“Few major donors to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn have thrown their weight behind GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton since the Texas attorney general defeated Cornyn in a May runoff, per an Axios analysis of newly released federal campaign finance data,” Axios reports. “Paxton likely must rally Cornyn supporters to his side to defeat Democrat James […]

Wall Street Journal: “America is on a global shopping spree outside China to secure critical minerals for jet fighters, tanks and cutting-edge ammunition, while European countries are hunting the same things to counter the threat of Russian aggression.” “The U.S. is far outspending Europe, sparking fears that an increasingly protectionist Trump administration will hoard the […]

“The Treasury Department’s top tax policy official was forced out of his job after he warned that the White House was at risk of violating a federal law prohibiting senior officials’ involvement in IRS audits, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Kenneth Kies, an assistant Treasury secretary and acting […]

Axios: “Trump, citing newly released ‘raw’ intelligence, claimed that China carried out ‘the largest compromise of election data in history’ during the 2020 election — obtaining 220 million U.S. voter files (there weren’t quite that many registered voters in the U.S. then) and creating ‘ballots for Biden.'” “One catch: Voter rolls listing names and addresses […]

“Iran on Friday claimed it had targeted U.S. military forces in Syria and Bahrain, widening its attacks in the region as the U.S. completed its sixth consecutive night of strikes on the Islamic Republic,” CNBC reports. “The escalating standoff comes as the fragile truce signed by the U.S. and Iran last month showed further signs […]

“It was a plan House G.O.P. leaders hoped would satisfy everyone in their party: With a special budget bill, they would bypass Democratic opposition and provide tens of billions for the Iran war while imposing new election restrictions President Trump has demanded,” the New York Times reports. “Instead, a day after the leaders released the […]

“White House officials were surprised in recent days to read in the Israeli press that President Trump would host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday,” Axios reports. “In fact, no meeting has been scheduled.” ”Netanyahu has visited the Oval Office six times since Trump returned to office a year and a half ago — more […]

“President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday night in a speech that alleged the country’s election integrity is at risk,” Mediaite reports. “During his 26-minute address, he urged viewers to visit the official White House website, where they could find newly declassified documents he said bolstered his case.” “However, one of the documents released […]

“The Trump administration’s nominees to lead two critical health agencies are in limbo a day after their confirmation hearing before the Senate Health Committee,” Politico reports. “Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the committee chair, wouldn’t say on Thursday which way he’d vote on Erica Schwartz’s bid to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or […]

“President Trump threatened again to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC and NBC on Thursday, after those networks decided not to preempt their regularly scheduled programming to cover his address on election integrity live,” Axios reports. Deadline: Donald Trump says ABC and NBC should lose broadcast licenses because they didn’t carry his primetime address on […]

“President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security claimed on Thursday that they had uncovered a significant number of noncitizens registered in four states, but offered no evidence to support their findings nor any description of their investigative process,” the New York Times reports. “Election officials in at least one state — Nevada — immediately […]

“President Trump used a lot of alarming words on Thursday night as he addressed the American people about threats to the integrity of elections in the United States: ‘Deep state.’ ‘Rigged and stolen.’ ‘Conspiring.’ ‘Manipulation.’ ‘Corrupt.’ ‘Fraud.’ ‘Cover up.'” the New York Times reports. “But the bottom-line message he clearly wanted to leave with the […]

Rick Hasen: “Donald Trump gave a national address where he made some recycled claims (‘burn bags,’ anyone?) about supposed voting machine vulnerabilities, about thousands of supposed noncitizens registered to vote, alleged voter registration fraud in Michigan, and about a cover-up concerning interference from China in the 2020 election. Among his biggest claims was that China […]

“President Trump made at times outlandish claims about the safety of American voting systems in a White House address on Thursday night, drawing selectively from documents his aides published online to insinuate that U.S. elections have been compromised for years and that government officials had suppressed the evidence,” the New York Times reports. ”Mr. Trump, […]

President Trump is expected to deliver remarks tonight on “fair elections” and election security, though he may range into other topics. The speech is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET. Share your reactions in the comments.

Punchbowl News: “Top Republicans spent two weeks unable to pass a rule because of hardline conservative discontent with the GOP agenda. Speaker Mike Johnson was twice forced to send members home early due to the floor freeze.” “This week, Johnson and the GOP leaders finally got a rule approved. But earlier today, Republicans again fell […]

New York Magazine: “Trump intends to talk a lot about the 2020 election in his ‘address to the nation’ tonight, according to multiple reports. And that has Republicans ‘scared shitless,’ according to Politico. Rants about 2020 around the White House or even at MAGA rallies are one thing. But as part of a nationally televised […]

“If the president declares Georgia’s elections illegitimate, or if the president declares Georgia’s sitting United States senators illegitimate, he is declaring Georgia voters illegitimate. It’s Donald Trump who tried to defraud Georgia voters in that election.” — Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), quoted by ABC News.

“The Senate unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday declaring that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive a pardon,” The Hill reports. “Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison on fraud charges tied to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, officially requested a pardon from the Trump administration in early June.”

“President Trump is delivering a prime-time address on Thursday, but where the speech will air live on traditional television remains an open question,” the New York Times reports. “Neither ABC nor NBC is planning to pre-empt regularly scheduled entertainment programming at 9 p.m. when Mr. Trump speaks. Fox News, which airs ‘Hannity’ during that time […]

Rick Hasen: “Trump has promised ‘really really big news’ in his speech. But talk is cheap, and from Trump on elections, usually unmoored to reality or evidence.” CNN: Advisers debate how much to declassify and reveal in Trump’s primetime election speech.

“President Donald Trump fired the new top U.S. prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday less than an hour after the attorney was unanimously appointed by the federal judges in the district, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over the powerful positions,” the Associated Press reports.

“They won’t say who attended. They won’t say where it happened. They won’t even say — on the record — what day it took place,” MS NOW reports. “What House Democrats are willing to acknowledge is that more than two dozen lawmakers gathered this week for a closed-door strategy session to game out how they […]

“Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, announced Thursday it’s launching a service that will sell faster access to posts on the site — including Trump’s regular markets-moving diatribes,” NOTUS reports. “A spokesperson for Trump Media told Reuters that the application, called Truth API, will give paying users […]

“Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, engaged in sexual relationships with at least two House staffers and his ‘very flirtatious’ habits with others may come back to haunt him,” the New York Post reports. Fox News: Schumer dodges questions after bombshell report alleges Democratic senator had relationships with House staffers.

“Georgia’s two Democratic senators didn’t wait for President Trump to try to undermine their legitimacy with false claims about their crucial election victories in 2020 that propelled Democrats to the Senate majority,” the New York Times reports. “In interviews and social media posts, Senators Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff have aggressively countered a potential presidential […]

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is asking President Donald Trump for an additional six months of disclosures on his crypto holdings following revelations in a June filing that the president and his family earned some $1.4 billion from digital currencies in 2025,” NBC News reports. “In a letter sent Thursday, Warren said the information covering the […]

Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins (R) “has built a national profile as a combative, Trump-aligned online provocateur — a style that has repeatedly drawn scrutiny over his associations with far-right figures, inflammatory social media posts and accusations of antisemitism, which he has denied,” CNN reports. “Now, one of the starkest examples of extremism in […]

“Senate Republicans are pouring cold water on the House GOP’s $95 billion blueprint for a new party-line spending package,” Politico reports. “Their skepticism is a reality check on Speaker Mike Johnson’s ambitious pledge that the Senate will adopt a budget resolution before leaving in early August.”

Punchbowl News: “House Republican leaders had to pull a veterans benefit bill after a prolonged arm-twisting session on the House floor on Thursday.” “Four Republicans — Reps. Max Miller (Ohio), Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.), Jeff Van Drew (N.J.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) — voted with Democrats to recommit the bill to committee, a move that […]