The 10 leading Democratic presidential candidates will take the stage at the party’s third 2020 presidential primary debate in Texas on Thursday.

Unlike the prior debates, the event in Houston will feature all the highest-polling candidates — including Former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — on stage at the same time. In previous debates, the field was split into two groups of 10 and included California Rep. Eric Swalwell, Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who have since dropped out.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

As President Donald Trump began losing confidence in national security adviser John Bolton, whom he fired on Tuesday, he reached out to the man he had fired to give Bolton the job: retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.

In phone calls to McMaster — the first of which took place last fall — Trump told his second national security adviser that he missed him, according to two people familiar with the conversations. It’s a sentiment the president has also expressed to White House aides, they said. Trump has solicited McMaster’s advice on various national security challenges, even asking McMaster whom he should nominate to lead the Pentagon, they said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has been publicly critical of John Bolton on numerous occasions, so it’s no surprise that he opened his show tonight declaring that his leaving the White House is “great news for America.”

“Especially for the large number of young people who would have been killed in pointless wars if Bolton had stayed on the job,” he said. “They may not be celebrating tonight, but they should be.”

Read the rest of the story and see the video at Mediaite.

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. alleged that there is a “criminal conspiracy” against him by former board members at the school, telling Hill.TV that he’s sharing information with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His comments come after current and former Liberty University officials accused Falwell of alarming conduct in a Politico magazine story, including revealing inappropriate details about his sex life, partying in night clubs, funneling university into real-estate deals, and awarding school contracts to friends.

Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at NOAA on Friday after the agency’s Birmingham office contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowing the office’s own position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew criticism from the scientific community that NOAA, a division of the Commerce Department, had been bent to political purposes.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

The empire begins with a brothel. It stands, sturdy and square, at the heart of a gold-rush boomtown in northwest British Columbia, a monument to careful branding. The windows of the Arctic Restaurant have no signs offering access to prostitutes—even in a lawless Yukon outpost in 1899, decorum rules out such truth in advertising—but Friedrich Trump knows his clientele.

Curtained-off “private boxes” line the wall opposite the bar, inside of which are beds, and women, and scales to weigh gold powder, the preferred method of payment for services rendered. Word of the restaurant’s off-menu accommodations spreads fast. “Respectable women” are advised by The Yukon Sun to avoid the place, as they are “liable to hear that which would be repugnant to their feelings.” But among lonely prospectors, the Arctic is a hit. Before long, Friedrich is boasting, with a hereditary penchant for hyperbole, that his establishment serves more than 3,000 meals a day.

Read the rest of the story at The Atlantic.

Todd Palin appears to have filed for divorce from former Alaska governor and one-time vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, his wife of 31 years. In a document filed Friday in Anchorage Superior Court, Todd Palin, 55, asked to dissolve the marriage, citing an “incompatibility of temperament between the parties such that they find it impossible to live together as husband and wife.”

Read the rest of the story at The Anchorage Daily News.

The U.S. Air Force has ordered a world-wide review of how it chooses overnight accommodations on long flights following revelations that air crews had occasionally stayed at President Donald Trump’s Scotland resort while refueling at a small commercial airport nearby.

The review comes as additional instances of military personnel staying at Trump properties have been uncovered. The C-17 crew’s overnight stay at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland earlier this year, first reported by POLITICO on Friday, was not an isolated incident.

Read the rest of Natasha Bertrand’s report at Politico.

Former Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said on Sunday that he will run for president, giving President Donald Trump another longshot primary challenger. “I plan to announce that back home this week.,” Sanford told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, adding, “But I am here to tell you now that I am going to get in.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

The House Judiciary Committee is prepared to vote next week on a resolution laying out the procedures for its investigation now that it is actively considering moving to impeach President Donald Trump, a major step toward formalizing its sweeping probe, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort.

Read the rest of the story at CNN.

Two congressional committees have opened investigations into Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland, as well as President Trump’s promotion of the Trump National Doral Miami as a U.S. venue to host the G-7 summit. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on the Judiciary on Friday announced they have requested documents from the president, vice president, and other Trump administration officials over whether the two incidents were possible violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. Pence stayed in Doonbeg this week during a trip to Dublin—some 180 miles away in County Clare.

Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

A weakened Hurricane Dorian was still packing a powerful punch as it skimmed North Carolina’s coast Friday morning, bringing fierce winds and a dangerous storm surge, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Residents were told to shelter in place Thursday while more than a quarter-of-a-million homes and businesses were left without power on the South Carolina coast in the storm’s wake.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Four states are poised to cancel their 2020 GOP presidential primaries and caucuses, a move that would cut off oxygen to Donald Trump’s long-shot primary challengers.

Republican parties in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Kansas are expected to finalize the cancellations in meetings this weekend, according to three GOP officials who are familiar with the plans.

Read the rest of the story at Politico.

A top Senate Democrat wants to investigate whether Vice President Mike Pence’s taxpayer-funded stay at a golf club in Ireland owned by President Donald Trump was another “apparent conflict of interest” involving Trump, his administration and his business properties. “Citing security and logistical concerns, you and your Chief of Staff have made the claim that staying at President Trump’s resort in Doonbeg was necessary. I find it hard to believe that your office was unable to identify lodgings that could accommodate the security and logistical needs of your trip in the capital of Ireland, which houses among other locations the United States Embassy – where President Reagan stayed during his 1984 visit,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, wrote in a letter to Pence Thursday.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

At CNN’s seven-hour marathon climate crisis town hall Wednesday, the top 10 candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination united on calls to recommit to the Paris climate accord, end subsidies to oil, gas and coal companies, and halt fossil fuel leasing on public lands. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Migrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border last year suffered post-traumatic stress and other serious mental health problems, according to a government watchdog report Wednesday. The chaotic reunification process only added to their ordeal. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report in advance of the official release.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Conservative operative Jacob Wohl is wanted on a felony arrest warrant in California, a development that could hamper his spree of bizarre, blundering political schemes. Wohl and former business partner Matthew Johnson were both charged with the unlawful sale of securities in a Riverside Superior Court criminal complaint filed on Aug. 19.  Wohl has not been arrested yet on the charge, according to the court docket. Prosecutors recommended $5,000 bonds for both Wohl and Johnson.  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

CNN reports that in one of Kelly’s last meetings with Trump before leaving the administration, the president asked him if he intends to write a book someday. Sources say that Kelly told Trump he did plan on writing a memoir, but would wait until Trump was no long president before he publishes. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

Britain may have to wait to leave the European Union. Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost a key vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday after lawmakers used an obscure procedural motion to wrest control of the parliamentary agenda from the government in an extraordinary bid to stop a “no deal” Brexit. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ripped Senator Ted Cruz and “coward Republicans” after he cited the city as an example for why “gun control doesn’t work.” On Monday, Cruz linked to a story from the far-right website Breitbart News about fatal gun violence in “Democrat-controlled Chicago” over Labor Day Weekend. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper agreed on Tuesday to free up $3.6 billion from the Pentagon budget for President Trump’s border wall by effectively defunding 127 military construction projects using emergency authorities.  Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.

President Trump’s political allies are trying to raise at least $2 million to investigate reporters and editors of The New York Times, The Washington Post and other outlets, according to a three-page fundraising pitch reviewed by Axios.  Read the rest of the story at Axios.

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has declined numerous opportunities to criticize President Donald Trump’s policies since leaving his Cabinet post, said Tuesday he may not stay silent forever. In a conversation with Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass, Mattis said that “when the time’s right to speak out about policy or strategy, I’ll speak out.” Mattis stepped down in December. His letter of resignation cited his disagreements on policy grounds with the president, explaining his “core belief” that “our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships.”  Read the rest of the story at CNBC.

Congressional Democrats plan to open an inquiry into claims that President Donald Trump was involved in hush money payments to two women during the 2016 election, according to a report Monday evening in The Washington Post.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Hurricane Dorian has been downgraded to a Category 3 storm after stalling over the Bahamas, where officials say it is responsible for the deaths of at least five people. The National Hurricane Center says the storm is expected to remain over the Bahamas for much of Tuesday before moving “dangerously close” to the Florida coast through Wednesday night, where it is not expected to make landfall.  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

The Odessa mass shooter threatened his neighbor with a rifle last month, but the police never responded after she reported the incident to them, according to breaking news via CNN. According to the CNN report, the 36-year-old perpetrator, who shot and killed seven people and wounded 22 more on Saturday afternoon, was reported to law enforcement after he threatened his neighbor with a rifle when she left her trash in a nearby dumpster. The neighbor also told CNN that the man would occasionally shoot and kill animals at night on his property from a structure on top of his house and then retrieve the dead animals. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

The mayor of Odessa, Texas, on Sunday blamed the mass shooting in his town that claimed seven lives on “evil people” and “violent video games.” When MSNBC news host Kendis Gibson asked Mayor David Turner how he was going to comfort the people of his town, Turner responded: “You comfort your city with prayer. We’re having a prayer vigil tonight … we will handle this one day at a time.”  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Saturday she’s “alive” and on her way to being “very well” following radiation treatment for cancer. Ginsburg, 86, made the comments at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington. The event came a little over a week after Ginsburg disclosed that she had completed three weeks of outpatient radiation therapy for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas and is now disease-free. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

It just became 15% more expensive for U.S. companies to import everything from milk to diapers and sports equipment from China. Tariffs on $112 billion of Chinese goods went into effect Sunday. While some duties have been delayed and some items have been removed from the original list of $300 billion Chinese imports, many everyday grocery items and household staples will still be targeted beginning Sunday, according to an official list that spans 122 pages. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Hurricane Dorian strengthened to a “catastrophic” Category 5 storm early Sunday as it closed in on the Bahamas, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s expected to bring devastating 160 mph winds, heavy rainfall and life-threatening storm surge as it prepares to hit the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas. It will then hit Grand Bahama Island later on Sunday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

President Donald Trump on Thursday welcomed parts of a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general that concluded former FBI Director James Comey had violated FBI policies in his handling of certain memos regarding his interactions with the president.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

President Trump’s personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, whose office sits in front of the Oval Office and who has served as the president’s gatekeeper since Day 1 of his administration, resigned on Thursday, two people familiar with her exit said.  Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected House Democrats’ bid for quick consideration of their lawsuit seeking President Donald Trump’s tax returns. D.C. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden denied their request to both expedite consideration of the case and to decide on its merits without holding a trial. Read the rest of the story at Politico.

In his first interview since resigning from office, former Defense Secretary Mattis appeared reluctant to directly criticize the president, but when he was asked about Trump’s tweets about North Korea he said: “Any Marine general or any other senior servant of the people of the United States would find that, to use a mild euphemism, counterproductive and beneath the dignity of the presidency.”  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday afternoon.  Read the story at CNN.

President Donald Trump sent Fox News a message Wednesday that he would not tolerate watching hosts on his favorite TV network go easy on Democrats. The president threw a tantrum on Twitter after Fox News anchor Sandra Smith hosted Democratic National Committee communications director Xochitl Hinojosa to discuss ― amicably ― the 2020 Democratic presidential debates. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Only 10 candidates qualified by the Aug. 28 deadline, which means ― unless ABC News suddenly reverses itself ― the candidates who will participate in the Sept. 12 event are:

Former Vice President Joe Biden
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro

Those who failed to qualify include:

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D)
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D)
Former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.)
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam (D)
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)
Former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.)
Hedge fund manager Tom Steyer (D)
Author Marianne Williamson

Queen Elizabethas approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend Parliament days after members of the body return to work. After a meeting of the privy council at the queen’s holiday home at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the monarch backed Johnson’s request for Parliament to be “prorogued” between Sept. 9 and Oct. 14. The government has said suspending Parliament will make way for Johnson’s new administration to hold a Queen’s Speech ― laying out the government’s future plans ― on Oct. 14.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

With Puerto Rico under a hurricane watch on Tuesday, President Trump complained about “yet another big storm” heading toward the U.S. territory and lamented how much aid Congress had previously allocated for recovery efforts there, using an inflated figure. “Wow! Yet another big storm heading to Puerto Rico. Will it ever end?” the president wrote on Twitter. “Congress approved 92 Billion Dollars for Puerto Rico last year, an all time record of its kind for ‘anywhere.’”  Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.

President Donald Trump is obsessed with completing 500 miles of border wall before the 2020 election and has embarked on a frantic push to build it, which includes directives to simply “take the land” and promises of “don’t worry, I’ll pardon you” if his aides overstep the law. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who’s gone from fierce Trump supporter to perhaps equally fierce Trump critic, is running for president. Walsh announced on ABC this morning, “I’m gonna run for president… We’ve got a guy in the White House who is unfit, completely unfit to be president and it stuns me that nobody stepped up.” Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

President Donald Trump has floated multiple times the idea of thwarting hurricanes headed for the US by bombing them, including by dropping nuclear bombs on hurricanes to disrupt their course, Axios reported Sunday, citing conversations with sources who heard Trump’s comments and were briefed on a National Security Council memo that recorded the comments.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.

Hours after stepping down as the chief executive of online retail giant Overstock.com over his tryst with Russian spy Maria Butina and what he described as his role in a “deep state” government plot, Patrick Byrne appeared on Fox Business Network on Thursday to ostensibly make sense of both his baffling claims and his resignation. He made sense of neither. Read the rest of the story and see the video at The Daily Beast.

An email sent from the Justice Department to all immigration court employees this week included a link to an article posted on a white nationalist website that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” according to a letter sent by an immigration judges union and obtained by BuzzFeed News. Read the rest of the story at BuzzFeed News.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro took power this year promising to open the Amazon rainforest to industry, roll back environmental and indigenous protections and stack his Cabinet with ideologues who dismiss climate change as a Marxist hoax. 
But the record wildfires now raging in the Amazon offer a terrifying rebuke and serve as a stark reminder of what’s at stake as Bolsonaro’s policies allow ranchers, loggers and miners to destroy the world’s largest forest and repository of carbon dioxide at an unprecedented pace. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday adopted a religious theme in describing his role in picking a trade fight with China, saying: “I am the chosen one.” The president turned to look at the sky as he made the claim, using language that some Christians might consider offensive, because in Christian theology Jesus Christ is the “chosen one” and the savior. Read the rest of the story at Politico.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race, he announced Wednesday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Inslee plans to send an email to supporters on Thursday announcing that he will run for a third term as governor, two sources close to Inslee told NBC News on condition of anonymity. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that he doesn’t want another tax cut, a day after the White House signaled that the economy could use a little help. “I am not looking at a tax cut now,” the president told reporters in a reversal. “We don’t need it because we have a strong economy.” Trump and his administration signaled through news reports earlier this week that they might favor a payroll tax cut as a way of strengthening the economy. Some economists think a recession could be around the corner. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

President Donald Trump says he is looking “very seriously” at altering a constitutional right to citizenship at birth. The president made his remarks during a press gaggle during which he also called himself “the chosen one” as he looked up at the sky. Those remarks came just hours after he tweeted praise calling him “the second coming of God” and “the King of Israel.” “We’re looking at birthright citizenship very seriously,” Trump told reporters. Birthright citizenship is mandated by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Also known as Jus soli, it dates back to English common law. Read the rest of the story at Raw Story.

President Donald Trump reportedly privately reassured National Rifle Association boss Wayne LaPierre  that he would not pursue increased background check measures for firearms amid rising mass shooting concerns.  Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was weighing a payroll tax cut — an idea his advisers had insisted was not under consideration, given its potential to signal administration concern about a weakening economy. “It is something that I’m thinking about,” he told reporters at the White House.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

President Donald Trump is calling off an upcoming trip to Denmark after its prime minister rebuffed his interest in buying Greenland, a Danish territory, the White House announced on Tuesday. “Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” Trump tweeted.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Jeffrey Epstein signed a will two days before he apparently hanged himself in a federal jail in New York City. The will, filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands and obtained by CBS News, showed that Epstein was worth more than $577 million.  Read the rest of the story at CBS News.

Despite repeated assurances from Trump administration officials that U.S. consumers are not bearing the brunt of its tariffs on China, a new JPMorgan analysis predicts that the average American family will shoulder $1,000 per year.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are lamenting President Donald Trump’s apparent about-face on enhanced backgrounds for firearm sales, with Schumer calling the move “not only disappointing but also heartbreaking.” Trump told reporters this weekend he will look “very strongly” at ideas from both Democrats and Republicans but said to remember that “we already have a lot of background checks.” Those remarks followed Trump’s Aug. 7 claim that “we can bring up background checks like we’ve never had before.”  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The New York City Police Department announced Monday that it is firing Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014. The announcement comes more than two weeks after the judge presiding over Pantaleo’s disciplinary trial made a nonbinding recommendation for his dismissal. The choice ultimately fell to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, who said he made his decision in the last few days.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

A few hundred fascists once again invaded Portland for a much-anticipated rally Saturday, but this time were mostly deprived of the violent spectacle they crave, as a much larger group of anti-fascists made them know they weren’t welcome in this city. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Democratic 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg has determined that people are making an approximate decision on racism when they decide to support President Donald Trump. During a broad-range interview with Jake Tapper, Buttigieg was asked about how he previous told the CNN hot that he considers the president a “white nationalist.” To that point, Tapper asked the South Bend mayor “Do you think that it’s a racist act to cast a vote for President Trump in 2020?” “Well at best, it means looking the other way on racism,” Buttigieg said.  Read the rest of the story and see the video at Mediaite.

The 90-year-old grandmother of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has a message for Donald Trump on Saturday: “may God ruin him.” Muftia Tlaib made the pronouncement in response to the president Friday tweet, where he said that the senior Tlaib is the “real winner” because she doesn’t have to see her granddaughter. “Trump tells me I should be happy Rashida is not coming,” she said in an interview with Reuters. “May God ruin him.”  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

Police arrested at least 13 people and seized metal poles, bear spray and other weapons Saturday as hundreds of far-right protesters and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators swarmed downtown Portland, Oregon. Authorities closed bridges and streets to try to keep the rival groups apart. The city’s mayor said the situation was “potentially dangerous and volatile,” and President Donald Trump tweeted “Portland is being watched very closely.” Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday issued subpoenas to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and a former White House official as it ramps up its investigation to determine whether to impeach President Donald Trump.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has been granted permission to enter Israel to visit her elderly grandmother on the West Bank. Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) had been denied access to enter Israel under pressure from President Donald Trump, who suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would appear “weak” if he allowed the congresswomen to visit.  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump made a rare move Thursday night — holding a rally in a state he didn’t win in 2016, with a stop in New Hampshire. Trump has spent most of his time as president in the key swing states of Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. But his advisers urged him to make a stop in New Hampshire, which he lost by less than 3,000 votes, despite having just four electoral votes.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Israel will bar two pro-Palestinian Democratic congresswomen from visiting the country, in a move that could strain relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Democrats in Washington, the deputy foreign minister said Thursday.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

The three highest-ranking Republican leaders in the House took Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, to task after he questioned Wednesday whether humanity would exist if not for the rapes and incest that happened throughout history. “What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest?” he said at a speech in Urbandale, Iowa. “Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that has taken place? And whatever happened to culture after society, I know that I can’t certify that that I am not a part of the product of that.” He also noted that “it’s not the baby’s fault” if a rape or incest occurred. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

At least one gunman opened fire on police Wednesday as they were serving a drug warrant in Philadelphia, wounding six officers and triggering a standoff that extended into the night, authorities said. Two other officers were trapped inside the house for about five hours after the shooting broke out but were freed by a SWAT team well after darkness fell on the residential neighborhood.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 800 points on Wednesday, as investors suffered their worst day of the year as new concerns arose over data on global economic growth. The tumble followed a series of concerning economic indicators from Germany and China, signaling renewed recession fears in the global economy.  Read the rest of the story at ABC News.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to drop out of the Democratic presidential race on Thursday, a source close to Hickenlooper told NBC News on Wednesday night.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

The head of the House Foreign Affairs committee is directing the panel’s staffers to warn foreign governments not to patronize President Donald Trump’s businesses. Rep. Eliot Engel — one of about 200 lawmakers who sued Trump in 2017 charging he’s violating the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause by making money from foreign governments while in office — issued the memo to the panel’s Democratic staffers on Monday.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday headed to a Shell petrochemicals plant being built outside Pittsburgh to give what was billed by the White House as a speech on “America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival.” But the hourlong address was light on energy policy and heavy on stump speech material and off-script riffs, as Trump touched on everything from his love of trucks to his assessment of his potential 2020 rivals.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

Lawmakers and government officials across Washington, including some of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, are growing increasingly alarmed about the unrest in Hong Kong. One person, however, seems less concerned than most: Trump. As pro-democracy protesters clash with police and as China hints that it may violently quell the demonstrations, the events in Hong Kong have laid bare the tough choices facing the U.S. when it comes to dealing with the communist-led government in Beijing.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The warden of the federal lockup where accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein apparently took his own life has been temporarily reassigned and two guards tasked with watching the financier have been placed on leave, Department of Justice officials said Tuesday. The move to reassign the warden, Lamine N’Diaye, came three days after Epstein was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

The New York City Fire Department is investigating to find out if a first responder posted about Jeffrey Epstein’s death on an internet chat board popular with white nationalists and alt-right trolls, according to Buzzfeed News. Around 40 minutes before ABC News first reported Epstein’s death to Twitter, someone posted the news to the 4chan message board. Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s guards the night he hanged himself in his federal jail cell wasn’t a regular correctional officer, according to a person familiar with the detention center, which is now under scrutiny for what Attorney General William Barr on Monday called “serious irregularities.”  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

FBI agents on Monday were searching the Virgin Islands residence of Jeffrey Epstein, an accused child sex trafficker, a bureau spokesman told NBC News. The search of Epstein’s private island of Little St. James comes two days after the wealthy financier died from an apparent suicide while in jail in Manhattan. Read the rest of the story at CNBC.

As bad as it’s been for Texas Republicans lately, some members of the party are warning that 2020 could be even worse. The rash of recent House GOP retirements is just the latest sign of a state party in distress: In last year’s midterms, Democrats flipped a pair of longtime GOP districts, a Democrat came within striking distance of a Senate seat, and more than 50 elected Republican judges lost their jobs. Democrats also gained ground in state legislative races.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The Department of Homeland Security officially published a change to what’s known as the “public charge” rule on Monday that would make it much harder to apply for a green card or earn a visa. The new policy, which is set to go into effect in mid-October, expands the definition of what would make an applicant likely to become a “public charge,” someone who the government has deemed would be dependent on it, thus rendering them ineligible for legal permanent residency status.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci on Monday accused President Donald Trump of having “gone off the rails,” comparing him to a “demagogue” and insisting the administration’s conservative policy agenda is not worth the damage Trump has inflicted upon America’s democratic institutions.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

Seventeen Democratic presidential candidates joined gun control advocates at a rally in Iowa on Saturday and called for the Senate to vote on a pair of background check bills passed by the House earlier this year. A week after 31 people died in mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the 2020 hopefuls slammed Republicans for inaction as massacres involving guns become increasingly common.  Read the rest of the story at ABC News.

Jail protocols requiring routine checks on the well-being of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appear to have not been followed in the hours before the millionaire was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, sources told ABC News on Sunday. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke criticized President Donald Trump on Sunday for sharing unfounded conspiracy theories about the death of Jeffrey Epstein, accusing Trump of misusing the presidency to “attack his political enemies.”

“This is another example of our president using this position of public trust to attack his political enemies with unfounded conspiracy theories,” O’Rourke, who is running for president, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

A man accused of walking into a Walmart in Missouri equipped with body armor, a handgun and a rifle less than a week after a gunman killed 22 people in a Texas Walmart said it was a “social experiment” and not intended to cause panic, police say.
“I wanted to know if that Walmart honored the Second Amendment,” Dmitriy Andreychenko told investigators, according to a probable cause statement filed by Springfield police.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.

The man accused of carrying out last weekend’s deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in the Texas border city of El Paso confessed to officers while he was surrendering and later explained that he had been targeting Mexicans, authorities say. Patrick Crusius, 21, emerged with his hands up from a vehicle that was stopped at an intersection shortly after last Saturday’s attack and told officers, “I’m the shooter,” Detective Adrian Garcia said in an arrest warrant affidavit.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, 66, has died inside a Manhattan correctional facility, two senior law enforcement officials have confirmed to The Daily Beast. They said that it appeared he had committed suicide.  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

After months of will-they,won’t-they, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nalder finally confirmed, to CNN’s Erin Burnett, that the his committee has begun an official impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump and that he has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s political blessing: “This is formal impeachment proceedings.” Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

The mother of the 21-year-old man accused of killing 22 people at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart called police weeks before the shooting concerned that her son owned an “AK”-type gun, the family’s attorneys said Wednesday. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Equinox and SoulCycle responded to calls for members to cancel their memberships on Wednesday over their owner’s plans to host a mega-fundraiser for President Donald Trump. Equinox Fitness, which operates its namesake company in addition to SoulCycle and Blink Fitness, issued a statement amid outrage over Stephen Ross’s upcoming fundraiser for Trump, where tickets run as high as $250,000, according to The Washington Post, which first reported news of the event. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.

President Donald Trump is reportedly mulling the commutation of the 14-year sentence of former Illinois Governor — and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant — Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted in 2011 of 17 federal corruption charges after trying to sell off the appointment to the vacated Senate seat of newly-elected President Barack Obama. According to new report in the New York Times, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from visiting with victims of the El Paso mass shooting that Blagojevich’s crimes were minor transgressions and that “many” politicians have done the same thing.  Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

Ivanka Trump has come under fire for a tweet Tuesday in which she appeared to try to redirect “national outrage” over two mass shootings in Ohio and Texas to Chicago’s “inner city” gun violence problem. In a series of tweets, Trump said: “As we grieve over the evil mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, let us not overlook that Chicago experienced its deadliest weekend of the year. With 7 dead and 52 wounded near a playground in the Windy City—and little national outrage or media coverage—we mustn’t become numb to the violence faced by inner city communities every day.”  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

President Trump may face a cool reception Wednesday from local leaders in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, when he travels to each city in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings. Democrats in both cities have indicated they’re not crazy about the president visiting, particularly in El Paso, where the suspected gunman allegedly published an anti-immigrant manifesto that echoed some of Trump’s own language.  Read the rest of the story at The Hill.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump after two tumultuous years on the job, two U.S. officials and another person close to the diplomat confirmed to NBC News. The former Utah governor has been in the job since 2017. His resignation, effective Oct. 3, comes amid widespread speculation in Utah that he might run for governor again.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that “mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,” but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns. Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Top Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) issued a joint statement on Monday calling for a renewed focus on gun control legislation in light of the two mass shootings over the weekend in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas.  Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

President Donald Trump spoke Monday in response to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, calling them a “crime against all of humanity.”
The president blamed white supremacy, the internet, video games and mental illness for the massacres. He did not blame guns or himself.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

U.S. stock markets plummeted on Monday following China’s move to devalue its currency, Beijing’s latest step in a tense faceoff on trade with President Trump.  Read the rest of the story at The Hill.

Mexico on Sunday threatened to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens after this weekend’s mass shooting in the border city of El Paso. Of the 20 people gunned down at a Walmart at the Cielo Vista Mall, at least seven were Mexican citizens, and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard promised Mexico City will act.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Patrick Crusius has been identified as the suspected gunman who attacked a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, a senior law-enforcement source told The Daily Beast. Crusius’ identity was first reported by CNN. Crusius apparently foreshadowed the attack online almost an hour beforehand, according to postings reviewed by The Daily Beast. Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

At least nine people have been killed and 26 people injured after a shooting early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, police said. The suspected shooter, who is believed to have acted alone, is also dead.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

A gunman opened fire Saturday in a Walmart and around a nearby shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, leaving 20 people dead and 26 injured, law enforcement officials said. In delivering an updated number of deceased, Gov. Greg Abbott called it “one of the most deadly days in the history of Texas.”  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

With the second debate wrapped up, the third Democratic debate hosted by ABC and Univision will happen during the second week of September. The candidates are still working to qualify and have another month to reach the polling threshold and grassroots fundraising thresholds as laid out by the Democratic National Committee.  See the full list at CNN.

After years of decrying deficits and debt, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a massive $2.7 trillion budget plan, 67-28, that will suspend the debt ceiling for two years and increase spending to both domestic and military programs.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

The Justice Department inspector general’s office referred former FBI Director James Comey for potential prosecution over his handling of memos that the FBI later determined contained classified information, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Thursday.  Read the rest of the story at CNN

Following a contentious debate among Democratic White House contenders Wednesday, a number of party leaders aren’t thrilled that some of the candidates focused on attacking former President Barack Obama’s legacy as a way to challenge Joe Biden.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs. Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a shot at Jared Kushner on Thursday as she defended Rep. Elijah Cummings after days of attacks from President Donald Trump. Pelosi, a Baltimore native, said that, instead of focusing his ire on Cummings, Trump should look within his own family when it comes to deteriorating housing conditions in the city. Read the rest of the story at Politico.

Ronald Reagan was the governor of California in 1971 when he phoned the White House to vent his political frustration to President Richard M. Nixon and, according to a newly released audio recording, called African people “monkeys” in a slur that sparked laughter from the president of the United States. Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

The House GOP has been smacked by a wave of retirements over the past few weeks — but some Republicans fear the worst is yet to come. With the GOP relegated to the minority for the first time in eight years, a mix of veteran and vulnerable members have decided to call it quits instead of sticking around to see whether the party wins back power in 2020. Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2008, citing concerns about the global economy and muted U.S. inflation, and signaled a readiness to lower borrowing costs further if needed.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

President Donald Trump lambasted CNN’s Don Lemon as “dumb” and “stupid” after the Democratic debate moderator asked questions about the president’s “bigotry” on Tuesday.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

After Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren fended off repeated attacks from moderate competitors, the next 10 presidential primary contenders take the stage Wednesday for second night of the second Democratic debates. Read the rest of the story at ABC News.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a controversial bill Tuesday that would all but force President Donald Trump to give in to longstanding demands that he release his tax returns.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

Donald Trump’s new pick for director of national intelligence played a role last year in popularizing what briefly became one of the right’s most easily debunked conspiracy theories about the investigation into the president and Russia, offering what he presented as evidence of an anti-Trump “secret society” operating within the FBI.  Read the rest of the story at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s attacks on Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummingshaven’t gained as much internal support at the White House as his earlier attacks on the “Squad,” according to administration officials. But there are no signs Trump believes his strategy is wrong or is planning to pull back his attacks on the African American lawmaker from Baltimore.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.

A former software engineer from Seattle has been arrested in connection with a massive data breach that potentially puts over 100 million Capital One credit card applicants at risk.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Hours before President Donald Trump announced him as the pick to be the new director of national intelligence, Rep. John Ratcliffe was on Fox News saying the Russia investigation may have been tainted by a criminal conspiracy.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) should visit Somalia, where she was born, to gain a better appreciation for the United States, calling the Muslim lawmaker “ungrateful” to be an American.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said Sunday that he will leave the Trump administration in mid-August. President Trump announced in a tweet that he would nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) to replace Coats.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

The House Judiciary Committee is investigating President Donald Trump to determine whether to file articles of impeachment against him, members of the committee said on Friday.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

President Donald Trump slammed one of his leading congressional opponents, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), in a Saturday morning Twitter rant calling him a “brutal bully” and berating his majority-black Baltimore district as a “rodent infested mess.”  Read the rest of the story at HuffPo.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has just released the first section of its report on 2016 Russian interference, which found that hackers likely tried to access election systems in all 50 states, confirming widespread fears that America’s election system may not be secure from attack.  Read the rest of the story at Vox.

Attorney General William Barr directed the Justice Department on Thursday to adopt a new rule for carrying out the death penalty, which would restore executions in the federal system for the first time in 16 years.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked two election security measures on Thursday, arguing Democrats are trying to give themselves a “political benefit.”  Read the rest of the story at The Hill.

The partisan war over Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election reached a messy and contentious climax on Wednesday as lawmakers spent hours grilling Mr. Mueller about his conclusions but extracted little information beyond what he had written in his voluminous report.  Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Trump, said Wednesday that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s daylong testimony validated the claims of the president and his allies and revealed “troubling deficiencies” in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.  Read the rest of the story at The Hill.

Americans’ confidence in the fairness of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has never been higher — even among Republicans, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday, the day Mueller testified before Congress.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Since he was first appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller has been a unique foil for President Donald Trump — the kind who doesn’t clap back on Twitter, issue press releases in his own defense or go on television to accuse the president of committing crimes.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

House Democrats are preparing an all-out messaging blitz over the next three days to refocus Americans’ attention on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, hoping to channel the intense focus on Mueller’s congressional testimony Wednesday into a public outcry against President Donald Trump, as well as the prospect of future foreign interference in U.S. elections.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

President Donald Trump is going to court to prevent House Democrats from getting his long-hidden tax returns from the state of New York.  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

The White House and congressional leaders have struck a budget deal that would suspend the debt limit until mid-2021, President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders announced Monday.  Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Two police officers in Louisiana were fired Monday after one wrote a Facebook post suggesting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be shot and the other liked it.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.

The Department of Justice has sent a letter to Robert Mueller warning him that he should not go beyond the “scope” of his report when he testifies in front of Congress on Wednesday.  Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he still believes President Donald Trump could be indicted after he leaves office, saying “the president is not above the law.”  Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.

Trump on Friday defended the rally-goers as “patriots” while again questioning the loyalty of four Democratic lawmakers of color. His comments marked a return to a pattern that has become familiar during controversies of his own making: ignite a firestorm, backtrack, then strongly reaffirm his original, inflammatory position. Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

George Nader, a man who served as a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, faces new charges of child pornography, sex trafficking and obscenity.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

The Trump administration has quietly dismantled or cut back multiple programs that were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to help detect and prevent terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Read the rest of the report at The Los Angeles Times.

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday he “was not happy” with the crowd at his campaign rally for chanting “send her back,” after he had goaded the North Carolina audience with a fiery attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).  Read the rest of the story at Politico.

CNN’s two-night Democratic primary debate will offer a rematch of former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris, whose clash over race became the most closely watched moment of the first round of debates. Biden and Harris will debate in Detroit on Wednesday, July 31.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.

The Democratic-led House passed a bill Thursday that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, delivering a major, though mostly symbolic, victory to the Fight for $15 movement.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

Documents unsealed in federal court Thursday lay out the beginning of a federal investigation into Michael Cohen that sent the Donald Trump fixer to federal prison, and further indicate that Trump was closely involved in hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election.  Read the rest of the story at HuffPost.

In a moment of unrestrained demagoguery, President Donald Trump presided Wednesday over a crowd chanting “Send her back! Send her back!” about an American Muslim congresswoman who he targeted with racist attacks.  Read the rest of the story at CNN.