Politics

The Guardian reports: In a tell-all memoir, the pornographic actor Stormy Daniels details salacious descriptions of her time with Donald Trump, wonders if he is fit to be president and claims he offered to cheat for her in his reality TV show. “We’ll figure out a way to get you the challenges beforehand,” she quotes him as saying. “And we …

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports: With the noxious odor of red tide hanging in the air and a fresh wave of dead fish washing up on nearby Gulf beaches, a large crowd of people incensed about the devastating algae bloom that has plagued the region for months directed their anger at Gov. Rick Scott during a campaign event in Venice Monday. …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, is ready to be sentenced later this year for pleading guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia probe, according to a status report his lawyer filed jointly Monday with special counsel Robert Mueller. After months of delays, Judge Emmet Sullivan is now …

The New York Times reports: The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, under mounting pressure from senators of his own party, will call President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, and the woman who has accused him of sexual assault before the committee on Monday for extraordinary public hearings just weeks before the midterm elections. Senator John Kennedy, …

“We’ve just got to stay motivated. You know, that’s the real problem. Our guys, they’re getting everything that they’re wanting. I mean, my father’s going through his list of promises and checking them off one after the other after the other. They’re sitting back and saying, ‘Hey this is great.’ They don’t realize Trump’s on the ticket in 2018.  “They …

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports: Actress Diane Neal will be on the November ballot as an independent congressional candidate in a sprawling upstate New York district after winning a court case over her petition signatures. The state Board of Elections last month rejected over 1,800 of the more than 4,100 signatures on Neal’s petition to get on the ballot in the …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Monday said that “if it takes a little delay” to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, that’s alright. Trump stressed that Kavanaugh “never even had a little blemish on his record,” and that the nominee had undergone several FBI background checks over the course of his career. “He is somebody very special. At the …

Politico reports: The Judicial Crisis Network is planning a $1.5 million television ad campaign that will feature a longtime friend of Kavanaugh’s, according to a person familiar with the buy. “We are not going to allow a last-minute smear campaign destroy a good and decent man who has an unblemished personal record,” the person said. JCN has already spent millions …

Via press release from GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley: Anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has deserves to be heard, so I will continue working on a way to hear her out in an appropriate, precedented and respectful manner. The standard procedure for updates to any nominee’s background investigation file is to conduct separate follow-up calls with relevant parties. In …

The Buffalo News reports: Rep. Chris Collins will stay on the congressional ballot in November even though he remains under indictment on insider trading charges, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The sources, who asked not to be identified, say Collins has heeded the advice of his criminal attorneys who fear the potential complications of protracted election law …

The Associated Press reports: Julian Assange had just pulled off one of the biggest scoops in journalistic history, splaying the innards of American diplomacy across the web. But technology firms were cutting ties to his website, WikiLeaks, cable news pundits were calling for his head and a Swedish sex crime case was threatening to put him behind bars. Caught in …

Hillary Clinton has penned an essay for The Atlantic. An excerpt: It’s been nearly two years since Donald Trump won enough Electoral College votes to become president of the United States. On the day after, in my concession speech, I said, “We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.” I hoped that my fears for our future …

CBS News reports: Trump Jr. posted a meme on Instagram Monday with the caption “Judge Kavanaugh sexual assault letter found by Dems…” The photo attached shows a crumpled-up piece of notebook paper with a scribbled message: “Hi Cindy will you be my girlfriend, Love Bret.” The note, which has boxes to check for “yes” or “no,” seemingly compares Kavanaugh’s accuser …

Politico reports: Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court hit a serious roadblock Sunday night, as GOP Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake said he is uncomfortable voting to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination later this week after the nominee’s sexual assault accuser went public. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is not a member of the committee but whose vote is critical …

Reuters reports: White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Monday the woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct will be heard as part of sworn testimony before the committee weighing his nomination. “This woman should not be insulted and she should not be ignored,” Conway said in an interview with Fox News. She said she had …

CNN reports: Debra Katz, the lawyer for a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, said Monday that her client would be willing to testify in public to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The answer is yes,” Katz, who represents Christine Blasey Ford, said on CNN’s “New Day.” Ford is the author of a private letter sent to …

Variety reports: The tension between Tom Arnold and Mark Burnett boiled over into a physical altercation at Sunday’s Evening Before Emmy party, a fundraiser for the Motion Picture Television Fund. Details of the incident are still unclear. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Burnett and Arnold arrived at the event held at the Lawn at Century Park …

California college professor Christine Ford has come forward as the author of the letter accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when both of them were in high school. The Washington Post reports:  Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges …

Politico reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed on Sunday “there was a point in time” when he and President Donald Trump had seriously discussed pulling U.S. military dependents out of South Korea — a move that would have been widely seen as a precursor to military action on the peninsula. The South Carolina Republican said that at the time, “it looked …

USA Today reports: Ken Starr, the man who led the investigation that resulted in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, said he was was not surprised to see former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller. “He was under tremendous pressure,” the former judge said Sunday during an interview on “ABC This Week.” “Given the seriousness of the …