Greg Nash, The Hill

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been quiet on former President Trump‘s arraignment and indictment, while the second-ranking Senate Republican, Whip John Thune (S.D.), said the indictment appeared to be politically motivated.

“I understand that this is the beginning of a legal process, not the end of one, but after an initial review of the details, this indictment looks like a political agenda run amok,” Thune told South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist who has advised McConnell’s past campaigns, said the GOP leader has “sort of not mentioned Trump at all since December of 2020. He’s pretty much taken a I’m-going-to-ignore-this-guy approach.”

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton has more from Jennings and others on McConnell’s silence here.

Trump has claimed the charges in the hush money case are politically motivated and has criticized both Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) and presiding Judge Juan Merchan.

Trump said in a speech after his arraignment Tuesday, “I never thought anything like this could happen in America. … The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”

Over in the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that “Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress.”

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Amee LaTour, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham is switching her affiliation from Democrat to Republican, meaning both legislative chambers now have a veto-proof GOP supermajority with which to counter Gov. Roy Cooper (D).
  
  

• Recently retired Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has joined lobbying firm Husch Blackwell Strategies to lead a new strategic advisory practice.

   

• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a bill repealing a 1931 law banning abortion. The law was no longer enforceable, but Democrats wanted it off the books.

AP

NIKKI HALEY has raised more than $11 million for her 2024 GOP presidential campaign since launching in mid-February, her campaign says.

• The campaign noted that’s more than the $9.5 million former President Trump‘s campaign reported raising between its launch on Nov. 15 and the end of 2022.
  
  
• Haley has kept a packed travel schedule, including several stops in early states Iowa and New Hampshire.

RON DESANTIS, who has not announced a White House bid but is widely expected to in the coming months, received an endorsement Wednesday from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

Massie is the second House member to endorse the GOP Florida governor, following Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).

• Meanwhile, DeSantis’s feud with Disney continues. It began when the company criticized a law limiting discussion of sexual orientation and gender in schools. DeSantis responded with an effort to strip Disney of power over land use surrounding its resort. 
  
  
• Disney used a legal loophole to maintain control over the district, The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom wrote, and called DeSantis’s efforts “anti-business.” DeSantis on Monday called for an investigation into the company’s maneuver. Read more here

Former President Trump wrote on Truth Social in all-caps that congressional Republicans “should defund” the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI “until they come to their senses.”

House Republicans Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio) have previously suggested defunding one or both agencies.

The DOJ is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot and classified documents found at Trump’s Florida residence.

In related news: Former Vice President Mike Pence‘s aides said Pence won’t appeal a ruling requiring his testimony in the Jan. 6 case.

©  AP

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) announced she’s seeking reelection to the battleground seat next year as Democrats face a tough Senate map. 

Ana Cabrera, who left CNN last year, will be hosting a weekday morning show on MSNBC beginning next Monday.

Yusef Salaam, exonerated Central Park Five member and a New York City Council candidate, took out an ad in The New York Times, mimicking an ad Trump took out in 1989 calling for the state to adopt the death penalty over a case in which Salaam and four other Black and Latino teenagers were convicted before being exonerated in 2002.

“Now that you have been indicted and are facing criminal charges, I do not resort to hatred, bias or racism — as you once did,” Salaam wrote, addressing Trump. “Even though thirty-four years ago you effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children, I wish you no harm.” Read more here

“Bragg’s case against Trump: An Ed Wood movie come to life” — Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at The George Washington University. (Read here)

“LSU’s victory is being unnecessarily politicized” — Gregory Kaliss, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania and author of “Beyond the Black Power Salute: Athlete Activism in an Era of Change.” (Read here)

580 days until the presidential election.

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