Politics

The Hill reports: A Georgia lawmaker is facing calls to resign after footage of him yelling racial slurs and exposing himself aired on Sacha Baron Cohen’s new show Sunday night. In the latest episode of “Who Is America?,” the comedian plays Israeli military expert Erran Morad, and enlists state Rep. Jason Spencer (R) to film an “anti-terrorism video.” In the …

“There are many countries in which religious freedom is not available. And we believe that by gathering citizens from around the world – we’ll have over 80 delegations from different countries, 40 plus of my counterparts at the foreign minister level will be in attendance, and religious leaders like yourself – all brought together to highlight the central nature of …

The Washington Post reports: According to the Brookings Institution, the Columbus, Indiana area is the most export-reliant region in the country, with just over half of its economic output linked to foreign purchases. “I’m very worried,” said Tom Linebarger, the chief executive of Cummins, who met with President Trump over dinner at the White House in January in a bid …

The Daily Beast reports: Steve Bannon plans to go toe-to-toe with George Soros and spark a right-wing revolution in Europe. Trump’s former White House chief advisor told The Daily Beast that he is setting up a foundation in Europe called The Movement which he hopes will lead a right-wing populist revolt across the continent starting with the European Parliament elections …

Via press release from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: “The notion that President Trump would invite a tyrant to Washington is beyond belief. Putin’s ongoing attacks on our elections and on Western democracies and his illegal actions in Crimea and the rest of Ukraine deserve the fierce, unanimous condemnation of the international community, not a VIP ticket to our nation’s capital. …

The Hill reports: Eric Holder is poised to make a late-night TV appearance early next week as chatter swirls that he’s eyeing a 2020 White House run. The former attorney general will sit down with Stephen Colbert on CBS’s “The Late Show” on Monday, the network announced Friday. American Urban Radio Networks’ White House correspondent April Ryan had reported Friday …

TMZ reports: Kristin Davis, the Manhattan Madam who went to prison and was connected to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, is being subpoenaed in the Robert Mueller investigation, TMZ has learned. Davis worked for former Trump aide Roger Stone for a decade, and had numerous interactions with Stone and Andrew Miller — who ran Davis’ campaign for Governor and …

Yahoo News reports: “I want to clear up what happened. She seemed to leave out some key points,” Goldberg stated. “Well, she left a lot of pertinent stuff out.” Goldberg continued, “[Jeanine] was upset when she got here because [anti-Trump CNN contributor] Ana Navarro was here instead of Joy [Behar]. And after the segment — which ended when it was …

From RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel’s prepared remarks to be delivered today at the Republican summer meeting in Austin, Texas: As RNC Chair, I travel the country. A lot. I see and hear from Americans across this great nation who are all thriving under the leadership of our President, Donald J. Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence. This Administration is …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump said the stock market rally since his election victory gives him the opportunity to be more aggressive in his trade war with China and other countries. “This is the time. You know the expression we’re playing with the bank’s money,” he told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in a “Squawk Box” interview aired Friday. The president also …

Reuters reports: Chancellor Angela Merkel, vowing to stay in office despite challenges at home and abroad, said she would work on Germany’s “under pressure” relationship with the United States but that Washington could no longer be relied on to deliver world order. In a wide-ranging news conference, Merkel described Germany’s relationship with the United States as “crucial”, even after U.S. …

The Washington Post reports: Inside the White House, Trump’s advisers were in an uproar over [Director of National Intelligence Dan] Coats’s interview in Aspen, Colo. They said the optics were especially damaging, noting that at moments Coats appeared to be laughing at the president, playing to his audience of the intellectual elite in a manner that was sure to infuriate …

ESPN reports: With the Miami Dolphins facing backlash after submitting required paperwork to the NFL that included potential disciplinary measures for player protests during the national anthem, the league has decided to hit pause on its new policy, sources told ESPN. The league and the NFL Players Association issued a joint statement Thursday that said “no new rules relating to …

Politico reports: Then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s staff sought to protect him from exposure to toxic formaldehyde from an office desk last year, emails show — just months before his top political aides blocked the release of a report on health dangers from the same chemical. In the spring of 2017, as Pruitt was finishing the more than $9,500 redecoration of …

The Washington Post reports: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has weighed in on who could be President Donald Trump’s toughest challenger in 2020 – and it’s not Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or any of the other scores of Democratic politicians positioning themselves for potential bids. The biggest foe, Bannon says, would be Oprah Winfrey. “I think …

The Los Angeles Times reports: A group of far-right protesters who planned to demonstrate outside Rep. Maxine Waters district office in South Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon failed to show up, but dozens of counter protesters did.  The Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government group that purports to have many veterans as members, said they would protest outside the Los Angeles …

Bloomberg reports: Vladimir Putin told Russian diplomats that he made a proposal to Donald Trump at their summit this week to hold a referendum to help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but agreed not to disclose the plan publicly so the U.S. president could consider it, according to two people who attended Putin’s closed-door speech on Thursday. Details of …

Mediaite reports: Speaker Paul Ryan had a bit too rollicking of a time when he heard this joke. Speaking with the National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg at the American Enterprise Institute, Ryan laughed a bit too hard (read: way too hard) at a joke comparing President Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler – and it was favorable to Hitler. “As I keep …

USA Today reports: Whoopi Goldberg has had enough. Fox News personality and former judge Jeanine Pirro visited the set of “The View” Thursday morning to promote her new book, “Liars, Leakers and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.” But there wasn’t much discussion about the upcoming book after Pirro made a comment to co-host Goldberg, who had been trying …

Bloomberg reports: A decades-old environmental law credited with saving the American bald eagle from extinction would be reworked under a proposal the Trump administration announced Thursday. Enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, which seeks to prevent plans and animals from becoming extinct, would be changed to make it is easier to remove species from the list of protected ones. The …