Trump turns to his allies to ramp up trial attacks: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, senior politics reporter Jonathan Allen looks at how Donald Trump, who is under a gag order, is leaning on his allies to launch attacks related to the hush money trial.

Plus, we examine why tomorrow's Democratic Senate primary in Maryland is carrying greater weight that usual. And senior political editor Mark Murray breaks down the latest polls showing a narrowing path to victory for Joe Biden.

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Trump is under a gag order, so his allies are launching his trial attacks for him

By Jonathan Allen

Donald Trump risks a trip to jail if he attacks witnesses in his New York hush money trial. But his allies aren’t covered by the gag order he has repeatedly violated — and they’re increasingly launching the broadsides that Trump can’t.

On Monday, as former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen testified that the former president was directly involved in a scheme to kill negative stories about him during the 2016 election, Sens. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., ripped into Cohen.

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“He’s a convicted felon,” Tuberville said of Cohen at a news conference outside the courthouse. “I mean this guy is giving an acting scene.”

“Cohen can’t remember how old his son is or how old he was when he started to work for Trump but I’m sure he remembers extremely small details from years ago!” Vance, who is in contention to be picked as Trump’s running mate, wrote in a sarcasm-laden tweetstorm on X. “Michael Cohen admitting he secretly recorded his employer. Just totally normal conduct, right? The best part is he said he did it only once and only for Trump’s benefit. A standup guy!”

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump project in Moscow. At the time of his testimony, he remained loyal to his longtime employer.

The friends-and-family loophole has been exploited by lawmakers and by Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, the latter of whom has attended portions of the trial. Neither of them has been accused of any wrongdoing in the case, which centers on whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee falsified business records in order to help his 2016 election chances by covering up alleged affairs that he denies occurred.

Trump has frequently denounced the gag order, portraying it as an effort to silence his political speech as he campaigns for a return to the Oval Office. Judge Juan Merchan has found him in violation of the order 10 times, fined him and warned him, in no uncertain terms, that further transgressions could result in incarceration.

Trump has said that he is ready to testify in his own defense at the trial, but many legal experts note that his lawyers are likely to advise against that.

In addition to the two senators, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and the Republican attorneys general of Iowa and Alabama — Brenna Bird and Steve Marshall — went to the courthouse Monday to support Trump.

Read more on the strategy →

And catch up on Cohen’s testimony from Day 16 of the Trump trial →

Maryland Democrats battle for party’s future — and control of the Senate

By Julie Tsirkin, Kate Santaliz, Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Maryland’s Senate race was supposed to be a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. Instead, it’s turned into something else: a key race in the battle for the Senate majority.

Former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to run for the state’s open Senate seat scrambled the stakes, and now Democrats competing in Tuesday’s primary aren’t just making the case about what type of Democrat should be in the Senate. They’re each arguing that they’re the better candidate to take on Hogan in November — if Hogan wins his own primary Tuesday.

Democratic Rep. David Trone has spent more than $60 million of his own personal fortune on the primary as he takes on Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is vying to become the state’s first Black senator and one of the few Black women to ever serve in the upper chamber.

“The big argument you hear for Trone being better positioned is his resources,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who has endorsed Alsobrooks. “And the big argument you hear for Alsobrooks being better positioned is that she’s building a coalition of people across the state who could conceivably beat that kind of money.”

“So in some sense, the primary is a good testing ground for both of those theories,” Raskin added.

Read more ahead of tomorrow’s primary →

New battleground polls show Biden’s narrower path to victory

By Mark Murray

The main takeaway from the latest round of New York Times/Siena College battleground state polls is that the 2024 presidential contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump remains competitive and stable.

But the surveys — as well as other polling from the top swing states — highlight what appears to be Biden’s much narrower path to win the necessary 270 electoral votes with now less than six months to go.

In the Times/Siena polls, Trump leads Biden among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, while Biden is narrowly ahead in Wisconsin.

All of the results are within the margin of error — except in Georgia and Nevada, where Trump’s advantage is outside the margin of error.

Arizona: Trump 49%, Biden 42%

Georgia: Trump 49%, Biden 39%

Michigan: Trump 49%, Biden 42%

Nevada: Trump 50%, Biden 38%

Pennsylvania: Trump 47%, Biden 44%

Wisconsin: Biden 47%, Trump 45%

The numbers are similar among likely voters, although the results flip in Michigan (Biden 47%, Trump 46%) and in Wisconsin (Trump 47%, Biden 46%).

There are two conclusions from these findings in states Biden won four years ago. The first is that the contests in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are all super close, and that’s consistent with the other polls we’ve seen from those three states.

The second is that the races in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada aren’t as close — with Trump holding leads that are either outside the margin of error or close to it. Again, that’s consistent with other polls from these states.

As CNN’s Harry Enten puts it, Biden’s in the game in the Great Lakes states, while he’s running behind in the Sun Belt.

So what does this all mean? If you take Arizona, Georgia and Nevada away from Democrats, Biden has to win all three of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to reach the 270 electoral votes. (That’s assuming he holds on to that one electoral vote in Nebraska, which is a story for another day.)

Trump, meanwhile, needs to win just one of those Great Lakes states to put him above 270 under that scenario.

It’s a doable path for Biden. In fact, the premise of his 2020 candidacy was that he was the one Democrat who could rebuild the “blue wall” after Hillary Clinton lost Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Trump in 2016.

But it’s also a narrower path to victory — with no margin for error in those three Great Lakes states.

That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com