The latest on the 2024 campaign and primary elections

The presidential primaries are effectively over since President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have amassed enough delegates to win the Democratic and Republican nomination, respectively.

But some progressive voters in particular are intent to use the process to send a message to Biden about his support for Israel during the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Progressive and pro-Palestinian groups are encouraging voters in Wisconsin to pick the “uninstructed delegation.” A similar campaign in Michigan’s Democratic primary in February with the “uncommitted” option yielded more than 100,000 votes, about 13% of the primary vote count, compared with Biden’s 81%.

Any discontent could be consequential: Wisconsin has been decided by slim margins in recent elections. Trump won the White House by winning states like Wisconsin in 2016 and then lost the White House when Biden took it back for Democrats in 2020. Read this dispatch from CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Gregory Krieg on the spoiler role Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could play as an independent candidate in a state like Wisconsin. They note that when the Green Party’s Jill Stein was a candidate in Wisconsin in 2016, Trump won. When Stein was off the ballot in 2020, Trump lost.

There have been some indications that President Joe Biden and other top Democrats are evolving their positions on Israel's war in Gaza after the the Michigan Democratic primary in February yielded more than 100,000 votes for the “uncommitted” option.

If the Democratic voters of Michigan – and a handful of other swing states like Wisconsin – are feeling uncommitted in November, Biden could risk losing the election.

Here's some recent steps taken since that primary:

On the other hand, the Biden administration is on the cusp of approving a deal to sell up to 50 American-made F-15 fighter jets to Israel.

During his trip to New York City last week, President Joe Biden sat down for a rare joint interview alongside former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. But the interview was not with a national news organization or a local newspaper or outlet. It was with the comedy podcast, “Smartless,” hosted by the actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.

The Biden campaign is prioritizing interviews with outlets reaching specific constituency groups, believing that focusing on local media will pay off in November, said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign communications director. But as Biden pays more attention to new and non-traditional forms of media, he has shown more reluctance than his predecessors to grant one-on-one sit-down interviews with the national press, participating in fewer interviews than other presidents at this point in his presidency.

Some of Biden’s hesitation to speak with the traditional news media likely stems from his frustration with how members of the press have covered him and his campaign. But it goes without saying that interviews with the national news media are where Biden will face the toughest line of questioning.

By bypassing the Beltway press and prioritizing other forms of media, Biden has been able to remain in contact with voters, while allowing the president to avoid being repeatedly pressed on uncomfortable topics such as his age.

“These interviews we are able to do focus far more on the substance and the stakes that matter to voters than they do to folks in the beltway and New York,” Tyler said.

On a recent chilly Sunday, a retired Milwaukee police sergeant leaned into the window of a gray Mazda in a strip mall parking lot where some of the post-church crowd was coming for lunch, chatting up the driver for almost 10 minutes.

The 2024 election could hinge on the efforts of people like Kimberlee Foster — or at least President Joe Biden’s campaign hopes so. In the run-up to Tuesday’s Wisconsin primaries and local elections, Foster is part of a live “relational organizing” pilot program Biden’s campaign has been running here as it tries to tackle the drop-off in Black turnout over the last decade, along with the cultural and technological changes that have made it harder than ever to reach those who have checked out.

It’s no accident this program started in Wisconsin: Almost any path to victory for Biden or former President Donald Trump will run through this state, which Biden won by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020 and Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016 — with the Black vote significantly lower than expected both times. North Milwaukee is home to the most concentrated Black population in the state, but Black engagement here has been so low that Democratic organizers are finding that half the people they’ve been reaching weren’t in their voter files, which means they never even heard from campaign staff trying to rally votes in 2020 or before.

It’s not just Wisconsin, though. CNN’s conversations with two dozen top Biden campaign aides, elected officials across the country and voters on the ground in several key states detail a frantic fight that is much bigger than what’s going on in north Milwaukee.

Read more about what why Black voters are so crucial.

Don Hankey, the chairman and majority shareholder of Knight Specialty Insurance, told CNN on Tuesday that the deal to underwrite Donald Trump’s $175 million bond in New York came together quickly and that the former president posted all cash as collateral.

Hankey said initially he reached out to the Trump Organization last month when the former president was having trouble putting together a bond of $464 million. After the amount of the bond was slashed to $175 million by a New York appeals court, the Trump team eventually reached back out to Knight Specialty, according to Hankey.

What to know about Hankey: The billionaire has amassed a fortune that Forbes values at $7.4 billion. Hankey confirmed to CNN that he and his wife, as well as their two sons, have donated to Trump’s presidential campaigns in the past and plan to support him again in 2024. His firm, Knight Specialty Insurance, is based in California, and is known for providing subprime auto loans to car buyers with weaker credit scores.

Donald Trump is running one of the strangest general election campaigns America has ever seen. He’s hawking Bibles, attacking judges, making billions in the stock market and boasting about his golf game. Last Thursday, the ex-president traveled to New York to attend the wake of a fallen police officer – on a trip that allowed him to deepen his characterization of a nation adrift and plagued by crime under President Joe Biden.

But there wasn’t much in Trump’s busy week that resembled a conventional general election campaign – certainly not one that might address some of his biggest liabilities as he seeks a return to the White House.

That’s a sharp contrast to Biden, who this week wrapped up his post State of the Union tour in North Carolina. The state was in Trump’s column in 2020 and 2016, but Democrats think they can put it back in play. Last Thursday night, the president put on a show of Democratic unity and invoked the party’s glory days at an event in New York with ex-Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama that the campaign said ahead of time had raised more than $25 million. Those big bucks could be critical in what is likely to be a tight race with Trump that could be decided by a few hundred thousand votes across a handful of states.

One attendee told CNN after leaving the off-camera fundraiser that the three presidents spoke repeatedly about the threat a second Trump term would pose, with Biden saying the former president would tear up the Constitution and alluding to Trump’s comment that he’d only be a dictator on “day one.” Videos released by the Biden campaign Friday morning showed a light-hearted moment in which moderator Stephen Colbert contrasted Biden’s busy schedule with Trump’s golf activities, as well as Biden’s warning that democracy is “literally at stake.” Biden and his team have also been aggressively taking the campaign to Trump on policy, including on abortion and reproductive rights.

Read more about Trump and Biden's contrasting campaigns.

Donald Trump is the first former president in US history to face criminal charges, and with his third presidential bid under way for 2024, the stakes are high for both him and the country. Here's what to know about his four criminal cases:

Hush money case: Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush-money payment to an adult-film star in 2016. Prosecutors allege Trump was a part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they allege he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. Trump has pleaded not guilty. The trial is set to begin on April 15.

Classified documents: Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. Both Trump and his aide Walt Nauta have pleaded not guilty. On July 27, the special counsel charged Trump with three new counts, including one additional count of willful retention of national defense information.

Election interference: Trump’s third indictment was a result of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into alleged efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. The indictment alleges Trump and a co-conspirator "attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them ... to delay the certification" of the election. It also alleges another co-conspirator pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to "violate the law" to delay President Joe Biden’s victory. Trump pleaded not guilty to all four counts.

Fulton County case: An Atlanta-based grand jury on August 14, 2023, indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. Four people have pleaded guilty. The charges, brought in a sweeping investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, cover some of the most overt efforts by the former president and his allies to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty. On March 13, 2024, a judge dismissed six of the 41 counts from the indictment, including three that applied to Trump.

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his campaign will make a statement next week on abortion.

"We’ll be making a statement next week on abortion,” Trump told reporters during a campaign event in Michigan, when asked about Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which is set to become law after a state Supreme Court ruling.

Trump did not delve into the specifics of his position on Tuesday, but he has recently said he was “thinking in terms of” supporting a 15-week federal abortion ban.

Remember: The Florida Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for the state’s six-week abortion ban to take effect, while allowing Floridians to decide in the fall whether to enshrine abortion protections in the state’s constitution.

CNN's Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post. 

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke for the first time on camera about posting a $175 million bond as he appeals the judgment against him in the New York civil fraud case and maintained there was no wrongdoing.

“I’m the only one that has to put up a bond, you know. I put up a bond, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Trump said at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Judge Arthur Engoron in January fined Trump and his co-defendants, including his adult sons and his company, $464 million, finding they fraudulently inflated the value of the former president’s assets to obtain better loan rates.

The bond amount was lowered by several hundred million dollars by a state appeals court last month after Trump’s attorneys argued that covering the full bond on the $464 million verdict against him was not feasible.

Trump went on in the speech to focus on immigration and President Joe Biden's border policy.