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| Hello hello, OnPolitics readers! |
| President Joe Biden will argue democracy is at stake amid rising threats of political violence during a speech tonight fewer than 70 days before the midterm elections. |
| Democrats are out to label Republicans as increasingly extreme. It's why Biden adopted a new name to define the opposition: "ultra-MAGA Republicans" – a reference to the political movement spawned by his predecessor. |
| But that's just one layer of the strategy. Midterm elections are historically referendums on the incumbent president. Republicans prefer that framing this November. |
| Although Biden's approval rating has increased after a series of legislative wins and declining gas prices, a majority of Americans still disapprove of his job performance. Democrats want to avoid a referendum by making the election about much more – abortion rights, the survival of Social Security, climate and even democracy itself. |
| How to watch: Biden set to deliver the remarks at 8 p.m. ET outside Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, a crucial Senate battleground – and also where Biden launched his 2020 presidential campaign. |
| USA TODAY's YouTube Channel will stream the speech, as well as the White House's YouTube channel. |
| It's Ella & Amy with today's top stories out of Washington. |
Jan. 6 rioter pleads guilty to assaulting late Capitol Police officer |
| The Jan. 6 rioter who pepper-sprayed the late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick pleaded guilty Thursday and faces more than six years in prison when sentenced. |
| Julian Khater, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon. He faces 78 to 97 months in prison when sentenced Dec. 13 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, under federal guidelines – one of the longest sentences yet from the insurrection. Khater also faces an obligation to pay restitution to victims of the attack who suffered bodily injury, which will be determined at sentencing, Hogan said. |
| Hogan's recitation of the details of the assault described Khater spraying three officers in the face – two of Capitol Police and one of D.C. Metro police – with pepper spray, though court records say Khater asked for the bear spray after police sprayed rioters with pepper spray. |
| A video recording captured Khater spraying Sicknick during the siege. Sicknick died the next day of what was ruled natural causes from strokes. |
| Witness testimony: A fellow officer's description of the assault on Sicknick provided some of the most riveting testimony during House investigative hearings about the Capitol attack. |
| "All of a sudden, I see movement to the left of me and I turned and it was Officer Sicknick with his head in this hands," Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testified June 9 at a hearing of the House committee investigating the attack. "And he was ghostly pale, which I figured at that point that he had been sprayed and I was concerned." |
Real Quick: stories you'll want to read |
| • | Judge rules Graham must testify: A federal judge refused to quash a grand jury subpoena for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to testify in a Georgia investigation into interference in the 2020 election by former President Donald Trump and his allies. | | • | Ginni Thomas pressured lawmakers: After Trump's loss in the 2020 election, at least two Wisconsin lawmakers received an email from Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist and wife to a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, urging the legislators to change the outcome of Wisconsin's presidential election, according to a new report. | | • | What do these Mar-a-Lago photos mean? A photograph showing top secret records strewn across the floor at ex-President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate shed light on a DOJ investigation. See our full breakdown of the documents. | | • | Who is Mary Peltola? Mary Peltola won Alaska's special congressional election Wednesday and will finish the remainder term of the late Rep. Don Young until January. She will be the first Alaska native to serve in Congress and first woman to hold the seat for the state. | |
Meet Trump's record keepers, who have gained significance amid Mar-a-Lago probe |
| White House personnel who oversee the handling of presidential records and classified documents typically don't generate news headlines. |
| The job requires ensuring White House staffers don't take presidential records when they leave, and coordinating document submissions with National Archives officials. |
| But former President Donald Trump's present and former record keepers are in the national public spotlight now that a Department of Justice investigation found classified records in Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion roughly a year and a half after he left office, and months after his attorneys assured investigators the documents had been handed over. |
| As the investigation continues amid a court battle over the FBI search that turned up some of the missing top-secret documents, at least two of Trump's former record keepers have been interviewed by the FBI about the findings. Neither they nor any of the other Trump record keepers have been accused of doing anything improper. |
| Who did Trump appoint? During and after Trump's one-term presidency, he designated several White House attorneys – and later, a conservative reporter and a political acolyte – to oversee records required to be submitted to the National Archives and Records Administration under the Presidential Records Act. For the full look at the people who have served as Trump's official record keepers, click here. |
| Blocked out 📱 Google has not approved former President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform for the Google Play Store over content moderation concern. -- Amy and Ella |
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