Politics

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 …

CBS News reports: Ivana Trump, the first wife of President Donald Trump, says he offered her the ambassadorship to the Czech Republic and that she advised him to tweet, in an interview with Jim Axelrod for CBS’ “Sunday Morning,” to be broadcast October 8. Trump, who says she talks with the President weekly, tells Axelrod her ex-husband asked her advice …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump urged Congress Thursday morning to launch an investigation of the news media, wondering online “why so much of our news is just made up.” He did not single out a specific story or media outlet that he believed to be guilty of inaccurate reporting. Trump’s “fake news” complaints have been a staple of his political …

Market Watch reports: Puerto Rico general obligation bonds, as well as bonds issued by the utility Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority were trading at alltime lows Wednesday, after President Donald Trump said the island’s debt may need to be wiped out. “They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we’re going to have to wipe …

Mediaite reports: The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico that President Donald Trump has been beefing with decided to make a statement against the administration by wearing a t-shirt that read “NASTY” across the front — a way of re-appropriating the insult Trump used against her. During a Spanish speaking interview with Univision, Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz made a clear …

Fortune reports: Facebook took out full-page advertisements in Wednesday’s issues of the New York Times and Washington Post in an effort to defend itself as the company takes fire for its role in Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The company, which has acknowledged that about 10 million Americans saw Russian-linked ads on Facebook, outlined in its ad the …

The Washington Post reports: Roy Moore, the controversial Republican Senate nominee in Alabama, plans to visit Washington this week, according to three Republicans familiar with his plans. But there was no indication he was prepared to reconcile with the establishment GOP forces that expended considerable resources trying to defeat him. There were no signs that Moore planned to meet or …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump bested Pope Francis and took the top slot this weekend among current world leaders on his favorite method of communication: Twitter. The @realDonaldTrump personal account crossed 39.7 million followers to overtake the nine different language accounts that the pope uses, making the president the most-followed world leader, according to measurements kept by public relations firm …

Pro Publica and the New Yorker jointly report that in 2012, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were about to be indicted on felony fraud charges related to real estate claims until a Trump attorney made a campaign donation to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat and the son of the late Cyrus Vance Sr., who served as Secretary …

Talking Points Memo reports: “We are going to work something out. We have to look at their whole debt structure,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday night. “You know they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street. We’re gonna have to wipe that out. That’s gonna have to be — you …

CNN reports: A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump’s victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of …

The miracle of smoke alarms: President Trump said Tuesday it was a “miracle” how quickly the Las Vegas police were able to respond to the mass shooting that left nearly 60 people dead on Sunday night. Trump made the remarks on the eve of his trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday, when he is expected to meet with victims’ families …

Politico reports: Mitch McConnell did not want to discuss gun control on Tuesday. The Senate majority leader shut down all talk of legislative remedies to gun violence after a man killed 59 people in Las Vegas on Sunday night and injured hundreds more, mirroring the Tuesday morning remarks by his GOP counterpart in the House, Speaker Paul Ryan. Asked if …

The Hill reports: Fox News’s Martha MacCallum asked Rep. Steve Scalise in an interview to be aired later Tuesday if his experience and the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night have changed his views about the Constitution’s Second Amendment. “I think it’s fortified it,” Scalise said. “Because first of all you’ve got to recognize that when there’s …

The anti-gay “family values” hero who last month confessed to adultery is now embroiled in another scandal. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports: A text message sent in January to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy by a woman with whom he had an extra-marital relationship took him to task for an anti-abortion statement posted on Facebook from his office’s public account. “And you …

Forbes reports: “Horrific laws” condemning people to death because of whom they love are the focus of a new international proposal. “The question of the death penalty” resolution to denounce the most severe punishment for consensual same-sex relations was passed on Friday by the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Twenty-seven nations voted in favor of the resolution; …

The New York Times reports: The leader of Catalonia insisted on Monday that Sunday’s independence referendum, though marred by clashes and rejected by the Spanish government, had earned his region the right to a separate state and that he would press ahead to make the vote binding. Without specifying when, Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader, said he would submit the …

The New York Post reports: Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle are eyeing an apartment in a historic building in Manhattan, multiple sources exclusively tell Page Six. The Obamas have been looking at 10 Gracie Square on the Upper East Side, situated between East End Avenue and East River Drive and near the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, according …