“A Senate panel’s vote Thursday on whether to hold former Covid-19 czar Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress could set the stage for a legal showdown about presidential pardons and the Fifth Amendment,” NewsNation reports.

“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has told allies that it is considering a major financial campaign to support the Republican Senate nominee in the Michigan general election this fall, after it failed its biggest test of the primary season on Tuesday,” the New York Times reports. “AIPAC’s super PAC spent $32 million in an […]

“American taxpayers would pay about $2,358 each for President Trump’s mass deportation push, according to a new calculator tool from the Economic Policy Institute,” Axios reports. “Why it matters: The estimate fuels debate over whether billions of federal dollars devoted to deportations could instead fund other public priorities such as food assistance, health care or […]

New York Times: “Even without scandal, the race in western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District had turned competitive. Jamie Ager, the Democratic candidate, had been making hay of his background as a farmer with deep roots in a region that has been reliably red for decades but has shifted left in recent election cycles.” ”Now, […]

“Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday that his office, alongside two other red states, issued a subpoena to former Covid czar Anthony Fauci for records tied to grant money, awards and book deals, among other areas of investigation,” Politico reports. Axios: Fauci woes could deter scientists from public service.

“A half dozen House Democrats in safe districts have lost their primaries so far this election cycle — and many more could soon follow suit,” Axios reports. “Many of these losses are the result of growing restlessness among the Democratic grassroots that has increasingly morphed into anger towards the party establishment.”

“President Trump’s road map to disarm Hamas has wobbled in the days since he announced it, with Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and growing disputes over the terms threatening to collapse the effort to wind down the war in the enclave,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The Board of Peace, created by Trump to oversee Gaza’s […]

“Iran and Oman were finalizing a draft agreement Wednesday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz that would give Tehran oversight of ships entering the Persian Gulf but wouldn’t let it levy tolls or service fees, people familiar with the matter said,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The parties have agreed on the main points of […]

“Accusations of domestic violence and physical abuse against Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) by his ex-wife have rattled Republican leaders as they fight to hold on to their threadbare House majority,” the Washington Post reports. ”But days after Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Miller’s former father-in-law, publicly declared him unfit to serve, the scandal is barely registering […]

“A new class of warships that President Trump says will anchor a ‘golden fleet’ for the Navy is expected to cost at least 50 percent more than estimated earlier, according to a government report released on Wednesday,” the New York Times reports. “The first planned Trump-class battleship, the USS. Defiant, is likely to cost $23.4 […]

“Sen. Darline Graham just inherited an unconventional asset from her deceased brother, former Sen. Lindsey Graham: his federal leadership PAC,” NOTUS reports. “Federal records reviewed by NOTUS now list Darline Graham as Fund for America’s Future’s sponsor. Filings from earlier this year listed Lindsey Graham as the PAC’s sponsor.”

New York Times: “Conducting surveys in partisan primaries has long presented a challenge to pollsters, as it requires them to make assumptions about who will actually turn out to vote. Without mandatory party registration in Michigan, pollsters must guess who will show up on Election Day.” “Many surveys assumed political independents would make up 30 […]

William Kristol: “Republican Mike Rogers, who almost won his Senate race against Elissa Slotkin in 2024, has better odds than he otherwise would have had this November. But the national environment will still help the Democratic nominee, and it’s also the case that some swing voters may be more attracted to the change El-Sayed represents […]

“New York City’s business elites are long accustomed to direct access to City Hall, where even Democratic mayors felt the need to court the city’s wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “That access is getting shredded by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.” “The mayor this week fired dozens of corporate leaders from […]

Leah Stokes: “Joe Biden’s signature climate law was not just about climate. The Inflation Reduction Act was also a big bet on a particular theory of politics: Pass a law that creates factories and good-paying jobs in communities across the country, and voters will reward you at the ballot box. Such a law might even […]

“This will be the first election cycle where AI is both a dominant policy debate — and a widely deployed political weapon,” Axios reports. “AI allows both candidates and bad actors to persuade and perplex with unprecedented speed, scale and precision in our elections. Watch what works, as those same techniques will likely be used […]

“Missouri residents overwhelmingly defeated a ballot measure that would have allowed lawmakers to eliminate state income tax and replace it with higher sales taxes, breaking with other Republican-led states that have slashed income tax,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The lopsided vote against the Republican-backed measure—83.3% opposed versus 16.7% in favor—came after heavy messaging from […]

Tom Nichols: “Many Americans—and much of the rest of the world—have become inured to Donald Trump’s strange rants. When he shouts about sharks, when he drones on about his brilliant uncle, when he casually ponders violating the Constitution, his supporters try to dress his statements up as some kind of strategy: He’s not lost touch […]

”Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)  says he will vote against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve in the role permanently, putting more pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to limit GOP defections on the high-profile nominee,” NewsNation reports.

Dan Pfeiffer: “The first step to winning is unifying the Democratic Party. This has been a bitter primary, and it’s pretty clear there is no love lost between the candidates. Party unity is a two-way street, and Stevens and her supporters have to be willing to reciprocate, but as the winner, El-Sayed needs to take […]

Ross Douthat: “His health permitting, Trump is going to be president through 2028; in that bare sense he will presumably survive this moment as he has survived many times before.” “But a true Trumpian ‘wriggles his way out’ resolution requires Republicans to avoid catastrophe in November, to keep the Senate as they did in the […]

“When you start eating healthy, you don’t need toilet paper. Animals in the wild have no residual stool on their anus… I could have a bowel movement behind a sheet at a dinner party in the corner of the room and nobody would know.” — Dr. Sean O’Mara, whose dietary recommendations have been embraced by […]

“A new coalition of high-profile MAGA figures have launched a movement with the aim of running a third party-candidate in the 2028 presidential election. The name at the top of their list: former Fox News star Tucker Carlson,” Wired reports.

“Two Florida Republican House members — Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos — shook up the state’s 7th District GOP primary Wednesday by endorsing Ryan Elijah over the embattled and Trump-endorsed incumbent, Rep. Cory Mills,” Politico reports. “The move is the latest sign of the GOP turning up the heat on Mills, who has […]

“Muslim American voters celebrated Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on Wednesday, declaring they had found a place in American politics even amid a rise in fiercely anti-Muslim political rhetoric, especially in the South,” the New York Times reports. “Dr. El-Sayed’s win against a centrist congresswoman funded by pro-Israel groups and backed […]

Tucker Carlson said he’s sharing something with his followers tonight at 6 p.m. ET. Said Carlson: “MAGA was betrayed. We all were. It’s time for a new path forward.”

“Keisha Lance Bottoms is launching her first general election attack ad, opening a new front in the race for governor by trying to tether Republican Rick Jackson to the one figure Democrats most want front and center during the November campaign: President Donald Trump,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “The 30-second spot casts the billionaire […]

“President Donald Trump panned Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a social media post, calling the progressive Democrat a ‘Communist, who is not liked in Detroit,’ while alleging without evidence rampant voter fraud in the state,” Politico reports. Wrote Trump on Truth Social: “Wayne County (Detroit) in Michigan is one of the most corrupt voting […]

Bloomberg: “U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote that he was ‘reluctantly’ granting the government’s request to dismiss the indictments. Mehta, who had presided over the Oath Keepers cases, explained that although he didn’t have the authority to override the Justice Department’s decision, he ‘strongly’ disagreed with it.” New York Times: Judge pained as he grants […]

“A deadline that could have determined Sen. Mitch McConnell’s future in the Senate has come and gone as the timeline for the Kentucky Republican’s return remains in the air,” Fox News reports. “Speculation swirled over Aug. 3 and its ramifications for McConnell’s winnowing tenure in the Senate, given that he’s been absent from the public […]