Tough votes on Trump Cabinet picks could pose big risks for midterm Senate candidates
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(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers running for reelection loathe tough votes. And for senators up in purple states in two years, those tough votes are coming early.
President-elect Donald Trump is moving at a lightning pace to stock up his administration, mixing in conventional picks like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state with controversial moves like putting up Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for health and human services secretary. For frontline senators who hold the key to the next Senate majority, navigating their confirmations will be a minefield.
Republicans will be defending the seats of North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, while Democrats will be working to protect Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters. Their confirmation votes for Trump’s Cabinet picks offer a chance to prove bipartisan bona fides, but backing a nominee who is too controversial risks opening them up to attack in races that could be decided by razor-thin margins.
“If they’re smart, then it’s a major factor. The midterms are still a ways off. Generally, voters have short attention spans, and so it’s debatable how much of this stuff they’re going to remember. But I think it’s uniquely important for people who may take heat from the right,” said one GOP strategist.
Some of Trump’s nominees are not anticipated to run into significant roadblocks.
Rubio has already received praise from some Democratic senators, and members of the chamber are often given some degree of deference when facing confirmation to Cabinet positions. Waltz and Ratcliffe may face tighter margins than Rubio but are also considered to be among Trump’s more conventional picks.
But Gaetz and Kennedy, along with Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, named to run the Pentagon, will likely enjoy no Democratic support at all. With Republicans winning a maximum of 53 Senate seats this month, that leaves their margin for error small if they hope to be confirmed.
Already, Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski have sounded skeptical notes about some of Trump’s choices, and other Republicans, including Tillis, have remained noncommittal.
The pressure will be on for Republicans, though.
Trump won a comprehensive victory, and before he announced his more controversial cabinet picks, Republicans on Capitol Hill were touting the need for unity as they prepared to take over a unified government in January.
Collins is considered to be in a league of her own, sources said. A senior Republican who’s likely one of the few candidates, if not the only one, who can win her state, she’s expected to have especially wide latitude to oppose a candidate she deems unfit.
And with a base in such lockstep with Trump, any defiance from other GOP lawmakers could trigger outrage from the famously mercurial president-elect — fury that could in turn result in a primary challenge, and not just for swing-staters like Tillis.
At the same time, supporting a controversial nominee who pushes the envelope too far once confirmed risks becoming a general election issue.
“There will be Trump voters who remember how Republican senators handle these nominations. And so, I do think that for senators who are up this cycle, the base is watching how they handle Trump’s nominees,” the Republican strategist said.
“Any of these other safe-state Republicans who are in cycle, it’s within Trump’s power to cause problems for them on the right, if he chooses to,” the person added.
Still, underscoring the catch-22, any votes for nominees deemed too controversial could end up in ads from their ultimate Democratic opponents labeling them a “rubber stamp” for Trump, the source warned.
The pressure is on for House members, too.
House members will not have a vote in the confirmation process, but they will inevitably field a slate of questions about nominees like Gaetz. Those running in purple districts could opt to punt, noting their lack of a vote, or they could knock the more controversial contenders, also risking blowback from Trump.
“I would try and push it to the Senate first and see if you get away with that. And if you don’t get away with that, then I would strongly advise to stand by your principles and not to end up going down a path for someone else that you didn’t choose for yourself,” said William O’Reilly, a GOP strategist in New York, home to many endangered House Republicans. “Loyalty goes so far, the public is looking for legislators that have a little bit of backbone and common sense.”
Democrats are also in a pickle of their own.
Ossoff and Peters are Senate Democrats’ top frontline members up in 2026. Offering support to some of Trump’s picks like Rubio, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., for national security adviser and former Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, for CIA director, could bolster their bipartisan bona fides. But going too far risks turning off Democrats, a major risk when they’ll need every single supporter energized in states Trump won this month.
“Waltz, Ratcliffe and Rubio, if you’re Ossoff and you vote for them, independent voters see you’re a straight shooter, and he can claim he’s bipartisan, because he was,” said one Georgia Democratic strategist. “And then he says, ‘look, I voted for everybody except Gabbard on his national security team.'”
To be certain, there are several other factors at play across the key midterm races. Incumbents’ opponents are far from finalized, the midterms will take place almost two years after confirmation votes start in January, and some nominees might not even make it to a vote.
But already, the knives are out.
“President Trump and JD Vance are going to be running the Senate,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Trump ally, said on Fox Business this week. “If you want to get in the way, fine. But we’re gonna try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that.”
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Sunday afternoon after meeting with his national security team, calling the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s “abhorrent” regime a “historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria.”
“At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said. “This regime brutalized, tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians.”
At the same time, it’s “also a moment of risk and uncertainty,” Biden added, saying that the U.S. would “support Syria’s neighbors, including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel, should any threat arise.”
He also said the U.S. is “mindful” of the security of Americans in Syria, including American freelance journalist and Marine Corps veteran Austin Tice, who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012. Biden said it will “remain committed to returning [Tice] to his family.”
“This is a moment of considerable risk and uncertainty,” Biden said. “But I also believe this is the best opportunity in generations for Syrians to forge their own future free of opposition.”
President-elect Donald Trump had earlier called the situation in Syria a “mess” and urged against the U.S. getting involved in the conflict.
“In any event, Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” Trump wrote in a post on X.
On Saturday, White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said the U.S. “has nothing to do with this offensive, which is led by Hay’at Tahir al-Sham (HTS), a designated terrorist organization,” and said that the U.S. would work together with its allies and partners to urge deescalation and to protect U.S. personnel and military positions.
Speaking at a defense conference Saturday, before rebels advanced into Damascus, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the speed and scale of the rebels’ rapid advance came, in part, because Assad’s chief backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — had all been “weakened and distracted,” in recent months.
That has left Assad “basically naked,” Sullivan said. “His forces are hollowed out.”
Early Sunday, the rebel military operations command for the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, claimed the president was no longer in the capital, writing: “We declare the city of Damascus free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday morning that Assad “decided to leave the presidential post and left the country, giving instructions to transfer power peacefully.” Russia and Iran were the two most important foreign backers of Assad’s government.
Trump said Russia, which has long supported Assad’s regime, is “tied up in Ukraine” and apparently unable to intervene in Syria, and said Assad being forced out “may actually be the best thing that can happen” to the Russian government.
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse,” Trump said.
In an interview with ABC News, retired Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, who led the U.S. Central Command during Trump’s first term, agreed with the president-elect’s assessment that the situation could spell chaos.
“I’m not sure it’s ultimately going to be good news for the people of Syria,” McKenzie said. “You know, we could have an Islamic State arise there which will have profound negative implications across the region. That is possible. There are other possibilities as well. And I think in the next 48, 72, 96 hours, we — this will begin to become clearer to us.”
“It’s a significant moment in Syrian history,” McKenzie added. “I wish I could be more hopeful that it will mean good news for the Syrian people. I think that’s very unclear right now.”
Asked about the safety of the 900 U.S. military members stationed in eastern Syria to contain ISIS, McKenzie said Assad’s fall could put them in a better place.
“Actually, there’s probably less danger right now than there was before, because what you see are the Iranians, Lebanese Hezbollah and, in fact, the Russians are all on their back heels now as a result of what has just happened in Syria,” he said.
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead. Via Flickr
(WASHINGTON) — After a sweeping victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, President-elect Donald Trump is now set to become just the second ever to serve nonconsecutive terms in office.
Trump has wasted no time in moving to assemble his team for a second term in the White House — naming Susie Wiles as his chief of staff and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.N. ambassador, among other positions.
Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.
November 12, 2024, 11:50 AM EST – Will Trump’s administration picks impact House control?
While control of the House has not yet been projected by ABC News, Republicans are inching toward maintaining their slim majority.
But already, Trump has picked several lawmakers to serve in his administration: Rep. Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador and Rep. Mike Waltz for national security adviser.
Speaker Mike Johnson, asked about the issue on Tuesday, said he’s spoken to Trump about it several times.
“We have a really talented Republican Congress … Many of them can serve in important positions in the new administration. But President Trump fully understands, appreciates the math here and it’s just a numbers game,” Johnson said. “You know, we believe we’re going to have a larger majority than we had last time.”
The speaker added: “I don’t expect that we will have more members leaving, but I’ll leave that up to him.”
November 12, 2024, 11:39 AM EST – Billionaire John Paulson says he’s not a candidate for Treasury role
Billionaire John Paulson said Tuesday he does not plan to formally join the administration as the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, though he said he intends to remain actively involved with Trump’s economic team.
“Although various media outlets have mentioned me as a candidate for Secretary of the Treasury, my complex financial obligations would prevent me from holding an official position in President Trump’s administration at this time,” Paulson said in a statement.
“However, I intend to remain actively involved with the President’s economic team and helping in the implementation of President Trump’s outstanding policy proposals,” he added.
-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
November 12, 2024, 11 AM EST – Johnson teases Trump visit to the Capitol
House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that Trump is expected to visit the U.S. Capitol to celebrate a potential Republicans “trifecta” on Wednesday morning before he sits down in the Oval Office with President Joe Biden later in the day.
“Well, I’ll say I didn’t intend to break this as news this morning,” Johnson quipped as he held a press conference with House Republican leadership.
“He wanted to come and visit with House Republicans, so we’re working out the details of him gathering with us potentially tomorrow morning, before he goes to the White House,” Johnson said. “And that would be a great meeting and a moment for all of us, there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of energy here. We’re really grateful for President Trump leaving it all on the field to get reelected.”
ABC News’ John Parkinson, Isabella Murray and Lauren Peller
November 12, 2024, 11 AM EST – House Republican leadership say they’re ready for Day 1 under Trump
Returning to Washington on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson and other top House Republicans took a victory lap on last week’s election results.
While ABC News has not yet projected House control, Republicans are three seats away from clinching the 218 needed for a majority.
Johnson said they are monitoring outstanding races closely but are confident they will have a “unified” government come January.
“This leadership will hit the ground running to deliver President Trump’s agenda in the 119th Congress, and we will work closely with him and his administration to turn this country around and unleash, as he says, a new golden age in America,” Johnson said at a press conference on the Capitol steps.
November 11, 2024, 11:22 PM EST – Trump’s new ‘border czar’ issues warning to sanctuary states and cities
President-elect Donald Trump’s newly picked “border czar” Tom Homan addressed his forthcoming deportation plan and state leaders who have objected to sweeping immigration policies.
During an appearance on Fox News on Monday, Homan issued a warning to so-called “sanctuary” states and cities to “get the hell out of the way” of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
“I saw today numerous governors from sanctuary states saying they’re going to step in the way. They better get the hell out of the way. Either you help us or get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do their job,” he warned, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he formerly served as director.
“I’ll double the workforce in that sanctuary city. We’re going to do our job despite the politics. We’re doing it. So get used to it, because we’re coming,” Homan said.
When asked if he plans to deport American citizens, Homan said, “President Trump has made it clear we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first, and that’s how the focus would be.”
-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim
November 11, 2024, 8:48 PM EST – Trump expected to tap Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state: Sources
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce his intention to nominate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for secretary of state, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Rubio, 53, has served in the Senate since 2011. He is currently the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Intelligence, and he also sits on the chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee.
Several long-serving State Department officials tell ABC News they respect Rubio’s extensive foreign policy experience and view him as unlikely to overly politicize the secretary of state role.
The secretary of state is appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Shannon Kingston
November 11, 2024, 7:00 PM EST – Trump asks Rep. Mike Waltz to be his national security adviser: Sources
Trump has asked Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., to be his national security adviser, multiple sources said.
Waltz was at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, sources said.
Waltz is a former Green Beret and China hawk who emerged as a key surrogate for Trump, criticizing the Biden-Harris foreign policy record during the campaign.
The Florida Republican sits on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
He has supported aid to Ukraine in the past but has demanded “conditions,” including increased spending from European allies, additional oversight of funds and pairing the aid with border security measures.
Waltz, who has visited Ukraine, was a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s policy towards Ukraine, criticizing the White House and allies for not providing Ukraine with more lethal aid — such as MiG fighter planes — earlier in the conflict.
Before running for elected office, Waltz served in various national security policy roles in the Bush administration, Pentagon and White House.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Benjamin Siegel, John Santucci and Katherine Faulders
November 11, 2024, 6:06 PM EST – Volunteer-run effort on RFK Jr.’s website crowd-sourcing ideas for Trump admin appointments
A volunteer-run effort on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s website has begun crowd-sourcing ideas for appointments in Trump’s administration.
A website titled “Nominees for the People” gives anyone the chance to submit names of people they’d like to see join the administration.
“President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. want your help nominating people of integrity and courage for over 4,000 appointments across the future Trump administration,” the website reads.
Stefanie Spear, a Kennedy spokeswoman, told ABC News that the crowd-sourcing effort is “a grassroots initiative run by volunteers,” and is not actually spearheaded by Kennedy, although the page uses the “mahanow.org” URL that Kennedy’s official campaign website adopted after he exited the race.
“We’ve always offered space on our website to our grassroots movement,” Spear said.
This post has been updated to reflect that the crowd-sourcing effort is a volunteer-run effort.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
November 11, 2024, 5:55 PM EST – Trump’s ‘border czar’ says mass deportation strategy will be a main priority
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, Trump’s newly announced “border czar,” said his main priority will be overseeing and formulating Trump’s long-vowed mass deportation strategy while consolidating decisions related to border security.
“Everybody talks about this mass deportation operation. President Trump talks about. I’ll oversee that and come up with a strategy for that,” Homan said during a lengthy interview with his hometown television station WWNY on Monday.
Homan said Trump’s mass deportations is “going to be a targeted enforcement operation, concentrating on criminals and national security threats first.”
He acknowledged that the deportations would be costly but argued the policy would “save the taxpayers a lot of money.”
Homan said he does not plan to “separate women and children” but acknowledged that deporting alleged criminals would result in breaking up families.
“When we arrest parents here, guess what? We separate them. The illegal aliens should be no different,” Homan said.
Homan also said worksite enforcement — an aspect of immigration policy focused on unauthorized workers and employers who knowingly hire them — is “going to get fired back up.”
“Under President Trump, we’re going to work it and we’re going to work it hard,” he said.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
November 11, 2024, 5:46 PM EST – Melania Trump skipping meeting with Jill Biden: Sources
Melania Trump is not expected to travel to Washington with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, two sources told ABC News.
First lady Jill Biden had extended an invite to Melania Trump for a meeting, according to the sources. In 2016, Michelle Obama had hosted Melania Trump at the White House.
The Trump campaign declined to comment. The first lady’s office confirmed to ABC News that a joint invitation was extended to the Trumps to meet at the White House though declined to comment beyond that.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, John Santucci and Molly Nagle
November 11, 2024, 4:26 PM EST – RFK Jr. advising Trump transition on health decisions: Sources
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has continued to broadly advise Trump and the transition team on health-related appointments and has been in discussions to possibly fill a major role in the next administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
While sources caution that a role has not been finalized, RFK Jr. has been discussed as a potential candidate for the next secretary of Health and Human Services. But other roles are also on the table, including a broad “czar”-like position that would advise on policy and personnel decisions in other health arenas, the sources said.
RFK Jr. has been in active discussions with the transition team since Trump’s election victory last week. He’s been spotted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club multiple times and has been engaging in presentations which include candidates for specific Cabinet and health-related jobs, sources said.
He has spent hours with the co-heads of Trump’s transition team — billionaire Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon — in addition to others at Mar-a-Lago such as Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.; investor and donor Omeed Malik; Tucker Carlson; and Del Bigtree, RFK Jr.’s former campaign spokesperson who produced a documentary called “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.”
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Olivia Rubin and Will McDuffie
November 11, 2024, 3:30 PM EST – Lee Zeldin named to be EPA administrator
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump said in a statement. “He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet. He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.
Zeldin, who also ran for New York governor against Andrew Cuomo in 2022, confirmed he had been offered the job via a post on X.
“It is an honor to join President Trump’s Cabinet as EPA Administrator,” he wrote. “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
-ABC News’ John Santucci, Rachel Scott and Katherine Faulders
November 11, 2024, 3:06 PM EST -RFK Jr. suggests he’ll gut NIH, replace 600 employees
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated over the weekend that he would fire 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health, replacing them with a new cohort of workers as he seeks to dramatically reshape America’s health agencies.
Speaking at the Genius Network Annual Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kennedy described his role vetting people for Donald Trump’s new administration.
“We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on Jan. 20, so that on Jan. 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave,” Kennedy said, according to a video of his remarks posted on YouTube.
November 11, 2024, 3:06 PM EST- Trump expected to announce Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner and one of his senior advisers, will become his deputy chief of staff for policy, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
It’s not clear when Trump plans to formally announce the job, the sources said.
Miller worked in the first Trump administration and played a key role in crafting immigration policies — including those that resulted in thousands of families being separated at the border.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, John Santucci and Katherine Faulders
November 11, 2024, 3:00 PM EST – Trump picks Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador
President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Elise Stefanik to be his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, multiple Trump officials told ABC News.
“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to ABC News.
Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman from New York’s 21st District, was elected last week to her sixth term in the House. She will inherit a role Nikki Haley held for two years in the first Trump administration.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Katherine Faulders and John Santucci
(WASHINGTON) — The White House and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Wednesday continued to do clean up from President Joe Biden’s “garbage” comment, even as former President Donald Trump seized on it and the controversy dominated the news cycle, distracting from Harris’ “closing argument.”
On Tuesday night, Biden seemed to call Trump supporters as “garbage” during a campaign call hosted by the nonprofit Voto Latino.
“And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,'” Biden said, according to a video clip from the fundraiser that aired on CNN.
“I don’t — I — I don’t know the Puerto Rican that — that I know — or a Puerto Rico, where I’m fr- — in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” Biden said.
His comments quickly drew fire from Republicans and came just as Harris was delivering her closing argument speech nearby on the Ellipse, calling for Americans to turn the page on hateful rhetoric and division in American politics.
At a campaign rally in Mount Rock, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump tied Harris to Biden’s comments.
“Now speaking on a call for her campaign last night, Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage. And they mean it,” Trump said.
“Even though without question my supporters are far higher quality than Crooked Joe or Lyin’ Kamala,” Trump said. “My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: you can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans.”
Biden himself posted a clarification on Tuesday night, saying that his comment was about the comedian who made the joke and “referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it.”
“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden said in the post on X.
At her daily briefing, reporters pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden’s comments.
“No, he does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage,” Jean-Pierre insisted.
“The president has said this for more than three years now, he has said multiple times that he is a president for all. It doesn’t matter if you live in a red state, it doesn’t matter if you live in a blue state.”
When asked whether Biden misspoke or regrets his remarks, Jean-Pierre answered the president “clarified what he said” to ensure it was not “taken out of context.”
“He took the extra step to clarify. And, you know, you don’t see that from many elected officials, you certainly didn’t see that from the former president. And this president wanted to make sure it was not taken out of context,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre said the president spoke to Harris Tuesday night after her speech to congratulate her. She wouldn’t say, though, if Biden had apologized or made any reference to his comment when they spoke.
For her part, Harris tried to distance herself from the comments. In an interview with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, Harris was asked how she felt when she heard his “garbage” remark.
“Well, first of all, I think that the president has explained what he meant,” Harris told Bruce. “But I said it earlier, I strongly disagree with any criticism of the people based on who they vote for and I’ve made that clear throughout my career, including my speech last night before I think this all happened, which is I intend to be president for all Americans, and including those who may not vote for me in this election.”
But this incident isn’t the first time the White House and Harris’ campaign has had to play clean up after a Biden gaffe raised eyebrows. Just last week Biden was talking about Trump and said, “We gotta lock him up. Politically lock him up.”
The comments also come as Biden is planning to travel to battleground Pennsylvania twice later this week – for campaign and official events. Jean-Pierre said that for now there are now plans to adjust his schedule.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Will McDuffie and Alexandra Hurtzler contributed to this report.
