Maddow Blog | Thursday’s Campaign Round-Up, 5.16.24

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* Giving Democratic election hopes a boost, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Louisiana to use a congressional map that includes two majority-Black districts. The move overturned a recent ruling from Trump-appointed appellate court judges.

* Russian disinformation operatives targeted U.S. elections in 2016 and 2020, and The New York Times reports that they’re engaging in similar tactics this year, though this time, “with new refinements.”

* President Joe Biden spoke at the annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the U.S. Capitol yesterday, celebrating the degree to which U.S. crime rates have improved during his tenure.

* While Biden and Donald Trump agreed to two upcoming debates, the former president announced via his social media platform that he’s also agreed to an October debate on Fox News. That’s not an event the Democratic incumbent is likely to attend.

* Speaking of the presumptive GOP nominee, Trump spoke at a fundraising event this week and addressed one of the controversies surrounding South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. “I’m really curious,” the former president said, “about the dog.”

* Biden’s re-election campaign is apparently having a little fun at Trump’s expense, selling t-shirts with the text “Free on Wednesdays.” It’s a reference, of course, to the fact that the suspected felon’s ongoing criminal trial has given him Wednesdays off.

* And in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race, former Ambassador Jeff Gunter continues to go after his Republican rival, Sam Brown, this time over the frontrunner’s support for the nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com