June 26, 2024 primary election and campaign news

Our live coverage has ended. Read more about today’s events in the posts below.

Shipping containers from China and other Asian countries are unloaded at the Port of Los Angeles as the trade war continues between China and the US, in Long Beach, California on September 14, 2019.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump don’t agree on a lot, but they?both have embraced tariffs?as part of their trade policy.?

Tariffs raise the price of imported goods for American businesses. But they can also help protect some domestic manufacturers and — despite the cost — help?score political points?in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.?

Trump’s tariff policy:?While in office,?Trump put new tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, washing machines and roughly $300 billion of Chinese-made goods.?

If he returns to the White House, Trump plans to add to those tariffs by enacting a?duty of at least 10% on all imports from all countries, a tariff upward of 60% on?all Chinese imports?and a?100% tariff on all cars?made outside the US.

Biden’s tariff policy:?Biden has kept most of Trump’s tariffs in place, including on Chinese-made goods like?shoes, baseball caps and luggage.?

In May, Biden announced that he would?increase tariffs on $18 billion in Chinese imports?across a handful of sectors deemed strategic to national security, including electric vehicles, battery components, legacy semiconductors, steel and aluminum. The new tariff rates will take effect over the next two years.

In preparations over the past week at Camp David for Thursday night’s debate, President Joe Biden and his aides have been going over the full suite of domestic and foreign policy issues that Biden might go up against Donald Trump on. But policy issues aside, the Biden team is also bracing for personal insults and attacks aimed at the president’s family.

Debate preparations have included getting the president ready to respond to personal insults directed not only at the president himself, but his family, too, a Biden adviser tells CNN.

This offers yet another window into the team’s broader strategy of trying to be ready for anything and everything that the famously unpredictable former president might throw Biden’s way.

During the 2020 election debates, President?Joe?Biden would often bypass the moderators and his opponent and address the camera directly, attempting to reach voters through the lens and into their living room.

In real-time feedback from focus groups – known internally to campaigns as “dial testing” – the Biden team saw a noticeable spike in favorability during those moments, according to sources familiar with data, indicating that viewers were moved by the direct appeal during debates that often devolved into shouting matches.

Sources familiar with Biden’s preparation expect him to recreate more of those moments on the debate stage Thursday night, as he looks for opportunities to speak directly to voters who the campaign has argued have long been disengaged in US politics and, to some extent, disillusioned.

Longtime Biden aides say he’ll pursue those modes?of outreach not just because it’s effective with voters, but because it’s part of his personality.

The desire to breakthrough will be even more pronounced with a disengaged electorate that Biden will be attempting to jolt into awareness, and also because the debate will not feature an in-person audience.

Click here to subscribe to “What?Matters,” a free newsletter featuring political insights from CNN’s Zach Wolf.

Black Business Leaders Roundtable at Rocky’s Barbershop was about an hour and a half discussion hosted by the Trump campaign including Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt and potential VP picks Donalds and former Trump HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson.

The owner of a barbershop in Atlanta said he will be watching the CNN presidential debate on Thursday as he weighs who to vote for in November.

Former President Donald Trump called into his campaign’s Black Business Leaders Roundtable at Rocky’s Barbershop on Wednesday and answered questions from people in the community in attendance.

Rocky Jones, who has owned the shop since 2008, said it is a place where people “talk about everything — from sports to politics to hospitals, injuries, crime. And everybody’s welcome. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.”?

Jones told reporters following the roundtable event that he is undecided about who to vote for.?

Jones said the call from Trump during the event “was impressive.”

“Trump is saying great things and he’s making a lot of sense. Let’s see what happens. He’s definitely getting more Black people on his side,” Jones said. “It’s not about a color. It’s not about Black or white. It’s just about who’s helping you. Who’s making your business grow?”

He said he will be tuning into the CNN debate between Trump and President Joe Biden because he feels “change has to happen.”

Former President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, on April 13.

Former President Donald Trump?and his political operation outraised?President Joe Biden?for the?second month in a row?in May, as a flood of donations after Trump’s criminal conviction quickly eroded the financial advantage Biden held for much of the campaign cycle.

Biden and the Democrats raised $85 million in May, his campaign said in a statement, a figure that is well short of the staggering $141 million that Trump and his political operation said it collected last month, fueled by tens of millions of dollars collected in the immediate aftermath of his?May 30 conviction?in a New York criminal case for falsifying business records.

Biden’s campaign said last week that his committees entered June with a massive $212 million cash stockpile. The Trump campaign has not yet disclosed cash-on-hand figures for all of its committees.

Campaigns don’t have to do so until next month, but Federal Election Commission filings late Thursday offered a partial picture, showing Trump’s main committee with more than $116.5 million in cash reserves at May 31 while Biden’s main campaign account held $91.6 million —?a stark reversal of fortune from just a month earlier, when Biden had a $35 million cash edge.

The Biden team said its war chest — built up over the course of the campaign — has helped establish a substantial campaign infrastructure?and touted its hiring, together with the Democratic Party, of more than 1,000 staffers across battleground states.

Read more about?Biden’s and Trump’s fundraising?hauls.

Former President Donald Trump again claimed Wednesday that his various indictments, court cases, conviction in the Manhattan hush money trial, as well as the image of his mugshot, have strengthened his appeal to Black and Hispanic voters with support going “through the roof.”

Trump made the remarks calling into his campaign’s Black American Business Leaders roundtable hosted at Rocky’s Barbershop in Atlanta.?

Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, who took a phone call from Trump in the middle of the discussion, put his phone on speaker next to the microphone so everyone could hear. Donalds passed the phone around for people to take questions, one of which involved the court cases and Manhattan conviction against Trump.

Donalds told CNN after the event that the group was not aware Trump was calling ahead of time. He said he believes he’s still in play to potentially become Trump’s vice president.

Donalds told CNN after the event that the group was not aware Trump was calling ahead of time. He said he believes he’s still in play to potentially become Trump’s vice president.

President Joe Biden and Donald Trump are set to face off in their first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle tomorrow.

Watch as CNN’s Phil Mattingly and Victor Blackwell break down the rules and what the event will look like for viewers.

- Source: cnn " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/91755e3a-f012-4870-9862-c1260dfb2de0.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/91755e3a-f012-4870-9862-c1260dfb2de0.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

Amir Vera

" data-timestamp-html="" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2024-06-26T20:27:39.108Z" data-video-section="" data-canonical-url="" data-branding-key="" data-video-slug="Inside CNN's Presidential Debate: How it will work" data-first-publish-slug="Inside CNN's Presidential Debate: How it will work" data-video-tags="" data-details="">

Video Ad Feedback

0432c775-42b0-4aad-b537-a0e98c7b16f0.mp4

02:25 - Source: cnn

You can watch the CNN Presidential Debate live on Thursday, June 27, at 9 p.m. ET.

##Debate##

The latest update to the CNN Poll of Polls, incorporating new polling released today from?Quinnipiac University, finds a tight race with no clear leader heading into CNN’s presidential debate on Thursday.

Nationwide, the current average stands at 49% support for former President Donald Trump to 48% supporting President Joe Biden, about the same as the 49-49 tie found in the Poll of Polls just before Trump’s May 30 conviction in New York. The new average incorporates polling that meets CNN’s standards fielded beginning June 10, entirely after the Trump verdict.

Different individual polls released since Trump’s conviction have pointed toward movement in opposite directions. The Fox News poll suggested Biden’s support has grown, despite that change being within the poll’s margin of sampling error, while the Quinnipiac poll suggested a shift away from Biden over that same time period, with the 3-point drop in Biden’s support since May almost the same as the poll’s 2.6 point sampling error margin.

Taken together, the trajectory of the race among the national electorate remains steady, and the key takeaway is similar to what it has been for months: The race is extremely close.

There is no sign in an average of high-quality polls of significant movement in either direction. Biden’s average support has shifted just one point since a pre-conviction average, while Trump’s support remains identical to the prior reading. At no point in this year’s CNN averages has the margin between Biden and Trump been larger than 3 points.?

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump walks offstage after speaking at a campaign rally at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 22.

Being?Donald Trump’s?vice president didn’t end well for Mike Pence — but there’s no sign his painful split from the ex-president over his anti-constitutional demands is scaring off any of the hopefuls keen to slip into his shoes.

The presumptive GOP nominee’s?search for a new number two?is expected to culminate with a dramatic unveiling at the Republican National Convention in a month, likely choreographed to engineer a TV ratings bump.

At various points, the list of possible contenders has included:

Trump shattered all conventions about the business of running for president and serving in the Oval Office. And putting potential running mates through a televised audition process is no exception. The old-school playbook, in which possible nominees feign a lack of interest in the post to maximize their chances of getting it, is antithetical to Trump’s way of operating.

Possible picks trying to catch Trump’s eye go on television, knowing he’s probably watching, and sprinkle compliments, talk up his chances of winning, amplify his voter fraud conspiracy theories and slam his criminal conviction. Some have made clear that they wouldn’t have done what Pence did on January 6, 2021, when he concluded that he did not have the power to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Congress.

Read more analysis about Trump’s potential vice president picks.

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan painted Donald Trump as a threat to democracy on Wednesday as they campaigned for President Joe Biden a day before the first presidential debate.

“Joe Biden has made it clear that even when we disagree — and there are things that I disagree with the President on — he’s going to put the interests of the country and the interests of the people of the country above his own interests,” Kinzinger said as he listed his reasoning behind endorsing Biden.

?He later called the election “a fight for democracy” and argued that “if we won’t buckle down and take seriously we could easily lose that fight for democracy.”

Kinzinger blasted Trump and Republicans for not taking accountability after the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

“The former president convinced a significant amount of the American people that an election was stolen … and what did we see as a result? A mob launched by the former president on the Capitol of the United States,” he said.

Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan reflected on his time in office during the 2020 election and highlighted?“some tough memories.”

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29 in Philadelphia.

President Joe Biden and his team of advisers hunkered down at Camp David through the weekend for intensive debate preparations – including getting ready for different versions of Donald Trump that could show up to the CNN presidential debate Thursday night.

Biden aides are gearing up for what they believe is the very real possibility that “a very disciplined” Trump may step onto the debate stage, one senior adviser involved in the preparations told CNN, in what would mark a stark contrast from the unhinged former president that created chaos during the first Biden-Trump debate four years ago.

In that face-off in September 2020, Trump memorably unleashed a torrent of insults, interruptions and long-winded rambling answers that made it, at times, nearly impossible for the moderator to keep the debate under control.

But as this one Biden adviser put it, the president’s team believes that Trump’s presidential campaign has been far more disciplined this time around than in 2020 or 2016, in no small part at the direction of political operatives like Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, and that that could result in Trump being relatively restrained on Thursday.

And there is one detail about Thursday night’s debate that the Biden team is glad about:?The two campaigns agreed that a candidate’s mic would be muted whenever it is not their turn to speak.?The senior Biden adviser said that voters made clear after the first chaotic debate between Biden and Trump in 2020 that “their interests had not been served.” There was simply too much interrupting and yelling, the adviser said, and ultimately, the chaos meant voters were not able to hear clearly from both candidates.?

Then-President Donald Trump, right, and Democratic challenger Joe Biden debate each other in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020. At center is moderator Kristen Welker of NBC.?

The historic rematch between?Joe Biden?and?Donald Trump?is anything but a rerun, with their?first presidential debate?on Thursday set to showcase a vastly different set of issues driving their bitter duel for the White House.

It feels like an upside-down lifetime ago since the pair?last appeared together on a debate stage. The coronavirus pandemic was raging in the fall of 2020 and Trump’s chaotic presidency was at the center of it all. Now, Biden’s record is under the microscope in equal measure, even as he still presents himself as a safer alternative.

In the Biden-Trump sequel, an entirely new set of fights have been brewing on the campaign trail and in TV ads that offer a glimpse into at least some of the arguments likely to be aired when the two come face-to-face at the CNN debate in Atlanta.

To?voters in Wisconsin?earlier this month, Trump delivered a stark warning about an unstable world and, in his view, an unstable Biden presidency, saying: “We’re going to end up in World War III with this person. He’s the worst president ever.”

A?new Biden ad?minces no words about Trump’s May conviction on 34 felony counts: “This election is between a convicted criminal who is out for only himself and a president who is fighting for your family,” the narrator declares in the spot, which is part of a $50 million advertising campaign.

The competing messages not only crystallize the theory of the case for the two rivals, but underscore just how much the country, the world and, yes, the candidates themselves have changed in the past four years.

Read more about why the?Biden-Trump rematch?is anything but a rerun.

The Trump campaign touted former President Donald Trump’s recent fundraising and poll numbers in battleground states as it bashed President Joe Biden’s immigration policies ahead of tomorrow’s CNN presidential debate.?

The campaign’s managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a memo that they expect Biden to attack Trump over being convicted on 34 felony counts in his New York criminal hush money trial and baselessly claimed the Department of Justice was “corrupt” and “desperately wants to jail” Trump. Trump’s sentencing is in two weeks and he is facing the possibility of prison time or probation.

In addition to touting Trump’s standing in various polls in key battleground states, the memo largely focused on illegal immigration and inflation.?

“A set of numbers we are eager to track? The number of questions devoted to the very important issues that voters actually care about. And the number of times Joe Biden mentions inflation, the economy, his failure at the border, and his weakness at home and abroad,” the memo reads.?

Just hours before the CNN presidential debate on Thursday, the USA men’s soccer team will play?Panama in the Copa América tournament — taking place just?three miles from the presidential debate studio at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.?

It seems like some young people in the city may be more interested in that matchup.?

Multiple Atlanta residents playing pickup soccer and volleyball outside the stadium on Monday told CNN’s “One Thing” podcast they aren’t interested in watching the historically early debate.??

Emma, a nurse, said she might watch if she gets off work in time, but feels it’s been hard to keep up with election news amid the caustic political discourse.??

She says she’ll be supporting President Joe Biden in November but has some concerns about the age of both candidates. ?

“I wish we had somebody who was a little bit on the younger side, who could relate a little bit more to my age group,” she said.?

Hear more from voters ahead of the debate on the CNN “One Thing” podcast.

People line up to get into the US Supreme Court on the day where decisions ares expected to be handed down, in Washington, DC, on June 26.

The Supreme Court appears poised to allow abortions in medical emergencies in Idaho, according to a document that was erroneously posted on the court’s website briefly Wednesday according to Bloomberg News.?

The opinion posted on the court’s website showed that a majority of the court agreed to dismiss the appeal, according to Bloomberg, which reported that it reviewed a copy of the opinion.

CNN had not independently reviewed the opinion. Bloomberg did not post the document.??

A Supreme Court spokesperson confirmed that a “document” was “inadvertently and briefly uploaded” to the court’s website. Supreme Court spokesperson Patricia McCabe stressed that the “opinion” in the case “has not been released” and would be “issued in due course.”

A dismissal would let stand an opinion from the full 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with the Biden administration in the case.

Remember: At issue is Idaho’s strict abortion ban, which provides an exception for the life of the pregnant woman. The Biden administration argued that a federal law also required hospitals to perform abortions in cases where the health of the pregnant woman is at stake.?

“If the reporting is accurate, this would be a significant but temporary victory for the Biden administration,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

Why this matters: The court’s move as reported by Bloomberg also has the effect of defusing what could have been a major political bomb – on an issue Democrats are eager to have front and center – in an election year. As the Supreme Court approached the end of its term, abortion rights advocates were making preparations to use a ruling in Idaho’s favor to mobilize voters. The White House was also bracing for a ruling that rejected the Justice Department lawsuit, CNN previously reported.?

Both the Department of Justice and the White House are declining to comment on Bloomberg’s story and the mistakenly posted document until the Supreme Court’s official opinion is released.?

President Joe Biden’s advisers have been closely monitoring what Donald Trump and his allies have been publicly saying in recent days about the former president’s debate preparations — or lack thereof.

Even as Trump aides have been reticent to say the former president has been engaging in formal debate preparations, Biden aides have taken note of the fact that Trump has made observations about then-Vice President Biden’s debate performance against Paul Ryan in 2012, for example.

The adviser said that the Biden team suspects?Thursday night?may confirm that Trump has done the most preparation than ever before heading into a debate. They have also taken note of Trump allies shifting their tune on expectations for Biden’s performance over the last few days.

Biden’s public schedule has been clear over the past week as he has been hunkered down with his team at Camp David. While much of his focus has been on his face-off against Trump, he has also had to conduct the day-to-day duties of the presidency from the presidential retreat.

President Joe Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, has been standing in for Donald Trump during the Biden team’s mock debate sessions at Camp David, a source familiar tells CNN, using a podium as a prop in the same way that Biden has been.??

As CNN previously reported, other aides have been playing the role of moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in formal run-throughs that began at the presidential retreat on Monday, as the president and his aides try to give Biden the full experience of what he might expect at tomorrow night’s debate.?

Bauer previously stood in for Trump during 2020 debate preparations, so this is a familiar role for the president’s close adviser.?

He told CNN last week that when assuming that position, he tries to strike a balance:?

Those involved in the 2020 preparations said Bauer had a particular knack for embodying the “relentless” side of Trump.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will take the debate stage Thursday night in Atlanta.

Check out what it will look like:

- Source: cnn " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/becdaabc-cffe-40c2-95cb-a1faa001e4ae.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/becdaabc-cffe-40c2-95cb-a1faa001e4ae.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

Leinz Vales

" data-timestamp-html="" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2024-06-26T17:01:12.512Z" data-video-section="" data-canonical-url="" data-branding-key="" data-video-slug="CNN debate stage" data-first-publish-slug="CNN debate stage" data-video-tags="" data-details="">

Video Ad Feedback

d2933659-c805-4493-87b8-d6fcd38e65de.mp4

00:29 - Source: cnn

A view of the US Capitol on June 4, in Washington, DC.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill say that one looming question will be hanging over Thursday night’s presidential debate —how both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump address concerns over their age and mental acuity.

Democrats want the president’s performance to dispel the GOP-propelled narrative that the 81-year-old president lacks the fitness to hold the nation’s highest office, and by extension prove that Trump, who was found guilty in one criminal trial and faces three more, is the one who is unfit to serve.

Republicans, meanwhile, are engineering a double-edged expectations game that seemingly raises the stakes for Biden, while lowering them for Trump.

Beyond that, Democrats say they want Biden to clarify what he can and cannot do to help the economy while Republicans implore Trump to stay on message and not resort to personal attacks.

In conversations with over a dozen lawmakers, both sides acknowledged that a debate performance four months out from election day is unlikely to make or break either candidate, but each side said they had high expectations for the rematch that presents a unique opportunity for both men to outline what they accomplished in four years as president.

Read more about lawmakers’ expectations for Biden and Trump ahead of the presidential debate.

President Joe Biden is expected to go on the offensive on immigration during Thursday’s debate, pointing to his recent executive actions and casting his Republican rival Donald Trump’s policies as extreme, according to a source familiar.?

On the eve of the presidential debate, the Biden administration is already trying to project confidence on border security, citing a recent drop in border crossings since Biden’s action clamping down on asylum access.??

Since Biden took office, his administration has grappled with record migration—often forced to respond to multiple border crises. But in recent months, the?White House has tried to take advantage of a brief reprieve from one of the most politically fraught issues Biden faces in his reelection campaign—and this time, go on the offensive.??

While Biden advisers don’t see immigration as the defining issue for them, Biden is prepared to tackle the issue when raised, including pointing to actions taken by the administration and the border security bill that Trump tanked earlier this year.?

Officials already took a victory lap over a significant decline in border crossings that, they argued, is tied to Biden’s executive action, while continuing to slam Republicans for not moving on immigration reform.?

But Biden’s immigration agenda doesn’t appear to have convinced voters so far. Biden has continued to lag Trump—who has made immigration a cornerstone of his campaign—on border security in polls, and his team is anticipating the controversial issue coming up at Thursday’s debate. CNN previously reported that?allies have urged?Trump?to focus immigration, among other issues, during the debate.?

In recent days, Biden allies have shared with the campaign ways the president can gain the upper hand on immigration in anticipation of Trump’s attacks on the debate stage and urged the campaign to tackle the issue head on.?

The Biden campaign has repeatedly sought to draw a stark contrast between the two candidates— often pointing to Trump’s controversial family separation policy, which campaign officials believe, still resonates with voters, and serves as a reminder of what occurred during Trump’s presidency.?

Banners hang on Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion ahead of CNN’s Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Monday, June 24.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are gearing up for a historic showdown Thursday for?CNN’s presidential debate.

The event will make history as the first debate between a sitting president and a former president. It will also be the first debate since 2020 featuring either Biden, who did not face a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination, or Trump, who skipped those held during the Republican primary race.

The debate could be a defining moment in a presidential race that took shape earlier than usual and features two universally known candidates.

A key departure from the two Biden-Trump debates of 2020, both of which were hosted by universities, is that the clash will have no studio audience. CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will host the 90-minute debate in Atlanta. Both candidates have accepted the network’s invitation and agreed to accept the rules and format of the debate, as outlined in letters sent to the campaigns by the network in May.

The debate qualification window closed at 12:00:01 a.m. ET last Thursday, with Biden and Trump meeting the constitutional, ballot qualification and polling thresholds set by the network.

In order to qualify for participation:

Biden and Trump were the only candidates to meet those requirements.

Two prominent Republican supporters of President Joe Biden and vocal critics of Donald Trump will be among the guests at the Biden campaign’s news conference focused on democracy in Atlanta Wednesday afternoon,?an official?told CNN.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan will take part in the event,?the official?said, as the campaign looks to draw a contrast with Trump over democracy.?Kinzinger endorsed Biden earlier on Wednesday, and Duncan said he would vote for Biden last month.

Harry Dunn, a former US Capitol police officer who was on duty during the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, will also attend the?event.

The Biden campaign has argued democracy — along with abortion rights and the economy — is one of the key contrast points for the president heading into his debate with Trump.?

The campaign is also looking to appeal to anti-Trump Republicans who have been turned off by the former president’s time in office, including his role in the January 6?riot.

As President Joe Biden continues to hammer former President Donald Trump for his position on abortion, advocates in Georgia are feeling the impact of recent state restrictions.?

Tiffany Robinson, the leadership development manager at Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, told?CNN’s “One Thing” podcast?that she’s seen an uptick in anti-abortion activists protesting outside the clinic since the Georgia State Supreme Court upheld the state’s six-week abortion ban last year.?

The center said the number of patients coming in for abortion procedures has fallen since Roe v. Wade was overturned.?

Kate Morgan, who was at the center training to be a patient escort, told CNN that the Dobbs decision in 2022 inspired her to support Democrats after largely voting third-party.?

Morgan said she’ll be watching the CNN presidential debate on Thursday and hopes more people that feel like her do as well.?

Hear more on the CNN “One Thing” podcast.

The first presidential debate of the election season will be hosted by CNN on Thursday, as incumbent President Joe Biden goes head-to-head with former President Donald Trump.

The debate will be the earliest such event in US history. Televised presidential debates between general election candidates have always started in September or early October, going back to the first one between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.

Biden and Trump are expected to address an array of issues. Prepare for tomorrow’s historic debate with these CNN interactives, guides and quiz:

Here’s how to watch the debate. And you can listen to a full breakdown of what to expect in this episode of CNN’s “One Thing” podcast.

Still need to register to vote? Check out our?voter guide?with everything you should know.

Then-President Barack Obama talks with Ron Klain during debate preparations in Henderson, Nevada, in 2012.?

Joe Biden was on cleanup duty. The day was?October?4, 2012, the morning after Barack Obama had turned in a debate performance so bad even Obama himself would come to judge it a “stinker.”

Flat, convoluted and passive, Obama’s turn at the podium was calamitous enough that aides backstage appeared paralyzed before emerging reluctantly to face reporters in the spin room.

It was left to Biden, the vice president, to stand outside a grocery store in Iowa and find a charitable way of describing his boss’s performance.

Twelve years later, the memory of Obama’s tortured outing in Denver lingers as Biden does practice sessions at Camp David ahead of his first debate as an incumbent as he faces off with?former President?Donald Trump on Thursday in Atlanta.

Biden’s team — some of whom helped prepare Obama for his debates — undoubtedly hopes to elude a curse afflicting incumbents going back at least four decades: A weak first debate that left an opening for their rivals to gain the initiative.

Read more about?how debates trip up presidents here.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the White House and federal agencies such as the FBI?may continue to urge social media platforms to take down content?the government views as misinformation, handing the Biden administration a technical if important election-year victory.

Of immediate significance, the decision means that the Department of Homeland Security may continue to flag posts to social media companies such as Facebook and X that it believes may be the work of foreign agents seeking to disrupt this year’s presidential race.

Rather than delving into the weighty First Amendment questions raised by the case, the court ruled that the state and social media users who challenged the Biden administration did not have standing to sue.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority that included Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

Read more about the ruling.

A member of the media sets up near the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on June 20.

The Supreme Court still has yet to announce a decision on former President?Donald Trump’s claims?of absolute immunity.

The court announced it will issue opinions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week at 10 a.m. ET. The Supreme Court, which usually wraps up its term by the end of June, has as many as 14 cases outstanding.

The pending cases include some of the most significant this year, including whether Trump may claim immunity from criminal prosecution and whether Idaho may enforce its strict ban on abortions when the health of the pregnant woman is at stake.?

About Trump’s immunity claim: Trump’s appeal for immunity from special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion charges?landed at the Supreme Court?late in the term and instantly overshadowed most of the docket.

Trump argued that without immunity, presidents would be hamstrung in office, always fearful of being second-guessed by a zealous prosecutor after leaving the White House. That position appeared to have some purchase on the conservative Supreme Court during oral arguments in April, though it didn’t appear Trump would be able to get Smith’s case tossed entirely.

The immunity case appears likely to come down to whether Trump’s post-election actions were “official” – that is, steps he was taking as president – or whether they were “private,” which would not likely receive immunity.

Read more about the pending cases the court is yet to rule on.

A pro-Trump dark money group is up with a new ad on Georgia airwaves just days before the first presidential debate, slamming President Joe Biden on the economy and criticizing the local effects of inflation.

“Everyone can see President Biden’s inflation problem, but Biden’s denying reality,” begins?the ad?from the group Securing American Greatness, including a clip of Biden saying that “the prices continue to go down.”

“Why won’t Biden admit how bad things are?” the ad continues. “Is it dishonesty or dementia? Georgia is seeing huge rent hikes, grocery prices are still on the rise. And while Biden’s bragging about his so-called economic achievements, working Georgians are struggling, tell President Biden to admit inflation’s bad and stop making it worse.”

Securing American Greatness is a 501(c)(4) organization that faces limited disclosure requirements, and it has spent more than $14 million since early June on a pro-Trump ad campaign targeting key battleground states Pennsylvania and Georgia.

It is one of several outside groups funded by GOP megadonors that are trying to help Trump’s campaign mitigate a dramatic advertising gap in the presidential race between Democrats and Republicans.

Since Super Tuesday through debate day on Thursday, Democrats have outspent Republicans on advertising by about $156.6 million to $51.7 million.

This week, campaigns and outside groups from both parties are spending $4.2 million on ads in Georgia, with Democrats leading Republicans, $3 million to about $1.2 million.

A Fulton County Elections worker stretches his arms as voters cast ballots in Georgia's primary election at a polling location in Atlanta, Georgia on May 21, 2024.?

The headwinds facing President?Joe Biden’s reelection bid are as apparent in Georgia as any battleground. So, too, are the questions of whether?Donald Trump?can capitalize on them.

The president and his predecessor are set to face off in?a historic CNN debate?Thursday night in Atlanta — the first for either man since the 2020 election. It’s taking place in one of the nation’s most competitive swing states, and a rare example of a Republican electorate that did not side with Trump as he sought to punish those who refused to support his false claims of widespread election fraud.

King, who met with Republicans in all of Georgia’s 159 counties during an unsuccessful bid for?US?Senate in 2022, said?he has come?to the realization that Trump should spend far more time articulating his ideas for the future than relitigating the past.

Georgia is among the battlegrounds Trump is trying to win back, along with Arizona, while also targeting Nevada, which he lost twice. Biden could lose all three and still win reelection, if he holds the “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as a single electoral vote in Nebraska.

To keep all pathways open, Democrats are making big investments in Georgia. More than a dozen campaign offices have opened?in the state, including one that Vice President Kamala Harris christened last week.

“Through this office right here, we will gather, we will organize, we will build community, we will build a coalition,” Harris said. “There is power in the collective and in our unity.”

That fraying coalition is one of the most pressing challenges facing the Biden campaign.

Read up on how Biden and Trump are trying to maintain their support among Georgia voters.

Banners hang outside of CNN’s Atlanta headquarters ahead of CNN’s Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Monday, June 24.

A historic showdown between?President Joe Biden?and?former President Donald Trump?is set for Thursday on CNN when the presumptive major party nominees?meet for their first debate?this election cycle.

The debate will be the earliest such event in US history. Televised presidential debates between general election candidates have always started in September or early October, going back to the first one between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.

Here’s how to?watch the debate:

When and where will the debate take place? The 90-minute debate will take place on Thursday, June 27, at 9 p.m. ET at the network’s Atlanta studios.

Who is moderating? CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the event.

Where and how can I watch it? The CNN Presidential Debate will air?live on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Espa?ol, and via streaming on Max for subscribers and without a cable login?on?CNN.com. CNN will make the debate available to simulcast on additional broadcast and cable news networks.

You can also follow?CNN’s live debate coverage on?CNN.com, which will include analysis and fact checking.

President Joe Biden’s team is seizing on the most critical presidential debate in years to spell out a contrast on character and policy that it believes will decide the 2024 election — if only voters will finally perceive it.

It’s the embodiment of one of Biden’s own, rather defensive jokes: The idea that he doesn’t need to be universally popular, just more acceptable than the other guy, who, happily for him, happens to be the most extreme ex-president of modern times.

Biden’s team is setting up Trump as an “unhinged” and criminal agent of vengeance unfit for a return to the presidency who will only look after himself, rich friends, and anti-abortion zealots. Biden is reflected in this conceit as a bulwark of stability and a guardian of the country’s democratic values who is tirelessly striving to improve workers’ lives.

Read Collinson’s full analysis of Biden’s strategy to highlight a stark contrast to Trump at Thursday’s presidential debate.

First lady Jill Biden will make a debate day stop in Virginia on Thursday before meeting her husband President Joe Biden in Atlanta in the hours before his showdown against former President Donald Trump, sources familiar with her plans tell CNN.

The first lady will visit a campaign office in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she’ll meet local supporters and volunteers preparing to host a debate watch party, the sources said. Trump is set to hold a post-debate rally in Virginia on Friday.

While the president has hunkered down at Camp David for debate preparations, the first lady has spent most of the week on the campaign trail with events in three Pennsylvania cities – Lancaster, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia – and fundraisers in Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina. She will host a White House Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday evening.

The first lady was on hand for each of Biden’s debates against Trump in 2020, sitting in the front row of socially-distanced seats as Trump unleashed personal attacks against their son Hunter. The president is bracing for the potential that Trump could once again turn to personal smears in Thursday night’s match-up.

Rep. Debbie Dingell speaks to reporters on June 11, in Washington, DC.

Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell and Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett on Wednesday discussed what they hope to see from their presidential candidates of choice at Thursday night’s debate.?

Dingell told CNN that President Joe Biden is “doing what he’s got to do to prepare for this debate” and predicted voters will see a “very clear split between the two visions” of Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Burchett said he expects that Trump “is going to dominate this debate,” and viewers will see both a tough side and a calm, focused side from him.

“He doesn’t have much trust in the system of the debates,” Burchett added.

Burchett also argued that the debate won’t impact the election much “because people already have predetermined expectations.”

“The time is past for debates,” he told CNN.?

Dingell responded that she agreed to some extent with Burchett, but she warned that “both of these candidates could make serious mistakes” that could impact November’s election.

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on June 22, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Staring down a potentially race-defining?debate?and an opponent that has spent far more time preparing,?Donald Trump’s team is now trying to steer?the former president’s?focus to kitchen table issues instead of the grievances that have occupied his mind for the past four years.

Advisers and allies of Trump have privately encouraged him?to focus intensely on the economy, crime and inflation during Thursday’s debate, citing poll numbers that reflect he has the upper hand on these issues, sources familiar with the conversations tell CNN.

“These are the issues that are people are hurting from and that need to be addressed,” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said during a call Tuesday with reporters, citing recent inflation, crimes committed by some undocumented migrants and President Joe Biden’s handling of the US-Mexico border.

Some of these allies have also urged?Trump to paint the international landscape under?Biden?as chaotic and focus on both the two-year war in Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas as examples.

Sources close to the former president say that while Trump is aware of the gravity of Thursday’s debate and the importance of hammering a message, they acknowledged his propensity to veer into lengthy, off-topic rants that leaves open the possibility they may have fallout to manage come Friday morning.

Read more about what some of Trump’s allies want him to focus on ahead of the presidential debate.

Sen. J.D. Vance attends a news conference on February 6, in Washington, DC.

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance said if he is not chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate, he would naturally feel a “little bit of disappointment,” but ultimately, he enjoys his job as senator and father to his three children.

“I’m human, right? And so, when you know this thing is a possibility, if it doesn’t happen, there’s certainly going to be a little bit of disappointment,” Vance said in an interview on “Fox & Friends,” as part of a series featuring Trump’s prospective vice presidential picks and their partners.

Vance said the reason Democrats may perceive him as a threat as Trump’s potential running mate is because of his background growing up in a working-class community, which he details in his book “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“Sometimes what Democrats do, they say, ‘Well, he just believes this because he hates poor people or he believes this because he hates Black people,’” Vance said.?

“They really can’t pull that with me, right? Because I grew up in a poor family and I was raised in a working-class community. So I do think there’s something just about my biography that makes it a little bit harder for these guys to attack me,” he continued.?

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions have sometimes seemed like an afterthought in an?election with domestic concerns at its heart.

Yet with two hot wars,?growing global instability and a right-wing tilt toward?isolationism – in the US and abroad – it will be difficult for Biden and Trump to avoid?the subject at Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta.

The Biden campaign is hoping to make domestic issues like the economy and reproductive rights the centerpieces of the president’s reelection argument. But it is foreign policy that has consumed much of his time during his first term, including in the?direct lead-up to Thursday’s debate, when Biden embarked upon back-to-back trips to Europe.

His close advisers have candidly acknowledged, particularly since October 7, that events abroad have more than once – and more than his team would like – diverted the president’s attention away from important domestic issues.

Unlike previous presidential election cycles, there is not a scheduled debate dedicated only to foreign policy, which in the past provided an opportunity for in-depth contrasts on world affairs between Republican and Democratic candidates.

As much as the Biden team would prefer to stay focused on issues close to home, it has also long viewed foreign policy as one of the clearest ways to demonstrate a contrast with Trump on presidential leadership.

One campaign official told CNN that if and when foreign policy issues come up Thursday night, the contrast that Biden will try to paint could not be starker.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, in 2022.

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who denounced former President Donald Trump’s actions around the deadly January 6 insurrection and was shunned by many in his own party when he voted to impeach the former president, is endorsing President Joe Biden on the eve of CNN’s presidential debate, where Biden is preparing to paint his predecessor as a threat to American democracy.?

Gaining the endorsement from the prominent Republican critic of Trump reflects a broader effort by the Biden campaign to draw in Republican voters who are turned off by the former president, including over his role in the January 6, 2021?riot at the US Capitol. Biden’s advisers have signaled they see democracy – along with abortion rights and the economy - as one of the most important points of contrast for Biden as he prepares to face off against Trump at Thursday night’s debate.?

Kinzinger announced his endorsement in a new 90-second video on social media Wednesday morning, saying: “It’s because of my unwavering support for democracy, that today, as a proud conservative, I am endorsing Joe Biden for reelection.”

Biden responded on X, saying in a post: “This is what putting your country before your party looks like.”

Haley voters: Speaking about his decision on CNN, Kinzinger made a direct appeal specifically to supporters of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

“I think it’s really important for people to understand particularly the 20% of — let’s just call them the 20% of Haley voters — for them to understand that this is a stark choice,” he said.

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 29.

At tomorrow’s CNN debate, President Joe Biden is planning to attack his predecessor as being unfit for office and unworthy of representing the United States on the world stage.

But there’s one strategy he and his advisers are not planning to employ, according to two sources familiar with the matter: making major policy or personnel pronouncements, as he did in primary debates during the last election cycle.

While debating Democratic primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders in March 2020, Biden pledged to nominate a woman as vice president – and, in front of a new audience, reiterated a pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s 2020 campaign manager, told CNN it was a smart and effective strategy that earned a lot of media coverage, because of the nature of the announcement.

“It works when you have actually relevant and new info to share, whenever that is,” Shakir told CNN. Trump announcing a vice presidential or Cabinet pick onstage, he argued, could have the same effect.

Democrats’ 2024 platform is still being drafted by the Biden campaign and Democratic National Convention operatives, sources say, making it more likely a later debate sees a heavier focus on policies and personnel. A second debate is scheduled to take place in September, following both parties’ conventions, when voters are more dialed into the issues.?

Biden advisers have made it clear they believe the most effective use of the first debate is to highlight the contrast between the two candidates, presenting the choice to voters in a newly urgent light.

CNN asks voters about the top issues they feel the country must address ahead of the year’s first debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Here’s what they told us:

Banners hang outside of CNN’s Atlanta headquarters ahead of CNN’s Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 24.

President Joe Biden?and?former President Donald Trump?will participate in a 90-minute debate tomorrow on CNN.

These are the rules and parameters both campaigns have agreed to follow:

Read more about the debate and how to watch.

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

President Joe Biden launched his reelection campaign in April 2023, describing the contest between him and former President Donald Trump as a stark choice for voters between the continuation of democracy in America and its possible destruction. He is the oldest president to ever hold office and would be 86 at the end of a second term.

Meanwhile, Trump launched his bid to reclaim the White House in November 2022, aiming to become only the second commander in chief to win two nonconsecutive terms. Trump continues to deny the outcome of the 2020 election that he lost to Biden and promotes baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud. In May 2024, Trump was found guilty of all charges at his New York hush money criminal trial. He also faces charges in three other cases.

Here are some more key facts about Biden:

Here are some more key facts about Trump: