Politics

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 …

The Washington Examiner reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been in plenty of public battles with President Trump, but this week’s tense exchange between the two now have some thinking that Sessions may be on the way out. One Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., talked openly about the clock running out on Sessions after more than a year of …

CNN reports: A former Trump World Tower doorman who says he has knowledge of an alleged affair President Donald Trump had with an ex-housekeeper, which resulted in a child, is now able to talk about a contract he entered with American Media Inc. that had prohibited him from discussing the matter with anyone, according to his attorney. On Friday, Marc …

“Remember, the president first said he did not know about the hush money payments in advance. His then-aide, Hope Hicks, said we know nothing of the payments. Both of his spokespersons Raj Shah and Sarah Sanders said that the president denied knowledge of the payments. Michael Cohen said the president knew nothing of the payments. “Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, said …

Buzzfeed News reports: Michael Avenatti, the self-described potential 2020 contender and lawyer representing Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Donald Trump, is launching his own federal PAC to support Democratic candidates with “the size and the presence to really fight back and advocate from a position of strength as opposed to weakness.” The organization, formed Thursday, will be called Fight …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge in Texas threw out a closely followed lawsuit Thursday accusing Dallas County of drawing voter district lines to dilute the influence of white voters. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, wrote the plaintiffs “failed to prove” the lack of a second county …

The New York Times reports: Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, will no longer be treated for his condition, his family announced on Friday, a sign that the Republican war hero is most likely entering his final days. “Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family …

Newsweek reports: Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally using campaign funds for personal expenses on Thursday and blamed his wife Margaret Hunter, saying she handled his finances. “She was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did that’ll be looked at too, I’m sure,” Hunter told Fox News on Thursday. “But I didn’t do it. …