In recent weeks, regulatory agencies have been racing against the clock to finalize some of their most consequential policies, such as abortion data privacy, antidiscrimination protections for transgender patients and nursing home minimum staffing. 

At issue is the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a fast-track legislative tool that allows lawmakers to nullify rules even after the executive branch has completed them. The CRA also bars agencies from pursuing “substantially similar” rules going forward, unless Congress orders it. 

Rules can be protected if they are finished before the “look-back” window opens in the last 60 legislative days of the 2024 session. But because of the quirks of the congressional calendar, nobody will likely know when that is until after Congress adjourns for the year. 

According to a review from the George Washington University, that window has often fallen between May and August, most regularly occurring in July.

Most of the major rules that supporters of the administration were concerned about were published in April. Advocacy groups praised the White House for finalizing regulations they said will protect vulnerable populations.

“The administration is advancing important work with respect to health care, affordability, and access,” said Ben Anderson, deputy senior director of health policy at the left-leaning consumer advocacy group Families USA. “If rules aren’t finalized soon enough in the calendar, then everything's sort of at risk of being undone by a future Congress.”

Resolutions of disapproval are not subject to filibuster rules and need only a simple majority of the House and Senate to agree in order to pass. If the president signs the resolution, regulations can be undone in days, rather than the months or years it would take going through the normal notice-and-comment period. 

If former President Trump wins again and ushers in GOP control of Congress in 2025, the CRA could be a powerful tool to undo the agenda of the Biden White House.

"We don't know what's going to happen in November. So I'm not sure that we'd necessarily think about legacy at this point. But what we're seeing are really important advances to protecting access and affordability for health care," Anderson said.

The CRA was passed in 1996, a part of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R-Ga.) “Contract with America.” Republicans have used it more than Democrats, though prior to 2017, Congress had only used it once to repeal a final rule. 

“[CRA] wasn't on people's radar the way it is now. We were aware of it, but we weren't thinking about the deadline the way they are now,” said Susan Dudley, former administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under former President George W. Bush.

But during the Trump administration, Congress used the CRA to overturn 16 rules issued toward the end of former President Obama’s term, including one involving family planning grants.

That history has likely led to a scramble among agencies.

Dudley, who is the founder of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, said there were more major rules issued in April than in any other month since 1981.

“I think what we're seeing that's different this year is there's so much more awareness, especially because we know who the nominee is by now, and we know he's used CRA before. And so I think there's just much more acute awareness of this deadline,” Dudley said. 

Among the rules health care advocates had been pushing hard for were ones that would expand protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, privacy regulation for people seeking abortions, as well as another to protect LGBTQ patients from discrimination. Both were released last week and could be likely targets of a future Trump administration.

Liz McCaman Taylor, a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program, said she had been most anticipating the abortion privacy rule, which blocks health providers and insurers from disclosing protected health information to state officials to aid in the investigation, prosecution or suing of someone who sought or provided an abortion.

“It really responds to the moment we're in post-Dobbs, where people are traveling for care, but also, technology is such that ... my health care data travels with me,” McCaman Taylor said. “Your data can follow you, but that could also haunt you in a situation where providers are truly very fearful of the consequences.”

The antidiscrimination rule itself reinstated and expanded protections that had been gutted under a rule from the Trump administration. So even if a rule can’t be overturned with the CRA, there are still other pathways. Lawsuits filed in conservative courts can also nullify the rules, especially if a new administration takes over and decides not to defend a policy it disagrees with.

Dania Douglas, a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program, said she had been concerned that the administration wouldn’t be able to finish key rules before the CRA “look-back period,” especially because of the uncertainty about when it would fall. 

But that hasn’t been the case.  

"The Biden administration has been doing a lot of work around health care equity ... in the last two weeks, so many of the rules that provide these really critical protections have been issued,” Douglas said. 

She specifically referenced a rule bolstering antidiscrimination protections in health care for people with disabilities, something that hadn’t been updated in nearly 50 years. 

“I think the Biden-Harris administration was very aware of this CRA deadline and worked very hard to try to get these rules out in April ... at a time when they think it will hopefully be safe from the CRA look-back period,” Douglas said.

A new poll from Decision Desk HQ/News Nation found 46 percent of voters think Trump is the better pick to deal with the border. Roughly a quarter, or 26 percent, think President Biden is the candidate to trust, and another 13 percent weren’t sure. 

Split up by party, support is higher for the Republicans’ candidate on immigration – with 85 percent of GOP voters picking Trump and 61 percent of Democrat voters picking Biden.

Immigration is a key issue in the 2024 race as Biden and Trump both campaign for another four years in the White House. It just topped Gallup’s list of most important problems for Americans for the third straight month, surging above government, inflation and the economy in general. Notably, though, immigration came in behind inflation in the DDHQ poll. 

Republicans have seized on issues at the border as they seek to expand their House majority and flip the senate in November, bashing the Biden administration for its management. 

Trump has leaned into incendiary rhetoric about immigration along the campaign trail, warning about “migrant crime” and suggesting immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country.  

Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign has warned that “we cannot go back” to the Trump administration’s handling of the issue. 

“Here’s what I will not do: I will not demonize immigrants, saying they ‘poison the blood of our country,’ as he said in his own words,” Biden said at the State of the Union this year, with a jab at Trump.

Six in 10 voters in the new DDHQ poll say immigration has had a negative impact on the country. Notably, though, just 47 percent say the matter has had a negative impact on their own community. 

Sixty-three percent of all voters say they’re very or somewhat concerned about immigrants voting illegally, with nearly nine in 10 Republicans expressing that worry. 

Research shows noncitizen voting is extremely rare, despite recent debunked rumors suggesting migrants are registering to vote in swing states. 

Recent analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that “any instance of illegally cast ballots by noncitizens has been investigated by the appropriate authorities, and there is no evidence that these votes—or any other instances of voter fraud—have been significant enough to impact any election’s outcome.” 

Decision Desk HQ, at the direction of NewsNation, polled 1,000 registered voters between April 16-17. The margins of error vary across questions due to item non-response and the base rate, but a comparable probability survey would have the margins of error reported as plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

Rafael Bernal contributed. 

That was the consensus among senior Trump campaign aides on Oct. 7, 2016, after stepping out of a Trump Tower conference room, where the then-presidential candidate’s debate prep session was underway. There was to be a huddle about a more pressing matter. 

A Washington Post reporter had notified the campaign that, in two hours, the paper planned to publish what became known as the “Access Hollywood” tape, a scandal that nearly ended Trump’s first bid for president one month out from Election Day.

Hope Hicks, who received the reporter’s email, took the stand in former President Trump’s New York hush money trial on Friday to detail her efforts to tamp down the chaos that followed, coupled with the revelations of hush money payments made to keep two women quiet about alleged affairs with the business mogul.

A fixture in Trump’s inner orbit who served as his press secretary at the time, Hicks’s role shaping media narratives placed her at the center of it all — making her testimony in the trial critical to the Manhattan district attorney’s case. 

Hicks was one of the first staffers to work on Trump's 2016 campaign and quickly became one of his most trusted advisers. She served in the Trump White House over two separate stints, departing in early 2018 and eventually joining Fox's corporate team before returning to the White House in early 2020 as a senior adviser. 

She previously appeared before a Washington grand jury as special counsel Jack Smith probed whether Trump knew he lost the 2020 election. Trump has since been charged in Washington, D.C., over his attempts to remain in power after the 2020 election. 

Hicks has not been part of Trump's political circle since the end of his first term and does not have a role in his 2024 campaign, though people familiar with the matter said there is no tension between the two. 

Hicks appeared nervous to be on the stand, at times running her hand through her hair and fidgeting with her earrings. Moments after indicating she doubted an explanation for the hush money payment Trump told her years ago, Hicks broke down in tears.

But before prosecutors questioned Hicks about the hush money, much of her testimony concerned the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, which marked a watershed moment in Trump’s 2016 campaign and ignited rampant speculation that the business mogul’s political ambitions had run their course. 

On the tape, Trump is heard boasting about grabbing women inappropriately and seemingly without their consent, off-the-cuff remarks captured while on set of a soap opera more than 10 years earlier. 

“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” he says in the tape. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab ’em by the p----. You can do anything.” 

“I was concerned,” Hicks testified Friday about when she learned of the tape. “I was very concerned.” 

Now, the former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with reimbursements his then-fixer received after paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. Trump, who denies the affair, pleaded not guilty. 

While the tape is not at the center of the case, the district attorney’s office is attempting to connect the fallout from Trump's remarks on it to the Daniels payment as part of efforts to portray Trump’s charges as a criminal conspiracy to corruptly influence the 2016 election. 

Hicks detailed learning of the hush money payments made to Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal.

When discussing the McDougal payment, Hicks testified that Trump expressed concern about how his wife, Melania, would react, bolstering one of Trump's defenses in the case: that the motivation behind the hush money was to save embarrassment for Trump's family, rather than to preserve his political fortune before the election. 

But at other moments, Hicks gave testimony key to the prosecution's case of an election conspiracy. She testified about a conversation she had with Trump where he indicated ex-fixer Michael Cohen had made the payment to Daniels out of the goodness of his heart, a characterization she questioned.

Hicks added that Trump told her it was a good thing the Daniels payment story had made waves after he had already won the 2016 election, right before she broke down on the stand.

Prosecutors say the fallout from the “Access Hollywood” tape upped the ante for letting Daniels’s salacious allegations surface publicly just before Election Day, attempting to convince jurors that the hush money deal was part of a broader criminal conspiracy.

Hicks had been brought up earlier in the trial during the testimony of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who said she was in the room when Pecker met Trump to initially establish an agreement to “catch and kill” salacious stories about the then-candidate in order for them to never surface in the news.

But some of Hicks’s most compelling testimony was recounting the damage control she managed during the two hours between when the campaign was notified of the “Access Hollywood” tape by the Post and the story publishing.

Hicks said two strategies emerged as she forwarded the Post’s comment request to four senior campaign aides, including Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. 

“Need to hear the tape to be sure” it’s accurate, or “deny, deny, deny.” 

“Strategy number two was going to be a little more difficult,” Hicks said once she realized the reporter had provided a transcript of the tape. 

Hicks then headed upstairs to a Trump Tower conference room, she said, where Trump was conducting a debate preparation session for his then-rival, Hillary Clinton.

Hicks said she motioned for a few aides to join her outside so as not to disturb the preparations, and they huddled about what to do. 

“Everyone was just absorbing the shock of it,” Hicks testified. 

Trump, who could see them through the conference room windows, eventually caught on that there was a problem and demanded his aides come back inside and explain the situation, Hicks said. 

When confronted with the comment request, Trump told Hicks that it “didn’t sound like something he would say,” she testified. But the first time he saw the tape, he was upset, she said. He later told her the remarks were “pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting.” 

After a weekend filled with Republicans scrambling to figure out what to do, including what would happen if Trump ended his bid that late into the election cycle, the former reality television host managed to reengineer media attention toward his efforts to seat sexual abuse accusers of Clinton’s husband, former President Clinton, in a VIP box at the very debate he was prepping for at the time the “Access Hollywood” tape leaked.

Trump went on to beat Clinton in the general election a month later.

Brett Samuels contributed. 

It’s not yet clear if Kennedy, who has seen scattered polling throughout his candidacy, will even be able to qualify for a televised forum, as the independent candidate has also yet to collect enough signatures for most state ballots.

But discontent with the two parties’ standard-bearers has opened up a potential third choice, especially one with access to considerable money, making a square-off among the three polarizing figures a possibility.

“If Bobby can consistently poll at 15 percent and better from now [until] fall, coupled with increasing ballot access, he has a legit shot at making the debate stage,” a Kennedy ally familiar with the campaign’s messaging strategy told The Hill. 

The first presidential debate on the commission’s calendar is slated for Sept. 16 in Texas, followed by a vice presidential showing on Sept. 25 in Pennsylvania. Two more productions are slated for October in Virginia and Utah. 

Kennedy has made it known that he wants to get in on the debate action. He’s angling to go head-to-head with Biden and Trump, and has called for an open exchange of ideas and critique of existing policy in front of the American public. He wants voters to envision a November election that looks beyond a dismal two-party rematch.

“I should have a spot in those debates,” Kennedy said in an appearance on Fox News this week. “There’s all these really existential issues and neither of them can really deal with them.”

“We are in a more toxic polarization and division than any time since the American Civil War,” he said.

As the drama builds, Biden and Trump have not been enthusiastic about the idea of getting into it with Kennedy, whom they both view as a menace, regardless of the host or timeline of the debate. 

For one, it could simply elevate the third-party contender as Trump and Biden poll neck-and-neck. Kennedy has family name recognition but is not as widely known as the current or former president, who enjoy the benefits of each having held the White House. 

At this point in the race, it’s also unclear whose campaign he could rattle more drastically. Biden and Trump are each vying for support among covered voters who feel frustrated with Washington politics. That includes independents, who famously swing either way and with whom Kennedy has sought to identify this cycle. 

Aaron Kall, who serves as director of debate at the University of Michigan, said Kennedy could also throw another “wild card” onto the stage as Biden and Trump each want to grab the spotlight and avoid miscues amid questions about their age and mental fitness.

For now, Democrats and Republicans still see Kennedy as an unlikely candidate, though they’re each paying closer attention to his campaign than in the past. His media circuit has mostly consisted of podcasts and alternative shows with select cable news appearances. Showing up in front of a national audience as a contrast to his two competitors could showcase him in front of a much wider audience.

Still, there’s a fundamental question of whether Biden and Trump will even debate each other. Though Trump has said he’d debate Biden “anytime, anywhere, any place,” the former president skipped out on all of the Republican primary debates held this cycle, a move decried by many of his ex-competitors and by the Biden campaign. There’s no guarantee he won’t do that again.

Team Biden, meanwhile, has said he’s “happy” to debate Trump, going perhaps further than some of his more hesitant comments on the prospect in recent months. 

Trump, while in New York this week for his hush money trial, claimed he doesn’t “know anything” about Kennedy, the candidate he called in a recent Truth Social post “a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden.” 

“Look, RFK is polling very low. He’s not a serious candidate,” Trump said in Manhattan, when asked whether or not he’d debate the independent.

“They say he hurts Biden – I don’t know who he hurts, he might hurt me, I don’t know. But he has very low numbers, certainly not numbers that he can debate with. And he’s gotta get his numbers up a lot higher before he’s credible,” Trump added. 

Some strategists believe Biden has the edge over his two rivals, given Trump’s ongoing legal strife and questions about Kennedy’s viability.

“I do think that President Biden will come out a clear winner if all three of them get up on that stage,” said Democratic strategist Kristen Hawn, as new polling suggests Kennedy’s bid could do more harm to Trump. 

Hawn also noted that the timeline of Trump’s criminal trials is still up in the air, and legal obligations could complicate plans for a debate – or simply draw more attention to them. 

Some of Kennedy's allies have said that regardless of his troubles with the law, Trump could still want to engage on stage if given the chance. “He’s open to mixing things up,” said the source familiar with Kennedy’s campaign. “He’s more than willing to debate Bobby.” 

Biden’s boosters, including within the Democratic National Committee, however, may be much less willing to advise the incumbent president to debate Kennedy. Democrats have made it clear that they see him as someone who spouts conspiracy theories about vaccines and whose aligned super PAC takes money from Trump donors. 

“The DNC will do everything they can to deny Bobby a podium,” the pro-Kennedy source speculated. 

Kennedy and the Democratic Party apparatus have been at odds much of this year, with Kennedy picking them apart for being biased toward Biden and committee officials criticizing his bid as a way to elevate Trump and building a narrative that he’s a “spoiler.”

“The DNC orchestrated a notably skewed democratic primary, resulting in Biden emerging as their nominee. Now, their stuck with Biden, who can't beat Trump,” Kennedy wrote on X on Friday. “Can someone make this make sense?”

Kennedy convened a press conference on Wednesday in New York City attempting to flip the script on Biden, claiming that the president cannot beat Trump in a three-way contest and that he is, in his own estimation, the true “spoiler” – a point he would likely address in a debate setting.

Democrats were quick to call out Kennedy’s briefing as merely a gimmick to divert the focus away from his own long-shot effort. 

“Nothing but a media stunt meant to distract from the fact that he has no path to getting the 270 electoral college votes needed to win,” said Doug Gordon, a Democratic strategist.

“Since he can't win, his candidacy will only serve to take votes away from other candidates. And no stunt will change that,” Gordon said. “Staying in a race you have no path to winning is the definition of a spoiler.”

Kall, the presidential debate scholar, expressed skepticism about Kennedy qualifying through the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), the body that’s sponsored all general election presidential debates for decades. One of the CPD requirements, along with a 15 percent threshold in qualified polls, is that a given candidate's name must appear on enough state ballots to have “at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority” in 2024. Critics say that could be tough for Kennedy.

The Trump campaign has its own concerns with the process. Frustrated with the CPD’s September start date, it called this week for other networks to go around the system and host debates outside of that schedule. 

“If we go back to the really old setup where it’s just different networks [hosting debates] and they would have the ability to have their own criteria,” Kall said, then Kennedy’s participation might be more likely — though Trump and Biden may have to negotiate. 

Whether or not Kennedy qualifies for the stage, the current and former president have “a lot more to gain from debating” than not, said Tammy Vigil, a Boston University professor of media science with a focus on political campaigns. 

“He’d have to really make a surge in support,” Vigil said of Kennedy. “I don’t think it’s very likely, although it would be really interesting to see that debate.”

Greene filed her motion to vacate a month ago to protest the Speaker’s handling of Ukraine aid, government spending and reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Republicans have been dreading the moment when she forces a vote on the resolution. The Georgia Republican announced Wednesday she would move next week to bring it to the floor.

Only two House Republicans have publicly backed her effort, and she’s not finding any more support among the ranks of Senate conservatives, many of whom believe Johnson is the right person to steer the conference and that a leadership change today would be political malpractice.

“It’s a horrible idea,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told The Hill. “Moses could not do a better job than what Mike Johnson is doing right now.”

“I think he’s doing the very best possible [job] in the situation with a slim majority where the Democrats control the Senate and the White House,” he continued. “There’s not a more conservative person over there that can be elected Speaker than Mike Johnson is.”

Johnson has been largely dismissive of Greene’s effort to remove him from the Speakership using the same mechanism a different group of conservatives used to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October.

He recently said in an interview that he does not consider Greene a serious lawmaker. 

“We do the right thing and we let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson told NewsNation, which is owned by the same parent company as The Hill. 

Greene’s push is widely expected to fail. Johnson’s conservative critics in the House have previously indicated they have little appetite for a repeat of the three weeks of chaos that ensued after McCarthy was removed.

And Democratic leadership, along with rank-and-file members of the party, have pledged to help save Johnson’s gavel after he put Ukraine aid on the floor, where it easily passed.

Still, leading conservatives in the Senate wish the effort would go by the wayside. 

“I think it is utterly ridiculous and counterproductive,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said. 

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who is running for the Indiana governorship this year, noted the effort could harm the Republican agenda for the remainder of the year and said conservatives don’t support it because there is no real fallback option.

It took three weeks and multiple failed candidacies for the House GOP conference to elect Johnson.

“Who’s raised their hand that would want to be [Speaker]?” Braun asked.

Greene’s effort has also been stymied by former President Trump’s support for Johnson in recent weeks.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also threw his full support behind the embattled Speaker earlier this week.

“I’m relieved as I think all of America is that the chaos in the House will be discontinued,” McConnell told reporters Wednesday. “I think it’s a benefit to our country, a benefit to the House, a benefit to the reputation of Congress.”

While Johnson’s recent series of bipartisan deals to keep the government open and to move on aid for Ukraine have angered a number of conservatives, many of them have been hoping to avoid a motion to vacate vote on the floor despite Greene’s insistence of putting members on the record. 

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a leading House Freedom Caucus member, said recently that the ability to oust a Speaker “exist for reasons, but they should be deployed sparingly” — a sentiment shared by some of his Senate colleagues on the right ahead of the November election.

Most members would much prefer to focus on putting Trump back in the White House and winning control of Congress instead of what they see as a one-sided, petty fight.

“I think we’ll be in a better position going into the fall if we stick together as Republicans,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a former House Freedom Caucus member herself. 

“Don’t do it, don’t do it. That would be my suggestion,” she added.

Even those most dissatisfied with Johnson in the Senate GOP ranks won’t go so far as to throw their lot in with Greene this time around. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said multiple times in a brief interview that Johnson has “done a terrible job” since taking over the gavel, but declined to say whether he is supportive of the Georgia Republican’s actions.

“They have to decide that. That’s not for me to say,” Paul said.

Witnesses this week began digging into the minutiae of the Manhattan district attorney’s case, from bank records and non-disclosure agreements to text messages suggesting efforts to keep quiet negative stories about Trump to help his 2016 campaign.

But key witnesses' credibility has also been sharply drawn into question, setting the stage for defense attorneys to take aim at critical future testimony.  

Here are five takeaways from the second week of testimony in the hush money trial.

Celebrity scandals make a cameo

Keith Davidson, a lawyer for two women paid to keep their alleged affairs with Trump secret, gave a behind-the-scenes account of efforts to execute the agreements with the National Enquirer and ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen.  

But Davidson’s testimony during cross-examination by Trump’s attorneys also dredged up a graveyard of celebrity scandals he also appeared to be linked to. 

The likes of Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, Hulk Hogan and Tila Tequila were name-dropped as clients or casualties of Davidson’s work, which defense attorneys used to suggest the lawyer has a habit of extorting famous figures.  

At one point, Trump’s attorneys attempted to paint Davidson as an extortionist for stories involving everything from sex tapes to rehab stints. 

Davidson’s testimony to start exposed his relationship with National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard as he worked to keep affairs alleged by porn actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who Davidson represented, from going public as Trump mounted his first presidential campaign.

But by the time election night 2016 came around, Davidson expressed remorse in a text message to Howard as Trump stunned the nation by inching toward becoming president-elect.  

“What have we done?” Davidson wrote.  

Hope Hicks: 2016 damage control 

Trump may be running for president in 2024, but it was the chaos of his 2016 campaign that became central to the case Friday, when his ex-political adviser Hope Hicks took the stand.

Hicks testified for hours about how she was central to mitigating damage caused by a series of scandals just before Election Day. 

The first “crisis” came when a Washington Post reporter reached out to the campaign about the “Access Hollywood” tape, a 2005 recording of Trump bragging about grabbing women inappropriately and seemingly without their consent.  

“I was concerned,” Hicks said of her initial reaction to learning of the tape – and the news organizations intent to publish it along with a story. “I was very concerned.” 

When confronted with the Post’s comment request, Trump told Hicks that it “didn’t sound like something he would say,” she testified. But he later told her he believed the remarks were “pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting.” The first time Trump saw the tape he was upset, she said, describing her own reaction as “just a little stunned.” 

Hicks also testified that, just four days before Election Day 2016, Cohen blew off a Wall Street Journal story that revealed McDougal’s hush money deal. Cohen, she said, didn’t believe the story would get much traction. 

“Just a little irony there,” she noted on the witness stand, discussing the story in detail nearly eight years later.  

Cohen credibility war underway 

Cohen was already in the hot seat this week – before he takes the stand himself – as witnesses took turns taking shots at the former president’s ex-fixer, making clear the challenges of the controversial character's impending testimony.  

Davidson testified that he and others in his orbit at the time took measures to actively avoid Cohen because they disliked him so much. Texts between a top editor at the National Enquirer and Daniels’s manager revealed descriptions of Cohen as “some jerk” and “that asshole."  

In his testimony, Davidson described Cohen as a “highly excitable, sort of a pants-on-fire kind of guy.” 

“He had a lot of things going on,” the lawyer said.   

Even Cohen’s old banker, Gary Farro, revealed that the onetime fixer became his client because he maintained a reputation as someone who can handle clients “who may be a little challenging.” 

Having coordinated the payments to a Trump Tower doorman and McDougal – in addition to paying off Daniels himself – Cohen’s testimony is expected to provide prosecutors with a key link to Trump. Cohen has said that his actions were done at the behest of his then-boss.  

But testimony this week gave defense attorneys significant fodder to undercut the credibility of the soon-to-be star witness, whose own testimony is expected to mark the climax of the trial. 

Trump’s courtroom entourage grows  

Early in the trial, some observers noted that the former president’s family was not in court with him. 

But Trump’s entourage grew this week to include a wider set of aides and family. 

The former president’s son, Eric Trump, attended on Tuesday, sitting in the courtroom gallery alongside Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles. 

They were joined by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Club For Growth President David McIntosh. 

Trump himself has turned his body to face a witness testify at times, while at other moments, the former president faced straight ahead to read texts, emails and other exhibits displayed on the monitor in front of him. 

Throughout the week, Trump often whispered to his lawyers — sometimes appearing frustrated — or looked through written press clippings provided to him by an aide. The former president has also closed his eyes for multiple minutes on multiple occasions, though he has denied sleeping in court. 

“Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday. 

Trial schedule comes into view

The trial schedule is constantly being tweaked, and the latest changes make one thing clear: Many partial weeks lay ahead. 

The trial as of now will meet next week on its normal schedule of all weekdays except Wednesday, when the judge attends to his other active cases. 

But after that, the schedule is regularly interrupted.

Judge Juan Merchan agreed to skip trial on Friday, May 17 so Trump can attend his son Barron’s high school graduation. 

The following Friday, the court will not meet because a juror has plans to leave town that day for Memorial Day weekend. And, the court won’t meet on the holiday itself that Monday.

The week after that? Another skipped day. If the jury hasn’t started deliberating yet, the judge signaled he’ll skip trial on June 3 so one of Trump’s lawyers can attend a graduation. 

Judge Juan Merchan at the start of Friday's proceedings in the case said it had come to his attention that there may be a misunderstanding about the gag order and Trump's ability to testify, calling it important to clear up.

"I want to stress Mr. Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial," Merchan said before the jury was brought into the room. “Just as you have the absolute right not to testify."

Merchan noted that the gag order does not prevent him from testifying and only applies to statements he makes outside of court.

The judge's comments came after Trump, speaking to press after Thursday's proceedings had adjourned, was asked about the testimony of Keith Davidson.

"Well I'm not allowed to testify. I'm under a gag order. I guess," he said as he looked at his attorney, Todd Blanche, who nodded.

"I'm not allowed to testify because this judge, who's totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order," Trump added. "Nobody's ever had that before, and we don't like it, and it's not fair."

The former president is barred from making public statements about jurors and witnesses concerning their involvement in the case. Trump also cannot attack court staff, line prosecutors or their families as well as the families of the judge and district attorney with the intent to materially interfere with the case. Merchan earlier this week fined Trump $9,000 for repeated violations of the gag order.

Trump has in the past repeatedly said he is open to testifying at his own trial, including as recently as April 12 after a meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

“Yeah I would testify, absolutely,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago. “It’s a scam. It’s a scam, that’s not a trial.”

Zach Schonfeld contributed

While they have soured on Biden on a range of issues from cost of living to climate issues, the rash of protests at college campuses around the country has been the latest point of contention with the president.

“He will lose the election if he decides to roll the dice and assumes that Gaza isn't at the top of minds right now,” said Elise Joshi, the executive director of Gen-Z for Change —which was once run under the name TikTok for Biden.

Joshi added that the last six months have seen “an increasing pace of concern” about the president.

The crisis in Gaza has been a tipping point for many young voters, and some polls have shown support dissolving for Biden.

Last month, a Harvard Youth Poll showed Biden's support from voters ages 18-29 had slipped from about 60 percent in 2020 down to 45 percent.

A CNN poll last weekend also revealed that Biden was 11 percentage points behind Trump in a head-to-head match-up among young voters.

Some say Biden isn’t addressing some of the issues that matter most to young voters. 

“I don’t think the president is currently meeting young voters enough,” said Kidus Girma, campaign director at the Sunrise Movement, a political action organization that advocates for action on climate change. “We’re paying attention.” 

Girma said it’s “in the interest of the president to run on a progressive mandate” to speak to those voters. 

On the issue of Gaza, he said, it will come down to Biden’s approach in the coming months. 

“It’s critical that President Biden recognize the voices of young people calling for peace in Gaza,” Girma said. “The Americans are calling for the end of unconditional military aid and a permanent cease-fire. The quickest way to end the unrest on college campuses is to listen to the majority of Americans and young students fighting for what is right.” 

Biden was critical of the recent protests on college campuses Thursday, condemning vandalism and trespassing, adding that protesters at Columbia University and other campuses had the right to demonstrate peacefully.

“In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points,” the president said in a speech at the White House. “But this isn’t a moment for politics. It’s a moment for clarity. So let me be clear … violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is.” 

“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest; it’s against the law,” Biden added. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation, none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people. 

“Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder,” he added. 

Joshi blasted Biden’s comments, calling them “shameful.”

“To paint us as violent when police are the ones tear-gassing, shooting, and beating students, especially knowing he was elected in large part due to Black Lives Matter, is utterly shameful,” Joshi said.

An aide who worked on Biden's 2020 campaign said the president's remarks reflect the public's overwhelming view on the protests.

Biden campaign aides say they have a “robust” operation to engage young voters and lure them to their column. Campaign aides say they have launched a youth outreach effort earlier than in previous cycles.

Since launching the campaign, they have also run digital ads targeting younger voters, including a current $30 million ad campaign.

The campaign has also leaned on surrogates including social media influencers to continue to highlight the administration’s policy wins, and separately in March it launched “Students for Biden-Harris,” a national organizing program that will help reach students across campuses.

Santiago Mayer, the executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, said the Biden administration actively engaged with the demographic.

“This is the first administration that has not only invited young people to the White House but has actively listened to us,” said Mayer, who has met with administration officials a number of times to discuss issues including gun violence prevention and climate issues. “They’re looking at young people as governing partners.”

Speaking of the protests at colleges, he said they’re directed not so much at the administration but at the leadership of their universities.

Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, who also served as a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said the Biden administration has been “the most progressive administration of my lifetime,” bolstering issues that are important to young voters including student debt relief.

Still, he said of the administration’s handling of the crisis in Gaza, “I don’t want to say it cancels it out, but it resonates in a serious way that does tend to overshadow in some young people’s minds — and some older people’s minds — all the good things he’s done.”

Given the choice between Biden and former President Trump, Duss predicted that many of the young voters who are protesting the administration’s inaction in Gaza will come home to Biden during the election.

But he cautioned that Biden's handling of the situation in Gaza "is going to be a drag” on the reelection bid.

“It’s impossible to say how big of a drag, but it’s going to be a close election that even something that hurts him at the margins could make a difference,” Duss said.

Under the rule, active recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) will be eligible to enroll in a qualified health plan or a basic health plan under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and some forms of financial assistance.

“This final rule reflects the president's key commitment to protecting 'Dreamers' and DACA recipients. He is focused on providing them with the support they need to thrive and reach their fullest potential,” Neera Tanden, director of the Domestic Policy Council, told reporters Thursday.

“This final rule also reflects the president's belief that health care is a right — not a privilege — for all Americans, that it should extend to DACA recipients just like the rest of us.”

The new rule comes after months of speculation over executive actions the Biden administration might take on immigration issues, from potentially cracking down on asylum at the border to making work permits available to certain immigrants living in the country illegally.

Most of those potential actions are controversial to one side of the political spectrum or the other, but Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as minors, have generally garnered broader public support than other undocumented groups.

Still, DACA is mired in lawsuits. Though the Supreme Court nixed the Trump administration’s efforts to end it, a Texas federal judge declared the initial memo that created it illegal, and that same judge in September ruled against the Biden administration’s efforts to recodify the program as a federal regulation.

The program’s final fate is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court, but for the time being, the federal government is barred from adding new beneficiaries to DACA.

As of September, there were 544,690 enrollees, though the Migration Policy Institute estimates 1,161,000 people would be eligible for DACA as of 2022.

DACA recipients had previously been excluded from ObamaCare benefits, though other foreign nationals in deferred action programs were not.

Under previous Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules, DACA recipients were not “lawfully present” in terms of the health care law. That’s led a number of DACA recipients, particularly those without employer-provided insurance or the means to self-finance health insurance, to fall out of coverage.

CMS estimates the new rule will lead to 100,000 newly eligible DACA recipients enrolling in either a marketplace plan or a basic health program.

“Dreamers as DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population, and individuals without health insurance — I think we all know this — are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

“They delay necessary medical care, and they incur higher costs and deaths when they do finally seek care. So making Dreamers eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and well-being and strengthen the health and well-being of our nation and our economy.”

The rule will take effect Nov. 1, when a 60-day special enrollment period will open for eligible DACA beneficiaries. Officials planned that period to coincide with open enrollment for other ACA users to simplify the process.

The new rule does not make DACA recipients eligible for Medicaid or parts of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, but they will be eligible for financial aid programs that are already available to noncitizens whose immigration status makes them ineligible for Medicaid but would otherwise qualify.

“The Biden-Harris Administration believes health care is a right, not a privilege, and that extends to DACA recipients who have built their lives in the United States,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement.

“Today’s rule reduces barriers for DACA recipients to obtain health care coverage and is a vital step toward making certain that it is available and accessible to all Americans.”

The White House announced the recipients for the medal, which is the nation's highest civilian honor given to those who have made "exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors."

Biden will formally bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the honorees during a White House event later Friday. Other recipients include actor Michelle Yeoh, Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky and activist Opal Lee.

Here's the full list of those being honored Friday:

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D), known for his time in politics and for his extensive background as an entrepreneur. Bloomberg ran a brief, unsuccessful presidential campaign in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Gregory J. Boyle, a Jesuit Catholic priest who founded Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention and rehabilitation program based in Los Angeles

Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), a close Biden ally who has served for decades in the House, including for two terms as House majority whip.

Elizabeth Dole, who represented North Carolina in the Senate from 2003-09. She also previously served as secretary of Transportation, secretary of Labor and head of the American Red Cross.

Phil Donahue, a media personality whose eponymous daytime talk show was the first to feature audience participation.

Medgar Wiley Evers, an activist who was murdered in 1963 at age 37 in one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Evers will be honored posthumously.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2000 and narrowly lost the Electoral College vote. Gore has since won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight climate change.

Clarence B. Jones, a civil rights activist and lawyer who helped draft Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

John Kerry, the former senator and former secretary of State. Kerry, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, most recently served as Biden's special envoy for climate issues.

Frank R. Lautenberg, who served five terms as a senator from New Jersey and led the way on environmental issues and on consumer safety. Lautenberg will be honored posthumously.

Katie Ledecky, the Olympic swimmer and Maryland native. Ledecky, 27, has won seven Olympic gold medals, 21 world championship gold medals and holds multiple world records.

Opal Lee, an activist and educator who is best known for leading efforts to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. She attended a White House event in 2021 when Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

Ellen Ochoa, an astronaut who was the first Hispanic woman in space when she was aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1993. Ochoa has flown in space four times, and she is the second woman to serve as director of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a hugely consequential figure in Democratic politics. Pelosi has served in the House for nearly 40 years, including as the first woman to ever serve as Speaker. She held the gavel during the first half of Biden's first term, helping guide major pieces of legislation through the chamber.

Jane Rigby, an astronomer and Delaware native. She is the senior project scientist of the James Webb Telescope, which is the most powerful telescope in the world. Biden in 2022 revealed the first full-color image from the telescope, which offered the deepest view of the universe ever captured.

Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers and the first Latina woman to lead a national union in the United States. Biden has often boasted that he is the most pro-union president in history.

Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, who was attacked and later died of his injuries in one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in U.S. history. Judy Shepard co-founded a foundation in her son's name dedicated to protecting LGBTQ people and preventing hate crimes.

Jim Thorpe, a multi-sport athlete who played professional football, baseball and basketball and was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal. Thorpe will be honored posthumously.

Michelle Yeoh, an Academy Award winning actress who in 2023 became the first Asian to win the Oscar for best actress for her work in "Everything Everywhere All at Once."