Trump legal battles help establish lanes for 2024: The Note

The TAKE with Rick Klein

The two weeks since the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search haven't clarified much when it comes to the potential legal jeopardy former President Donald Trump finds himself in.

But that event, combined with growing pressure on other fronts from Georgia and New York to Washington, has helped establish lanes in a 2024 field that Trump most definitely will not own by himself.

Trump-loyal lawmakers including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have backed the former president with fresh attacks on the FBI. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who finds out on Tuesday who he faces in his re-election bid — has chosen a similar path, wrapping talk of what he calls a "weaponized" Department of Justice into his broader campaign messaging.

Trump's Vice President Mike Pence is hedging on the Mar-a-Lago raid, however, telling ABC News in Iowa on Friday that while he's "deeply troubled" by the federal operation at Trump's home, "The calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police."

Then there's Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, fresh off her primary loss but making clear her work against those who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election will carry through 2022 and, of course, 2024. In an interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl on "This Week," she labeled Cruz and Hawley as "unfit for future office" and called out DeSantis for "right now campaigning for election-deniers."

Cheney declined to say whether a potential presidential run would take her through the Republican primaries or a campaign as an independent, though she said she realizes why the Republican National Committee would work to keep her off a debate stage that includes Trump.

Both options are on the table for Cheney. It's become clear that, whenever he might announce and however various legal cases unfold, Trump won't have an unobstructed path to the 2024 GOP nomination — and that intraparty efforts to stop him will not end if he becomes the nominee.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Aug. 6, 2022.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

Though midterm elections are fast approaching, potential 2024 candidates are already making appearances in battleground states across the country.

Even though his name is on the ballot in his home state of Florida, Gov. DeSantis has been hitting the campaign trail elsewhere. He has stumped for Trump-backed election deniers — like Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio and gubernatorial hopeful Doug Mastriano on Pennsylvania — in an effort to raise his national profile, and underline his conservative credentials, ahead of a possible presidential run.

"We can't just stand idly by while woke ideology ravages every institution in our society," DeSantis said at his Pennsylvania event on Friday, sticking to a message about cultural issues which he's made a focus of his gubernatorial term and reelection effort.

Former Vice President Pence campaigned last week at the Iowa State Fair with GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley — though his appearance was shadowed, yet again, by his former running mate. While Trump faces mounting legal problems, Pence blasted those critics — many of them Republicans — of the FBI in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago raid. He also said he didn't take classified information from office, the very thing the Department of Justice is investigating in relation to its search of Trump's home.

Pence did all of this while avoiding giving definitive answers on whether he'll make a run for the White House.

"After the first of the year, my family and I'll do as we've always done, and that is reflect and pray on where we might next serve, where we might next contribute," he said.

The challenge, should either he or DeSantis launch a GOP primary bid, is garnering significant support in a party that is still very much aligned with Trump, who has repeatedly hinted at a run of his own.

"If it were between Pence and Trump, I would vote for Trump," Iowa fairgoer Deb Taylor said in a recent interview with ABC News.

That sentiment is a demonstration of how arduous a path Pence or DeSantis could have to a GOP presidential nomination with Trump still in the picture.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Unite and Win Rally in support of Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in Pittsburgh, Pa., Aug. 19, 2022.Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

New York's primary season comes to a close this week with dual Democratic pileups in some of the most reliably blue areas in the country.

One of the most heated contests is happening in New York's 12th Congressional District, where veteran Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler are pitted against one another following this year's redistricting changes. Both lawmakers won their seats in 1992 and currently chair powerful House committees. While both tout their decades of experience, a third primary challenger, Suraj Patel — a young attorney who worked on former President Barack Obama's campaigns — has carefully tied the age gap between him and the incumbent lawmakers to political stagnancy, saying in his campaign ads that "it's time for the Obama generation."

With few ideological differences separating Maloney and Nadler, their campaigns have shifted to highlighting identity politics. Nadler has said that if he were to lose his seat, New York City — which has one of the highest Jewish populations in the world — would lose its only Jewish representative in the House. Meanwhile, Maloney points out that if she were to lose, Manhattan would not have a woman in its congressional delegation in an environment where women's rights have been pushed to the forefront of politics.

The lead-up to Tuesday's contest also featured backhanded declarations of support from an unwelcome interloper: Trump. He said he had "endorsed" Maloney and attorney Dan Goldman, who is running in New York's 10th District Democratic primary, even though both candidates were actively involved in Trump's first impeachment — Maloney as the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee and Goldman as the lead counsel for Democrats in the trial.

Although both Maloney and Goldman waved off Trump's statements as trolling, some of their primary opponents jumped on the former president's comments to highlight their own attacks.

"I'm proud that Donald Trump has nothing positive to say about me because he knows how much more effective a new generation of diverse, energetic Democrats will be in stopping his agenda," Patel tweeted.

In the 10th, incumbent Rep. Mondaire Jones took a swipe at Goldman, saying, "Trump says he's backing Goldman because he wants progressives to lose and because Goldman failed to hold him accountable the first time. New York should not send this man to Congress."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Democratic candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District, greets voters while campaigning on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York, Aug. 20. 2022.Tom Williams/AP

NUMBER OF THE DAY, powered by FiveThirtyEight

13. That's the number of primaries we'll be watching closely on Tuesday night in New York. (We'll also be back Tuesday with our preview of the key primaries to watch in Florida and Oklahoma.) New York's statewide races were already decided in June. But because the state's first congressional map was ruled an illegal Democratic gerrymander by the New York Court of Appeals, the congressional primaries are now on Tuesday under a far less advantageous map for sitting Democrats. In fact, at least one incumbent — and possibly as many as five — will lose their primaries now. Read more from FiveThirtyEight's Nathaniel Rakich on what to expect in New York. And please be sure to join us Tuesday as we live blog the results at FiveThirtyEight.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. "Start Here" begins Monday morning with highlights from the ABC News exclusive interview with Liz Cheney on her primary loss and what's next in the House's Jan. 6 investigation. ABC's Jonathan Karl leads us off. Then ABC's Britt Clennett reports on the latest in the Ukraine conflict as Russia launches a murder investigation into the death of a Vladimir Putin ally's daughter. And, ABC's Sam Sweeney outlines new rules for airlines from the Department of Transportation after a nightmare travel season of canceled flights and mass delays. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY