Politics

PBS reports: Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will face Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke on Friday in Dallas, the first debate of the Texas Senate race. The hourlong debate is being hosted by the Dallas Morning News, Southern Methodist University and KXAS-TV. The debate — the first of three scheduled debates in the race — will take place at Southern Methodist …

Politico reports: The Senate Judiciary Committee is giving Christine Blasey Ford attorney’s until the end of the day Friday to work out terms of next week’s proposed hearing on Ford’s allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, according to a Republican senator. The GOP is offering to hold the hearing on Wednesday after Ford sought Thursday and …

The Associated Press reports: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is denying a report in The New York Times that he suggested last year he secretly record President Donald Trump in the White House to expose chaos in the administration. Rosenstein says the story is “inaccurate and factually incorrect.” The report also says Rosenstein floated the idea of trying to remove …

The Daily Beast reports: If you visited Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ (R-WA) campaign website in 2014, you would have had no doubt what she wanted to do with Obamacare. She wanted to kill it. Four years later, Rodgers’ hatred for President Obama’s signature domestic law has not just softened on her campaign website, it’s disappeared. Her site today doesn’t make …

USA Today reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden regrets how Anita Hill was treated 27 years ago and hopes the same thing doesn’t happen to Christine Blasey Ford. “What should happen is the woman should be given the benefit of the doubt and not be, you know, abused again by the system,” Biden told NBC’s “Today” show in an interview …

Reuters reports: Facebook Inc said on Thursday that it would no longer dispatch employees to the offices of political campaigns to offer support ahead of elections, as it did with U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2016 race. The company and other major online ad sellers including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter Inc have long offered free dedicated assistance to …

The Hill reports: Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said on Thursday that people need to “lighten up” over his joke mocking sexual misconduct accusations brought against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Earlier on Thursday at an election debate, Norman quipped that “Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.” Norman’s comments prompted a whirlwind of …

The Washington Examiner reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated definitively Friday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed soon, despite the controversy generated by allegations that the nominee engaged in sexual misconduct. “You’ve watched the fight, you’ve watched the tactics,” McConnell said at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. “But here is what I want to …

CNBC reports: A prominent conservative commentator teased the revelation of “compelling evidence” that would exonerate Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault allegation, electrifying the nominee’s supporters on Twitter. But the argument laid out Thursday, which appeared to suggest that accuser Christine Blasey Ford had mistaken Kavanaugh for another person, was met with a backlash from many on …

The New York Times reports: This year, there are 21 openly L.G.B.T. people nominated for Congress and four for governor, all Democrats, according to the L.G.B.T.Q. Victory Fund, a nonpartisan group that supports and tracks gay and transgender political candidates. Eight years ago, the first year the group started tracking candidates, there were only five openly L.G.B.T. people nominated for …

The Hill reports: The Cook Political Report on Friday updated its rating for Texas’s heated Senate race, moving it from leans Republican to toss-up amid new polls showing Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in a tightening race with Sen. Ted Cruz (R). The change in rating Friday came amid two other Senate race changes, with the prediction website changing the race …

Bloomberg reports: President Trump likes to mock Nancy Pelosi, but a private survey conducted for the Republican National Committee finds that she’s actually more popular—and beats the president when the midterm election is framed as a contest between the two. The internal poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek, asks registered voters who they support “when …

Politico reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will face a barrage of congressional inquiries into his business dealings, travels, political activities and relations with industry if Democrats win the House in November, according to lawmakers who hope to lead the chamber next year. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, has already unsuccessfully demanded a …

The New York Daily News reports: The fixer is pulling a fast one of his former boss. Michael Cohen tweeted and quickly deleted a third-person message Thursday night that confirmed his “critical” cooperation against President Trump in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. “Good for Michael Cohen for providing critical information to the #MuellerInvestigation without a cooperation …

Gosh, who could it have been? CNN reports: The personal Gmail accounts of an unspecified number of US senators and Senate staff have been targeted by foreign government hackers, a Google spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Thursday. On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, wrote in a letter to Senate leadership that his office had learned that “at least …

The Washington Post reports: In his opening statements at an election debate Thursday, a South Carolina congressman kicked things off with a joke. “Did y’all hear this latest late-breaking news on the Kavanaugh hearings?” Rep. Ralph Norman (R) asked the audience at a Kiwanis club in his district. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.” …

Newsweek reports: Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham violated the Hatch Act, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel confirmed on Thursday. The affirmation comes two months after Senator Tom Carper filed a complaint that Grisham was in violation of the ethics law when she used her official Twitter account to post a message that included Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan “Make …

The Washingtonian reports: The Trump White House has yet another legal headache—and this time, the other side brought paddles. The Canoe Cruisers Association of Greater Washington filed a lawsuit in Maryland Thursday against members of the administration, alleging defendants Karl L. Schultz, the commandant of the US Coast Guard, and Kirstjen M. Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security, failed to …

The New York Times reports: The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault, in an apparent bid to jump-start negotiations, has told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she “would be prepared to testify next week,” so long as senators offer “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” according to an email her lawyers sent …

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: Ivanka Trump plans to raise money for Senate Republicans’ campaign arm this fall — amid new concern about the party’s fragile 51-seat majority in that chamber. An invitation shared with the Star-Telegram Tuesday lists the president’s daughter as a “special guest” at a Dallas fundraiser that’s now being rescheduled, according to the White House. Tickets …