Politics

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Eight top Republican presidential contenders will take part on Wednesday in the first debate of the 2024 primary election cycle. Here are some facts about the showdown:

WHEN AND WHERE WILL IT TAKE PLACE?

The debate will take place at the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee on Wednesday at 8 p.m. local time (0100 GMT on Thursday) and will be broadcast on Fox News.

Wisconsin, where Milwaukee is located, is one of the most politically competitive states in the nation, and both Democrats and Republicans will be fighting hard to win there in the 2024 presidential election.

Republicans are set to hold their national convention there in roughly 11 months, where they will formally nominate a challenger to take on Democratic President Joe Biden.

WHO WILL BE THERE?

All major Republican candidates will be present with one major exception: former President Donald Trump. Trump, who is leading the field by 34 points according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, has opted to sit for an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson instead, a decision that has been attacked by his competitors.

The eight participants are Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former biotechnology investor and executive Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

To qualify, candidates needed to have reached minimum thresholds in national or state-level polls and received donations from at least 40,000 unique donors. They are also required to sign a pledge certifying that they will support the eventual Republican nominee.

WHAT QUESTIONS WILL THE CANDIDATES FACE?

While the questions the candidates will be asked has not been publicly disclosed, Martha MacCallum, a Fox News host who will moderate the debate alongside colleague Bret Baier, indicated in an interview with Vanity Fair last week that abortion and Trump’s criminal indictments will be on the table.

Both topics are tricky. While most Republicans favor strict abortion restrictions, many more moderate Republicans disagree, as do most independent voters, whose votes will be crucial in the general election.

On the issue of Trump’s indictments, most Republicans view the charges he faces as politically motivated, making the topic a fraught one for his rivals.

HOW IMPORTANT ARE DEBATES?

In some cases, during previous primary campaigns, poor performances have sunk candidacies, while strong performances have launched minor candidates into the top tier. Moreover, the debate will draw millions of viewers, many of whom will be tuning into the election for the first time, campaign strategists say.

The first debate generally marks the start of a more intense stage of the campaign in the months before the first nominating contest, in Iowa.

The debate could be particularly crucial for DeSantis, who is second in the polls behind Trump, but whose standing has slid throughout the summer. Allies say the debate could be a crucial inflection point if he performs well. If he performs poorly, he could sink back into the pack.

HOW MANY DEBATES ARE THERE?

So far, there are two scheduled, with the next taking place in southern California in September. Several more are likely, with an October debate likely to occur in Alabama, according to a person familiar with the operations of the Republican National Committee.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; additional reporting by Susan Heavey; editing by Ross Colvin, Alistair Bell and Bernadette Baum)

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By Jack Queen

ATLANTA (Reuters) -The first of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in Georgia’s criminal case accusing the former U.S. president and his associates of subverting his 2020 election loss surrendered at an Atlanta jail on Tuesday, according to county records and a statement.

Trump’s former lawyer John Eastman and Republican poll watcher Scott Hall both surrendered to the county sheriff’s office, two days before Trump himself was set to turn himself in to face his fourth criminal indictment this year.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican 2024 White House nomination, has lambasted all the prosecutions as politically motivated and continues to claim falsely that his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of fraud.

Eastman said in a statement he would surrender, the day after agreeing to a $100,000 bond agreement.

“I am here today to surrender to an indictment that should never have been brought,” Eastman said in the statement. “It represents a crossing of the Rubicon for our country, implicating the fundamental First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

Hall, a Republican poll watcher in Georgia’s Fulton County, was booked by the county’s sheriff’s office on Tuesday and has not yet been released, the jail records showed.

Hall previously agreed to a $10,000 bond deal requiring that he report to pre-trial supervision every 30 days.

Trump on Monday agreed to post a $200,000 bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening co-defendants or witnesses in the case.

In a 41-count Georgia indictment unveiled last week, Trump and 18 other defendants were charged with racketeering and other crimes over their efforts to reverse Trump’s loss in the state to Biden.

Prosecutors are seeking a trial in March, but the number of defendants and complexity of the case could lead to delays.

Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, sought last week to move the case to federal court and dismiss it on the grounds he is immune from prosecution for actions he took as a federal official.

Trump and the rest of the defendants are likely to raise similar arguments, which could cause delays as their lawyers spar with prosecutors in pretrial litigation.

Trump faces indictments in three other separate criminal cases.

He has been charged in Washington, D.C., over his efforts to overturn the election, in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office, and in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star.

(Reporting by Jack Queen, additional reporting by Jasper Ward and Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump plans to turn himself in and be processed at the Fulton County jail in Georgia on Thursday, CNN reported on Monday, citing sources.

That date was set during negotiations with the Fulton County district attorney’s office on Monday over his consent bond and release conditions, CNN reported.

In a 98-page Georgia indictment revealed last week, Trump and 18 other defendants were charged with a total of 41 criminal counts in connection with efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in the state.

When Trump surrenders, there will be a “hard lockdown” of the area surrounding the Rice Street Jail, the local sheriff’s office said earlier on Monday. It did not mention the timing of the surrender.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump will face a $200,000 bond and orders not to send threatening social media messages as the former U.S. president awaits trial in Georgia on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, a court filing on Monday showed.

The document, a bond agreement signed by Trump’s attorneys and Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis, also set out release terms including restrictions on intimidating witnesses and obstructing justice.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his co-defendants were indicted on Aug. 14. Willis gave them until Friday at noon ET (1600 GMT) to surrender or face arrest.

Prosecutors in the case have proposed that the trial start on March 4, while Trump’s lawyers have asked for a 2026 trial.

Trump’s reported surrender on Thursday will come a day after the first Republican primary presidential debate that the former president does not plan to attend.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Cynthia Osterman)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is asking a federal court to dismiss Georgia state criminal charges against him stemming from former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, according to a court document.

Meadows claims that his alleged actions, including participating with Trump in a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, should be immune from state prosecution because they were performed in his capacity as a federal official.

A 37-page document filed on Saturday with a U.S. district court in Georgia asserts that Meadows’ actions are protected by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution under which federal officials are immune from state prosecution for acts committed within the reasonable scope of their duties.

“The conduct charged here falls squarely within the scope of Mr. Meadows’s duties as chief of staff and the federal policy underlying that role,” Meadows’ attorneys said in the filing.

The document also claimed protection for Meadows under the First and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

The filing came days after Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman, sought to have the case brought against him moved from Georgia’s Fulton County to federal court.

Meadows and Trump were among 19 defendants named last week in a sweeping 41-count Georgia grand jury indictment claiming they “knowingly and willfully” took part in a conspiracy to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden in the state.

The indictment alleges that Meadows helped fuel the conspiracy by making false statements about the election and conspired with Trump to develop a plan to disrupt and delay the congressional certification of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

It also alleges that he tried to pressure a chief investigator in the Georgia secretary of state’s office to speed up the Fulton County signature verification and that he took part in a phone call in which Trump pushed Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Mary Milliken and Mark Porter)

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(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a commanding lead over his Republican rivals in the state of Iowa, where the party’s presidential nominating contest begins in January, according to an opinion poll released on Monday.

The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom survey of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers shows Trump has the backing of 42%, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 19% and U.S. Senator Tim Scott in third place with 9%.

Other Republican candidates in the crowded field aiming to take on Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election registered in lower single-digit numbers.

Even so, J. Ann Selzer, the veteran Iowa pollster whose firm conducted the survey, said the race is not settled and might be “closer than it may first seem.”

A majority — or 52% — said they had a first choice for president but could still be persuaded to support a different candidate, while 40% said their minds were made up.

Among Trump supporters, however, 66% said their vote was set, while 34% said they could be persuaded to change their minds.

Trump’s four indictments showed little signs of deterring his supporters. The poll found 65% of likely Republican caucusgoers didn’t think Trump had committed serious crimes, compared with the 26% who believed he had.

The poll was conducted Aug. 13-17, coinciding with news on Aug. 14 that a Georgia grand jury had issued an indictment accusing him of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.

The survey came ahead of Wednesday’s first Republican primary debate, which Trump has said he will skip, citing his large lead in polls.

A national CBS poll on Sunday showed Trump was the preferred candidate for 62% of Republican voters, with DeSantis trailing behind at 16%.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would skip the upcoming Republican primary debates, citing his large lead in opinion polls as evidence that he was already well-known and liked by voters ahead of the 2024 election.

Trump has for months suggested he would likely pass on Wednesday night’s debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arguing that it did not make sense to give his Republican rivals a chance to attack him given his sizeable lead in national polls.

On Sunday, a CBS poll showed he was the preferred candidate for 62% of Republican voters, with his closest rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 16%. All other candidates in the primary race had less than 10% support.

“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,” Trump said on his social media app, Truth Social. “I will therefore not be doing the debates.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a question asking if the former president meant he won’t be taking part in any of the Republican debates.

The New York Times reported that Trump sat for a taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was expected to be posted online on Wednesday. It was not yet clear where the interview with Carlson will be posted.

Trump’s absence from this week’s debate could mean DeSantis will become the focus of attacks from other candidates looking to position themselves as the primary alternative to the former president. The winner of the Republican nominating fight will take on Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.

DeSantis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo said the Florida governor was looking forward to being in Milwaukee to share his vision for a possible presidency.

“No one is entitled to this nomination, including Donald Trump. You have to show up and earn it,” Romeo said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month, Trump held 47% of the Republican vote nationally, with DeSantis dropping six percentage points from July down to just 13%. None of the other candidates due to attend the debate have broken out of single digits.

Trump has a Friday deadline to voluntarily surrender in Fulton County, Georgia, after being charged last week in a fourth criminal indictment, for an alleged scheme intended to reverse his 2020 election loss to Biden.

 

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne and James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Diane Craft)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prominent U.S. Senate Republican on Sunday said former President Donald Trump should drop out of the 2024 Republican White House race, arguing that Trump cannot win a general election contest against Democratic President Joe Biden.

Senator Bill Cassidy, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump at the former president’s second impeachment trial in 2021, described a federal documents case against Trump as “almost a slam dunk” and warned that voters would not elect someone convicted of a crime as president.

Asked if Trump should drop out of the presidential race, the Louisiana Republican told CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “I think so. But, obviously, that’s up to him. I mean, you’re just asking me my opinion. But he will lose to Joe Biden, if you look at the current polls.”

Cassidy, a Republican known for his bipartisan dealings, played a leading role in crafting a $1 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021.

Trump is the leading Republican presidential candidate despite mounting legal woes that include four criminal indictments, one of which involves his handling of U.S. classified documents after he left the White House in 2021.

“We may have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime. I think Joe Biden needs to be replaced but I don’t think Americans will vote for someone who’s been convicted. So, I’m just very sorry about how all this is playing out,” Cassidy said.

In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month, Trump held 47% of the Republican vote nationally, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropping six percentage points from July down to just 13%. None of the other candidates due to attend the first party primary debate on Wednesday have broken out of single digits.

Trump is expected to skip the debate and instead sit for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Mary Milliken and Mark Porter)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump plans to skip the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday and instead sit for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the New York Times reported, citing people brief on the matter.

The debate is being staged in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Ismail Shakil)

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By Minami Funakoshi and Disha Raychaudhuri

(Reuters) – Lawmakers in 37 U.S. states have introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for trans and gender-expansive people this year, nearly three times as many as last year.

Four-fifths target gender-affirming care for trans children under 18, while the remainder target adults or anyone regardless of age. Reuters has reviewed the bills, taking stock of where they stand in the approval process, the treatments they seek to restrict and the penalties they would impose.

SB 14

Texas governor Greg Abbott on June 2 signed into law SB 14, which bars transgender children under 18 from receiving hormone therapies and puberty blockers. It goes into effect next month.

Gender-affirming care covers a range of steps to support a person’s gender identity, from adopting a different name and pronouns to counseling. Around the start of adolescence, it can include medical treatment such as puberty blockers, hormones, and later, in some cases, surgery.

Donna Campbell, a Republican Texas state senator and one of the sponsors of SB14, said in April after the legislation passed that it aims to “protect Texas children from harmful, medically unnecessary gender modification treatments.”

SB 14 bans certain procedures only if they are performed for the purpose of “affirm[ing] a person’s perception of his or her sex if that perception is inconsistent with the person’s sex.” A third of the 142 bills introduced this year have such restrictions.

“If you, as the parent of a 16-year-old, want your child to have breast augmentation because she wants a larger bosom and she is a cisgender girl, she can do it,” said Dr. Diana Finkel, associate professor of medicine at Rutgers University Medical School, noting that the law would ban a trans girl from having the same surgery.

In a series last year, Reuters found that the number of children seeking gender-affirming medical care in the form of puberty blockers and hormone treatments has risen sharply in recent years. U.S. clinicians who provide gender-affirming care for minors broadly support medical interventions for adolescents when appropriate. But they also say there is a need for more research on the long-term efficacy and safety of such treatments, Reuters reported.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a global body of doctors and other experts specialized in treating trans and gender-diverse people, emphasizes the need for comprehensive assessments of an adolescent’s medical and mental health history to determine whether their gender-affirming care should include medical interventions.

In its most recent guidelines from last September, WPATH also noted that “despite the slowly growing body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of early medical invention, the number of studies is still low” and that there are few studies that follow children into adulthood.

In March, WPATH decried the “broad and sweeping legislation” in many U.S. states seeking to ban access to gender-affirming care and noted that such care covers a wide range of support, not just medical interventions. Such legislation was “in direct contradiction to decades of research and numerous studies touting the overwhelming mental and physical health benefits of gender-affirming care,” WPATH said.

22 BILLS PASSED

Indiana is among the 20 states where legislatures with Republican majorities have banned or restricted gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The bills are part of a wave of anti-trans legislation, which includes bans on trans girls participating in girls’ sports and measures requiring trans people to use the bathroom corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. Conservative lawmakers have placed gender identity at the heart of a divisive political debate over cultural values, which range from what can be taught in schools to tougher abortion laws.

Many Republican legislators say they want to protect the rights of parents in raising their children and to uphold their religious beliefs, while Democrats say conservatives are undermining public education and targeting vulnerable groups and women’s rights.

Three experts told Reuters that state-level bills are often seen as legislative testing grounds. Language in bills adopted in one state may surface in bills introduced in others or in Congress.

Indiana’s SB 480, signed into law on April 5, establishes a precedent for wide-ranging bans on gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and procedures such as:

“augmentation mammoplasty, facial feminization surgery, liposuction, lipofilling, voice surgery, thyroid cartilage reduction, gluteal augmentation, hair reconstruction, or associated aesthetic procedures” for minors assigned male at birth; and “subcutaneous mastectomy, voice surgery, liposuction, lipofilling, pectoral implants, or associated aesthetic procedures” for minors assigned female at birth.

The law was partially blocked by a federal judge on June 16 following a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four trans minors, their parents and an Indiana physician who provides gender-affirming care. The only part now in effect is the ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors.

The defendants in the lawsuit, which includes members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, appealed the temporary order.

9 BILLS PASSED AT LEAST ONE CHAMBER

Bills that pass one chamber of a state legislature are sent to the other for approval. If a bill passes both chambers, it is sent to the governor who may sign it into law or veto it.

93 BILLS INTRODUCED

Five experts told Reuters that even the introduction of bills seeking to ban gender-affirming care can cause uncertainty within the trans community and deter doctors from providing treatment.

“The mere introduction of these bills sends a message to transgender people in their state that they are not welcome or that there is this organized force that is trying to kick them out of their state,” said Vivian Topping, director of advocacy and civic engagement at Equality Federation, an organization that monitors U.S. state legislation affecting LGBTQ+ communities.

Two sponsors of the bills declined to answer Reuters’ questions on the legislation and its impact. Thirty of them did not respond.

18 BILLS VETOED OR FAILED

Some bills don’t get enough votes to pass both chambers during a legislative session. Bills also fail if a governor vetoes or declines to sign it into law.

RESTRICTING CARE FOR MINORS AND ADULTS

117 of the bills restrict gender-affirming care for trans children under the age of 18. Around 180,000 trans children aged 13-17 live in the states where lawmakers have introduced these bills, according to the Williams Institute, a research center at UCLA’s Law School focused on gender identity law and policy.

Supporters of these bills say they are protecting children who are too young to understand the health impacts of such care.

One side effect in children who take puberty blockers can be a decline in bone density, but this can often be treated with vitamin D or calcium supplements.

“The latest study we have showed that the bone density was back to average for the age after about two or three years of hormone treatment,” said Dr. Ole Petter Hamnvik, an endocrinologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It is still an area we are actively researching.”

A 2015 review of the effects of hormone therapy on trans people’s fertility found that it may reduce reproductive capability. Those impacts may be reversed if the person stops taking hormones, but the loss of fertility can be permanent in some cases. Trans men can get pregnant and give birth.

The Endocrine Society, a global medical organization devoted to hormone research, says in its guideline for treating gender dysphoria that most adolescents have “sufficient mental capacity to give informed consent” to hormone therapy by age 16.

28 of the bills – or one in five – restrict care for adults or for anyone regardless of age. Nearly 400,000 people above 18 live in states where these bills have been introduced.

WHO IS PROHIBITED FROM PROVIDING OR RECEIVING CARE?

108 of the bills prohibit healthcare providers: Of these bills, 16 ban mental health professionals from providing, assisting, or making referrals for gender-affirming care.

22 bills provide anyone from providing or assisting care: Using broader language, these bills prohibit any “person or entity” from providing or assisting gender-affirming care.

9 apply to parents: Some bills would take away custodial rights of parents who consent to gender-affirming care for their children.

3 bills directly ban trans people from undergoing gender-affirming care: One bill bans trans children under 18 from undergoing gender-affirming care. Two bills — one in Oklahoma and one in South Carolina — ban trans people under 21 from undergoing such care.

The Oklahoma bill says it is “unlawful” for people under 21 to undergo gender-affirming care and that doing so is a felony carrying a minimum three-year prison sentence and maximum of life.

These bills have not yet passed.

EXPOSING PEOPLE TO CIVIL LIABILITY AND CRIMINAL CHARGES

84 of the bills carry civil liability. These bills would make it legal for third parties to sue people who provide or assist gender-affirming care.

“What this is meant to do is essentially incentivize massive amounts of lawsuits that are impossible to stop and to make it impossible for any provider to actually provide this care,” said Alejandra Caraballo, clinical instructor at Harvard Law School.

76 bills suspend or revoke medical licenses: These bills would suspend or revoke licenses of healthcare professionals who provide gender-affirming care.

27 result in a felony charge: These bills would criminalize providing, assisting, or undergoing gender-affirming care. Twenty of them carry sentences ranging from four years to life.

As of publication, Reuters could not find cases where individuals were prosecuted under these laws.

MULTIPLE RESTRICTIONS

Almost 60% of bills contain multiple measures restricting gender-affirming care, from cutting health insurance coverage to revoking medical licenses and criminal charges. Eleven of them have already passed.

Experts in gender-affirming care say the expansive nature of these bills could affect many of the support networks for people who are transitioning.

Florida’s S 254

The bill signed into law by Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis on May 17 bans gender-affirming care for trans minors and prohibits nonphysicians, such as nurse practitioners, from providing gender-affirming care to trans adults. According to Planned Parenthood, 80% of such care is administered by nurses.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on June 6 that partially blocked this law, allowing three trans children to continue receiving puberty blockers. The state has appealed the injunction.

Thia law would remove custody from parents whose children receive gender-affirming care.

S 254 makes it a felony for healthcare practitioners to provide gender-affirming care for people under 18.

BANNING HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

27 bills across 15 states — 4 of which have passed — would ban Medicaid or publicly funded health plans from covering gender-affirming care. 18 bills across 12 states — only one of which has passed — would ban private health insurers from doing the same.

According to the think tank Movement Advancement Project, Medicaid policies in 26 states and D.C. explicitly cover transition healthcare.

North Carolina’s S 639

This North Carolina bill, introduced in April, prohibits providers receiving state funds from performing gender-affirming care for minors.

It bars government health plans from covering gender-affirming care.

This bill prohibits social workers, therapists and other mental health professionals from providing or “aiding and abetting” gender-affirming care for minors.

EXCEPTIONS TO GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE BANS

Most bills have exceptions to these bans, such as an exceptionally early onset of puberty.

One crucial exception: surgeries for intersex children, who are born with reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, or hormone levels that don’t fit into strict binary understandings of male and female sex.

112 out of the 142 bills explicitly allow pediatric surgeries on intersex children, which more than 30 countries have condemned as “medically unnecessary surgeries” that violate human rights.

Tennessee’s SB 1, which went into effect on April 1, bans doctors from providing gender-affirming care to trans minors and has exceptions for intersex children. In April, the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint challenging the law, saying it violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which promises equal protection.

(Reporting by Minami Funakoshi and Disha Raychaudhuri; Editing by Julia Wolfe, Suzanne Goldenberg and Daniel Flynn)

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(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had canceled a press conference scheduled for next week to release a report into the 2020 election in Georgia, saying his attorneys would put his arguments in court filings instead.

Trump said earlier this week that he would hold the press conference on Monday to release a detailed, 100-page report into what he described as “election fraud” in the state of Georgia during the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has been charged in Georgia and in federal court with attempting to overturn those election results.

“Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Therefore, he added, the news conference was no longer necessary.

Since his defeat in 2020, Trump has repeatedly claimed that the election was marred by widespread fraud. Those claims have been rejected by courts, state reviews and members of his own administration.

 

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Dan Whitcomb)

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