As protests rage, Republicans see a winning campaign issue

Washington Post

5 hours ago

Good morning, Early Birds. Happy Primary Day to our Virginia neighbors. Send tips to [e-mail]. Thanks for waking up with us.
In today's edition … Republicans plan to run on protests, strife … Virginians head to the polls … You give us your reactions to Padilla … but first …
President Donald Trump left the Group of Seven summit early, flying overnight from Canada to return to the White House and deal more directly with the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. He had been scheduled to meet today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum but told reporters he needed to be at the White House to address the conflict.
'I have to be back,' Trump said Monday while posing for photos. 'You probably see what I see, and I have to be back as soon as I can.'
Before leaving, Trump agreed to sign a statement with other world leaders that called for 'a broader de-escalation of hostilities' in the Middle East, backtracking on his initial decision, Cat Zakrzewski, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Amanda Coletta report from Banff, Alberta, following discussions with other leaders in the group and changes to the initial draft.
The signed statement omitted language that called for both Iran and Israel 'to show restraint,' which appeared in an earlier draft of the agreement viewed by The Washington Post, our team in Canada reports.
Vance Boelter put deep planning into his attacks on Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and went to the homes of at least two more, according to a criminal complaint federal agents released yesterday. It says he stalked the lawmakers he was planning to attack and invested in elaborate disguises for his face, clothes and car to appear like a police officer. His targets extended beyond Minnesota, the complaint says, including in several other Midwestern states.
Boelter faces federal charges of stalking and shooting state Rep. Melissa Hortman and state Sen. John Hoffman and their spouses; Hortman and her husband died in the attack. If convicted, he would be eligible for the death penalty.
The shooting will have security implications for lawmakers' security in Minnesota and nationwide.
'I'd have to imagine that this certainly will change things in Minnesota,' said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, who used to lead the state party in Minnesota. He noted that the state has a famously up-close-and-personal brand of politics. Martin was close friends with Hortman. 'I hope that it doesn't change one thing, which is the openness of our government … but there no doubt will be conversations about how we keep our elected officials safe.'
Holly Bailey, Patrick Marley and Jeremy Roebuck have more on where the case will go from here.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, went full keyboard warrior. After he posted tweets blaming Democrats for the political assassinations, he refused to talk about them when asked in real life. Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, angrily confronted Lee over the tweets. Theodoric Meyer has more on the confrontation and how lawmakers are on edge that they could be subjected to violence next.
John F. King is running for the Senate in Georgia, over 2,000 miles from the protests in Los Angeles, but nothing could be more relevant to his campaign, he told us, than the unrest happening in Southern California.
'It's the visual images,' said King, a Republican serving as Georgia's insurance and safety fire commissioner. As the protests against federal immigration raids unfolded in Los Angeles, King took to X to hammer Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, his potential general election opponent, by using images of unrest. King then headlined an event in Smyrna, Georgia, a Cobb County suburb of Atlanta, where he said he spent most of the event talking about the protests and answering questions about whether the same could happen in the southern state.
'We'd better pay attention,' said King, who spent nearly four decades in the Army National Guard and retired as a major general. 'Or it is going to be a costly effect in the next election.'
King and other Republicans see a midterm opportunity in the unrest in Los Angeles and Trump's decision to circumvent California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) by calling up the National Guard and deploying hundreds of Marines.
The civil unrest followed protests of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, allowing the GOP to focus on a top issue for its base — immigration — and tie Democrats to scenes of looting and vandalism. It lets even faraway Republicans raise questions about whether that kind of strife would happen in the largest city in their state, stoking fears of some voters in rural stretches.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee last week hit Rep. Chris Pappas (D-New Hampshire), who is running for Senate, accusing him of putting 'illegal immigrants above American citizens.' And Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), one of the chamber's more vulnerable Republicans, targeted his possible 2026 opponent for being 'completely silent about the violence and carnage going on in L.A.'
Trump, meanwhile, took to social media to demand that ICE focus enforcement on Democratic-run cities, calling Los Angeles, Chicago and New York the 'core of the Democratic Power Center.' The demand is likely to politicize the immigration force further and is sure to roil tensions across the country.
Asked on Monday for a response to King, Ellie Dougherty, the Ossoff campaign communications director, said the senator 'calls on Americans to continue peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to speech and assembly.' She noted the distinction between the politically motivated shootings of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota and the 'hundreds of thousands who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to Donald Trump's brazen abuses of power' over the weekend.
'Sen. Ossoff condemns political violence of all kinds,' Dougherty said.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Massachusetts), a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, said Republicans are creating a 'dangerous situation that is deeply unfair' to the Marines whom Trump called up to protect federal buildings amid protests.
'These Marines sweat and bled for years to train to defend this country, not to be political props for Donald Trump or MAGA wannabes,' Auchincloss said. 'They are operating as parasites on the military's public esteem.'
Auchincloss, who trained at the same base from which those Marines deployed, said the training they receive is 'just a totally different type of military operation' than the one they are asked to do in Los Angeles.
This narrative Republicans are pushing highlights how chaos, while sometimes seen as a political knock against the president, is often viewed inside GOP politics as a win for him, especially if it allows Trump to focus on immigration and claims of lawlessness.
'Democrats will always side with chaos, rioters, open borders and foreign criminals,' said Mike Marinella, press secretary for House Republicans' campaign arm this cycle. 'The NRCC will make sure voters remember it all the way through November 2026.'
Trump used the opening of the first Group of Seven meeting of his second term in office to both advocate for Russia rejoining the group and to blame some of his favorite political targets for ousting the country in the first place.
'The G-7 used to be the G-8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in. I would say that was a mistake — you wouldn't have a war right now if Russia were in,' Trump said. He failed to acknowledge that Russia, then a member of the G-8, was kicked out of the group for illegally annexing Crimea in 2014 and that Justin Trudeau did not take office as Canadian prime minister until 2015.
Trump went on to brag about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'Putin speaks to me. He doesn't speak to anybody else. He doesn't want to talk because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G-8, as I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be. He's very insulted,' Trump said.
Trump made the comments during a public meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who stopped the questioning by saying, 'I'm going to exercise my role as G-7 chair' before reporters were escorted out.
Virginia voters head to the polls today to vote in the commonwealth's primary elections.
The race for governor is basically a foregone conclusion: Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is the presumptive Republican nominee, and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger will be the Democratic nominee.
The most interesting race may be the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, a six-way contest that pits two state senators — Ghazala Hashmi from Richmond and Aaron Rouse from Virginia Beach — against former Richmond mayor Levar Stoney and three other candidates. Stoney has led the way in fundraising, but in a six-way race, anything is possible.
Voters will also set the general election matchups in a series of key legislative races that will go a long way to deciding whether Democrats maintain their narrow control of the state's legislature.
A federal appeals court in California is holding a hearing today on whether Trump overstepped his authority by deploying the National Guard to the Los Angeles demonstrations. A lower court ordered Trump last week to back off and give control of the National Guard back to Newsom. However, shortly after, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that Trump could continue to exercise his authority over the National Guard for now and scheduled a hearing on the matter for this afternoon.
Newsom sued Trump for deploying the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles without his consent. Governors are the commanders in chief of their states' National Guards, although the president can take command under extraordinary circumstances.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is backing a primary challenge against an incumbent Democrat in Michigan today.
State Rep. Donavan McKinney announced the liberal leader's support in challenging incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar this morning. Sanders is the second lawmaker in Congress to endorse McKinney after fellow liberal Rep. Rashida Tlaib. McKinney has more than 30 state and local endorsements and is casting Thanedar as a multimillionaire bankrolled by moneyed interests.
Thanedar has represented Michigan's 13th District since 2023 and has emerged as a bit of an oddball in the House Democratic Caucus. He financed much of his 2022 run, lending his campaign more than $9 million from his own wallet. He irritated many of his Democratic peers by filing articles of impeachment against Trump in April, only to withdraw them a month later after not getting enough support for the maneuver.
'As a Member of Congress, Donavan will fight to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, fully fund our public schools, invest in public housing and support Medicare for All,' Sanders said in a statement. 'A former union leader, he has dedicated his life to standing with working people, and is ready to lead the struggle against Donald Trump, the oligarchy, and the corporate interests who prioritize profits over people.'
Fort Worth Report (Texas): A federal lawsuit alleges Texas's recent redistricting racially discriminated against minority voters in the way it redrew a state senate seat.
The Colorado Sun (Denver): The housing crisis in Colorado is colliding with an aging population, raising broader questions about housing at a time when the country is getting older.
Orlando Weekly: The state of Florida could soon authorize funds for a permanent memorial marking the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass killing.
We're keeping things open-ended today. With conflict brewing in the Middle East, protests in the streets and deadly violence against elected officials, there's a lot to be reflecting on. What's on your mind lately? What in politics has been weighing on you? Send us your thoughts at [e-mail] or at [e-mail] and [e-mail].
Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan and Matthew on X: @merica and @matthewichoi.