Pennsylvania primary election: Summer Lee wins her competitive house race

Pennsylvania held primaries Tuesday that featured competitive down-ballot races, including one in which Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) survived her primary challenge from an opponent who criticized her stance on President Biden’s handling of Gaza. Biden was in Tampa, where he gave a speech on abortion rights on Tuesday, days before the state’s six-week ban takes effect.

Here’s what to know

• Track the full results of Pennsylvania’s races here.
• Biden and Trump, who have each become their party’s presumptive nominees, won their primary races Tuesday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Trump won there in 2016, and Biden won in 2020.
• Trump was in New York, where his first criminal trial is playing out. On Tuesday, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker detailed how he offered to deploy the publication’s “catch and kill” strategy to intercept negative stories about Trump.
• Sign up for our elections newsletter, The Campaign Moment, by Aaron Blake.

9:44 PM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

Republican Ryan Mackenzie is projected to win the GOP primary for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press. He will face Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) in November.

9:43 PM: Analysis from Colby Itkowitz, Campaigns, Congress, Pennsylvania politics

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), a critic of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, prevailed in the first electoral test in the House of Democratic voters’ attitudes about the Middle East war. But a major pro-Israel group, AIPAC, didn’t invest in the race and is focusing its considerable financial influence on ousting other members of the far-left “Squad,” including Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri in their summer primaries.

9:35 PM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a fellow member of the “Squad” of liberal lawmakers in the House, congratulated Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) on her projected primary victory Tuesday night.

“My sister-in-service @SummerForPA’s resounding victory tonight sends a clear message… that our seats cannot be bought,” Bush wrote on X, referring in part to reports of a billionaire-backed PAC that was funding Lee’s challenger’s campaign.

“From PA-12 to MO-01, our constituents see through the charade, and they’re ready to do what it takes to win,” Bush added.

9:31 PM: Analysis from Mariana Alfaro, Reporter on the breaking political news team

Janelle Stelson is projected to win the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s 10th District. The Democratic former journalist will face Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) in November.

Perry, who voted to overturn Pennsylvania’s presidential election results in 2020, is one of the most right-wing members of the House. He ran unopposed in the GOP primary and has served in the House since 2013.

A previous version of this post incorrectly said Perry had held his seat since 2019. His district has changed, but he has served in the House since 2013.

9:25 PM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) is projected to win the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press, holding off a challenge from Edgewood Borough council member Bhavini Patel. Lee, a freshman, was the first member of the “Squad,” a group of lefty Democrats, to face a primary challenge this year.

9:12 PM: Analysis from Dylan Wells, Campaign reporter

Bhavini Patel has suggested Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) is disloyal to President Biden — part of her larger argument that Lee is extreme and fringe — and has tied the congresswoman to an effort to have voters write-in “uncommitted” on their ballots to protest Biden’s handling of Gaza.

“I don’t think being anti-Trump is the same thing as being pro-Biden,” Patel said. “There is a growing effort in Pennsylvania that is calling on people to write in ‘uncommitted’ in the primary and the general election, and my opponent has affiliations with those organizations. … I think that that’s incredibly dangerous.”

8:57 PM: Analysis from Colby Itkowitz, Campaigns, Congress, Pennsylvania politics

Pennsylvania will be among the most-watched battleground states in the presidential election and is crucial to winning the White House. Donald Trump narrowly beat Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016, but Biden won it back in 2020. Before Trump won it, a Republican presidential candidate hadn’t won Pennsylvania since 1988.

8:34 PM: How voters in Pennsylvania’s 12th District view the democratic primary

Pennsylvania primary election: Summer Lee wins her competitive house race

Voters in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District who spoke to The Washington Post ahead of Tuesday’s primary often framed their decision of who to vote for around Rep. Summer Lee’s calls for a cease-fire and criticism of the Israeli government’s response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7.

“I don’t think this would be a contentious race [without Oct. 7],” said Josh Lassman, 28, a software engineer who is voting for Lee (D-Pa.) and canvassed for her the week before the primary.

“As a Jew, I’m really thankful to have a representative that is not keen to send blank checks to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] government,” he added. “I think that like having someone that does want to distinguish between Jews and the actions of the Israeli government and not just military funding to Netanyahu is a good thing for us specifically.”

Marjorie Manne, an attorney voting for Lee’s challenger, Bhavini Patel, who participated in a small counterprotest outside a Lee rally Sunday, said Lee’s statement in response to Oct. 7 was “upsetting.”

“To me that was a time to center on the Jewish community and her Israeli constituents here, her Jewish constituents here. And she chose not to,” Manne said.

By: Dylan Wells

8:19 PM: Analysis from Colby Itkowitz, Campaigns, Congress, Pennsylvania politics

Donald Trump endorsed Dave McCormick’s Senate bid this year, but he wasn’t always a fan of the former hedge fund CEO. In 2022, when McCormick first ran for Senate, Trump endorsed his primary opponent, Mehmet Oz, and dismissed McCormick as a “liberal Wall Street Republican” and “not MAGA.”

8:11 PM: Analysis from Mariana Alfaro, Reporter on the breaking political news team

Former president Donald Trump is projected to win the GOP presidential primary in Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press.

8:07 PM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

President Biden is projected to win the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who dropped out of the primary last month, also appeared on the ballot.

8:04 PM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

Republican David McCormick is projected to win the GOP primary for Pennsylvania’s Senate race, according to the Associated Press. McCormick ran in the primary unopposed and will face incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in November.

8:03 PM: Analysis from Amy B Wang, National politics reporter

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is projected to win the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s Senate race, according to the Associated Press. Casey ran in the primary unopposed and will face Republican challenger David McCormick — who also ran in his primary unopposed — in November.

8:00 PM: Analysis from Mariana Alfaro, Reporter on the breaking political news team

Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., on Tuesday.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern in Pennsylvania. You can find the full results here.

7:52 PM: Analysis from Dylan Wells, Campaign reporter

Asked about attacks from her primary challenger Bhavini Patel tying her to a movement to urge voters to write-in “uncommitted” on their ballots, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said: “I am not the face of the uncommitted movement … I’m just one person, one elected official, who respects people’s voice, I respect their right to vote, and I respect the right to choose what’s best for them.”

“From what I understand that the uncommitted movement is that is a movement that came up organically and authentically of people who are looking to still voice their concerns without relinquishing their vote,” she added.

7:29 PM: Analysis from Colby Itkowitz, Campaigns, Congress, Pennsylvania politics

There’s reason to believe democracy as an issue will carry more weight in Pennsylvania and beyond than it did four years ago. This is the first presidential vote since Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the 2020 election results, a violent mob besieged the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s victory and Trump declared that he would be a “dictator” — if only on “day one” of his second term.

7:14 PM: McCormick and Casey are running unopposed in Senate primaries ahead of November showdown

Republican David McCormick, left, and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), right, are each running unopposed in their primaries on Tuesday.

This is the second bid for the Senate by Republican David McCormick, a business executive and former official in the George W. Bush administration who narrowly lost to surgeon Mehmet Oz in the 2022 GOP primary for Senate. This year, McCormick is running in the Republican primary unopposed and is expected to face off against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in November.

Casey, who is also running unopposed in the Democratic primary, is hoping to secure his fourth Senate term. The Pennsylvania seat will be critical to determining which party wins control of the Senate next year.

By: Amy B Wang

6:54 PM: Analysis: RFK Jr.’s quintessential campaign position is the blockchain budget

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the House select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government on Thursday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Speaking at a rally over the weekend independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a strange idea about providing Americans access to information about federal budget.

“We’re going to put the entire U.S. budget on the blockchain,” he said in Michigan, “so that every American can look at every budget item in the entire budget any time they want, 24 hours a day.”

The crowd cheered.

“We’re going to have 300 million eyeballs on our budget,” he continued, “and if someone is spending $16,000 for a toilet seat, everybody’s going to know about it.”

This is a bad idea. It is also one that aligns so perfectly with Kennedy’s approach to politics that it’s hard to believe no one predicted this is where he would end up.

The blockchain — or more accurately here, a blockchain — is a distributed, public database. Think of it like a secure, shared Google spreadsheet to which you can only add new lines of information. Blockchains became popular alongside cryptocurrency, with transactions in bitcoin, for example, being recorded on such a database.

Read the full story

By: Philip Bump

6:34 PM: Pennsylvania race previews Democrats’ plan to focus campaign on democracy

Democratic candidates for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, from left, Mike O’Brien, Janelle Stelson and Rick Coplen participate in a debate April 9.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Democratic congressional candidate Mike O’Brien had been knocking on doors in a leafy suburban neighborhood here for only about 20 minutes when he came upon a house with a sign featuring his opponent’s face in the window. He smiled.

“WANTED for crimes against the CONSTITUTION,” the sign read. “Scott Perry for Prison. Traitor. Insurrectionist. Criminal.”

Read the full story

By: Colby Itkowitz

6:24 PM: Trump hasn’t endorsed in GOP primary for Pennsylvania’s 7th District, which Biden won

Republicans Kevin Dellicker, Ryan Mackenzie and Maria Montero are vying for the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. The winner will face Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) in November.

Former president Donald Trump has not endorsed anyone in the primary race. Dellicker is an Air Force veteran and founder of Dellicker Strategies, a telecommunications and technology company. Mackenzie is a member of the Pennsylvania House. Montero — the first Republican to declare her candidacy — is an attorney and former member of the DeSales University Board of Trustees.

Wild, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, is seeking her fourth term in the House. She narrowly won reelection in 2022, defeating her Republican opponent by two percentage points. President Biden won the district, which includes much of the Lehigh Valley, including Allentown, by 4.8 percentage points in 2020.

By: Amy B Wang

6:07 PM: Santos drops independent comeback campaign

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on Capitol Hill on Dec. 1, ahead of the vote that expelled him from Congress.

Expelled congressman George Santos (R-N.Y.) abandoned his comeback campaign Tuesday, ending an independent run against Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.).

“Although Nick and I don’t have the same voting record and I remain critical of his abysmal record, I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems,” Santos said Tuesday on X.

Santos announced in early March that he would challenge LaLota, one of the Republicans who voted to oust him last year. Later that month, Santos said he would run as an independent instead, saying he could not associate with a party “that stands for nothing and falls for everything.”

The House voted to expel Santos in December over alleged crimes and ethical issues that surfaced after it was discovered he fabricated parts of his life story.

LaLota represents New York’s 1st Congressional District, a GOP-leaning seat that is part of the national battlefield as Republicans look to defend their razor-thin majority in November.

By: Patrick Svitek

5:56 PM: Analysis

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) faces a primary challenge from Edgewood Borough council member Bhavini Patel, who has framed Lee as “extreme” and “fringe.”

In an interview with The Washington Post, Patel said that if elected she would model herself after Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) and would focus on innovation and technology, jobs and housing.

5:44 PM: Trump falsely claims ‘thousands’ are being turned away from court area

Former president Donald Trump leaves criminal court in Manhattan, where he’s on trial for falsifying business records.

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is doubling down on his false claims that hordes of people are being kept out of the area around his New York criminal trial — where the proceedings have drawn lots of reporters but not mass protests.

“Thousands of people were turned away from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan by steel stanchions and police, literally blocks from the tiny side door from where I enter and leave,” Trump claimed without evidence on Truth Social on Tuesday, after spending much of the day stuck in court. “It is an armed camp to keep people away,” he added. Officers are present, but members of the public are free to walk around outside the courthouse.

Earlier in the week — with the scene outside the court relatively quiet — Trump took to social media to urge people to “PEACEFULLY PROTEST” and claim, falsely, that the area outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse was “completely CLOSED DOWN.” There are some bike rack barriers, but demonstrators — both pro-Trump and anti-Trump — have walked around and chanted.

By: Hannah Knowles

5:24 PM: Biden calls Florida ‘in play, nationally’

President Biden spoke about abortion rights in Tampa on Tuesday.

President Biden suggested Tuesday he sees Florida — a state that has been trending away from Democrats — as a battleground in his rematch against former president Donald Trump.

“I think Florida is in play, nationally,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Tampa, according to a pool report.

Trump won Florida in 2016 and 2020, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had a landslide reelection victory in 2022. But Democrats have been sounding cautiously hopeful about Florida as they look to harness the issue of abortion rights in the November election.

Biden was in Tampa on Tuesday to deliver a speech denouncing the state’s six-week abortion ban that is set to go into effect May 1. Florida voters will weigh in on the issue this fall when there will be a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

A Biden campaign memo released earlier this month called Florida “winnable.”

Speaking at a second stop after the abortion speech, Biden did not elaborate much on why he sees Florida as competitive. But he expressed confidence about the broader state of his campaign, saying that it is in “pretty good shape” and that momentum is “clearly in our favor,” according to a pool recording.

By: Patrick Svitek

4:26 PM: Biden aims to strike careful balance as college protests spread

People gather to protest in support of Gaza at Columbia University on Monday.

The continued fervor of college protests against the Israel-Gaza war as it drags into its seventh month highlights the political challenges President Biden still faces from his unconditional support of Israel as he aims to strike a careful balance between condemning antisemitism on college campuses and supporting students’ right to protest.

Students at several campuses across the country have formed encampments and barricades to pressure their universities to divest from any ties to Israel and to pressure Biden to call for a permanent cease-fire.

Read the full story

By: Yasmeen Abutaleb, Tyler Pager and Matt Viser

3:40 PM: Biden directly targets Trump for curtailing national abortion rights

President Biden arrives to speak at a campaign event in Tampa on Tuesday.

President Biden had a message for voters in Florida seeking to protect reproductive rights: “It was Donald Trump who ripped away the rights of freedom of women in America.”

“It will be all of us who restore those rights for women in America,” he added. “And, when you do that, we’ll teach Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with the women of America.”

In an energetic speech in which he repeatedly targeted Trump, Biden said that since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, in today’s America, “women have fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers had, because of Donald Trump.”

Biden, his campaign and Democrats more broadly have sought to remind voters on the campaign trail that Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices who sided with the decision to overturn Roe.

Trump himself has taken credit for the action, but he and some Republicans have sought distance from the decision once it proved unpopular among a majority of American voters.

Trump has said more recently that he believes each state should determine its own laws on abortion — a position many Democrats, including Biden, have described as a cop-out.

“There’s one person responsible for this nightmare, and he’s acknowledged [it] and he brags about it: Donald Trump,” Biden said in his remarks. “He says it’s up to the states. And this is all about states’ rights. But he’s wrong. The Supreme Court was wrong. There should be a constitutional right.”

“And it shouldn’t matter where in America you live,” Biden added. “This isn’t about states’ rights. It’s about women’s rights.”

By: Mariana Alfaro

3:31 PM: Analysis from Maegan Vazquez, Politics breaking news reporter

During his reproductive rights speech in Florida, President Biden knocked former president Donald Trump for selling a $60 Bible.

“How many times does (Trump) have to prove he can’t be trusted,” Biden asked, adding that the former president described the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade “as a miracle.”

“Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell. I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell is in it,” Biden added.

3:29 PM: Analysis from Patrick Svitek

President Biden, speaking Tuesday in Florida, appeared to nod to the ballot measure there this November asking voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Delivering a campaign speech in Tampa, Biden said voters in states “all over the country” have been voting to protect abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“This November, you can add Florida to that list,” Biden said. “You can. Are you ready to do that? You’ve got to show up and vote. Are you ready to protect freedom?”

3:20 PM: Analysis from Patrick Svitek

President Biden took a jab at Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a favorite target, while recognizing Scott’s Democratic challenger during a campaign speech in Florida.

Scott faces a challenge from former congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.).

“Debbie’s running against Rick Scott, who wants to sunset Social Security,” Biden said. “I think the voters are going to sunset Rick Scott.”

Biden was referring to Scott’s 2022 proposal to require Congress to re-authorize all federal programs every five years. Scott later removed Social Security and Medicare from the plan.

3:17 PM: Analysis from Maegan Vazquez, Politics breaking news reporter

President Biden was introduced onstage in Florida by Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana woman who recounted being denied care in her state while experiencing a miscarriage.

Biden said Joshua represents “millions of women who are enduring unbearable pain and cruelty because of Donald Trump,” adding that “this pain and cruelty” is something “millions of women in Florida [will] now face.”

“It’s not inevitable. We can stop it when you vote,” he added.

3:01 PM: Cornel West, focusing on Gaza, has harsh critiques for opponents, former allies

Cornel West, a third-party presidential candidate, speaks at a pro-Palestinian interfaith event called “Gaza Endures” at Greenfield Manor in Dearborn, Mich., on Dec. 19.

To hear Cornel West tell it, Joe Biden, whom West campaigned for in 2020, is complicit in war crimes occurring in Gaza. Jill Stein, whom West voted for in 2016, is no longer his ally. Donald Trump is a “fascist pied piper” and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents “evidence-weak” arguments. Even Bernie Sanders, West’s longtime friend, is “just wrong” when it comes to supporting Biden.

West, the 7o-year-old professor, activist and independent presidential candidate who faces very long odds, offered biting attacks of his opponents and former allies in a wide-ranging interview Monday with The Washington Post, pledging that he will not step aside or support any other presidential candidate even if his campaign fails to catch fire.

Read the full story

By: Meryl Kornfield

2:43 PM: Trump objects to ‘freezing’ courtroom while Biden campaigns

Former president Donald Trump walks with his attorney at criminal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday complained about being sidelined from the campaign trail during his hush money trial in New York, saying he’s stuck in a frigid courtroom while President Biden hits the road.

“They’re keeping me in a courtroom — that’s freezing, by the way — in a courtroom all day long while he’s out campaigning,” Trump told reporters outside the courtroom, according to a pool report. “That’s probably an advantage because he can’t campaign, nobody knows what he’s doing. He can’t put two sentences together.”

Commenting further on the courtroom conditions, Trump said he is “sitting up as straight as I can all day long” while Biden gets to campaign for a second term. Trump added it was a “very unfair situation.”

Biden was in Florida on Tuesday to give a speech about abortion rights, a top contrast he is pushing in his rematch against Trump.

Biden’s campaign mocked Trump’s comments on X, sharing a clip of what it said was a “feeble Trump” objecting to the courtroom temperature.

While Biden aides avoided commenting on the trial itself, the campaign has increasingly needled Trump over his courtroom conduct, including reports that he has apparently fallen asleep during the trial.

By: Patrick Svitek

2:20 PM: Melania Trump — and her clothes — inch back into the spotlight

Melania Trump at the Log Cabin Republicans fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on April 20.

Perhaps no political figure in history has said as much with her clothes as Melania Trump.

Rarely giving interviews and making few public appearances even when her husband was in office, the former first lady showed support for the Trump administration and stoked controversy largely through her choice of ensembles.

Read the full story

By: Rachel Tashjian

1:58 PM: Trump’s long, strange history with the tabloids

Donald Trump waves to onlookers while leaving his residence at Trump Tower in New York, on June 7, 1990.

When Marla Maples was about to give birth to Donald Trump’s fourth child, Tiffany, in 1993, then-New York Daily News gossip columnist Linda Stasi had her editor’s orders: Get in the room to see the baby. Maples objected, but Trump invited Stasi to the hospital, where she walked into the private room after the birth, conducted a quick interview, then asked if her photographer could snap a photo. Maples shooed her out, Stasi said in an interview. Trump soon followed, holding an empty blanket. “Here, take my picture. Just pretend there’s a baby in here,” Stasi recalled Trump saying.

Read the full story

By: Sarah Ellison

1:39 PM: Analysis: Trump claims 200 million Americans ‘love’ him. How many actually do?

Former president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wis., on Tuesday.

Former president Donald Trump is, if nothing else — and at the risk of the understatement of the 2024 election — a man prone to hyperbole. His tendency to inflate numbers to bolster his image has now cost him dearly both in criminal and civil court.

But with a presidential campaign to run and now a Manhattan criminal trial to fend off, it’s full steam ahead on the exaggeration game. The most recent talking point: that hundreds of millions of Americans not only support Trump, but love him.

Read the full story

By: Aaron Blake

1:21 PM: New videos highlight discrepancies in Senate candidate’s story

The Montana Democratic Party and an organization that works to elect military veterans are out with videos attacking GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy over reports that raise questions about his claim that a bullet in his arm came from an incident while he was a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan.

Sheehy is one of several Republicans running to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D) in a closely watched race that could decide which party controls the Senate.

Reporting by The Washington Post revealed that Sheehy told a park ranger in 2015 — more than a year after leaving active military duty — that the injury occurred when he accidentally shot himself in a park. Sheehy later claimed he lied to the park ranger to cover up an unreported friendly-fire incident that occurred while he was in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, the Montana Democratic Party seized on the story and released a digital video featuring clips of people trying to make sense of Sheehy’s story. A spokeswoman for the party said it is not spending money to distribute the video but is sharing it on social media.

Vote Vets, an organization whose political action committee seeks to elect Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, last week released a similar video highlighting this issue. In the ad, a narrator calls Sheehy “shady.”

Vote Vets has spent about $100,000 so far airing the ad, according to AdImpact.

By: Azi Paybarah

12:57 PM: Democratic group targets 14 possible Trump VP picks on abortion

South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) appears before a House committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 20.

A top Democratic group is zeroing in on former president Donald Trump’s long list of possible running mates in an effort to show they would all be “extremists” on abortion.

Emily’s List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights, rolled out a list of 14 potential vice-presidential candidates for Trump on Tuesday and detailed their records on the issue. The examples include the advocacy by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for a national abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which he voiced last year while running against Trump in the GOP primary.

NBC News reported last month that Trump has been heavily weighing the abortion views of possible running mates as he mulls his decision. He sought to clear up his own position earlier this month when he delivered a statement suggesting the issue should be left to the states. He also declined to endorse a national ban.

At the same time, Trump has boasted about appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“A Trump presidency will mean a national abortion ban is on the menu, and whichever extremist he picks as his running mate will not change that,” Emily’s List president Jessica Mackler said in a statement Tuesday.

One of the possible running mates identified by Emily’s List — South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) — dodged questions in a CNN interview Sunday about whether she personally supported exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Trump has supported those exceptions, but South Dakota’s current law does not include them.

By: Patrick Svitek

12:33 PM: Analysis from Toluse Olorunnipa, White House Bureau Chief

Democrats are hoping a ballot issue on abortion will drive turnout and make Florida — a state Donald Trump won by 3.3 percentage points in 2020 — more competitive, at least for down-ballot races, if not for the presidency, said Susan MacManus, a political analyst based in the Tampa area.

“It can’t just be about Biden running for president. It has got to also be about Democrats running for congressional and state legislative positions,” she said, adding that while President Biden receives low marks from young voters in the state, the abortion ballot measure could help him win additional votes from that key voting bloc.

12:05 PM: Poll: Majority of Vermonters want Sanders to run again

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) makes his way to the Senate chamber Tuesday on Capitol Hill. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

A majority of Vermont residents want Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to seek reelection this year as he weighs the decision, according to a new poll.

The survey, released Tuesday by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, found that 54 percent of Vermonters “definitely” or “probably” want Sanders to run again. Forty percent of respondents “probably” or “definitely” prefer he not seek another term.

Sanders, 82, is up for a fourth term this year but has not announced whether he will run again. Allies have been urging the progressive movement leader and two-time presidential candidate to continue serving. Vermont’s filing deadline is late next month.

The survey also showed that 76 percent of Democrats — the party he caucuses with — want him to run again. Among the residents who said he should not pursue reelection, the top reason out of several options provided was that he is “too old.”

Fifty-seven percent of Vermonters said Sanders deserves to be reelected, while 31 percent said he does not. Sanders won his last reelection campaign with two-thirds of the vote.

The Green Mountain State poll was conducted from Thursday to Monday and included 924 Vermont adult residents. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

By: Patrick Svitek

11:38 AM: Trump to meet with former Japanese prime minister

Former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso

Former president Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Tuesday with former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso, campaign officials said — the latest of many sit-downs with foreign leaders as he seeks another presidential term.

Aso, who served as prime minister from 2008 to 2009, is now vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party; current prime minister Fumio Kishida belongs to the same party.

Despite its name, the LDP is often described as conservative.

Biden hosted Kishida and other Japanese dignitaries this month at the White House.

Trump is in New York for his criminal trial. His campaign has not said exactly when and where he will meet Aso.

Other foreign leaders whom Trump has met with in recent months include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

By: Hannah Knowles

11:13 AM: Analysis: It’s not that Trump beat Clinton. It’s all the other stuff.

Trump waits in the Trump Tower lobby Wednesday before welcoming Polish President Andrzej Duda. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

If last week is any guide, somewhere north of 2 million people tuned in to Jesse Watters’s prime-time show on Fox News on Monday night to hear him moan that Donald Trump was being tortured. That the treatment the former president was experiencing during his criminal trial in New York was equivalent to — or perhaps worse than? — that experienced by detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

“Donald Trump, been on the move his whole life,” Watters told viewers after describing the purported leniency that Democrats had offered those detainees. “Golf. Rallies. Movement. Action. Sunlight. Fresh air. Freedom. This isn’t lawfare. It’s torture.”

Read the full story

By: Philip Bump

10:52 AM: Analysis from Toluse Olorunnipa, White House Bureau Chief

In Florida, voters will have an opportunity to weigh in on the state’s law since the state Supreme Court allowed a measure that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution to appear on the ballot. Like other such constitutional measures in Florida, the referendum would need to achieve 60 percent of the vote to pass in November. Donald Trump, a Florida resident, has not said how he would vote on the measure.

10:29 AM: White House calls on pension funds to adopt stronger labor standards

White House officials will meet Tuesday with leaders from five major pension funds that have committed more than $1 trillion in capital requiring robust labor standards in private-equity investments, in an effort to push more funds to follow suit.

The Biden administration is touting these commitments as public pension funds amass growing holdings in private equity firms, which have been accused of driving down wages, fighting unionization and cutting jobs.

Read the full story

By: Lauren Kaori Gurley

10:06 AM: Democrats put a focus on abortion ahead of Florida’s new restriction

Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.) dances with performers during a rally for Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala D. Harris in Miami on Oct. 31, 2020.

Democrats are trying to draw attention to Florida legislation set to take effect next week that will ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

President Biden is traveling to Tampa to give a speech about it, and he will be joined there by a Democratic senate candidate who is on a “Freedom Tour” around the state, highlighting her opposition to the ban.

Former congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.) is trying to make abortion a key issue in her bid to topple Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). He has said he supports the state’s abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy. After joining Biden in Tampa on Tuesday, Mucarsel-Powell is scheduled to appear in Gainesville and Tallahassee on Wednesday.

Biden’s campaign said in a memo Monday that the Florida law will impact reproductive care “across the entire Southeastern United States, including neighboring battlegrounds of Georgia and North Carolina,” since those states also have abortion restrictions and people there could have traveled to Florida for care.

By: Azi Paybarah

9:45 AM: Analysis: Facts in the Trump courtroom v. ‘facts’ in the court of public opinion

Former president Donald Trump speaks to the media after the first day of opening arguments in his trial in New York on Monday.

Former president Donald Trump is now on trial in a Manhattan courtroom, where facts are paramount, and a jury will assess the evidence and render a verdict. But as he enters and leaves that courtroom, Trump often stops before the cameras and blasts falsehoods to the court of public opinion, which can apply a different standard to Trump when it comes to facts.

Here’s a quick assessment of several claims he made after the conclusion of the first day of testimony in his hush money trial, in the order in which he made them.

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By: Glenn Kessler

9:24 AM: Analysis from Toluse Olorunnipa, White House Bureau Chief

Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court approved a state law that would restrict most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.

Donald Trump — who previously suggested the law was “harsh” — came out with his own abortion policy shift on April 8, saying the issue should be left to the states and suggesting that Florida’s law was “probably going to change.” But then the Arizona Supreme Court ruled the next day that an 1864 law outlawing nearly all abortions should take effect — prompting immediate criticism from Trump and some other Republicans.

9:06 AM: Analysis: Progressives stare down primary challengers

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) has taken a harder line against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza than most House Democrats. Tuesday will determine whether Democratic primary voters punish her for it.

Lee, a freshman who represents Pittsburgh and its inner suburbs, is facing a challenge in today’s primary from Bhavini Patel, a community outreach manager, who is running as a more moderate Democrat.

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By: Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer

8:44 AM: Analysis: Trump’s transparent attempt to play the victim on ‘election interference’

A rubber mask of Donald Trump, part of the merchandise offered to his supporters at Freedom Plaza in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021 — the day before the Capitol insurrection.

One of Donald Trump’s most tried and true political strategies is rubber-and-glue: When he gets accused of something serious, he just accuses his opponents of the same thing in the service of creating distractions.

Mentally unstable? It’s actually his opponents who fit the bill. A “bigot” and a “racist?” Again, his opponents. Ditto inflammatory rhetoric, threatening democracy, being a puppet for Vladimir Putin, habitual lying, obstruction of justice, and on and on.

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By: Aaron Blake

8:21 AM: Analysis from Toluse Olorunnipa, White House Bureau Chief

Tuesday marks President Biden’s first major speech on abortion since Donald Trump suggested that the politically volatile issue be left to the states rather than addressed through a federal law.

A range of Democrats have responded by reminding voters that Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, paving the way for strict abortion bans in many states. Biden has chimed in, too, using remarks and ads to pin the fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision on Trump.

8:01 AM: Analysis: Biden campaign eyes Florida

President Biden speaks at the White House, Jan. 22.

President Biden’s campaign now appears to be viewing Florida as a battleground state, as he heads to Tampa to give a speech on abortion rights.

In a new memo Tuesday morning ahead of Biden’s trip to Florida, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez writes that abortion rights are a top issue in “Every Single Key Battleground” — a list that includes Florida along with the eight states that Biden visited in March.

It’s the latest indication that the campaign is making a play for Florida after the state’s Supreme Court allowed a six-week abortion ban to take effect while also allowing an abortion rights measure to appear on the ballot. We’re watching what Biden says about abortion.

By: Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer

7:21 AM: Analysis: Biden’s problem with younger voters isn’t only about Gaza

President Biden greets guests at a campaign event in Scranton, Pa., on Tuesday.

Let’s stipulate at the outset that President Biden’s ongoing difficulties with younger voters — stark when measured overall, less so when considered through the lens of party — are probably not heavily driven by enthusiasm for Donald Trump.

To some degree, sure. But if we accept that Biden is having trouble figuring out what message resonates with voters under 30, we should probably also accept that clunky, dishonest, obviously pandering appeals from Trump (like Monday’s “Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok” riff) aren’t a major driver.

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By: Philip Bump

7:00 AM: Biden to travel to Florida to rebuke Trump over six-week abortion ban

President Biden speaks on abortion rights from the White House on July 8.

President Biden will travel to Florida on Tuesday to denounce that state’s six-week abortion ban — just days before the law goes into effect — in his latest push to blame former president Donald Trump for the erosion of reproductive rights across the country.

Biden will deliver remarks on what he has called “reproductive freedom” in Tampa, visiting a state where Democrats have lost ground in recent years but where they see the abortion issue as one that can galvanize voters. It will be Biden’s first major speech on abortion since Trump suggested that the politically volatile issue be left to the states rather than addressed through a federal law.

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By: Toluse Olorunnipa

6:45 AM: Trump continues his reversal on TikTok, accusing Biden of wanting to ban it

A man carries a Free TikTok sign on April 15 in front of the Manhattan courthouse as the criminal trial of former president Donald Trump got underway.

Former president Donald Trump is digging in against a potential ban of TikTok that is moving through Congress — and seeking to blame President Biden for it — even though Trump sought to outlaw the social media application when he was in the White House.

“Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” Trump said Monday in a post on his Truth Social platform. He accused Biden of wanting to help Facebook become more powerful and possibly meddle in elections to hurt Republicans.

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By: Patrick Svitek

6:30 AM: Key takeaways from the start of Trump’s hush money trial

Former president Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court with his legal team ahead of the start of jury selection in New York on Monday.

It’s been more than a year since Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Donald Trump on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment during the 2016 election campaign. And on Monday we had our first testimony. The freshly empaneled jury heard opening statements and — briefly — from the government’s first witness.

It was an extra-short day in the Manhattan criminal courthouse. Court was supposed to adjourn at 2 p.m. for the Passover holiday. The judge ended up dismissing everyone at 12:30 so an alternate juror could address a health issue.

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By: Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett

6:15 AM: A ‘Squad’ member’s primary tests shifting politics of Israel-Gaza war

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), left, greets Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at a rally in Pittsburgh on April 21.

PITTSBURGH — Rep. Summer Lee, a freshman Democrat who faces a primary challenge Tuesday from an opponent who has characterized her as extreme on foreign policy, was one of the first members of Congress to criticize Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.

Lee, a member of the “Squad” of House lawmakers on the Democratic Party’s left wing, called for a cease-fire a little over a week after the attack and suggested that Israel was guilty of “blatant human rights violations.”

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By: Dylan Wells