Politico reports: Donald Trump did something unusual Friday: He admitted he was wrong. “The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!” the Republican nominee tweeted, a day after he doubled down on his claim that he had seen footage of a plane unloading money …

From the Riverside Press-Enterprise: An Inland Republican Party official resigned from his state government job Thursday, Aug. 4, a day after he sent tweets from the party’s official Twitter account that featured a menacing hangman and the words “I’m Ready for Hillary.” Nathan Miller stepped down and admitted sending the tweet, said Russell Lowery, chief deputy to Board of Equalization …

GOP Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva, who has held official town hall meetings at an anti-gay megachurch and who ceremoniously gave the key to the city to God (who did not attend), has been arrested on multiple charges including secretly recording a male teenager playing a game of strip poker in his bedroom at a summer camp. Sacramento’s NBC affiliate reports: …

Next stop, SCOTUS. Reuters reports: A U.S. appeals court issued an order on Thursday denying North Carolina’s motion to stay the court’s decision last week striking down the state’s voter ID law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said staying its ruling now “would only undermine the integrity and efficiency of the upcoming election.” On Friday, the court ruled …

Buzzfeed reports: Ugandan police interrupted the Mr. and Miss Pride Uganda pageant at Kampala’s Venom nightclub on Thursday night, detaining several well known LGBT activists for about three hours before releasing them without charge. Around 20 to 25 people were arrested, those detained told BuzzFeed News after their release. That number included Pepe Julian Onziema and Frank Mugisha of Sexual …

Mediaite reports: Paul Nehlen, the primary challenger of Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, strongly suggested during an interview with Morning Answer Chicago Thursday that the United States should simply kick all Muslims out of the country. Nehlen said the problem with vetting good Muslims from the bad is that they couldn’t be trusted. “Islam is the only major …

Raw Story reports: Donald Trump booted a baby out of a rally earlier this week, so it’s not so surprising that he’d boot out people waving copies of the Constitution at his rally. During a rally in Maine on Thursday, several protesters stood up and held out pocket copies of the United States Constitution. Even though they were standing and …

Via Talking Points Memo: Animal rights protestors appeared at a Hillary Clinton rally Thursday in Las Vegas, to which she quipped that they should be protesting Donald Trump since “his kids have killed a lot of animals.” As Clinton was discussing her jobs plan, Secret Service agents appeared on stage as a protest broke out. It’s unclear if the protesters, …

“It is absolutely men’s responsibility to fight sexism too. And as spouses and partners and boyfriends, we need to work hard and be deliberate about creating truly equal relationships. The good news is that everywhere I go across the country, and around the world, I see people pushing back against dated assumptions about gender roles. From the young men who’ve …

Another positive swing state poll today: Hillary Clinton holds a six-point lead over Donald Trump in Florida, according to the latest Suffolk University survey of likely voters in the state released Thursday. Matched head-to-head, Clinton took 48 percent, while Trump earned 42 percent. In a four-way matchup, Clinton grabbed 43 percent, followed by 39 percent for Trump, 4 percent for …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge has refused to overturn the suspension of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, ruling Thursday that doing so would improperly interfere with the state judicial proceeding that could result in Moore’s ouster for an order he issued about same-sex marriage. U.S. District Judge Harold Albritton threw out Moore’s lawsuit against the Alabama Judicial Inquiry …

CNN Money reports: Facebook is taking another stab at reducing the amount of “clickbait” in your news feed. “These are headlines that intentionally leave out crucial information, forcing people to click to find out the answer,” the company said in an announcement on Thursday. In other words: The headline on this story better be pretty specific. Publishers large and small …

 Via Right Wing Watch: Beck asserted that it doesn’t really matter, at least for him, whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton gets elected in November because he’ll wind up in jail under either one. Under a Clinton presidency, Beck said, “I think we’re looking at Argentina, I think we’re looking at Evita,” while under a Trump presidency, “we’re looking at …

Vice President Joe Biden celebrated President Obama’s 55th birthday today by tweeting out a photo of the friendship bracelet made for him by the president back in June as part of a voter registration promotion. See that video below. Also sending birthday wishes today was Hillary Clinton, who tweeted out a meme-ready image. At age 47 in January 2009, Obama …

Back in February, I reported that the New York Mets will host its first-ever LGBT Pride Night on August 13th. Today we learn that pre-game entertainment will be provided by dance legend Martha Wash, the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Marching Band, and renowned trans concert pianist Sara Davis Buechner. From Buechner’s Facebook page: This is certainly one of the …

Via Mediaite: It’s been a couple of days since Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump conspicuously and ostentatiously declined to endorse Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), and on Thursday morning, Ryan offered his reaction. In an appearance on Wisconsin radio’s Jerry Bader Show, Ryan said that “The only endorsements I want are those of my own employers here in …

Via Talking Points Memo: Melania Trump responded to a Politico report Thursday suggesting she may have immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a model in the ’90s in a statement that claimed she has been “at all times in full compliance with the immigration laws of this country.” However, Trump did not provide the specifics that would have clarified the …

Right wing pundit Erick Erickson unloaded today on Donald Trump’s supporters in an essay for The Resurgent that is getting wide notice. An excerpt: Donald Trump wants to turn NATO into a damn shakedown scheme and you people are cheering him on. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should be ashamed of the fact that your cult leader who …

From the New York Times: “Kill her.” “Trump that bitch!” “Build a wall — kill them all.” New York Times reporters have spent over a year covering Donald J. Trump’s rallies, witnessing so many provocations and heated confrontations at them that the cumulative effect can be numbing: A sharp sting that quickly dulls from repetition. But what struck us was …

In a lengthy investigative piece published today, Politico raises questions about Melania Trump’s oft-told immigration story. Ironically, the scrutiny launched after the New York Post published those softcore lesbian porn shots, which many believe were leaked by Donald Trump himself in a failed attempt to distract from the still-raging controversy about the Khans. From Politico: While Trump and her husband, …