Trump announces third bid for White House amid rising Republican resistance

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Former President Trump's announcement that he will run for office again was met with mixed reviews.

  Our Geoff Bennett reports on what we heard and did not hear last night at Mar-a-Lago.

• Geoff Bennett:

  On Capitol Hill today, tepid reaction from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to Donald Trump announcing a reelection bid.

• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY):

  The way I'm going to go into this presidential primary season is to stay out of it. I don't have a dog in that fight.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Tuesday night, the former twice-impeached president now facing multiple civil and criminal investigations kicked off a 2024 presidential campaign.

  Donald Trump, Former President of the United States: In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

• Geoff Bennett:

  Mr. Trump's latest bid begins at a moment of political weakness, in the wake of midterm election losses from several of his endorsed candidates.

  His hour-long speech was filled with false claims and inaccuracies, including about the 2020 election he lost.

• Donald Trump:

  Many people think that, because of this, China played a very active role in the 2020 election. Just saying. Just saying.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The former president rolled out a second-term platform that includes changing voting laws.

• Donald Trump:

  To eliminate cheating, I will immediately demand voter I.D., same-day voting and only paper ballots.

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

• Geoff Bennett:

  And he took a page from his 2016 playbook, touting one of his signature policies.

• Donald Trump:

  We built a wall, and now we will add to it now. We built the wall. We completed the wall.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The Southern border wall is about 300 miles short of being completed, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

• Michael Bender, The New York Times:

  Trump has been champing at the bit for more than a year to launch this presidential campaign.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Michael Bender is a New York Times political correspondent and author of the book "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost."

• Michael Bender:

  Once Trump said that he was going to have this announcement this week, he had effectively boxed himself in.

  There's not a lot of long-term strategy here. There — Trump is motivated mostly by winning the moment, winning the headline. And by announcing on Tuesday, he avoids a headline that he looks weak by trying to postpone it.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Mr. Trump is involved in multiple ongoing investigations at the state and federal levels over his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his handling of sensitive government documents at Mar-a-Lago, and his family business.

• Donald Trump:

  Let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Sources close to the former president say he believes his candidacy will help shield him from potential prosecution.

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

• Donald Trump:

  This is incredible. Thank you very much.

• Michael Bender:

  What his calculus here is that, if he is the front-runner for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, that could give pause to prosecutors who may be considering criminal charges in any of these investigations.

• Geoff Bennett:

  For his part, President Biden, attending the G20 summit and Indonesia, appeared to dismiss his predecessor's announcement when asked about it by reporters.

• Speaker:

  Do the two of you have any reaction to that?

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: No, not really.

• Donald Trump:

  We will treat those…

• Geoff Bennett:

  The White House instead taking to social media, slamming Mr. Trump's record and casting his policies as failures, and posting this video promoting the passage of the infrastructure law.

• President Joe Biden:

  My predecessor promised infrastructure week. Infrastructure week never came.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The former president will run this race without the help of his eldest daughter, Ivanka. A former senior adviser in her father's administration, she says she won't be involved this time around.

  She posted a statement to Instagram saying — quote — "While I will always love and support my father, going forward, I will do so outside the political arena."

  She's not the only one distancing herself. Even Mr. Trump's former media allies, the Murdoch family's FOX News and The New York Post, have split, at least for now.

• Michael Bender:

  It's a remarkable turn and one that will be interesting to watch to see where that Murdoch empire, which candidate, which Republican they put their chips behind over the next two years.

• Geoff Bennett:

  As Donald Trump aims to become only the second commander in chief ever elected to two nonconsecutive terms.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Geoff Bennett.