Despite an underwhelming fundraising month, President Joe Biden still holds a considerable cash advantage over his biggest rivals.
On May 20, a portion of the Biden fundraising apparatus filed its April disclosures with the Federal Election Commission.
Biden’s main campaign committee, Biden For President, and a key political action committee backing him, Future Forward, raised about $40.4 million in April. It’s less than the $43.8 million Biden For President earned in March.
However, the two Biden groups told the regulator they had about $141.5 million in cash on hand.
Cogs of the Trump money machine reported to the FEC as well. The three groups, Donald J. Trump For President 2024 Inc., Make America Great Again Inc., and Save America, brought in about $31.2 million. Those three said they had about $92.3 million in cash on hand between them.
Former President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social account that his team beat Biden’s in April. He said the Trump accounts raised $76 million in April while Biden’s raised $51 million.
In a competing release, the Biden campaign said it had access to $192 million in cash on hand at the end of April.
None of those claims can be independently verified. It’s unclear which committees raised and held the money. Both Biden and Trump could be counting the activities of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee in their tallies, too.
America will know the actual financial standing of the candidates in July. Committees reporting on a quarterly basis will show their cards on July 15. This will reveal the full financial picture.
While Biden and Trump touted their strengths, one donor stole the show. Billionaire heir Timothy Mellon gave $15 million in April alone.
$10 million went to the Trump-allied super PAC MAGA Inc. $5 million went to the hybrid PAC American Values 2024. American Values is backing independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
It’s the second time this year Mr. Mellon gave to both the Republican and the independent candidate. Democrats see the connection as evidence RFK Jr. is out to spoil Biden’s reelection.
RFK Jr., helped by an $8 million April donation from his running mate Nicole Shanahan, is putting together a notable cash pile, too.
American Values and Mr. Kennedy’s campaign committee, Team Kennedy, raised about $16.8 million in April. At the end of the month, the pair had about $31 million in the bank.
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump next to his lawyer Todd Blanche (R), speaks to the press during his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on May 21, 2024. Michael M. Santiago/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
DEFENSE RESTS IN TRUMP TRIAL
The defense has rested in former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in New York.
The short defense, which saw only a single witness brought to the stand, comes five weeks after jurors were first seated in the case.
Prosecutors brought a bevy of witnesses to the stand in the interim, seeking to bolster their case that Trump falsified business records relating to $130,000 paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to hide a campaign-related crime.
The defense, meanwhile, brought only a single witness, lawyer Robert Costello, whose testimony caused a short controversy in the courtroom that ended with the press being temporarily cleared on Monday evening.
Though he indicated in the past that he was open to testifying in the case, Trump himself ultimately didn’t take the stand—likely on the advice of his counsel, who seem to feel good about the case they’ve made in the former president’s defense.
The defense had its best day on Monday, when they were successful in getting Michael Cohen—a disgraced ex-Trump attorney who’s been convicted of lying to Congress and whose testimony forms the backbone of the case—to confess that he had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.
Closing arguments in the case aren’t set to be made until next week, after Memorial Day—a long break in the case that some legal analysts say could harm Trump’s prospects in dark blue Manhattan.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has indicated the case is likely to wrap up around May 28, which means that the jury is not likely to make a decision until the seventh week of the trial.
—Joseph Lord
BOOKMARKS
In the Georgia primaries yesterday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis fended off a primary challenger, while the judge presiding over Trump’s case, Judge Scott McAfee, also won reelection. State Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson defeated challenger former Democratic Congressman John Barrow, who heavily campaigned on abortion.
In California, Assemblymember Vince Fong won a special election to fill the seat of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) until the end of his term next January. When Fong is sworn in, he will help give the Republicans a bit more breathing room by raising the majority to 218 to 213, meaning the GOP can lose two votes on partisan votes. House Republicans can currently lose only one vote.
Biden says that the government has paid compensation to more than 1 million U.S. veterans who were exposed to toxic conditions while in service. The claims, paid under the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, are being highlighted ahead of the November election to bolster ex-military support for the incumbent president.
Former New York City Mayor and Trump attorney Ray Giuliani has pleaded guilty ahead of his election interference trial in Arizona. The prosecutor in the case has also requested a $10,000 cash bond, citing the difficulty his office had in serving the charges against Mr. Giuliani.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is challenging the guidelines of North Carolina’s State Board of Elections, saying they “clearly conflict with state law.” The RNC is alleging that the guidelines allow ballot tampering.
The Biden administration halted plans to resettle a dozen Guantanamo Bay prisoners last year, citing increased conflict with Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel. The prisoners, who have never been charged, were originally cleared to be resettled in Oman.
Russia has released a video of its troops performing nuclear exercises near Ukraine. The video may have been intended as a warning to France and Britain, who recently signaled that they might support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
