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César Chávez’s family demands RFK Jr. stop using images of the iconic labor leader in his campaign
LOS ANGELES — The family of César Chávez wants independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop referencing the late labor and civil rights leader on the campaign trail.
“We respectfully call upon you and your campaign to cease using images of our father to associate yourself with him and suggest your campaign’s goals are compatible,” said the letter signed by Chávez’s eldest son, Fernando Chávez.
“It is our sincere conviction that this association is untrue and deceptive,” he added.
The letter said that the family would “pursue all legal action available” if Kennedy failed to halt his campaign’s use of the United Farm Workers co-founder’s name and imagery.
The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, ahead of César Chávez Day, the family formally endorsed President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. One of César Chávez’s granddaughters, Julie Rodriguez Chavez, serves as Biden’s 2024 campaign manager.
Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s partner in founding the UFW, has also remained a Biden ally.
In 1968, Kennedy’s father, former Attorney General Robert Kennedy Sr., flew to California to join Chavez after he had engaged in a water-only fast for 25 days. Kennedy Sr., at the time running for the Democratic presidential nomination, lent considerable political backing to the farm labor movement’s nonviolent efforts, which included a multi-year strike of the California grape industry. His relationship with Chavez was a key marker for the Democratic Party’s embrace of the farmworkers’ labor rights movement. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.
Kennedy Jr. is holding an event this weekend in Los Angeles that his campaign said will “celebrate the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez, a good friend of RFK and RFK, Jr.” The invitation for the event includes a photo of Kennedy Sr. and Chavez.
In July 2023, at a conference for The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Kennedy commented on his family’s relationship with Chavez.
“My father’s close, and probably most important political alliance, which was César Chávez, who helped him win the California Primary during the last day of his life and remained a very, very close friend of mine for most of my adult life,” Kennedy said.
Katherine Koretski contributed.
Democrat who flipped Alabama House seat says pro-abortion rights campaign was “deeply personal”
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Biden’s NYC fundraiser with Obama, Clinton rakes in record $26 million for campaign
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Biden’s latest campaign strategy: Get under Trump’s skin
As President Joe Biden works to defeat Donald Trump, he’s increasingly focused on another goal he thinks will help him achieve that: getting under his skin.
In recent weeks, both in private and public settings, Biden has ramped up personal, biting and often sarcastic broadsides against his Republican opponent, targeting his financial challenges, his campaign tempo and even his weight.
It’s a strategy largely driven by Biden himself, according to multiple aides and advisers familiar with the approach.
“This is him and we’re following his lead,” one Biden aide said. “There’s just something about Joe Biden that gets under Donald Trump’s skin more than anybody, and I think Joe Biden knows that.”
At a star-studded fundraiser that brought in $26 million for his campaign Thursday evening, Biden was asked what was at stake in the 2024 election. After giving an answer criticizing Trump’s positions broadly, he concluded: “All the things he’s doing are so old … a little old and out of shape.”
Biden also took a jab at the former president’s physical stamina while telling a story recounting a brief conversation they had about golf at the White House shortly after Trump’s election.
“I told him this once before when he came into the Oval before he was sworn in. I said, ‘I’ll give you three strokes, but you carry your own bag,’” Biden said to laughs.
The president came up with those jokes on his own, according to two aides and a senior adviser, who pointed out that Biden is often using similar quips in internal staff meetings.
“He comes up with these off the cuff,” one of the aides said.
Earlier this month, the president also directly addressed Trump’s legal woes and financial issues, saying “the other day a defeated man” who was “crushed by debt” had approached him.
“I had to say, ‘I’m sorry Donald, I can’t help you,’” Biden told a group of donors in Houston last week.
His campaign has even labeled Trump as “Broke Don.”
Biden’s team thinks those kinds of comments and jokes might resonate with voters for two reasons: because it’s “rooted,” one aide said, in who Biden is at his core and because it wouldn’t work as well if it didn’t have some authenticity to it.
While contrasting their policy positions is important to the president, an adviser said Biden is “totally the driver” of presenting a “stark” character difference with Trump as well.
The most natural place to do that is on the campaign trail, aides say, which has already been on clear display in recent weeks.
Biden has regularly been referring to Trump as a “loser,” underscoring the fact that the lost the 2020 election in both private fundraisers and in on-camera remarks at campaign field office openings.
Aides and advisers only expect to this to continue in the coming months as the campaign enters full general election mode.
“He has Donald Trump read like a book and it’s fun to watch,” a Biden aide said.
Asked for a response to the president’s quips, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung criticized Biden for hosting a fundraiser with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton while Trump attended the wake Thursday for slain New York police officer Jonathan Diller.
“President Trump honored the life and legacy of Officer Diller and paid respects to his family, friends, and the NYPD for their terrible loss,” Cheung said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the Three Stooges —Biden, Obama, and Clinton — were at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors.”
In smaller meetings with senior staff, Biden will make jokes about Trump that then get launched into larger digital content that the re-election effort uses on various social media platforms.
The most notable manifestation of that has been leaning into the “Dark Brandon” meme, which features a photo of Biden with red lasers shooting out of his eyes.
Biden himself has fully embraced the image that originated in right-wing circles, in an attempt to mock the conspiracy theories that bore it.
At the end of the New York City fundraising event with Obama and Clinton, the trio did their best impressions of Biden by donning his infamous aviator sunglasses.
Before leaving the stage, Biden quipped: “By the way, Dark Brandon is real.”
Biden campaign to launch ad targeting former Nikki Haley voters
President Joe Biden’s campaign, flush with cash after Thursday’s $26 million fundraiser in New York, is putting some of that advantage into a new ad that will directly aim to sway supporters of Nikki Haley to support the Democrat’s re-election.
Senior members of the Biden campaign played the planned ad during a meeting of the National Finance Committee in New York on Friday, two sources in attendance told NBC News. The Biden campaign later posted a version of it to X.
The ad features former President Donald Trump, in his own words, calling the former South Carolina governor “Birdbrain” and saying her supporters were not welcome in his campaign.
In a January post on his Truth Social website, Trump said: “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them.”
Trump walked back that threat after Haley exited the race, saying in a post that he “would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.”
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to comment about the new ad, including how widely it would air on paid television.
Trump never lost a Republican nominating contest this year, securing his party’s nomination for the third consecutive presidential election earlier this month to set up the longest general election campaign in the nation’s history.
Biden advisers, though, have been closely tracking the level of support, both in earlier, contested Republican primaries and caucuses as well as those that followed Haley’s decision to end her campaign for indicators of where Democrats can potentially pick up support from independent and even Republican voters who voted against Trump.
Moderate and anti-Trump Republicans contributed to Biden’s victory in 2020. Some political observers told NBC News in March that former Haley voters could make a difference in some battleground states, including Pennsylvania, which Biden narrowly won in 2020.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said in a statement after the South Carolina Republican ended her bid. Biden also praised Haley for having the “courage” to challenge the former president.
The Trump campaign is pushing back on the Biden campaign’s efforts. A Trump campaign senior official said a “good chunk of the people who voted for Nikki in some states” were “Democrats.”
“We’ve made it clear that the door is always open” to Republican Haley supporters, the official added. “We have no doubt that we’re going to get them back because they’re facing a choice between continued slide downhill from an economic standpoint, from a security standpoint, from a border security standpoint, and more of the same.”
Allan Smith and Ali Vitali contributed.
Republican committee to select Ken Buck’s likely replacement, adding a challenge to Lauren Boebert’s campaign
DENVER — A panel of Colorado Republicans will select a candidate Thursday who will likely serve out the final months of U.S. Rep. Ken Buck ’s term — and could pose a challenge to Rep. Lauren Boebert’s bid for another term in Congress.
It’s an unusual and confusing twist in a closely watched primary race for a district the far-right Republican Boebert has not represented previously. Whoever the committee chooses is expected to prevail in the special election against the Democratic nominee, finish Buck’s term and reinforce Republicans’ slim majority in the U.S. House.
But the decision could have farther-reaching consequences. The committee is expected to pick one of the current Republican primary candidates competing for the same seat. Boebert opted to finish her current term in her old district, and the committee will likely select one of her rivals.
Whoever is picked would be running in two separate races for the same seat until the June election, giving them greater notoriety, media coverage and expanded fundraising opportunities — a boon for most of the candidates who fall far short of Boebert’s national name brand and campaign chest.
“Ken Buck really threw a wrench into the whole thing,” said Seth Masket, director at the Center on American Politics in Denver, who noted that it’s unclear what Buck’s intentions are. “It was already a fairly topsy-turvy race, but I think this does make it a little bit harder for her.”
Boebert said in a recent statement that the move was interference: “The establishment concocted a swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election.”
The congresswoman has built a far-right name with a ferocious political style, in step with the accusation of election rigging, and remains a known, if divisive, quantity among conservatives nationwide.
While Boebert has made headlines with scandals, including a tape of her groping and vaping with a date in a Denver theater, she’s also garnered endorsements from former President Donald Trump and current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Whoever is picked would be running in two separate races for the same seat until the June election, giving them greater notoriety, media coverage and expanded fundraising opportunities — a boon for most of the candidates who fall far short of Boebert’s national name brand and campaign chest.
“Ken Buck really threw a wrench into the whole thing,” said Seth Masket, director at the Center on American Politics in Denver, who noted that it’s unclear what Buck’s intentions are. “It was already a fairly topsy-turvy race, but I think this does make it a little bit harder for her.”
Boebert said in a recent statement that the move was interference: “The establishment concocted a swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election.”
The congresswoman has built a far-right name with a ferocious political style, in step with the accusation of election rigging, and remains a known, if divisive, quantity among conservatives nationwide.
While Boebert has made headlines with scandals, including a tape of her groping and vaping with a date in a Denver theater, she’s also garnered endorsements from former President Donald Trump and current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
She defended the move by saying her voice is still needed in Congress, and that her exodus from the old district makes it easier for Republicans to retain the seat, and therefore their majority in the U.S. House.
The option to district hop was opened to Boebert after Buck announced he wouldn’t run for reelection last year, citing his party’s handling of Trump.
Then, earlier this month, Buck abruptly resigned, pointing to the “bickering and nonsense” he said now pervades the U.S. Capitol. Buck left Congress on March 22.
Trump says he ‘might’ spend his money on his presidential campaign
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he “might” spend his own money on his 2024 presidential campaign, which he hasn’t done on his campaigns since 2016.
“I might do that,” Trump said in remarks at his 40 Wall Street building in Lower Manhattan, adding to reporters, “It’s none of your business.”
“I have a lot of cash and a great company,” Trump said. “I might spend a lot of money on my campaign.”
The former president said New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled that Trump would owe a $464 million judgment in the state’s civil fraud case against him, doesn’t want Trump to use his cash to get elected.
“They don’t want me taking cash out,” said Trump, who seemed to be referring to both Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump made the remarks after he left a Manhattan courtroom for a hearing for his New York criminal case. Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the hush money case, ruled that the trial would begin April 15.
While he was in court, a state appeals court ruled that Trump and his co-defendants in the New York civil fraud case have 10 days to post a $175 million bond, down from the $464 million judgment that was originally due Monday.
In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump on Friday claimed that he had nearly $500 million in cash that he had planned to use toward his 2024 presidential campaign. The former president, however, hasn’t put his own money into his presidential campaigns since 2016, including a $10 million donation he made in the days before his election. Instead, he has relied more heavily on small-dollar online donations to power his political efforts.
Biden’s campaign has significantly outraised Trump so far during this presidential cycle, with Biden’s campaign closing February with $71 million in the bank compared to Trump’s $33.5 million. The gap is even wider when Democratic and Republican party committees are also taken into account.
Ben Kamisar and Garrett Haake contributed.
Tim Scott’s presidential campaign is burning through cash
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DeSantis replaces campaign manager as he continues reset of presidential bid
NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is replacing his campaign manager as the Florida governor continues to reset his stagnant presidential campaign.
The Florida governor is bringing on James Uthmeier, his chief of staff from his state office, to serve as his campaign manager, replacing Generra Peck, who led DeSantis’ reelection campaign last year before jumping into the same role on his presidential bid.
Peck will stay on as a strategist.
The changes come after DeSantis made two big staff cuts in the past few weeks, laying off about a third of his staff in late July as the campaign faced financial trouble.
“James Uthmeier has been one of Governor DeSantis’ top advisers for years, and he is needed where it matters most: working hand in hand with Generra Peck and the rest of the team to put the governor in the best possible position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement.
Politico in October obtained text messages that showed Uthmeier was involved in Florida’s program to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year.
NBC News reported in June that while Uthmeier remained in DeSantis’ government office, he was also working as a political fundraiser for the governor’s presidential campaign. The arrangement was unusual and government watchdog groups said it raised ethical questions.
Before he worked for DeSantis, Uthmeier worked in the Trump administration for U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, where his work on the efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census later became part of a congressional committee investigation.
DeSantis is also hiring an operative who was working on a super PAC that had been supporting his campaign. David Polyansky, who had been advising Never Back Down, will join the campaign as a deputy campaign manager.
Romeo said Polyansky will be a critical addition to the team given his previous experience working in early voting Iowa, which has become a proving ground for the DeSantis campaign.
Polyansky worked on the presidential campaigns of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016. In Iowa, he helped Joni Ernst first win election to the U.S. Senate in 2014 and helped Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee win in the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses in 2008.
Polyansky was traveling with DeSantis in Iowa to events sponsored by Never Back Down on Saturday. He also attended an event DeSantis spoke to on behalf of Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird Saturday, as part of Never Back Down’s organizing presence apart from DeSantis’ official campaign.
The staff shakeup was first reported by The Messenger on Tuesday.
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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines contributed to this report.