Monday morning news: May 20, 2024

Trump NRA » The battle for the White House is heating up with the first Biden-Trump debate now just a little more than a month away.

Donald Trump over the weekend took the stage at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Texas.

TRUMP:  The survival of our Second Amendment is very much on the ballot. You know what they want to do? They're going to, oh, if they get in, our country's gonna be destroyed in so many ways, but the second Amendment will be, it's under siege.

Trump urged NRA members to get out and vote this year.

Trump VP » Meantime, speculation continues to swirl around his possible running mate. Several rumored top candidates have joined him at recent campaign events, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, but the senator said Sunday …

RUBIO:  I haven't spoken to anybody in the campaign. The only people that have spoken to me about vice president, for the most part, are members of the media.

Other VP contenders have been serving as Trump surrogates in the media. Sen. Tim Scott said the former president can’t wait to debate Biden.

SCOTT: He knows he can expose the lies of Joe Biden, starting with inflation, moving to the border and talking about crime.

And North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum added:

BURGUM: I think the nation has concerns about his capacity, not just during an hour and a half debate, but every President Trump is strong, Joe Biden is weak, and it doesn't matter what the topic is.

Others believed to be on the VP shortlist include Governor Kristi Noem and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik.

Biden again calls for cease-fire, two-state at Moorehouse » President Biden, meanwhile, was in a major battleground state yesterday. He delivered the commencement address at the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta.

BIDEN: What is democracy? If black men are being killed in the street, what is democracy? Betrayal of broken promises still leave black communities behind.

The Biden campaign is ramping up its outreach to black constituents as his support among black voters has softened since he was elected in 2020.

The president also said he supports peaceful campus protests over the war in Gaza.

BIDEN:  It's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That's why I've called for an immediate ceasefire.

There were scattered demonstrations at Morehouse, but the ceremony was not disrupted.

Russian attacks in Ukraine » New Russian attacks killed at least 11 people in Ukraine’s war-ravaged northeast on Sunday.

In the Kharkiv region, officials said Russian strikes killed six people and wounded almost 30 others. One resident told the Associated Press …

RESIDENT: Everything fell on us immediately. We lay watching TV. All the windows, everything flew at us at once.

Ukraine said it destroyed over 30 Russian drones.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces are on surer footing in the Kharkiv region going forward.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

He said as Moscow’s forces pushed harder into the Kharkiv region, just as in 2022, they were counting on a quick advance. But instead, “The occupier is losing its infantry and equipment.”

SOUND: [Tree cutting]

Houston death toll » Many Houston area residents are breaking out chainsaws to clear fallen trees from their driveways and yards.

That after severe storms last week that killed at least seven people and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

RESIDENT:  It's been a madhouse out here. Um, you know, we don't have any power, no hot water. Um, it's been really crazy. Nature definitely did his thing out here.

Texas State Representative Gene Woo said it’s important for area residents to look out for one another.

WOO:  Please go check on your neighbors, whether they have power or whether they don't have power. Please knock on their door, check on them, make sure they're okay.

Officials say they were able to restore power last night to most of the hundreds of thousands of people who were still in the dark and without air conditioning amid hot and humid weather.

Iran copter crash » The president and foreign minister of Iran are presumed dead after their helicopter crashed Sunday in a mountainous area in northwestern Iran.

President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and seven others were returning from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan when the chopper reportedly went down in dense fog.

After hours of searching, Iranian state television said last night that there was “no sign of life” seen at the crash site.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Supreme Court arguments on this week’s Legal Docket. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

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