DeSantis’ fundraising report shows signs of strength and real spots of trouble

The top line number for Ron DeSantis’ fundraising haul during the second quarter of this year showed some political force.

But beneath that $20 million figure were warning signs for the Florida governor’s campaign, buried in the details of the data.

More than $3 million of what DeSantis raised was funds earmarked for the general election — meaning donors gave more than the $3,300 limit for the primary and those funds will not be available to the candidate until after the primary is over.

DeSantis also raised $2.8 million from small donors giving less than $200, a number that most candidates in the race would envy but is likely to significantly trail Donald Trump, who had yet to formally file his report Saturday afternoon. A greater share of donations from small-dollar donors is a better sign for future fundraising, since small donors can be repeat givers.

But perhaps the most consequential data point was the pace of the donations. More than one-third of DeSantis’ itemized donations ($5.8 million of the $16.8 million of donations that came from those who gave above $200) came within the first 10 days of his campaign. A good chunk of his donations — $351,000 — came through a transfer from the Draft DeSantis 2024 Fund.

Taken as a whole, the report DeSantis filed with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday is a microcosm of his campaign to date. The Florida governor remains positioned to be a major player in the race — even one who could wrestle the nomination from Trump — with more than $12 million cash on hand at the end of the quarter. But he appears reliant on major donors. And the early allure of his candidacy seems to have worn off a touch.

DeSantis still has plenty of resources at his disposal. A super PAC backing him has attracted more than $100 million, though much of that was transferred from his state-level committee. (The group, Never Back Down, does not have to file its own reports with the FEC until later this month.)

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RFK Jr.’s secret fundraising success: Republicans

The top contributors to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign included donors who typically give to Republicans, according to campaign finance filings — underscoring the extent to which Kennedy, running as a Democrat, is resonating with the other party.

Kennedy’s campaign committee reported raising $6.3 million since his April launch, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday. He spent $1.8 million and had $4.5 million cash on hand as of June 30.

Some of that money came from donors who have more recently supported Republicans. Kennedy’s campaign raked in at least $100,000 from donors who previously gave to committees associated with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former President Donald Trump, according to a POLITICO analysis of federal and state campaign finance filings. The analysis is based solely on Kennedy’s itemized donations, although he also raised more than $2 million from small-dollar donors, whose names the campaign does not have to disclose.

Such crossover giving is unusual, but Kennedy is running on a platform that includes opposition to efforts to vaccinate against Covid-19, which is increasingly resonating with the Republican base. Though there has been an uptick in vaccine skepticism in recent years, the biggest increases tend to be among voters who identify as Republican.

Kennedy has also been a frequent guest on Fox News since launching his campaign in April, criticizing President Joe Biden on issues including the war in Ukraine and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the donors who maxed out donating to Kennedy despite having recent histories of giving to Republicans is banking executive Omeed Malik, who Axios reported is hosting separate fundraisers for DeSantis and Kennedy in the Hamptons this summer.

But some of Kennedy’s top donors had Democratic donation histories, or little campaign donation history at all. Other donors who gave at least $3,300 — the maximum for the primary cycle — to his campaign included hedge fund giant Bill Ackman, a longtime Democratic donor who has said he favors Kennedy and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running in the GOP primary.

Kennedy, who is the son of former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, gained prominence in the mid-2000s as a proponent of discredited opposition to all vaccines. He chaired a nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, advocating against common childhood vaccines.

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Report: UK defense chief to step down

Ben Wallace won't stand in the next general election, he tells The Times newspaper.

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Ramaswamy: ‘Pervasive’ censorship caused Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy blamed censorship for motivating rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, rejecting the idea that former President Donald Trump’s false rhetoric about a stolen election caused the violence.

In conversation with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson at the Family Leadership Summit on Friday afternoon, Ramaswamy reasoned that big tech platforms’ moderation of news about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 and perceived government overreach around vaccines and stay-at-home mandates during the pandemic prevented people from accessing truth.

“What caused January 6 is pervasive censorship in this country in the lead up to January 6,” Ramaswamy said, repudiating the idea that Trump motivated the riot. “You tell people in this country they cannot speak. That is when they scream. You tell people they cannot scream. That is when they tear things down.”

“Until we look ourselves in the mirror and admit truth on that, we will not move forward as a country,” Ramaswamy added.

Ramaswamy’s comments appear to cater toward the wing of the Republican party that has sought to displace blame around the Jan. 6 riot from Trump’s continued falsehoods that election fraud tipped the vote toward Joe Biden. They also fall in line with popular conservative sentiments that the government has overstepped on First Amendment issues in its relationship with big tech.

Throughout his run, Ramaswamy has not been afraid to break from the mainstream with his positions. In particular, his foreign policy plan includes giving Russia the land it has sought to take from Ukraine during the war in exchange for it giving up its partnership with Beijing. Such a deal would not fly with European allies and stands in stark contrast with the Biden administration’s current approach.

“I would negotiate a deal that ends the Ukraine war, freeze the current lines of control. Yes, that means giving part of the Donbas region to Russia,” Ramaswamy said, referring to a region that Russia has sought to take from Ukraine. “I would make a hard commitment that NATO never admits Ukraine to NATO. And those seem like unspeakable words, certainly in the Republican donor class, but we get something greater in return.”

His eyebrow-raising positions may partly explain his relative success in the GOP primary thus far. A millionaire and successful entrepreneur, Ramaswamy’s rise to fame in conservative circles was due in part to his business ideology that rejected the increasingly commonplace practices of corporate responsibility, specifically around environmental, social and corporate governance.

Despite his relatively low name recognition and dearth of political experience compared to the field, Ramaswamy has increasingly fared well in polls since announcing his presidential run in February. In a Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday — which counts as a poll to qualify for the first GOP debate — the businessman placed third with 8 percent support, surpassing big names including Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Ramaswamy still has to meet a donor requirement to make the debate stage in August, having rolled out a money solicitation program that would give back supporters a cut of the money they help raise.

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Biden’s top legislative director to step down

Louisa Terrell, a top aide to President Joe Biden and his director of legislative affairs, plans to step down from her position.

The White House announced the departure, which POLITICO was first to report, in a statement Friday from the president.

“Over the past two and a half years, Louisa has been instrumental in the historic, monumental, and life-changing legislation we have delivered to the American people,” Biden said.

Terrell, who has been with Biden since the start of his presidency, played a key role in getting his key legislative priorities passed, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill and last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

As the president gears up for reelection, and the opportunities for pushing additional legislation through the House dwindles after Republicans regained control of the chamber, speculation about Terrell’s departure had grown for months. She stayed in the job well into Biden’s third year largely to deal with the high-stakes negotiations with Republicans over spending and the debt ceiling increase.

“Louisa’s steady hand and perseverance have consistently helped get key priorities over the finish line,” said Biden, who also credited Terrell for working to secure the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Terrell plans to depart at the end of July.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his caucus members are "tremendously grateful" to Terrell for her partnership over the last two years.

"From the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to the Inflation Reduction Act to averting a catastrophic default on our debt, Louisa has been there with us every step of the way," he said in a statement. "She is a dedicated public servant and trusted friend of House Democrats and we wish her the best as she embarks on this next chapter.”

A Delaware native, Terrell first met Biden when she was 5 years old. She also attended kindergarten with the president’s son, Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015. Terrell started working for Biden when he was a senator as a counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also served as his deputy chief of staff in his personal Senate office.

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Appeals court temporarily blocks order that restricted feds’ contact with social media firms

A federal appeals court has put a temporary hold on a district court judge’s unusual order restricting a wide swath of federal officials and agencies from communicating with social media companies about content on their platforms.

A three-judge panel considering emergency matters for the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted the Biden administration’s request to put the far-reaching preliminary injunction on hold for now while the case is referred to another appeals panel that will consider a longer-term stay of U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty’s Independence Day order.

That second panel will be the one to rule on the merits of Doughty’s ruling, issued in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana claiming that Biden administration officials violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to remove or edit user posts that contained alleged disinformation about Covid-19, elections and the content of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Justice Department officials and the White House complained that Doughty’s broadly worded injunction prohibiting various officials and agencies from discouraging social media firms from hosting First Amendment-protected content was difficult to implement and could cause cautious federal officials to refuse to deal with companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Doughty’s order included exceptions for various categories of content including criminal activity, signs of malicious cyber activity and threats to public safety or security, but DOJ lawyers said those categories were ill-defined.

The stay — while temporary — underscores that Doughty’s ruling is unlikely to be the last word on an issue that has animated the political right. Conservatives in the House grilled FBI Director Chris Wray about the ruling during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

In addition, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has set a hearing for Thursday to discuss the lawsuit that led to Doughty’s order. Among the scheduled witnesses is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longshot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The appeals court’s order did not explain the rationale for granting what the court called a “temporary administrative stay” of Doughty’s injunction. The order Friday was issued by Judge Carl Stewart, an appointee of President Bill Clinton; Judge James Graves, an appointee of President Barack Obama; and Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of President Donald Trump.

Doughty, based in Monroe, La., is also a Trump appointee.

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Asa Hutchinson clashes with Tucker Carlson on vaccination status

Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson sparred with Asa Hutchinson after inquiring about the former Arkansas governor’s vaccination status on Friday.

Carlson, interviewing Hutchinson on stage at the conservative Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, asked the 2024 Republican presidential candidate how many Covid-19 vaccinations he had received and how he felt about his decision to do so in retrospect. Hutchinson confirmed that he had been vaccinated against Covid-19 and defended his choice as the “right decision of taking the vaccine for me,” but noted that others can “make a different decision.”

But before Hutchinson gave his answer, he lobbed the question back to Carlson.

“How many Covid shots did you take?” Hutchinson asked.

“Zero,” Carlson responded to a round of applause from the audience.

“I can see that you recoiled when I asked you that question,” said Carlson, a former Fox News anchor and longtime vaccine skeptic. “And I don’t think, honestly, you should be asking people about their medical care. But that became a matter of public policy, and I do think the whole country ought to pause and assess, ‘What did we just go through, and how do we feel about it now?’” So it’s a very straightforward question.”

Before confirming he had been vaccinated, Hutchinson touted his opposition to vaccine mandates as the governor of Arkansas, pointing to a law he signed that prohibited vaccination mandates among government employees. In 2021, Hutchinson also OK’d a law allowing employees to opt out of vaccination requirements from businesses — although he called the debate on the opt-out bill “harmful to our goal of increasing vaccination rates in Arkansas.”

Hutchinson did not address Carlson’s claim that there were “an awful lot of people injured” by vaccine mandates, instead going on to discuss his efforts to keep schools and small businesses open and avoid shelter-in-place orders during his term as governor.

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