Politics

The New York Post reports: Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle has issued another desperate plea for his release — this time calling on President Trump for help. The 40-year-old is currently serving more than 15 years for distributing child pornography and traveling to have paid sex with a minor after pleading guilty in 2015. He filed a petition this week …

The New York Times reports: President Trump made a personal phone call on Wednesday to a political supporter with a huge megaphone — Roseanne Barr. Mr. Trump called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the revival of her comedy, “Roseanne,” and to thank her for her support. The call was confirmed by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary. …

The Guardian reports: Ecuador has cut Julian Assange’s communications with the outside world from its London embassy, where the founder of the whistleblowing WikiLeaks website has been living for nearly six years. The Ecuadorian government said in statement that it had acted because Assange had breached “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Roseanne returned Tuesday. The ABC sitcom, away from the air for two decades, kicked off its revived run with especially promising returns — dominating every other Big Four telecast of the night. The first two episodes of Roseanne, a full hour at the top of the ABC lineup, won the night by both adults 18-49 and …

Talking Points Memo reports: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in a tweet Wednesday linked the Trump administration’s controversial push to add a citizenship question to the Census to an approach to drawing districts that would boost Republican power. Rubio is not the first conservative to suggest that data gathered by asking about citizenship on the decennial Census could be used to …

The bits on Sarah Palin should be amusing. Via press release from Simon & Schuster:  A candid new political memoir from Senator John McCain—his most personal book in years—covering everything from 2008 up to the present. In a time when Washington, DC and the country is more polarized than it has been for decades, John McCain is the rare public …

Axios reports: Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who’ve discussed it with him. “He’s obsessed with Amazon,” a source said. “Obsessed.” What we’re hearing: Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out …

The Huffington Post reports: Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney said Monday that he’s more of a hardliner on immigration than President Donald Trump, citing his opposition to citizenship for Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. “I’m also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president,” he told a crowd of supporters during …

The Hill reports: House Republicans will push for a balanced budget amendment after they return from recess. The report follows the passage of the $1.3 trillion omnibus package to fund the government through September. That bill was ripped by conservatives in the House and Senate, and President Trump vowed to never approve a similar bill again. Calls for a balanced-budget …

NBC News reports: The lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Donald Trump in 2006, has filed a motion in federal court asking for permission to depose the president and his lawyer, Michael Cohen. The move comes amid a lawsuit against Trump, alleging that he never signed a nondisclosure agreement that his lawyer had …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday morning that his administration will not support the repeal of the Second Amendment, a step former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens suggested Tuesday in a New York Times op-ed. “THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of …

The Connecticut Mirror reports: Senate Republicans voted as a bloc Tuesday to deny Andrew J. McDonald confirmation as chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, stopping the ascent of a political and legal trailblazer for the gay community, a factor that opponents insisted was irrelevant and supporters said could not be ignored. Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, the only openly …

The Christian Post reports: Conservative evangelical leaders have issued a rare public condemnation of the Donald Trump White House after the president signed an “immoral” spending bill that they say “constituted a moment of weakness” for his administration. Evangelical leaders with close ties to the administration were quick to voice their disapproval of the $1.3 trillion omnibus bill passed by …

The Washington Post reports: The state of California sued the Trump administration Monday night, arguing that the decision to add a question about citizenship in the 2020 Census violates the U.S. Constitution. The state’s attorney general acted just after the Commerce Department announced the change in a late-night release. The suit is just the start of what is likely to …

Via Public Policy Polling: In hypothetical match ups for reelection Trump trails Joe Biden 56-39, Bernie Sanders 55-39, Elizabeth Warren 51-40, Cory Booker 49-39, Kamala Harris 43-39, and Kirsten Gillibrand 42-40. Trump is consistently at 39% or 40% no matter who you poll him against. We also tested Trump against 2 other hypothetical opponents- although they are one and the …

South Carolina’s The State reports: This clown wants your vote for Congress. In this case, that isn’t a negative description. Steve Lough, a candidate for Congress in South Carolina’s 5th District, is a former professional clown for the Ringling Brothers circus. Lough is leaning into his unusual resume, appearing in clown makeup in a promotional photo and registering the domain …

A new study by a team of university sociologists purports to reveal that support for Trump is largely driven by “white Christian nationalism.” The study examines support for statements such as “the federal government should declare the United States as a Christian nation” and includes an accounting of “anti-black prejudice” and views of Muslims and immigrants. From the Washington Post: …

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens today penned a New York Times op-ed calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment. His conclusion: In 2008, the Supreme Court overturned Chief Justice Burger’s and others’ long-settled understanding of the Second Amendment’s limited reach by ruling, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that there was an individual right to bear arms. …

NBC News reports: Current and former Federal Election Commission officials tell NBC News it could take a year or longer for the FEC to address the case of whether Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels represents an unreported in-kind, contribution to the Trump campaign. The FEC, which is charged with administering and enforcing …

The Hill reports: Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) told a local news station that there is a “rumor” that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will resign soon, stepping up speculation about the Speaker’s political future. “The rumor mill is that Paul Ryan is getting ready to resign in the next 30 to 60 days and that Steve Scalise will be the new …