The Real Steal Is Coming  —  Who will prevent the next attempt to overturn the will of the voters?  —  War is peace.  —  Freedom is slavery.  —  Ignorance is strength.  —George Orwell, 1984  —  Welcome to the funhouse world the Republican party is building.  Up is down.  Black is white.

Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims  —  Concerns over bonds involving Trump's then daughter in-law Vanessa and daughter Tiffany revealed in Carol Leonnig's Zero Fail  —  Two Trump family members got “inappropriately - and perhaps dangerously …

Colonial Pipeline gas shortages widen: State-by-State breakdown  —  Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia among hardest states hit with fuel outages  —  Fuel shortages have widened across the East Coast as consumers continue to panic buy amid the fallout from a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline …

Opposition to Newsom recall grows as Caitlyn Jenner, GOP generate little support, poll finds  —  The campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has failed to gain momentum in recent months as significantly more California voters favor keeping him in office, and only anemic support has surfaced …

Students for Trump founder John Lambert sentenced to 13 months for posing as lawyer  —  A judge slammed the founder of Students for Trump as a “cold blooded fraudster” before sentencing him to 13 months in prison for posing as a lawyer.  —  John Lambert, 25, pretended to be as Eric Pope, of the Manhattan-based firm Pope & Dunn.

Rand Paul clashes with Fauci over coronavirus origins  —  Share to Facebook Share to Twitter  —  Anthony Fauci on Tuesday clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the role of the Wuhan, China, virology lab in the origins of COVID-19.  —  During a Senate hearing on the pandemic response …

Federal judge denies NRA attempt to declare bankruptcy in win for New York state attorney general  —  A federal judge Tuesday denied an effort by the National Rifle Association to file for bankruptcy protection, ruling that the gun rights group filed the case in an attempt to fend off a civil lawsuit by the New York attorney general.

A Misleading C.D.C. Number  —  We have a special edition of the newsletter on a misleading C.D.C. statistic.  —  When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines last month for mask wearing, it announced that “less than 10 percent” of Covid-19 transmission was occurring outdoors.

As Israelis and Palestinians Battle, Rockets and Airstrikes Intensify  —  As localized violence in Jerusalem grew into a cross-border conflict, at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed, according to officials in Gaza.  Israel reported at least two deaths.

Prosecutor plans to seek death penalty in spa shootings  —  ATLANTA (AP) — A man accused of killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage businesses was indicted Tuesday on murder charges, and a prosecutor filed notice that she'll also seek hate crime charges and the death penalty.

Trump official says in prepared remarks he feared sending troops Jan. 6 would look like coup attempt  —  Christopher Miller, former President Trump's acting Defense secretary, plans to tell Congress on Wednesday he was concerned that sending troops to the Capitol on Jan. 6 would fuel fears of a military coup …

Grievance, rebellion and burnt bridges: Tracing Josh Hawley's path to the insurrection … LEXINGTON, Mo. — Joshua Hawley was 13 years old, living comfortably as the son of a bank president, when his parents gave him a book about political conservatism for Christmas.  —  Hawley became enamored with the ideology.

Federal investigators press for cooperation from two key witnesses in Gaetz probe  —  Washington (CNN)Federal investigators scrutinizing Rep. Matt Gaetz are seeking the cooperation of a former Capitol Hill intern who was once a girlfriend of the Florida Republican, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Trump's blog isn't lighting up the internet  —  Four months after former President Donald Trump was banished from most mainstream social media platforms, he returned to the web last Tuesday with “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” essentially a blog for his musings.

Study: Over 99% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were not vaccinated  —  The Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday released a study showing that 99.75% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and April 13 were not fully vaccinated, according to data provided to Axios.

Rare Schumer, McConnell showdown previews floor fight on Dems' election bill  —  The typically staid Senate Rules Committee hosted a rare dramatic showdown on Tuesday: the majority leader versus the minority leader, sparring over Democrats' expansive election and ethics bill.

Fox News Unveils Plans to Expand Beyond Politics, Hard News at Upfront … After devoting constant chatter to the 2020 election and the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News wants to make sure to talk about other subjects, including sports and weather.  —  During an upfront presentation to ad buyers …

Efforts to Weed Out Extremists in Law Enforcement Meet Resistance  —  Oregon, California, Minnesota, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., are seeking to give law enforcement agencies more power to exclude officers with ties to extremist groups.  —  In the battle to stamp out extremism from the ranks …

The Lure of H Mart, Where the Shelves Can Seem as Wide as Asia  —  The huge grocery chain and other megastores like it have revolutionized the way many Asian-Americans shop and eat.  —  At the H Mart on Broadway at 110th Street in Manhattan, the lights are bright on the singo pears …

Ten More Things We Now Know About the 2020 Election  —  More Blows to the Conventional Wisdom  —  The good folks at Catalist, the Democratic-oriented data analytics firm have dropped their 2020 national analysis of demographic voting trends in the 2020 election.

Samantha Power wants to restore U.S. prestige by getting American-made vaccines ‘into arms’ around the world  —  Late last fall, as Joe Biden prepared to take office and act on his promise to restore America's global leadership, Samantha Power had something to say.

POLITICO Playbook: Could McCarthy face a Cheney backlash?  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  We're T minus one day till LIZ CHENEY gets the boot from GOP leadership.  And as we enter that crazy news cycle, it's important to remember that this is about one man's ambitions.

Rushing to Judgment on Scott Stringer  —  The facts are too scarce, and the stakes are too high, to jump to conclusions.  —  On April 28, Jean Kim, a political lobbyist, accused Scott Stringer, New York City comptroller and the leading progressive candidate in the upcoming mayoral primary …