressure on Mexico to prevent China from shipping metals to the United States via Mexican ports, and an investigation of Chinese subsidies for its shipbuilding industry.

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By: David J. Lynch

7:15 AM: Hogan and GOP cast his Senate candidacy as ‘a voice of common sense’

Former governor Larry Hogan, running for the U.S. Senate, greets locals as he visits Little Italy in Baltimore.

Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan is launching a nearly $1 million television ad campaign Wednesday, half bankrolled by national Republicans eager to flip the deep-blue state’s open Senate seat red.

A month before primary voters determine whom he faces in November, Hogan’s early money tries to build on the brand he established as a pragmatic, two-term Republican governor who had no choice but to work with state Democrats.

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By: Erin Cox and Katie Shepherd

7:00 AM: Sheehy apologized and asked for leniency after alleged 2015 gun incident

Tim Sheehy, founder of Bridger Aerospace and Ascent Vision, during a tour of the company’s facility in 2022 in Belgrade, Mont.

Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy apologized and asked for leniency in 2015 after he said a gun he kept in his vehicle for protection from bears fell and discharged, striking him in his right forearm in Glacier National Park, according to new National Park Service documents released through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The new documents, which provide additional detail about an incident first reported by The Washington Post this month, include a detailed written statement from Sheehy to a law enforcement officer regarding Sheehy having accidentally shot himself on Oct. 18, 2015 — an account that he now says was a lie.

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By: Liz Goodwin

6:45 AM: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago fundraising pitch to oil executives: I will kill wind

Two wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach. (Steve Helber/AP)

Former president Donald Trump repeatedly ranted about wind power during a fundraising dinner with oil and gas industry executives last week, falsely claiming that the renewable-energy source is unreliable, unattractive and bad for the environment.

“I hate wind,” Trump told the executives over a meal of chopped steak at his Mar-a-Lago Club and resort in Florida, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

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By: Maxine Joselow and Josh Dawsey

6:30 AM: Seven jurors picked in Trump’s N.Y. trial as judge presses ahead

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court with his legal team ahead of the start of jury selection in New York,, N.Y. on April 15, 2024. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to silence claims of extramarital sexual encounters during his 2016 presidential campaign.

NEW YORK — The judge overseeing former president Donald Trump’s criminal trial said opening statements could begin as soon as Monday, as the jury selection process sped up and Trump got an earful from the people who might soon decide his fate.

Lawyers for Trump on Tuesday repeatedly argued that old social media posts by many of the prospective jurors or their friends showed that they were not being forthcoming about their animosity toward him, while prosecutors argued that old dumb jokes on the internet were not a cause to dismiss someone from the panel.

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By: Devlin Barrett, Shayna Jacobs, David Nakamura and Isaac Arnsdorf