Can six minutes of fast talk on a crowded stage ignite a presidential campaign? Twenty Democratic contenders hope so. The first chapter of the Democratic presidential contest has had an everybody-in-the-pool spirit: Seven senators and five representatives and two governors and three mayors and even a self-help author announced bids for the nomination to challenge President Donald Trump.
Robert Mueller has agreed to answer questions from Congress for the first time since his investigation of Russian election interference began more than two years ago. The chairman of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees announced the deal Tuesday night. The former special counsel will appear on July 17. President Trump called the news "presidential harassment."
by David Sanger, David D. Kirkpatrick, Isabel Kershner | The New York Times
President Trump warned on Tuesday that any attack Iran might carry out “on anything American” would result in the “obliteration” of parts of Iran, responding angrily to comments by President Hassan Rouhani that the White House was “mentally handicapped.”
Administration officials are trying to set expectations for the G20... the United States is not willing to come to the Trump-Xi meeting, that is the meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping, with concessions on trade, the official is saying.
A divided House voted on Tuesday to send $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid to the border to address horrific conditions facing a crush of migrants, attaching significant rules on how the money could be spent in the first action by Democrats to rein in President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
One thing made clear yet again, however, was just how different Mr. Trump’s decision-making process is from those of other presidents, even on the weightiest of issues to confront a commander in chief.
Despite recent fighting within the Democratic party about comments connected to race, the candidates chose not to take aim at each other during South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn’s famous fish fry. While frontrunner Joe Biden felt the heat in the days leading up to the event for some of his recent comments, the former VP largely stayed out of the fryer last night as fellow Democrats focused instead on defeating President Trump.
The plans had been drawn, the targets set, and a single word from the commander in chief would have activated the U.S. military to strike a foreign adversary. But President Trump was having second thoughts.
by Josh Gerstein, Kyle Cheney, Darren Samuelsohn | POLITICO
Paul Manafort had a sympathetic media ally in Sean Hannity as federal investigators closed in and ultimately prosecuted the former Trump campaign chairman for a series of financial crimes and witness tampering, according to hundreds of text messages released Friday.
