A top aide from President Joe Biden‘s 2024 re-election campaign sought to minimize a fundraising pitch that drew backlash from conservative figures and Republican officials.

Campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond was pressed on Sunday to answer for Biden soliciting donations on Thursday around the time former President Donald Trump — the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 race — was arrested in Georgia on charges related to the 2020 election.

“As Trump’s motorcade was pulling into the Fulton County Jail, President Biden sent out a fundraising pitch saying, ‘apropos of nothing, I think today is a great day to give to my campaign.’ That’s not particularly subtle,” said Martha Raddatz, co-anchor of ABC’s “This Week.”

Apropos of nothing, I think today's a great day to give to my campaign. https://t.co/Tj5cURqgQT

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 24, 2023

“But are Trump’s legal problems going to be part of your campaign against him?” she asked.

“No,” Richmond said in response.

“Those emails go out – you know, you get five and six of them a day. So, I wouldn’t read much into that,” Richmond added.

“Even though it was the day of the Fulton County Jail. Okay,” Raddatz quipped before moving on with the interview.

Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond on Biden's fundraising tweet just as Democrats had President Trump arrested in Georgia:

"Those emails go out, you know, you get five or six of them a day so I wouldn't read much into that" 🤔 pic.twitter.com/mwrQ9Cf9Ju

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 27, 2023

Biden’s post, viewed 5.9 million times as of Sunday, drew the ire of the GOP and its allies.

Among those to criticize the post was Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, who said, “Look at the timing on this tweet: precisely the time set for Trump’s arrest last night. Trump says that this is election interference; Biden says it isn’t. This tweet is pretty good evidence Trump is right. Biden is now saying the quiet part out loud.”

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Though he has now been indicted across four cases, Trump posed for his first mugshot while being processed in Atlanta last week. His campaign quickly turned the image into a fundraising pitch with merchandise selling on its website, reportedly leading to a multi-million dollar haul in the ensuing 48 hours.

Trump was released from the Georgia jail on a $200,000 bond.

The former president and more than a dozen allies are expected to be arraigned early next month on conspiracy and racketeering charges related to the 2020 election. Trump has broadly denied any wrongdoing across all the criminal and civil cases he faces.

Three U.S. Marines were killed during a training exercise on a northern Australian island on Sunday after an American MV-22B Osprey aircraft carrying the troops crashed, wounding several others, according to officials. 

The tiltrotor aircraft was carrying 23 U.S. Marines when it crashed at roughly 9:30 a.m. local time on Melville Island, which is off the Northern Territory of mainland Australia in the Timor Sea. Twenty Marines were injured in the crash, and five in serious condition were flown to a town 50 miles away for treatment, according to a report from the Associated Press. 

“Marine Rotational Force – Darwin can confirm a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey crash on Melville Island, north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, while transporting troops during a routine training exercise,” the Marine Rotational Force in Darwin (MRF-D) said in a press release. 

At least one of the injured Marines underwent surgery at a hospital in Darwin, according to Natasha Fyles, the chief minister of Australia’s Northern Territory. Recovery efforts were still ongoing, and the cause of the crash was under investigation, according to the MRF-D press release, which was issued early Sunday. 

There was a “significant fire in the vicinity of the crash site,” according to an audio recording of an American official’s report to Australian air traffic controllers following the incident, the AP reported. 

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The Osprey aircraft that crashed was one of two that left the Australian town of Darwin for the Tiwi Islands – where Melville Island is located – roughly 50 miles away. The “routine training exercise” was in support of Exercise Predators Run, a multi-nation military exercise comprised of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor. 

“The initial reports suggest that the incident involves just U.S. defense force personnel,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “Our focus as a government and as the department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time.”

Roughly 2,500 people take part in Exercise Predators Run, including about 500 from the United States, according to Fox News. The exercise, set to end on September 7 after 12 days, has reportedly been paused following the tragic incident. 

Though it’s unclear what caused the incident, this isn’t the first time the Osprey aircraft has been involved in a fatal crash. Since 2012, there have been five fatal crashes involving Marine Osprey aircraft, according to the AP. In June 2022, a mechanical failure related to the aircraft’s clutch caused the deaths of five Marines in California after the Osprey crashed, according to a crash investigation report. Three months before that, four Marines were killed in an Osprey crash during a NATO exercise in Norway.