Trump ties a ribbon on the most MAGA CPAC yet

OXON HILL, Md. — The plan went off without any real hitch: No Republican departed CPAC with more glory than former President Donald Trump. In fact, no one bothered to try.

As Trump walked onto the main stage Saturday night to give the keynote address, he was introduced as “the next president of the United States.”

At the four-day conference of conservative activists, Trump’s loyal fan base heckled his Republican opponents, overwhelmingly backed him in a straw poll and quickly booed what appeared to be a rogue audience member who started to play music over his speech. As they did throughout his presidency and the two years since, the MAGA movement showed up sporting buttons with Trump’s face, red hats and an eagerness to see the man the conference now orbits around completely.

Even Fox News, a network that has kept Trump at arm’s length in recent months, ended up airing some of his speech live on television following complaints from the CPAC mainstage a day earlier about a lack of Trump coverage.

In his one-hour, 45-minute CPAC finale speech, Trump boasted that the crowd here was firmly with him while bashing Republicans who were once stars of the annual confab.

“We had a Republican Party that was ruled by freaks, neocons, globalists, open border zealots, and fools, but we are never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush,” Trump said to the crowd. “People are tired of RINOs and globalists. They want to see America First.”

Speaking to a not-quite-full convention hall, Trump painted a bleak picture of the current state of the world, complained about the numerous investigations he faces and described his run for president as the “final battle” for his supporters.

“Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country,” Trump said.

Earlier, during a gaggle with reporters, Trump said he would “absolutely” stay in the 2024 race even if indicted in any of the investigations he faces over handling of classified documents and the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Trump received some of the loudest applause from the audience when taking on culture war battles over parental rights and women’s sports. And while he railed about election laws, he drastically changed his tune on mail-in ballots and early voting. “We have to change our thinking because some bad things happened,” Trump said. “You have to do it.”

The annual conference once welcomed Republicans of all stripes, but this year it was clearly steeped in MAGA. Beyond Trump, headliners included some of the former president’s most loyal allies in Congress. And while there were other 2024 contenders like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and “anti-woke” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the biggest threat to Trump’s presidential run, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and other prominent Republicans were hundreds of miles away.

That didn’t seem to matter to the crowd here.

During one of the most rousing speeches of the multi-day conference, former Trump adviser and conservative talk show host Steve Bannon on Friday suggested that the Republican primary starting to play out was a futile exercise.

“Don't fall for the primary stuff,” Bannon said from the CPAC stage. “You have good and decent people. Gov. DeSantis, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, you have Nikki Haley — that's all fine. It's not relevant.”

Bannon continued by telling the crowd they “don’t have time for on-the-job training” for a new leader, when Republicans have “a man that gave us four years — four years — of peace and prosperity.”

“Buckle up,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, told POLITICO in an interview at the conclusion of the conference. “Trump is going to win the primary and defeat Joe Biden.”

It was a sentiment shared by most CPAC attendees — who literally wore their Trump support on their sleeve, like one attendee with a tattoo of Trump’s face. People wore Trump T-shirts and bedazzled Trump clutches. They posed for photos in a mock Trump Oval Office set up by a pro-Trump super PAC, complete with a faux Resolute Desk that was sourced from a souvenir shop near the White House. Overall, they seemed uninterested in any other 2024 candidate. And many weren’t exactly polite about their unwavering support for Trump.

Despite garnering applause throughout parts of her speech, Haley stepped out of the main hall Friday to a crowd of MAGA hat-wearing hecklers. Part of the mob surrounding her broke out in chants of “Trump.”

And during a speech by Ramaswamy, another declared presidential candidate, a voice in the crowd shouted out “Trump 2024!” Ramaswamy sought to defuse the brief moment of tension, saying he “love(s) the man” and would discuss the former president later in his speech.

But when Ramaswamy got to that point, he didn’t take even a minor swipe at Trump, as he had initially planned. Excerpts from his prepared speech, obtained by POLITICO beforehand, showed that Ramaswamy was going to say that he respects Trump and believes he cares about national unity, but Trump would have already delivered on unifying the country if he had truly intended to do so.

“That’s what I can deliver that he can’t,” Ramaswamy had planned to say, according to the prepared remarks.

Instead, Ramaswamy skipped over that line, only saying that both he and Trump care about national unity.

Save for a couple of vague comments that could be construed as digs at Trump — Pompeo cautioning against following “celebrity leaders” with “fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality,” and Haley again calling for competency tests for politicians over 75 — no one dared to criticize the former president.

Trump’s rivals, however, were by no means rewarded by him for holding their fire. A few hours before he took the stage on Saturday, Trump posted a meme on his social media app of rows of empty chairs while Haley was on stage Friday. “Nikki Haley speaking at CPAC,” was emblazoned across the bottom of the image.

But Trump mostly held off when he was asked by reporters ahead of his speech about a potential DeSantis challenge and what it says about his own leadership if former Trump administration officials, like Haley, are getting in the race. Many Trump allies see an advantage with a large primary field, with the non-Trump candidates potentially splintering the vote — a scenario similar to the one that played out in the 2016 primary.

“I really say the more the merrier. I mean, they think they did a good job,” Trump said. “They're very ambitious people, but they think they did a good job."

Despite holding off on the broadsides, Trump did not commit to signing any kind of loyalty pledge in order to participate in RNC debates.

"There are people I probably wouldn't be very happy about endorsing … I won't use names, I don't want to insult anyone, but I wouldn't be happy about it,” Trump said.

Trump overwhelmingly won CPAC’s conference straw poll, garnering 62 percent support from attendees compared to 20 percent for DeSantis. Trump’s 40-point margin was similar to straw polls conducted at prior years’ CPAC events, illustrating the former president’s enduring grip on the party’s activist class.

But the poll did feature one twist: Perry Johnson, a little-known Michigan millionaire and failed gubernatorial candidate who announced his presidential run last week, earned 5 percent support. That put Johnson in third place, ahead of Haley and Ramaswamy.

Johnson, whose bus was prominently parked outside the Gaylord National, had the only campaign booth in the CPAC exhibit hall on Thursday. His staffers passed out branded items and invited guests to attend a VIP reception while also encouraging attendees to cast a vote for him in the straw poll.

The conference once attracted a broad spectrum of conservative voices from Paul Ryan to Rick Santorum. But now, it has become almost entirely focused on Trump and the America First movement he inspired. On Friday night at the annual Ronald Reagan Dinner, attendees paid $375 for a steak and fish dinner and to hear from Kari Lake, the failed gubernatorial candidate who is considering a run for Senate in Arizona and is a popular Trump surrogate.

“We took the whole thing over,” said conservative radio host John Fredericks, calling this year’s event the “disruptor CPAC of all time.”

Some of the GOP’s top leaders didn’t show at the large gathering this year, while a past major sponsor, Fox News, also steered clear. Matt Schlapp, who heads CPAC, has not appeared on the network since allegations surfaced in January that he sexually assaulted a GOP campaign staffer in October — a claim Schlapp denies.

“CPAC was a sanitized, corporatized, Wall Street-backed organization with big donors. They’re all eradicated,” Fredericks said. “The populist movement has taken it over.”

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his daughter in law, Lara Trump, and future daughter in law, Kimberly Guilfoyle, were main-stage speakers. Other headliners included some of Trump’s biggest allies in Congress, like Sen. J.D. Vance from Ohio and Rep. Matt Gaetz from Florida. But notably, the only member of Republican congressional leadership to attend was Stefanik, the New York congresswoman who was one of the first to endorse Trump for president. She said the support for Trump at CPAC was a reflection of the “grassroots,” adding, “Trump is in the strongest position by a longshot.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but this feels like MAGA Country,” Trump Jr. said as he took the stage on Friday, instructing attendees to check under their seats for a gold chocolate bar — “a golden ticket,” he said, for entry to an exclusive reception Saturday held by a super PAC supporting his father.

Trump Jr. then quickly pivoted to attacking other Republicans mulling a primary run against Trump, most of whom skipped CPAC to attend a Club for Growth donor retreat in Palm Beach this weekend. Among those appearing at the anti-tax group’s cattle call were DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. Trump was not invited to attend the dueling event.

“They’re raising money from the people who don’t necessarily believe in America First,” Trump Jr. continued. “But they need their money.”

At the Club for Growth event, DeSantis touted his record as Florida governor and criticized Republicans who have sat like “potted plants” during “woke ideology” debates, according to Fox News. Haley sought to make her case for being the GOP alternative to Trump, calling herself “decisive” for officially getting in the primary while other candidates at the retreat were “hemming and hawing on the sidelines.”

“All the major conferences that cater to the grassroots are with MAGA and the people are with Trump,” said Alex Bruesewitz, a Republican strategist and influencer. “The donors are with the Washington establishment Republicans — and there is a major disconnect.”

This year’s CPAC had the usual trappings of the annual grassroots confab, like an exhibition hall filled with an assortment of pro-Trump paraphernalia and information booths for businesses run by or catering to Republicans,such as a booth for the Right Stuff, a dating app for right wing singles run by a former top Trump White House aide, Johnny McEntee.

Inside a private reception ahead of Trump’s speech, an event sponsored by a super PAC supporting him, Make America Great Again Inc., showed off right-wing luminaries who have remained loyal endorsers of Trump.

Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) were whisked through the crowd as attendees chowed down on Rice Krispy Treats, brownies and miniature cupcakes. The pair walked on stage to entertain the audience while Trump took questions from reporters in another room prior to making his appearance before the VIP crowd. Lake and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) trickled in separately, stopping to take photos with members of the invite-only audience.

And throughout his public speech Saturday, Trump at times paused to acknowledge some of his high-profile supporters in the audience who have continued to stick with him as a primary field has emerged. Trump praised people like Greene, Gaetz, right-wing talk show host Mark Levin and others — flaunting the conservative influencers who have tied themselves to him despite others in the party quietly pushing for his replacement.

“I didn’t know this was a rally, Matt,” Trump said to Schlapp as he stepped up the lectern to a chorus of “USA” chants in the audience. “It really is a rally."

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Dems want to cut Fox off after lawsuit revelations

The thunderclap of stories showing Fox News’ role in pushing 2020 election fraud conspiracies and aiding Donald Trump’s campaign has intensified calls among Democrats to black out the network.

The revelations, made public as part of a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems, showed that some network hosts and executives endorsed lies about Trump's loss, hosted conspiracy theorists whom they thought were unhinged, and overtly prioritized the company’s profit over truth. A related deposition of the media empire’s chair, Rupert Murdoch, revealed that he shared private intel about Joe Biden’s campaign TV ads and provided debate strategy with top Trump advisers.

For years, Democrats have been engaged in a debate over whether the party should shun the cable news giant or grudgingly use its airwaves to run counterprogramming. But in the midst of the latest saga, a newer type of reaction has emerged: that they should sever all ties, including any money spent advertising on the network.

“There is nothing in those documents to show they operate like a real news organization,” said Doug Gordon, a Democratic strategist. “If you are running a campaign in 2024, how do you in good faith hand your ads to Fox when you know they handed them over to Republicans? If there are any general election debates, how do you let Fox be a moderator?”

There is no indication, at this juncture, that major Democratic entities are ready to halt their ad buys on Fox News, let alone its many affiliates. But that is partially because few Democratic campaigns or causes are currently spending ad money. In the interim, the Dominion lawsuit revelations have led to louder calls for the party to make a firm break from any involvement with the cable channel, whom they view as functionally a campaign arm for Republicans. Democrats spanning the ideological spectrum have even started calling on the White House Correspondents’ Association — the group of news reporters advocating for press access — to boot Fox News reporters from the briefing room.

“They are arguably the most important entity of the American right and the Republican Party,” said Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, suggesting that The Associated Press include in its stylebook that Fox News is not a news organization. “There needs to be a serious conversation now about whether Fox can continue to be a member of the White House Correspondents Association. Keeping them there seems not to be OK.”

Even with its reputation for airing reliably conservative content, Fox News remains a major player in Democratic politics. More self-identified Democrats consistently watch the network than any other cable channel, according to Nielsen MRI Fusion. And a faction of Democrats sees value in both reaching those voters and trying to persuade the independents and Republican-leaning ones who tune into the channel.

In the 2020 campaign cycle, the network hosted a presidential debate, accepted some $7.4 million in advertising from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to Fox News, according to the tracking firm AdImpact, and held town halls with Democratic primary contenders. While Biden administration officials have selectively chosen to appear on Fox News for interviews, the president’s aides have also sought out opportunities to use the network as a cudgel against Republican lawmakers — whether on economic issues or matters of public safety.

White House officials, for their part, describe their relationship with Fox employees who cover them closely as combative but mostly cordial. But they also view the Dominion lawsuit revelations as a cover of sorts to treat Fox News with a bit more frostiness than other media outlets. Biden aides have privately bristled at news reporters who just weeks ago piled on criticism of the president for side stepping a customary Super Bowl interview with Fox.

“Regardless of any new revelations of media bias and hypocrisy during the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden won the most votes of any candidate in American history because of his vision for the middle class, his message, and his record,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “And anyone who is surprised by such revelations hasn’t been paying attention to — or watching — Fox News lately.”

Bates and others have been trolling Fox of late, including sending a statement to the network for inclusion in a story questioning whether viewers and readers should trust Fox News’ reporting on Biden, citing executives’ reported kid-glove treatment of Trump. The White House statement to Fox was reported by Semafor.

Fox, in turn, accused the White House of resorting to “junior varsity campaign style stunts.”

Other Democrats want the president and his party to react more aggressively. On the House floor, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) teed off on censorship legislation, arguing “it would still be strange to say that Fox News was censoring itself" when it knowingly amplified 2020 election lies. MoveOn, the liberal advocacy outfit, urged cable service chief executives to make Fox News optional. And the Progressive Change Campaign Committee called for the White House Correspondents’ Association to remove Fox from the press pool.

Congress’ top two Democrats also weighed in, writing to Murdoch to urge his network to stop spreading false election narratives and “admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.”

Fox News has resisted covering the Dominion lawsuit. But in a statement, a Fox representative said, “Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims.”

“Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”

Another spokesperson for the network said it not only tops competitors combined in the ratings, “but has the most politically diverse audience with more Democrats and Independents watching than either CNN and MSNBC. This is another predictable attack by left-wing groups desperate for attention and relevancy.”

Intermittent lashings of Fox News from the left are not a new occurrence. Democratic politicians from the White House to statehouses have long weighed whether trying to reach the network’s coveted audience is worth the cost of appearing to legitimize the network. Those who advocate for engagement say it’s folly to imagine the channel will have less impact if the party ignores it. Those who call for a boycott argue it makes no sense to push the party’s agenda on daytime airwaves only to find it demonized at night. And increasingly, they think that whatever editorial line existed between its dayside hosts and its bombastic prime time names has become blurrier and blurrier.

As the debate starts anew, several top strategists and communications aides said they believe the Dominion revelations will spur legitimate news organizations to stop treating Fox as one of their own.

“Democrats reached a verdict on Fox News many years ago. The only open question is does the rest of the political media ecosystem treat them as legitimate or not?” asked Eric Schultz, a deputy press secretary under former President Barack Obama. “The latest revelations mostly call into question everybody else’s long-standing defense of the network.”

But even those, like Schultz, who argue that Fox News’ reputation should be permanently tainted by the Dominion suit are reluctant to call for Democrats to completely shut out the network.

“It would be like unilaterally not engaging on Facebook — in many ways a toxic platform but where millions of people get their information,” he said.

James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist, said there was no reason to approach the network differently now because of the Dominion lawsuit revelations.

“They get viewers only because they tell viewers what they want to hear or see,” he said. “They want to be brainwashed. They show up at the front door of the cleaners. They leave their brain there — ‘wash and fold and I’ll pick it up.’”

Instead, Carville offered that there was a utility to having the network as a foil, noting that Biden’s White House hasn’t suffered from having Fox News in the briefing room, led by network scion Peter Doocy.

“Sites on the left love when they smack Peter Doocy back,” he said. “And usually, for more than half the people who see it, it’s Fox that looks stupid.”

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The Trump world-Fox News war gets nasty

In his first minute onstage at CPAC on Friday, Steve Bannon identified one of his top targets of the moment, an entity he claimed is opposing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign at its own peril: Fox News.

The host of the popular War Room podcast and longtime Trump hand started by ripping the conservative channel for announcing that Joe Biden had won Arizona on election night in 2020.

“Fox News illegitimately called it for the opposition, and not Donald J. Trump,” the Trump adviser-turned-talk show host told the crowd in National Harbor, Maryland, an audience full of diehard MAGA supporters.

Ten minutes in, Bannon went after the network again, rousing the audience to their feet as he called out Fox for not having Trump on since he announced his campaign in November. He called out Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp. founder who sits atop the media empire.

“Murdoch, you’ve deemed Trump's not going to be president,” Bannon continued as the crowd roared with applause. “But we deem that you're not going to have a network, because we’re going to fight you every step of the way.”

Far from random broadsides, Bannon’s screed against Fox News was the latest in what has become a hot war between MAGA world and the longtime conservative channel. Trump himself has gone off on Fox News before, often for coverage he has deemed unfair. But the current state of affairs — coming at the start of what promises to be a deeply contested GOP primary — is as strained as it has ever been.

The network hasn’t featured the former on its airwaves since November. The face of CPAC, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, himself a close Trump ally, has also not appeared on the channel since allegations emerged in January that he sexually assaulted a campaign staffer. (Schlapp has denied wrongdoing). And in the halls of the CPAC conference, disdain for Fox News wasn’t an uncommon sentiment among those gathered.

Sandra Salstrom, a harpist from Houston, said she gets all the news she needs from Bannon’s War Room show, and enjoys tuning in to programs hosted by Charlie Kirk, another prominent right-wing commentator.

“I now have nothing to do with Fox,” said Salstrom, explaining she does not have a television at home, but used to watch the network while she was at the gym. “They disgust me.”

“I haven't watched Fox in years,” said Andra Griffin of Manatee County, Fla., who said she stopped watching the network in 2019, and was completely “unplugged from Fox” by 2020. Instead, right-wing activists like Griffin have turned their attention to more alternative conservative networks like Newsmax, which had a heavy presence at CPAC.

Fox Radio skipped its usual booth on media row at CPAC this year. Fox Nation didn't livestream or sponsor receptions as it has in years past. There were no primetime Fox News stars like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, or Tucker Carlson scheduled to speak on stage — a contrast to years past, where Fox stars were in heavy rotation on the stage or in the halls.

A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The absence of Fox News at CPAC has fed larger questions about the role the Murdoch-owned network is gunning to play in the Republican primary. Trump’s likely 2024 rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been featured across Murdoch-owned entities as he promotes his recently published memoir. The anti-Woke activist Vivek Ramaswamy launched his presidential campaign with an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. And former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has repeatedly appeared on the network, with her launch announcement covered live on TV.

All of this comes as Fox is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which is asking for $1.6 billion in damages over the role the network played in covering conspiracies around the 2020 election. Recent depositions reveal that high-level network officials privately cast doubt on Trump's claims that the election was stolen, even as on-air voices were backing Trump up on the false narrative.

While Trump himself has not been interviewed lately on Fox News airwaves – Semafor reported he is facing a “soft ban” by the network – he does continue to receive coverage and his campaign is referenced by hosts.

For his part, Trump has ramped up his attacks on the longtime conservative television channel, in recent days sharing multiple posts on his Truth Social platform critical of the channel and its owner, Rupert Murdoch. “Too many incompetent RINOS at FoxNews!” Trump posted on Thursday. A day earlier, Trump called Murdoch and other Fox executives a “group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS” who should “get out of the News Business as soon as possible.”

With Fox stars out of the picture, attendees at CPAC flocked to popular right-wing alternatives like Bannon’s War Room, which hosted its podcast live, along with Newsmax, OAN, Right Side Broadcasting Network and others.

William Marks, a software developer and manager from southern Maryland, said he still watches both Fox News and Newsmax, but believes the former is “moving further away from the conservative landscape,” a fault not of the anchors but of “the ownership,” he said.

Even with such defections, Fox News remains king of cable news and prime-time ratings. The top ten most-watched cable news shows are all on Fox News, with Tucker Carlson and the Five boasting over 3 million viewers according to AdWeek. And for conservative stars, Fox News’ evening shows are still the #1 spot for attracting attention for their cause.

“I love being back on Fox News and I have nothing bad to say about it,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who frequently appears on Fox News as well as Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

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Judge denies Jan. 6 defendant’s bid for time to review McCarthy’s Capitol security footage

A federal judge on Friday denied a Jan. 6 defendant’s request to delay her imminent trial in order to review thousands of hours of security footage recently made available by Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg said he understood why Sara Carpenter — who is facing two felony charges for her actions at the Capitol — would like time to review the material. But he said she had failed to explain why any additional footage of her movements inside the building would be exculpatory, particularly when prosecutors had already turned over footage of the vast majority of Carpenter’s 34 minutes inside the building.

Boasberg worried that widely permitting Jan. 6 defendants to slow down their criminal proceedings in order to review this footage could “derail dozens of trials that are set in the next few months.” Boasberg — who is set to become Washington D.C.’s chief district court judge later this month — suggested that to support a delay, he would need defense attorneys to proffer what the newly disclosed videos might show that would be helpful to their clients’ cases.

Boasberg’s ruling is the latest ripple caused by McCarthy’s decision to widen access to 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6. The Capitol Police had previously turned over about 14,000 hours of the day’s footage that leaders said encompassed crucial time periods of the riot, as well as the relevant camera angles.

It’s unclear whether the additional footage includes evidence that will influence any of the 950-plus Jan. 6 criminal cases. But several defendants have said they intend to access the materials, which House Republicans have agreed to facilitate. The Justice Department has yet to indicate whether it, too, will attempt to obtain and review the footage.

At Friday’s hearing, prosecutors opposed Carpenter’s request, saying they had pieced together the “overwhelming” amount of her movements using CCTV footage, leaving only “a matter of seconds” unaccounted for. Carpenter already has access to a “massive” trove of CCTV footage, they noted, and defendants have the ability to request specific camera angles they would like to focus on if they believe they need additional material.

Prosecutors also suggested that they remain largely in the dark about what the cache of footage newly unearthed by McCarthy might include.

“We don’t have what the speaker has,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cook, adding, “In any case, there’s always the possibility some information may be out there.”

Prosecutors are required to disclose to defendants any potentially exculpatory evidence they possess — a particularly thorny challenge in Jan. 6 cases as a result of the massive amounts of video evidence captured by Capitol security cameras, policy bodycams, journalists and rioters themselves, who recorded hundreds of hours worth of footage.

But that requirement isn’t limitless, particularly when it comes to evidence that is in the possession of another agency — like the Capitol Police, an arm of Congress — and if courts determine the government has made good-faith efforts to provide as much material as possible to defendants.

Carpenter’s attorneys argued in court Friday that McCarthy’s batch might help fill “gaps” in the footage that would provide context to the actions Carpenter took inside the Capitol. They contended that it might help contextualize some of the actions she took that resulted in the felony charges DOJ lodged, including for obstructing Congress’ proceedings and for participating in a civil disorder. She sought a 60-day delay in her trial, which is set to begin Monday, in order to determine whether any of the new footage might be relevant.

Boasberg agreed that the request was legitimate. Any attorney would want to see a new batch of potentially exculpatory evidence, he said.

“It’s certainly not a frivolous request by any means,” he said.

But Boasberg agreed that the gaps Carpenter’s attorneys described were “minimal” and that the defense lawyers didn’t explain specifically why any additional footage might help Carpenter’s case.

Prosecutors trying the seditious conspiracy case of several leaders of the Proud Boys also recently confronted the issue, when a defense attorney asked the Justice Department whether it would help organize access to the additional footage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough called it a “serious question” and a “serious issue,” but said it was too soon to say how DOJ would be handling the matter.

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Biopsy found Biden’s skin lesion was a common skin cancer, White House doctor says

The White House on Friday confirmed President Joe Biden’s skin lesion that was removed during his physical last month was basal cell carcinoma — a very common and treatable skin cancer. All cancerous tissue was removed and no further treatment is required, his doctor said.

In a memo on Friday, the president’s doctor noted that basal cell lesions “do not tend to ‘spread’ or metastasize,” as other serious skin cancers do. During Biden’s physical last month, the area of the skin on his chest was removed via electrodesiccation and curettage, a common skin cancer treatment that involves scraping and removing the skin with a sharp instrument and a high-frequency electric current. The doctor sent the lesion for a biopsy on Feb. 16.

“The site of the biopsy has healed nicely and the President will continue dermatologic surveillance as part of his ongoing comprehensive health care,” Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, wrote Friday.

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. Approximately 3.6 million cases of this skin cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. each year. First lady Jill Biden also had three lesions removed in January, and one was determined to be a basal cell carcinoma above her right eye.

The biopsy results come about three weeks after Biden went to Walter Reed Medical Center for his second annual physical since taking office. His health report described an 80-year-old president who is “healthy,” “vigorous” and “fit to successfully execute the duties” of his office.

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