Politics

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced on Twitter this morning that she will run for reelection in 2018. For the last few weeks there’s been considerable speculation that Feinstein might retire in the face of a potential primary challenge from a progressive Democrat. Just yesterday Feinstein hedged somewhat during an appearance on Fox News. Feinstein, who had a pacemaker implanted in …

Newsweek reports: John Oliver gave an elaborate—and sometimes stinging—explanation as to why statues of Confederate leaders should not remain standing Sunday night. The British comedian dedicated the large majority of his HBO comedy show Last Week Tonight to a comprehensive history lesson about the divisive monuments that critics say celebrate America’s dark past. “If the Confederacy was not about slavery, …

The Associated Press reports: Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince is considering a Republican primary challenge to Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team, in a race that could pit the party’s establishment against insurgents inspired by allies of President Donald Trump. Prince was in Wyoming this weekend to discuss a possible Senate campaign with …

Talk about zero fucks left to give. The New York Times reports: Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged in an interview on Sunday that President Trump was treating his office like “a reality show,” with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation “on the path to World War III.” In …

Mediaite reports: Country singer Jason Aldean opened Saturday Night Live following the Las Vegas Massacre that took place at his concert. “This week, we witnessed one of the worst tragedies in American history,” Aldean began. “Like everyone, I’m struggling to understand what happened that night and how to pick up the pieces and start to heal.” Aldean went on to …

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels. And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ’em to me! Throw ’em to me Mr. President!’ The next day they said, ‘Oh, it was …

Raw Story reports: President Donald Trump’s campaign sent out a fundraising email Saturday politicizing the mass shooting earlier this week in Las Vegas. The Trump-Pence Weekly Newsletter, which is emailed to subscribers by their re-election campaign, reminded potential donors and voters of the president’s remarks Wednesday when he visited the city. “Our nation is still in shock and mourning following …

From the Hollywood Reporter: President Donald Trump is pushing back against late night television show hosts who have been sharply critical of Republicans. The president took to Twitter Saturday morning to argue that Republicans should be given “equal time” because of the “one-sided” coverage, an apparent reference to Federal Communications Commission rules dealing with candidates during elections. Late Night host …

The Washington Times reports: Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., tweeted “Bye Felicia” to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Friday afternoon after declaring the top diplomat’s strategy to handling Russia had failed. “Tillerson’s plans are backfiring. Russia sanctions still in place, State is in shambles, & he discovered his boss is a moron. Bye Felicia!” Waters tweeted. The term “bye Felicia” was …

TechCrunch reports: Facebook thinks showing Wikipedia entries about publishers and additional Related Articles will give users more context about the links they see. So today it’s beginning a test of a new “i” button on News Feed links that opens up an informational panel. “People have told us that they want more information about what they’re reading” Facebook product manager …

Via Mediaite: Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will hold a briefing with the White House press corps. One thing that’s sure to come up in today’s briefing: President Donald Trump’s cryptic (and somewhat ominous) declaration on Thursday night that a meeting of military leaders marked “the calm before the storm.” When asked what he meant by that, Trump said only: …

CNBC reports: The Trump administration is expanding exemptions to an Affordable Care Act rule requiring employers to include birth control coverage in health plans. On Friday, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor issued “interim final rules” to make more entities exempt from providing plans that cover contraceptives without a co-payment. They will create what a senior …

The Hill reports: Jimmy Kimmel railed against President Trump’s “fake news” accusations after the president directed his ire at MSNBC. On his Thursday night show, Kimmel addressed the president’s latest tweets at MSNBC, saying the conflict is ironic because “Donald Trump is a tornado of fake news.” “The irony is,” Kimmel said, “no breathing human on the planet earth produces …

Axios reports: Trump advisers and allies are floating the idea of replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, age 53 — someone who’s already around the table in the Situation Room, and could make the switch without chaos. Sources tell us Trump recognizes that a Cabinet shuffle would bring bad press. White House Chief of Staff …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump delivered a foreboding message Thursday night, telling reporters as he posed for photos with his senior military leaders that this might be “the calm before the storm.” White House reporters were summoned suddenly Thursday evening and told the president had decided he wanted the press to document a dinner he was holding with …

The BBC reports: The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Berit Reiss-Andersen, the Nobel committee chair, said it was due to the group’s “groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty prohibition” on nuclear weapons. “We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has …

Bloomberg reports: Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn is launching her bid for the U.S. Senate on the heels of Gov. Bill Haslam’s decision to sit out the race to succeed retiring Sen. Bob Corker. Blackburn described herself in her campaign announcement Thursday as a “hard-core, card-carrying Tennessee conservative” and decried the Republican majority in the Senate for failing to repeal …

Politico reports: Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), the embattled anti-abortion lawmaker who allegedly encouraged his lover to terminate a pregnancy, resigned from office Thursday — just 24 hours after announcing his plan to retire after 2018. “This afternoon I received a letter of resignation from Congressman Tim Murphy, effective October 21,” Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. “It was Dr. …

Via Mediaite: Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will hold a briefing today to discuss the White House’s latest plans and administrative agenda. Today’s briefing is likely to gravitate around the gun control debate that continues to follow the shooting in Las Vegas. The massacre is still being investigated, though there has been a great deal of intrigue surrounding the bump …

From a must-read cover story by Newsweek: For many decades, Trump was the sweaty embodiment of the Manhattan libertine—a Studio 54 denizen who ran a modeling agency as his personal Tinder, and laughingly told Howard Stern that his Vietnam was avoiding STDs when he was a swingin’ bachelor…and a swingin’ married man. He wasn’t known for his religious faith until …