Former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haleycalled President Biden "the most condescending president of my lifetime" after his prime-time speech last week.
Why it matters: Haley is a potential Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race, which would put her in direct competition with President Biden if he ends up running for a second term.
A rogue pilot who allegedly stole an aircraft and threatened to crash it into a Mississippi Walmart on Saturday has been arrested, according to Tupelo, Mississippi, police chief John Quaka.
Driving the news: The pilot, identified as Cory Wayne Patterson, is expected to face charges of grand larceny and making terroristic threats. The federal government may proceed with further charges, police said.
Riding through upper Michigan on his Harley Davidson this week, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) surveyed Trump country and gamed out his own party's chances in November. Democrats, he concluded, can still think bigger than holding the Senate — with a chance to expand their claim to 52 seats.
What they're saying: "The environment is rough, just given that people are exhausted after the pandemic and we've had inflation issues,” Peters, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told an Axios reporter trailing him (by car) past a washed-out road north of Traverse City. “And that's never good for the party in the White House.”
“That's the bad news,” Peters said. “The good news is that people don't really like Republicans."
"Our goal is to protect our incumbents and go on offense in as many races as we can," he said. "Fifty-two would be historic."
Why it matters: Peters — who won his own seat in 2020 by less than 2 percentage points — used his annual motorcycle tour to tout his party's recent legislative victories but also talk to some of the reddest parts of Michigan and supplement reams of polling data.
This year, along with a dozen other riders, Peters logged 1,000 miles — from Muskegon to the Upper Peninsula and back down to the Lansing area — on his Pan America™ 1250.
The big picture: Peters' roadside optimism stands in contrast to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has recently tempered his own party's expectations as Trump-backed nominees appear to struggle in some general election races.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is publicly criticizing Republicans for “trash-talking" his candidates, calling it "treasonous to the conservative cause" in a Washington Examiner op-ed.
Zoom in: At Chandlers Café, a roadside joint known for its homemade pizza and fresh coffee, Peters got credit just for showing up. The population of Harrietta, Michigan, is 151.
“It makes a huge difference for someone in high power to come to a small town and show a face,” said the owner, Amanda Chandler, a self-described independent who struggled to stay open during the lockdown. “From what I hear, he does a great job."
Zoom out: So far, Democrats in tight Senate races have been able to run ahead of Biden, whose own approval ratings have been inching upward.
That’s fueling hopes for retaining incumbent Democratic seats in the Senate — while working toward potential pickups in states including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Cook Political Report even says that a GOP victory in the House is no longer a "foregone conclusion."
But Senate leaders are bracing for their candidates to get roughed up by an onslaught of negative TV ads. “After Labor Day, there’s going to be an unbelievable amount of Republican money going against our candidates,” Peters said. “These are all going to be tight races.”
“I don't want to sugarcoat this too much,” Peters said. “I'm a real realist.”
Between the lines: Peters says a backlash to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade is giving Democrats an advantage in protecting incumbents in New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada.
He doesn’t mention Georgia, where Sen. Raphael Warnock will face voters after winning a special election in 2020 in a historically conservative state.
The other side: Republican candidates were outspent over the summer. The dynamics could change as voters tune in more seriously after Labor Day and groups like Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with McConnell, unleash some $160 million in ads.
SLF communications director Jack Pandol said that "accountability is coming."
"Democrats dutifully rubber-stamped Joe Biden's toxic agenda in Washington but exhibit Biden amnesia back home," Pandol said. "The more voters learn what they've been up to, the angrier they are at Democrats for destroying their quality of life."
“Republican and Democrat spending will be on parity in most of our target states from now until Election Day and we’re well-positioned to have big wins across the country,” said Chris Hartline, an NRSC spokesman.
What's next: As a survivor of tough races in a deeply divided state, Peters tells incumbents and challengers alike to hit the country roads. “It's important to be in rural areas that have tended to move away from Democrats,” he said. “You've got to go all over your state, but don't ever shy away from going rural.”
Peters isn’t advising every candidate to hop on a Harley.
“That may not be authentic,” he said. “The No. 1 rule of authenticity is, you actually have to be authentic.”
New York investigators have seized dozens of artifacts worth more than $13 million from the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the last six months, alleging they had been looted from around the world, according to the New York Times.
Why it matters: The seizures indicate that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is stepping up efforts to close backlogged repatriation cases and crack down on the theft, looting and illicit trafficking of cultural property.
Former Attorney General William Barr on Friday said in an appearance on Fox News that there is no "legitimate reason" for why former President Trump had boxes of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Why it matters: Barr's comments cast doubt on Trump's claims that he had a "standing order" deeming documents taken from the Oval Office to his residence "declassified the moment he removed them."
A federal judge on Friday unsealed a detailed inventory of the items seized during the FBI's execution of a search warrant at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. It includes dozens of empty folders with "classified" banners.
Why it matters: The inventory, unsealed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, reveals that documents with "top secret" and "confidential" markings were stored in the same boxes as personal items, including magazines and news articles, CNN notes.
Gina McCarthy, President Biden's domestic climate adviser, said she is leaving the administration in mid-September, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Why it matters: McCarthy, who led the Obama-era EPA, has played a central role in making climate change a government-wide priority.
The White House on Friday asked Congress for $47 billion in emergency funding to assist the administration's efforts in fighting COVID-19 and monkeypox, supporting Ukraine and responding to natural disasters.
Why it matters: The request comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill face a September deadline to fund the government, carrying with it the risk of a government shutdown just before midterm elections, per the Washington Post.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone appeared Friday to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and efforts to overturn 2020 election results, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: Cipollone, with his deputy Pat Philbin, who is also expected to appear before the grand jury, are among the two highest-profile witnesses to testify in the Department of Justice's criminal investigation into the riot, Reuters notes.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are two of the biggest names in Republican politics. But they're taking markedly different approaches toward campaigning in the midterms — and perhaps to 2024.
The big picture: Youngkin is bypassing MAGA-oriented gubernatorial candidates in favor of pragmatists running tough races in blue states. DeSantis has leaned into some of the party's most controversial nominees.
Iran's negotiators sent another written response to European Union's draft nuclear deal Thursday night local time, which was met with disappointment by the Biden administration.
Why it matters: It is now unlikely that a deal will be signed in the coming days. The back and forth written exchanges are expected to continue and could lead to the Biden administration deciding not to sign the deal before the November midterm election.
Argentina's Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had a gun pointed at her as she greeted supporters outside her Buenos Aires home late Thursday in what some officials described as an "assassination attempt."
Details: President Alberto Fernández said in a national broadcast that the "homicide attempt" occurred when a "man pointed a firearm at her head and pulled the trigger," per AP, which reports that authorities have detained a suspect over the attack on Kirchner, who previously served as Argentina's president.
President Biden condemned former President Trump, "MAGA forces" and what he called their determination to "take this country backwards" in a rare primetime speech on Thursday.
Driving the news: Biden's remarks at Philadelphia's Independence Hall called on all Americans to defend the nation against threats to democracy, including aspects of Trumpism, during a visit to one of the biggest political battlegrounds on the midterm map.
