Week, 2024 campaign trail was on the road incandidad his quest to get on every states and from new york city, remarks p rning mates and former President Donald Trump showing their support during another week of his criminal trial. And Vice President voters in wid michigan. But first look at political headline of the week. Biden and trumpave agreed to two debates. One on june 27 hosted by cnn and another on september 10 hosted by abc. The agreement by t candidates means they will be skippin the dates previously planned by the nonpartisan commission on president i debates for september and october of this year. The agreement came after President Biden posted this short video to his social media account. Donald trump two debates for me in 2020. Now hes ng le he wants to debate me again. Will make my day, powell well make my pal. President trump posted this video in response. We want trump. Wan trump. [crickets] also making headlines in the past week, the results of the may 14 primaries. In west virginia, outgoing governor jim justice beat congressman alex mooney to clinch the gop u. S. Senate nomination. Hes now the favorite to win in the general election. The cook political the race solidly republican. West Virginia Attorney general Patrick Morrissey beat out two candidates from longtime political families. Hes now the favorite to win against democrat st■ primary. Andn vi tron lost the states to angela also brooks. The prince georges executive who bested him by nearly 14 points despite sinking more than 60 million of his own money into the race. She now faces former Maryland Governor larry hogan, a republican in the general election. Next some of the conversation fr cspans Washington Journal Program on the result of the race and its impact for battle over control of the senate. There was a very closely watched democrat primary in maryland to succeed ben cardin. We saw two major candidates, pg county executive angela also brooks and western maryland congressman david tron vying for the nomination. Hepent 60 2 million of his own money. He is very wealthy. On this race. It is more than anybody has ever selffunded on a primary in american history. Also brooks spent just a fraction of that her campaign and yet when all the votes were tallied, she ended up winning by about 12 points. Quite the stunning result looking at just the financial ct on the republican side, former governor larryican nomination. Hes which is traditionally very blue Democratic State into a toptier senate race come the fall. Etocratic side. Why do you think that was given how much money david trone spent. Why do you think she was successful . I think its a couple things but the underlying factor is you can ve all the money in the world, but if voters are not buying what selling, its not going to get you all the way they are. In he found out that he hit a diminishing marginal return on every additional 1 million he put on tv. Everybody already knew who he was and what he was about. And they didnt want to vote for him. Elections are choices. Once also brooks really spun up her operation and voters knew they had a cice, they felt they would rather go with her. Ven ough as you were saying maryland very much leans democratic, why do you think this could be competitive . Hogs popularity. We saw him win two elections. Comparatively a landslide in 2018. In maryland, hogan was really he is as p ces,to maybe not now, but a year ago he was probably as popularmo democrats as republicans. He has significant support among black voters which are traditionally democratic. He h very high numbers among independents and lot to the table. That makes him competitive. It doesnt make him the favorite. We know even governors who are very popular in th own states when they try and run for senate oftentimes arent able to seal the deal. West virginia has joe manchin has announced his retirement. What are you looking at . This state is crucial to the senate map because it is by far icanbest pickup opportunity. The senate is split. 59 democrats, 41 republicans. If trump wins the presidency, ip one seat in the senate in order to reclaim majority. And right now if we just look at the map as it is and move west virginia, that is a 5050 senate. If the election were held today, its clear trump would have a very good shot at winning. Lyn their heels in the senate. Its going to be very diffict for them to maintain their majority andinto be impossib fom to maintain a wins the presidency this fall. Trump got a big boost in polling last week. One from the new york times, Philadelphia Inquirer and siena colle showed the Presumptive Republican nominee with leads in five of six key battleground states. In two, georgia and was double d outside the main of error. ■c■jong pulling has the trump caaign active inke new jersey where the former president now says he has a chance of winning this year. Next, some of the rally he held in the seaside resort town of wildwood, new journey. We are expanding the map because we are going to officially play in the state of new jersey. Are going to win the state of new jersey. Got a great group of people with us. Also looking really great in the state of minnesota which hasnt been w since 1952 and we are leading in the polls. Hef virginia and actually many other states. It could be all of t this guy is so damn bad it could be all of them. He is so bad, i think we are all across america of millions of and solled blue states are joining our Movement Based on love, inig a thing called common sense. Other differences aside and come together, get the job done foic. We are going to make America Great again and we are going to do it fast. And we are going to look at biden, i am sure nobody ever saw the apprentice. That was our big hit. Was a big powerful hit. But im goingthat guy and im going to say joe biden, you are the worst ever. Jot of here. Youre fired. Get out of here, joe. We are going to straighten out our country. We are not going to destroy it. Think of one thing thats better. You look at the afghanistan disastth border, the economy. The real economy, not the fake economy. Everything they touch turns to what the former president waso n manhattan courtroom. In recent days, he has brought along a series hprile entourages including one counting in its ranks rumored Vice President iack governor doug burgum of north dakotaco donalds of florida and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy s sham trial. When you have the opportunity to see itclosand personal, you can see its a scam trial. When you have a judge that is a dono biden, prosecutors that are supporters of biden and then youve got relatives of the judge that are benefiting financially directly from this trial and then youve got the star■ witness is a serial perjurero as yourself what is this all about. I thi conclusion is its election interference and tying up the president from being out on the campaign trail. Wheres the crime . There is no crime. The only crime happening here is this democrat judge and the decrat party prosecuting their political rival right in the middle of a president ial the crime here is that the issues facing our nation are being addressed by the democrats but they want to go after donald trump and theres nothing wrong. Wrong here, the only thing being done wrong is by this judge. This is garbage. That is the best proof that you have. s dammed if you do, dammed if you dont. This is a sham. This is notthis is some vertebra republic. I amamrican citizen to sit here in a courtr the former leader of the free world and likely next leader of the free world sitting with the indignity in this dingy thirdrate court room at a for rate lawyer on the stands whactually is violating attorneyclient privilege left and nobody is talking about that. This is a stronger because of who ultimately casts the vote on this case . Every one of you at home. If you are at home, and you nwithverything donald trump has ever said whether you are democrat or republican or black or white or gay or straight or man or woman, blind to politics. Sh b regardless of whether your last name is biden or trump, you get a fair shake in our legal system. And when you have a prosecutor who campaigned on going after trump. When youav kids are collecting money from democratic operatives by fundrag very trial that judge is presiding over and enng the president that he is subject to a gag order, it is the best organization of what this country is found o Vice President harris made her way oe to the midwest battlegrounds of michigan and wisconsin. Some of her visit to an event for entrepreneurs and students in milwaukee. Im here because i do Voter Engagement in the state. We do creative art. All the stuff to help artists ways to monetize their passion. I know you guys are doing a great media are you familiar with their work . I was not familiar. This is why im doing this. So that entrepreneurs like you can have access to information folklike these leaders hat u really that we are getting ought to know, its our job to make s kw. U geone of these . Im getting more. When she was a senator, she fought for money. I helped get 12 billion me dollars. Thats the kind of work that we have d entrepreneurs like you can benefit. I do want to ask you one more question. What itly asked question that you guys get . What are you fine people are curious about . People are just really curious about resources. Young woman here who was like im a little elme i dont know where to start. If w cant help you, we will try our best to connect you with another organization or individual. Are you finding a lot of people youre interacting with al not know . We do community, economics, government and a lot of different ways. So we are just really supportive to reinvesting in the community. Thank you guys. You are making National Economic opportunities. [overlapping chatter] resintial candidate robert f. Kennedy, jr. Added a number of ates where hey gained ballot access. The are the 14tates and dark purple on ts m. Among them are california and texas. Ourally he held in texas to celebrateeeting the lone star states ballot petitioning the threshold and deadline. We had a historic day today in texas. Just under 200 50,000 signatures. Thats more than any president ial candidacy in the history of texas. And in the history of our country. The Texas Legislature changed that doubled the number of gn needed to be collected because they thought nobody would ever be able to do it. From the beginning of this campaign were saying it would be impossible for us to get on the ballot and we got on the ballot in texas and if you can get on in texas, we can get on everywhere. Taxes only gave us 45 d collect 100 13,000 signatures. We got more than double that. And i was just upstairs talking to the team, i was just completing the signature and they said we tonight because new york is the next one for us. We have 10 d we had 45 days. The ha and texas. Weve already got more than we need in new york. The dnc has done everything in theiowero stop us and they will continue to do that, but we are going to get on balt in every single state and i want to thank all of you who are part this. Democratic senator bob casey is trying for his fourth term representing pennsylvania. Here is katie my, government editor and reporter at spotlight pa. What has been going on in the race . One of the things we are seeing already is a lot of money. Going to be a very expensive race. The 2022 race between John Fetterman and mehmet oz has also been very expensive. What we have seen so far is significant support from the democratic establishment. Mccormick with some of his own money,is a wealthy guy. Also with major donations from other wealthy people that have gone to a super pac spending on his behalf. Super pac aside, casey currently has more on hand in his campaign about. Mccormick has that to fall back on. Wes of millions of dollars as of the First Quarter of this year. Its not very many donors, if this several dozen and most of them donveania a couple do. A big School Choice advocapennse states that the senateam committees are really focusing on. Not all of the money is on hand. Those are se dynamics you are seeing. Wasnt terribly exciting on either side. Theield has been clearing out for these candidates. Mccormick had already run in the primary and lost pretty narrowly. As far as the gop establishment was concerned, they see him as somebody who would be able to mount a Good Campaign again. ■ casey, you would be facing tough odds to run against him in pennsylvania in the democratic primary. He has a very long history in the state, he is a scranton guy whose dad was governor. He has close ties to biden. What has been the early strategy from these candidates . Very different in terms of what they are focusing on. Casey is more of a fighter member of the senate. Hes not a really flashy guy. He doesnt go on tv that much. Hressed that he has a policy guide, he has been part of the major bipartisan noncontroversial bills passing. One of his bags big focuses has been Consumer Protection, allowing the ftc to penalize companies for price gouging. It is something biden has talked about. You can see the relationship there, focusing on things voters are really going to feel good about that are not going to be controversial. Mccormick tied himself to trump, he has said he supports trump and that has been his approach. Grion has been a huge thing for him. He talked a lot about the border, which has a for republicans. His big thing is dont touch the southern border. In one of his recentds talking about palestinian immigrants. The white house had a proposal that would allow palestinians in egypt to immigrate to the u. S. If they had family here and that s inof tied casey to the biden administration. Another dynamic i would have to mention is that mccormick has lived in cor many years. His career has taken him all over the place. More recently the ceo of bridgewas a wealthy guy for may years did not live in pennsylvania and that was a huge is for u. S. Senate, its going to be an issue again this year, it already is. He has been doing aus tour around pennsylvania for the early part of the race. Back to connecticut a lot. He has two pittsburgh. That is for sure a dynamic as well. You mentioned the bus tour hes doing around pennsylvania. What other tactics are the campaigns using. A lot of advertising. I mentit is supporting mccormick. I havent even put a dent into the largeunhey have on hand. Casey has spent a little more account so far. S own cig same thing for him, sort of reintroducing himself to voters. Seys name recognition is higher so that the story is a big partf mccormicks strategy. A big goal is to set himself usually people know the name casey in pennsylvania. Democrats are going to be having a hard time. Es like inflation are going to be top of mind. That Consumer Protection angle is something hes really focused on. Penva has long large in the president ial race. What is the inte between the senate race in the president ial race in pennsylvania this year . Its one of those things thi. Whatever happens at the top of down ballot. Ffects what with casey and mccormick, they are notry really divorce themselves from the candidate at the top of the ticket. Iney it would be really hard for him to do that. He and biden have known each other for many years. I think so far in pennsylvania, we see a lot of ads. Lready starting. Mentioned it was quiet for the u. S. Senatrace president ial race at said. There was the unmmmovement did n here. Ania has a late primary. The fields were wellsettled by the time it happened. We are still seeing everything kicked into motion here. The major action is still going to happen. Katie meyer, thank you so much for your time and expertise. One last stop on thisigl. In washingtonta, dtic attorney general bob ferguson is considered a top contender in this years gubernatorial ra partly because of his statewide name recogniti two other Bob Fergusons also filed to run but eventually pulled out of the ra. Next, details on the three bob. Two of those candidates named bob ferguson have backed their campaigns before the secretary of states 5 00 withdrawal deadline. ■that was after bob ferguson the attorney general fergusons with a felony if they ran for governor and thats why they decided to end their unusual campaign. Whats in a name . I have known this bob ferguson. My name is bob ferguson. This bob doesnt like the idea that two other bobs also named ferguson filed friday to rument Robert Benjamin ferguson. Their goal is clear. To mislead voters and split my supporters three ways to depress my vote total. He was flanked by or who calk and also cited the revised code of washington a crime. This is a class b felony with a maximum sentence of years in prison. Glenn morgan took credit for recruiting the other bobs who both lists this olympia ups store as theirign headquarters. The bob from graham said he wi e and desist letter from the bob who is attorney general. Im a little man, i do not have the means to combat this. I served in the u. S. Army. Who knew the biggest personal threat i would face would be from the attorney general of state with the harassment and threats i received from him. And the other bob who posted a handwritten sign on his doorsr governor has backed out, too. This is a threat to our election system. Its also about protecting e name of a free, clear and fair election. A reminder, this program and all of cspan