Politics

NBC News reports: Rep. Martha McSally has defeated Kelli Ward and former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the Arizona Republican Senate primary on Tuesday night, NBC News projects. McSally, a former fighter pilot, had been favored to prevail over the two conservatives who have split the anti-establishment vote. But McSally tacked far to the right in the primary, which could cause …

Via press release from the Victory Fund: Openly LGBTQ candidate Lauren Baer won her primary for a U.S. House seat and is on-track to becoming the first openly LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Florida. The seat is considered pivotal to Democrats’ efforts to retake the House, and she will face Republican anti-LGBTQ incumbent Brian Mast in November. Baer will …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Democrats picked Andrew Gillum, the charismatic liberal activist and mayor of Tallahassee, as the party’s nominee for governor. It was an historic pick. Gillum is the first black nominee for Florida governor from either major party. Nominating Gillum also represents a strategic break for Democrats. For most of the last 20 years, the party has …

Fox News chortles: President Donald Trump met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro at the White House on Tuesday to commemorate North America winning its bid for the 2026 World Cup. Cordeiro and Infantino both gifted Trump commemorative soccer jerseys, but near the end of the photo op, Infantino reached off camera to get one …

Politico reports: The Democratic National Committee’s headquarters was evacuated Tuesday following a bomb threat, a spokesperson said. “There was a bomb threat that came in this afternoon and the DNC took the necessary precautions and evacuated the building,” DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement. Hinojosa said the DNC is currently working with law enforcement on the threat. The …

South Carolina’s The State reports: GOP Gov. Henry McMaster Monday night referred to Democrats as “dogs” and urged his fellow Republicans not to become complacent with one of their own, President Donald Trump, in the White House. McMaster, addressing a crowd of about 1,250 gathered for U.S. Rep, Jeff Duncan’s, R-Laurens, eighth annual Faith and Freedom BBQ, told GOP voters …

The Miami Herald reports: The portfolio of Gov. Rick Scott and first lady Ann Scott includes earnings last year of at least $2.9 million in two dozen hedge funds registered in the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven for U.S. and foreign investors. The investments had a minimum total value of $25 million and a potential value of $62 million, …

Reuters reports: Russia will next month hold its biggest war games in nearly four decades, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, a massive military exercise that will also involve the Chinese and Mongolian armies. The exercise, called Vostok-2018 (East-2018), will take place in central and eastern Russian military districts and involve almost 300,000 troops, over 1,000 military aircraft, two …

The Hill reports: Michael D’Antonio, a CNN contributor and biographer who wrote “The Truth About Trump,” said in a new interview that Vice President Mike Pence believes God is “calling him” to “function as a president-in-waiting.” “Absolutely everything Mike Pence does is oriented toward him becoming president,” D’Antonio said during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday in promotion of his …

The New York Post reports: Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. hit the Hamptons last week to help raise big bucks for Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin. After headlining a fund-raiser Tuesday night with 600 guests at the home of Steve Louro on Smithtown Bay, the lovebirds were in Bridgehampton on Friday night at the Sandcastle, the estate that builder Joe …

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that if President Trump replaces Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his new nominee would have to promise the Senate that he would allow special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to complete his investigation. “You have to replace him with somebody who is highly qualified and will commit to the Senate …

The Washington Examiner reports: Incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz leads Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke by one point in their Texas Senate race, putting the two in a dead heat for the seat. An Emerson College poll puts Cruz at 38 percent compared to O’Rourke’s 37 percent among registered voters. Twenty-one percent are still undecided, according to the poll, conducted Aug. …

Newsweek reports: President Donald Trump will not attend John McCain’s funeral, a spokesman for the late senator said Monday, while the president’s predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush will deliver eulogies. “The president will not be, as far as we know, attending the funeral,” McCain spokesman and former campaign manager Rick Davis said. “That’s just a fact.” Trump’s absence …

Viral YouTube star Randy Rainbow was busy this weekend with his latest number, If You Ever Got Impeached, which is set to the tune Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s classic If I Only Had A Brain from The Wizard Of Oz. As always, I won’t give away any of the jokes but you’ll definitely enjoy Randy’s inventive rhymes.

Axios reports: Congressional Republicans are getting ready for hell. Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that’s circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill — including at least one leadership office — that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House. Why this matters: Publicly, House Republicans are putting on a brave face about the …

Arizona Central reports: Kelli Ward suggested Saturday that the statement issued Friday by U.S. Sen. John McCain’s family about ending treatment for brain cancer was intended to hurt her U.S. Senate campaign. McCain died Saturday hours after her remarks. Ward, a conservative former state senator from Lake Havasu City, is in a three-way race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination …

The Hill reports: Fox News analyst Brit Hume took a swipe at President Trump over his tweet offering condolences to the family of GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who died Saturday at the age of 81. Hume pointed out that Trump’s tweet avoided praising McCain himself, setting it vastly apart from the dozens of tributes to the late senator posted …

Politico reports: Sen. John McCain held his seat in the Senate for nearly 32 years. After McCain’s death Saturday, it will fall to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to name his successor. State law gives Ducey, a Republican, the power to fill the Senate vacancy for the next two years, until a special election in 2020 for the right to complete …

Via press release from President Obama: John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics. But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher-the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed. We saw our political battles, even, …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the family of Sen. John McCain, who died Saturday at age 81. Some of Trump’s most explosive remarks in his campaign came early on in July 2015, when he mocked the senator’s time as a tortured prisoner of war in Vietnam.  “He was a war hero because he was captured. I …