Pompeo's elite taxpayer-funded dinners raise new concerns  —  NBC News: Pompeo's elite dinners on taxpayers' dime raising concern  —  WASHINGTON — As federal workers file out of the State Department at the end of a Washington workday, an elite group is often just arriving in the marbled …

Trump Fans Gobble Up His Favorite, Unproven COVID Drug—Some Are Even Trying To Cook It Themselves  —  IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?  —  QAnon users are posting make-at-home recipes for hydroxychloroquine as Trump says he's using the drug  —  Donald Trump's allies are seeking …

'We've been muzzled': CDC sources say White House putting politics ahead of science  —  (CNN)In the early weeks of the US coronavirus outbreak, staff members in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tracked a growing number of transmissions in Europe and elsewhere …

Trump misstates Michigan mail-in ballot policy, threatens federal funding  —  President Donald Trump mischaracterized Michigan's mail-in ballot policies on Wednesday while threatening federal funding to the state if election officials there do not retreat from measures meant to facilitate mail-in voting.

Pompeo Declined Interview Request From Inspector General About Saudi Arms Sales  —  The secretary of state instead offered written answers.  He was aware of the inquiry and the specific lines of questioning about his decision to resume the sales.  —  WASHINGTON — Secretary …

Rice tried to protect Obama, blame Comey for withholding intelligence from Flynn & Trump team  —  Blame-shifting.  It is a Washington pastime.  It also appears to be the reason why former National Security Adviser Susan Rice wrote her now-infamous memo, documenting an Oval Office meeting …

‘A moonshot mission’: Trump campaign eyes a return to megarallies  —  The Trump campaign has an order from the president: Find a way to get him back on the road and into megarallies to re-energize his base.  —  In recent meetings with top campaign officials and White House aides …

A complicated life and conflicting accounts muddle efforts to understand Tara Reade's allegation against Joe Biden  —  New details emerge on Reade's exit from Biden's office  —  (CNN)As Tara Reade was leaving her job at Joe Biden's Senate office in 1993, she told a close colleague …

Trump is right to hold WHO accountable  —  President Trump's effort to hold the World Health Organization accountable for its bungled handling of the coronavirus is well justified.  It is outrageous to expect taxpayers to continue supporting an international body which acts as a lapdog for Beijing.

The Worst Is Yet to Come  —  The coronavirus and our disastrous national response to it has smashed optimists like me in the head.  —  For as long as I can remember, I have identified as an optimist.  Like a seedling reaching toward the golden sun, I'm innately tuned to seek out the bright side.

Trump calls high number of coronavirus cases in the US a ‘badge of honor,’ attributes it to testing  —  WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States - the highest in the world - a “badge of honor,” arguing the still-increasing number …

Here's how the early battleground map has opened up for Joe Biden  —  WASHINGTON — Maybe Joe Biden isn't leading President Trump by 7 points in Arizona, as one poll showed yesterday.  —  But Biden has been ahead of Trump in every Arizona poll released this year.

Florida Gov. DeSantis calls scientist's data-manipulation claim a ‘nonissue’  —  Facing an explosive charge that his administration is manipulating coronavirus data to help make the case for reopening Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis played down the controversy Tuesday as a “nonissue.”

Is Holocaust Denial Conservative Now?  —  Trump's no-enemies-to-the-right mentality has made it impossible for the right to police itself.  —  Among dozens of addled tweets from the commander-in-chief over the past few days, one in particular deserves pausing over, because it demonstrates …

The Strange Case of Ron Johnson  —  From champion of the IGs to crocodile tears.  —  I go way back with Ron Johnson.  —  A mutual friend introduced us in early 2010, when I was still a radio host in Wisconsin.  Democratic senator Russ Feingold was cruising to re-election …

EXCLUSIVE: Kayleigh McEnany's Emotional Tribute to Ravi Zacharias  —  In an exclusive interview with CBN News, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany got emotional discussing the recent passing of famous Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, someone who made an enormous impact on her with his Christian faith.

The Town That Tested Itself  —  Bolinas, a tiny hippie enclave north of San Francisco, mounted one of the most advanced coronavirus-testing efforts in America.  What did it learn?  —  Bolinas, California, is not a place one finds oneself by accident, in part because it is a place that must be found.

Biden Tops Trump in Vote, Economic Confidence  —  Joe Biden still bests President Trump in a head-to-head matchup, perhaps in part because voters express slightly more confidence in the likely Democratic nominee to handle the post-coronavirus economy.  —  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone …

Airlines pack in customers like there's no coronavirus  —  As restaurants, department stores and other local businesses grapple with operating at half occupancy (or less) to comply with social distancing guidelines, airlines are packing customers to near capacity on a reduced number of flights.

GOP House candidate demeans Muslims and compares Dreamers to pedophiles  —  Republican congressional candidate Ted Howze said earlier this month he had nothing to do with social media posts from his personal accounts that demeaned Muslims, accused prominent Democrats of murder and mocked a survivor of the Parkland school shooting.

Two churches reclose after faith leaders and congregants get coronavirus  —  Churches in states at the forefront of reopening efforts are closing their doors for a second time.  —  Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, Ga., less than 20 miles away from Chattanooga, Tenn. …

Trump allies lining up doctors to prescribe rapid reopening  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican political operatives are recruiting “pro-Trump” doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed …

Where Does Ron DeSantis Go to Get His Apology?  —  The Florida governor explains a COVID-19 strategy that has gotten bad press and favorable results.  —  A couple of months ago, the media, almost as one, decided that Governor Ron DeSantis was a public menace who was going to get Floridians killed …

Vaccine experts say Moderna didn't produce data critical to assessing Covid-19 vaccine  —  Heavy hearts soared Monday with news that Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine candidate — the frontrunner in the American market — seemed to be generating an immune response in Phase 1 trial subjects.

U.S. Birthrates Fall to Record Low  —  Last year's data are another sign of how American childbearing, which began declining during the 2007-09 recession, never fully rebounded  —  American women had babies at record-low rates last year and pushed U.S. births down to their smallest total in 35 years …

Trump Is Failing at Governing But Winning at Authoritarianism  —  Donald Trump has been battering away at American democracy for about four years now, first as a populist candidate warning of rigged elections and inciting his supporters to violence, and then as a president.

Iran Quietly Lowers the Temperature With U.S.  —  Despite the heated rhetoric on both sides, Iran has toned down its approach to the West on several fronts, and the U.S. has reciprocated.  —  BAGHDAD — After years of increasing tensions that nearly led to war, Iran has moderated its approach to the West …

America's Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further … There was supposed to be a peak.  But the stark turning point, when the number of daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. finally crested and began descending sharply, never happened.  Instead, America spent much of April on a disquieting plateau …

Why Ronan Farrow Is Indeed Too Good to Be True  —  Editor's Note: After Matt Lauer submitted this piece, a response to Ronan Farrow's book Catch and Kill, Mediaite editors independently fact checked the accounts of the four witnesses/subjects Lauer spoke with and cites in this piece.

Trump-Biden voters could decide the 2020 election  —  Nine percent of Trump's 2016 voters say they're planning to vote for Biden, our data suggest.  —  After the 2016 election, analysts spilled tubs of ink arguing that “Obama-Trump” voters helped swing the election.

Biden campaign adds Karine Jean-Pierre as senior adviser  —  Joe Biden has hired Karine Jean-Pierre, a veteran African American political strategist, as a senior adviser to his presidential campaign as the presumptive Democratic nominee pivots to the general election campaign.

The COVID ‘Spike’ in Reopened Texas: CNN Gets It Wrong  —  On Sunday CNN ran a segment on the spread of COVID-19 in Texas.  The news channel promoted it with the jarring tweet “Texas is seeing the highest number of new coronavirus cases and deaths just two weeks after it officially reopened.”

Joe Biden calls Donald Trump Jr. ‘sick’ for suggesting he's a pedophile and says Donald Trump is ‘petty’ for not wanting to hang Barack Obama's portrait  — Joe Biden laid into two generations of Trumps Tuesday night while appearing at a virtual town hall hosted by Yahoo News

Break Up Amazon  —  The actions of the monopolistic giant are dangerous and anticompetitive.  —  The coronavirus pandemic is diminishing or destroying countless American businesses—large and small.  Not Amazon, though.  —  Lockdown is its friend: Amazon is widely perceived as our national supply chain …

Biden's New Pressure From Progressives  —  He's moving in the right direction, but will he appoint the right people?  —  Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders are cooperating on joint task forces to shape the Democratic policy agenda ahead of the 2020 election.