General
US releases video it claims shows Iran removing unexploded mine from Gulf tanker
Barbara Starr and Devan Cole, CNN
The United States military on Thursday released a video that it says shows an Iranian navy boat removing an unexploded mine attached to the hull of the Japanese-owned chemical tanker Kokura Courageous. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday blamed Iran for an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, saying the assessment was based on intelligence.
Trump’s company sells California mansion to firm linked to Indonesian billionaire, a business partner
Jonathan O’Connell et al., The Washington Post
President Trump’s company has quietly sold one of his last remaining properties in California — a 5,400-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion that county records show was purchased by a corporate entity linked to an Indonesian billionaire and Trump business partner. A deed registered with L.A. County on May 31 shows that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., signed the property over to Hillcrest Asia Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Louise Linton, aka Mrs. Steven Mnuchin, Is Sorry
Maer Roshan, Los Angeles Magazine
Swaddled in a white terry cloth robe and perched on a director’s chair in the marble-floored powder room of her massive Bel Air mansion (a stone’s throw from Salma Hayek’s), Louise Linton is being administered to by a makeup artist and a hairdresser when the image of her husband, Steve Mnuchin, flashes on the flat-screen TV. On Capitol Hill, Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary is facing a grueling battery of questions about his staunch refusal to cough up the president’s tax returns.
The Escalator Ride That Changed America
Michael Kruse, Politico
Four years ago, Donald Trump stepped onto an escalator in the atrium of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York and began descending into a lobby packed with cameras. It’s safe to say the 10 or so seconds that followed are the most consequential escalator ride in American history.
Why the Trump Campaign Won’t Pay Police Bills
Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public Integrity
“Do we love law enforcement or what?” President Donald Trump asked a cheering crowd during his “Make America Great Again” political rally Oct. 12 in Lebanon, Ohio. “Thank you, law enforcement!” the president later told officers, who he called “heroes.”
With classified filing, feds eye national security case against Mar-a-Lago intruder
Jay Weaver and Sarah Blaskey, Miami Herald
Federal prosecutors disclosed this week they are developing a potential national security case against Yujing Zhang, the 33-year-old Chinese woman charged with unlawfully entering Mar-a-Lago with a stash of electronic equipment. They asked a federal judge to allow them to file “classified information” under seal without the public — or the defendant — seeing it.
White House & Administration
Elaine Chao Sells Vulcan Stock Holdings
Ted Mann and Brody Mullins, The Wall Street Journal
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has sold her shares in a paving-materials supplier after a Wall Street Journal report that she hadn’t fulfilled a pledge to relinquish the shares, agency documents show. Ms. Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), sold her shares in Vulcan Materials Co. on June 3, according to documents submitted to the Office of Government Ethics.
Emails: Trump official consulting climate change rejecters
Ellen Knickmeyer and Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press
A Trump administration national security official has sought help from advisers to a think tank that disavows climate change to challenge widely accepted scientific findings on global warming, according to his emails. The request from William Happer, a member of the National Security Council, is included in emails from 2018 and 2019 that were obtained by the Environmental Defense Fund under the federal Freedom of Information Act and provided to The Associated Press.
Germany Struggles to Figure Out How to Get Trump to Back Off
Birgit Jennen et al., Bloomberg
Germany is struggling to figure out what it needs to do to get Donald Trump to back off. Trump ramped up his threats against Berlin on Wednesday, floating the possibility of sanctions against a new gas pipeline to Russia and a withdrawal of some U.S. troops.
Senate
Hill push to battle foreign election interference is stuck at McConnell roadblock
Ken Dilanian, NBC News
Not every Republican agrees with President Trump that foreigners have a role to play in American elections. In fact, some GOP senators have joined with Democrats to co-sponsor legislation designed to shore up voting machines and make it harder for foreign intelligence operatives to hack, leak and manipulate social media the way the Russians did in 2016.
Republicans lash Trump for being open to foreign oppo
Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine, Politico
Soon after Donald Trump sparked his latest all-consuming controversy, Lindsey Graham spoke to the president and urged him to rethink his willingness to use foreign opposition research against his political opponents. “The law is pretty clear. You can’t take anything of value from a foreign government,” Graham said he told Trump.
House
Devin Nunes spent campaign cash on private flight. A federal agency just dropped the complaint
Kate Irby, McClatchy DC
The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint against Rep. Devin Nunes that accused him of improperly using his leadership PAC to charter a private jet. Federal regulations bar House members from using money they raise for elections on non-commercial flights.
Judiciary Committee lawmakers begin reviewing Mueller report evidence
Kyle Cheney et al., Politico
A small group of House Judiciary Committee members traveled to the Justice Department Thursday afternoon to begin reviewing former special counsel Robert Mueller’s underlying evidence, according to multiple Democratic sources. The initial group of lawmakers includes Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). Committee lawyers accompanied the lawmakers.
House votes to block Trump administration’s ban on fetal tissue research
Colby Itkowitz, The Washington Post
The House voted Thursday to block the Trump administration’s move to end human fetal tissue research by government scientists, a direct challenge to the White House that will be tested in the Republican-led Senate. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chair of the House Progressives Caucus, sponsored the amendment to a sweeping spending bill.
Progressives Fought Dem Leaders On Spending, And Dem Leaders Are About To Win
Matt Fuller et al., HuffPost
As House Democrats work to pass a nearly $1 trillion package of spending bills, progressives may not be losing, but they’re certainly not winning. Lawmakers left town Thursday afternoon after a late-night session on Wednesday and dozens of votes on amendments to the spending bill, which contains the vast majority of the money Congress appropriates.
2020
Debate lineup set at 20 candidates; de Blasio and Bennet in
Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
The Democratic National Committee has announced that 20 candidates have qualified for the party’s first presidential debates later this month. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts were the only major candidates out of the two dozen Democratic hopefuls who failed to meet the polling or grassroots fundraising measures required to get a debate spot.
‘This is not a novel concept’: FEC chair brings the hammer down on foreign influence after Trump’s widely panned interview on the same topic
David Choi, Business Insider
The chair of the Federal Election Commission issued a scathing statement for “anyone running for public office,” following the airing of an interview in which President Donald Trump suggested he may not alert the FBI if a foreign power handed him damaging information against a political opponent. Ellen Weintraub is a Democrat who has served on the commission since December of 2002 and is serving her third stint as its chair.
Anita Hill says she could see herself voting for Biden
Pia Deshpande, Politico
Anita Hill said in an interview that she could see herself voting for Joe Biden, despite her dissatisfaction with his less-than-full-throated apologies to her. When asked by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell whether she would consider voting for Biden if he becomes the Democratic nominee, Hill replied: “Of course I could.”
A Majority Of Democratic Presidential Candidates Want To Make DC The 51st State
Emily Ashcraft, BuzzFeed News
After over 200 years without voting rights, the efforts to allow Washington, DC, to become the 51st state are gaining traction. The House of Representatives has set the first-ever congressional hearing on statehood legislation, and now a majority of the Democrats running for president say they support making DC a state.
Trump campaign says it will handle foreign info on rivals on “case by case basis”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign will handle damaging information on political opponents provided by foreign governments and entities on a “case by case basis,” according to the campaign’s top spokesperson. Asked about Mr. Trump’s assertion that he would be receptive to dirt on rivals offered by foreigners, Kayleigh McEnany, the national press secretary for the president’s reelection bid, told CBSN’s “Red & Blue” that campaign staff should take the president’s comments as a “directive” to handle foreign dirt through a two-pronged approach.
California Democratic 2020 presidential primary is a wide-open race, poll finds
David Lauter, Los Angeles Times
With the Democratic presidential field now largely set, the race in the nation’s largest state is wide open, with at least five candidates in serious contention and no clear favorite. The findings from a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, done for The Times, provide bad news for some of the contenders, starting with Sen. Kamala Harris.
States
New York Ends Religious Exemptions For Required Vaccines
Bobby Allyn, NPR News
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Thursday ending vaccination exemptions based on religious beliefs, the latest attempt to address the growing measles outbreak, the worst the U.S. has experienced in decades. Cuomo said plugging the loophole should help contain the spike in measles cases in New York, the state the hardest hit by the uptick in the contagious virus due to low vaccination rates in ultra-Orthodox communities.
All Flint water crisis criminal charges dismissed by attorney general’s office — for now
Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office has dismissed all pending criminal charges arising from the Flint drinking water crisis,saying the initial investigation was bungled and it is opting to launch a new but expanded probe. The office announced on Thursday the dismissal of charges against all eight remaining defendants, including involuntary manslaughter charges against Nick Lyon, the former director of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cyber security concerns lead NC officials to delay approval of new voting machines
Will Doran, The News & Observer
North Carolina election officials were supposed to certify new voting machines on Thursday for millions of voters to start using in 2020. But they declined to make any decisions, citing uncertainty over who owns the three companies that were seeking approval to sell voting machines here.
Jenean Hampton’s aide was investigating Gov. Bevin’s authority before she was fired
Phillip M. Bailey, Louisville Courier Journal
Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton’s deputy chief of staff began digging into the circumstances behind the dismissal of the office’s chief of staff, Steve Knipper, in February. By late May, Adrienne Southworth also found herself out of work.
Advocacy
The Think Tank Struggling to Write the Green New Deal
Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic
Almost seven months have passed since the November day when a few hundred young people, associated with a new climate-activism group called the Sunrise Movement, crammed into Nancy Pelosi’s office. America’s youngest congresswoman-elect ever joined them. “This is not about me,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was effectively leading a protest on her first day on Capitol Hill.
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Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
The Story of My Abortion
Pramila Jayapal, The New York Times
I call my child a miracle. Born unexpectedly in India at 26.5 weeks, shortly before I was due to come back to the United States, and weighing only 1 pound 14 ounces, Janak survived against all odds.
Patience, not impeachment, is best way to hold Donald Trump accountable
Emanuel Cleaver II, USA Today
As knowledge of President Donald Trump’s misdeeds mounts, some of my colleagues have teasingly asked, “Are you still against impeachment?” My response is always “I am not against impeachment, I am against impatience.”
How the Democratic Party Is Sidelining Women Like Me
Jennifer Burton, Politico
The 2018 midterm elections brought a wave of women and people of color into Congress, building a House Democratic majority that looks more like America—so much so that, for the first time in history, white men are not the majority in the Democratic Caucus. But while Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are patting themselves on the back for greater diversity, they are cutting off opportunities for female and minority political consultants—often leaving key decisions about messaging and voter outreach in the hands of white men.
Research Reports and Polling
Senate 2020: The Primary Challengers
Kyle Kondik, Sabato’s Crystal Ball
The last time this current crop of senators, Class II, was up for election, in 2014, no senators lost their primaries. This represented a change from the previous two cycles, which featured significant primary upheaval, particularly on the Republican side.
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