General
Democrats Want to Revive a Ban on Assault Weapons
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times
As Congress wrestles with how to respond to a wave of mass shootings, leading Democrats are raising an idea once viewed as political suicide: reviving the ban on assault weapons, which barred Americans from purchasing certain military-style firearms for a decade until Republicans let it expire in 2004. The idea is gaining traction on the presidential campaign trail, where former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., an architect of the original 1994 assault weapons ban, and nearly all of the other Democratic candidates have embraced it.
FBI raids Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘pedophile island’ estate as investigation continues
Daniel Chang, McClatchy DC
On the same day Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on arrival at a New Jersey airport on sex trafficking charges, federal agents bashed in the door of his $77 million Manhattan mansion and seized evidence to aid in his prosecution. But the multimillionaire’s Virgin Islands hideaway, where the wealthy hedge fund manager allegedly trafficked girls for sex and entertained politicians, businessmen and scientists, seemingly remained untouched by the law.
Dayton shooter’s friend bought body armor, gun accessories used in deadly attack, prosecutors say
Pete Williams and David K. Li, NBC News
A longtime friend of Dayton shooter Connor Betts allegedly bought the body armor, 100-round magazine and a firearm accessory used in the deadly attack that killed nine people, officials said Monday. Ethan Kollie, 24, of the Dayton suburb of Kettering, was charged with two offenses, not connected to the Aug. 4 massacre — falsely denying that he was a drug user when buying a handgun for himself in May, and then possession of a firearm while unlawfully using drugs.
U.S. Officials Suspect New Nuclear Missile in Explosion That Killed 7 Russians
David E. Sanger and Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times
American intelligence officials are racing to understand a mysterious explosion that released radiation off the coast of northern Russia last week, apparently during the test of a new type of nuclear-propelled cruise missile hailed by President Vladimir V. Putin as the centerpiece of Moscow’s arms race with the United States. American officials have said nothing publicly about the blast on Thursday, possibly one of the worst nuclear accidents in the region since Chernobyl, although apparently on a far smaller scale, with at least seven people, including scientists, confirmed dead.
The US budget deficit is up 27% and getting closer to $1 trillion
Jeff Cox, CNBC
The U.S. budget deficit widened another $119.7 billion, good for a 27% increase over a year ago, according to government figures released Monday. Total outlays increased by 22.8% over last July as receipts grew 11.6%.
White House & Administration
Ivanka Trump is quietly calling lawmakers about the gun debate
Alayna Trenne, Axios
Ivanka Trump has quietly been making calls to members of Congress in the days following the deadly mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso to gauge where they stand on pending gun legislation, sources familiar with her conversations told Axios. Behind the scenes: Members she has privately spoken to include Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who she called last Wednesday while he was vacationing in Hawaii to get an update on the bipartisan background checks bill he has proposed with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.).
DHS in a ‘Mad Scramble’ to Catch Up With Domestic Terror
Betsy Woodruff and Erin Banco, The Daily Beast
It wasn’t that long ago that senior Department of Homeland Security officials shied away from focusing on domestic terrorism, often fearing political backlash. The White House pushed the sprawling department to focus overwhelmingly on immigration enforcement, at the expense of just about everything else.
Investigating Trump Family Self-dealing, the D.C. Attorney General Has Subpoenaed Documents from Melania’s Former Right-hand Woman
Emily Jane Fox, Vanity Fair
The summer swelter lingered in the swamp around President Donald Trump’s Washington in late July. Democrats in Congress continued to mull whether or not they would move to impeach him; Republicans, habitually, turned a blind eye to his hateful rhetoric and compulsive Twitter attacks.
Trump Administration Seeks Decertification Of Immigration Judges’ Union
Richard Gonzales, NPR News
The Justice Department late last week moved to seek the decertification of the union representing hundreds of U.S. immigration judges, ratcheting up a simmering battle over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. The department filed a petition Friday asking the Federal Labor Relations Authority to determine whether the certification of National Association of Immigration Judges as the union representing some 440 immigration judges should be revoked “because the bargaining unit members are management officials under the statutory definition,” according to a Justice Department spokesperson.
Senate
These Senators Want Jeff Bezos To Explain What The Heck “Amazon’s Choice” Is
Nicole Nguyen, BuzzFeed News
Look up almost any item on Amazon, and you’ll see an “Amazon’s Choice” badge in the search results. The eye-catching badge signals what Amazon says are “highly rated, well-priced products available to ship immediately” — but following a recent BuzzFeed News report that the company awards the distinction to listings with manipulated reviews and inferior products, Sens. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, are calling for Amazon to explain how it determines which products receive the label.
House
Duncan Hunter’s trial appears on track to be postponed
Chris Marquette, Roll Call
Lawyers involved in Rep. Duncan Hunter’s trial on charges that he inappropriately spent $250,000 in campaign funds for massive bar tabs and elaborate vacations to Hawaii and Italy are asking a California judge to have the proceedings delayed until Oct. 29. A joint status report filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California seeks to move the trial, currently scheduled to begin Sept.10, to October.
Tulsi Gabbard to report for active duty for 2 weeks
Brian Pascus, CBS News
Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat from Hawaii and presidential candidate, will be taking a two-week absence from her campaign Monday to report for active duty with the Hawaiian Army National Guard in Indonesia, she said in an interview with CBSN’s Caitlin Huey-Burns. “I’m stepping off of the campaign trail for a couple of weeks and putting on my army uniform to go on a joint training exercise mission in Indonesia,” she said.
North Carolina redo election is the last race of 2018 — and the first of 2020
Simone Pathé, Roll Call
Dan McCready is used to this. “Y’all know this isn’t an easy race for a Democrat,” the candidate for North Carolina’s 9th District said, swatting away an army of gnats swarming attendees at a fish fry Friday night.
2020
Pompeo in Overland Park: Nation’s top diplomat visits International House of Pancakes
Bryan Lowry, The Kansas City Star
It was a half hour before noon when a federal agent showed up at IHOP and showed Rachel Yoakum his badge. “I honestly thought it was the health department or something,” said Yoakum, the general manager of the newly opened IHOP on 151st Street in Overland Park.
Tom Steyer spends big in race to make debate stage
Ben Kamisar, NBC News
Billionaire Tom Steyer may have jumped into the race far later than his Democratic presidential rivals, but he’s making up for it with a flurry of spending. Last week alone (from August 4 through August 10), Steyer spent $1.2 million on Facebook ads — more than the amount spent by South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, former HUD Sec. Julián Castro and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.a and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., combined.
SC’s Mark Sanford heading to New Hampshire to further explore 2020 presidential bid
Caitlin Byrd, The Post and Courier
Mark Sanford, still mulling a possible 2020 presidential bid, will travel to New Hampshire on Tuesday as he nears a final decision on launching a serious run against Donald Trump. In an interview with The Post and Courier, the former South Carolina congressman and governor said his trip to the key early presidential primary state will not include public events.
The Uneasiness Of Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign Is About More Than The Gaffes
Henry J. Gomez, BuzzFeed News
Joe Biden’s fight for the soul of America often feels like a fight for the soul of Joe Biden. His four-day swing through Iowa began with a confident rebuke of President Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric.
Republicans embrace Don Jr.’s ‘trolling’ on the campaign trail
Marianne Levine, Politico
For Republican candidates who can’t get President Donald Trump, there’s always the next best thing: Junior. Donald Trump Jr. will hold a series of fundraisers and events in the coming months for Senate Republicans running for reelection.
Latina organizer Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez enters Democratic primary to challenge Cornyn
Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune
Leading Latina organizer Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is launching a campaign for U.S. Senate, entering a Democratic primary to oust Republican John Cornyn that has steadily grown throughout the summer. The daughter of an immigrant mother, co-founder of the Workers Defense Project and founder of the progressive Latino youth group Jolt Texas, Tzintzún Ramirez argues she has the best story, experience and ideas to harness the energy of Texas’ ascendant voters, particularly young people of color.
States
Oregon Governor Supports Making Trump Release Tax Returns To Get On Primary Ballot
Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said she would easily sign a law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns if they want to appear on the state’s primary ballot in 2020, a direct challenge to President Donald Trump’s yearslong effort to keep his financial dealings hidden from the public. “Oh yeah, totally,” Brown said in a recent sit-down with HuffPost.
President Trump will headline a fundraiser for Gov. Matt Bevin in Louisville
Phillip M. Bailey, Louisville Courier-Journal
President Donald Trump will visit Louisville on behalf of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s reelection campaign next week. Bevin’s campaign announced on Monday that Trump will headline an Aug. 21 fundraiser for the governor.
As Terry McAuliffe Looks Beyond Charlottesville, Objections Mount to His Depiction of Infamous Rally
Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast
Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s new book, Beyond Charlottesville, tries to tackle the issues of white supremacy that resulted in a deadly neo-Nazi rally in August 2017. But the book isn’t a hit with everyone in its namesake city.
Advocacy
Internal divides cloud tech industry’s antitrust defense
Steven Overly, Politico
In July, the head of a leading tech lobbying group published a warning against overly broad antitrust investigations that “could jeopardize American companies’ leadership” — a message that came amid rising regulatory heat on the group’s members Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook. But it soon became clear that some in the Information Technology Industry Council didn’t want to risk being seen as defending the four embattled tech giants.
Fourth board member resigns from NRA in a sign of further upheaval
Tom Hamburger, The Washington Post
Julie Golob, a professional sport shooter and a strong public advocate for gun rights, announced Monday she was resigning from the National Rifle Association board before the end of her three-year term. She is the fourth member in the past two weeks to leave the board of the NRA in a sign of further upheaval within the nation’s most powerful gun rights group.
‘Kochland’ Explores The Money Stream Of The Famous Brother Duo
Scott Horsley, NPR News
The Koch brothers are a ripe target: political plutocrats who’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars in a decades-long effort to reshape the country and the Republican Party. They’ve used their vast wealth to build a hydra-headed network of think tanks, lobbying shops, and astroturf advocacy groups to advance a philosophy, which conveniently overlaps with the economic interests of their Wichita-based corporation.
Matthew Whitaker, Ex-Acting Attorney General, Joins Cybersecurity Firm
Maggie Habermanm, The New York Times
Matthew G. Whitaker, the former acting attorney general and a loyalist to President Trump, is joining a cybersecurity firm as an of counsel, one in a string of jobs he has taken on since leaving the administration, an official with the firm said on Sunday. Mr. Whitaker’s role with the firm — PC Matic, which specializes in antivirus software — will be the third private sector job he has undertaken in the past few weeks.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Mixed Messages: Can the United States Go Further as Champion of Religious Freedom?
Qanta A. Ahmed, Morning Consult
As the bulk of political energy and effort rightfully seems to be focused domestically on recent shootings in Texas and Ohio, previous commitments announced by the White House to defend religious minorities and combating religious persecution globally need to move past polite conversation to action. In particular, President Donald Trump’s expressed concern for Pakistan’s Ahmadi Muslims, among the world’s most persecuted, is noteworthy, but needs to be backed immediately by definitive steps.
The Filibuster Is Suffocating the Will of the American People
Harry Reid, The New York Times
I am not an expert on all of government, but I do know something about the United States Senate. As the former majority leader, I know how tough it is to get anything through the chamber, which was designed to serve as the slower, more deliberative body of the United States Congress.
Beto, come home. Texas needs you.
The Editorial Board, Houston Chronicle
Our thinking this week, amid all the carnage and grief and finger-pointing, has been in part on Beto O’Rourke, the presidential candidate from El Paso, where 22 people were killed last Saturday. Our sympathy is devoted to the dead and their families, of course — but Beto has been on our minds, too.
Research Reports and Polling
The 2019 Long-Term Budget Outlook in 23 Slides
Congressional Budget Office
Under current law, large budget deficits over the next 30 years are projected to drive federal debt held by the public to unprecedented levels—from 78 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 to 144 percent by 2049. That projection incorporates CBO’s central estimates of various factors, such as productivity growth and interest rates on federal debt.
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