Top Items:
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Karoline Leavitt, Trump's ‘Machine Gun,’ Has a New Gig at Fox News — A fierce and nimble speaker, Ms. Leavitt is the second of Mr. Trump's former press secretaries to join the cable news network. — President Trump recruited a fleet of Fox News personalities for his second administration …
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Guardian, Business Insider, Fox News, NBC News, Daily Mail, New York Post, Daily Kos, Variety, Newsweek, Politico, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, RedState, The Washington Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, Crooks and Liars, Deadline, MS NOW, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire, The Wrap, The Gateway Pundit, Alternet.org, Political.org, HuffPost, Washington Examiner, The Hill and Forbes, more at Mediagazer »
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Media Matters for America:
Megyn Kelly on Cornell's Jane Doe: “I'm just going to be honest, she's not the most attractive gal. She's extremely beefy in her arms and her legs.” — Kelly: Jane Doe “liked the feeling of being sexy and desired and wanted, ... and that's why she kept saying yes”
Megan Brand / NBC News:
Disgraced former House Speaker Dennis Hastert dies at 84 — The Illinois Republican, the longest-serving GOP speaker in U.S. history, was sentenced to 15 months in prison after leaving Congress for scheming to cover up child molestation accusations. — Former Rep. Dennis Hastert …
Discussion:
Fox News, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and Althouse
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Dennis Hastert, Powerful Politician Disgraced by Child Sexual Abuse, Dies — The longest-serving Republican speaker of the House admitted in 2016 to abusing teenage boys decades earlier. He was 84. — J. Dennis Hastert, a once-obscure Illinois congressman who rose to become …
Discussion:
Straight Arrow, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post and The Daily Caller
Kaia Hubbard / CBS News:
Dennis Hastert, disgraced former House speaker, dies at 84
Dennis Hastert, disgraced former House speaker, dies at 84
Discussion:
ABC7, Chicago Sun Times, One America News Network, The Gateway Pundit, Newsweek, Axios, Wonkette, New York Post, IJR News, MS NOW, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Fox News, TMZ.com, WTTG-TV, The Post Millennial, Political.org, NewsMax.com, WTOP News, Breitbart, Scripps News and The Hill
Politico:
Campaign ‘all coming from DC,’ Paxton says — Ken Paxton is less than a month out from the conclusion of a D.C.-outsider campaign for a Texas U.S. Senate seat that he privately admitted is being run by Washington. — “I've never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and …
Discussion:
Fox News, The Bulwark, Newsweek, Washington Examiner, NewsMax.com, The Independent, Mediaite and New Republic
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Hamed Ahmadi / The Washington Sun:
Ken Paxton Blames D.C. for His Campaign Messaging in a Leaked Recording
Ken Paxton Blames D.C. for His Campaign Messaging in a Leaked Recording
Discussion:
Politico, The Guardian and Political.org
Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
Some Democrats don't expect to fill a Supreme Court vacancy under Trump — Democrats need a net gain of four seats to capture the Senate. If so, they'd control what happens in a vacancy, as Justice Samuel Alito admits he's thought about retirement. — WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader …
Discussion:
Semafor
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Jan Crawford / CBS News:
The Alito Court: A rare interview with the influential Supreme Court justice
Discussion:
MS NOW, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Free Press, Law Dork, Reason, Fox News, Democracy Docket, NewsMax.com and The Washington Sun
Courtenay Brown / Axios:
Trump's economic tightrope messaging of strong economy, high prices — President Trump's economic officials acknowledge that a strong economy alone will not persuade Americans that they are better off under this president. … - It is a high-wire messaging act just weeks before the midterms …
Discussion:
CNN
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Paul Waldman / MS NOW:
The unmanly truth about Trump's jobs record
The unmanly truth about Trump's jobs record
Discussion:
The Contrarian and Axios
Oren Oppenheim / ABC News:
Trump to rally in deep-red Nebraska, where a Senate seat and key House seat are on the line — There isn't a Democrat on the ballot for Senate. — Sen. Pete Ricketts leaves the Senate floor after a vote in the U.S. Capitol, September 30, 2026. — President Donald Trump is heading to Grand Island …
Discussion:
CNN, Associated Press, MS NOW, Reason, The Washington Free Beacon, Reuters and The Hill
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Isaac Arnsdorf / Washington Post:
Four ways the midterm elections could go, one month away
Four ways the midterm elections could go, one month away
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Hill and Reason
Andrew Howard / Politico:
Democrats add six more targets, two in districts Trump carried by 20 points — Democrats' House campaign arm is expanding its targets even further into Trump country, as the party grows increasingly bullish they will not just win, but win big next month. — The Democratic Congressional …
Discussion:
DCCC, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, NewsMax.com, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Wide World of News and Florida Politics
NBC News:
Russian lab worker dies of suspected plague as 200 enter medical observation — The female staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died from a “pneumonia of undetermined” origin last week, according to a regional governor.
Discussion:
Straight Arrow, Axios, The Hill, Forbes, Agence France-Presse, The Daily Wire, NewsMax.com and VINnews
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CNN:
Researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of ‘unknown’ infection
Researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of ‘unknown’ infection
Discussion:
Telegraph, CBS News, Reuters, Euronews, MS NOW, The Daily Wire, Meduza, GZERO, Deseret News, The Guardian, HuffPost, Mediaite, Fox News, New York Times, Washington Examiner, Malone News, The Daily Caller, IJR News, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, MeidasTouch and Axios
Brian Stelter / CNN:
White House blocks Politico from Air Force One amid press access lawsuit — The White House is refusing to allow Politico on Air Force One on Monday, which means the news organization cannot fulfill its press corps pool responsibilities. — A Politico spokesperson confirmed that the publication …
Discussion:
MS NOW, Washington Examiner, The Washington Sun, The Hill, The Wrap, The Independent, Political.org and Mediaite
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
The Doomsday Scenario — Even if Democrats crush the midterms, we're in a world of trouble. — 1. Blue Tsunami? — I am bullish on the prospects of Democrats winning the Senate. One month out, I'd say the rough outcome distribution looks something like this: — Can we agree on that?
Paul Krugman:
The Trump Administration is a Cesspit of Corruption — And fighting it should be at the heart of the Democratic agenda — The cesspit of corruption that is Donald Trump's presidency is finally getting the attention it deserves. It's about time. And if a massive blue wave sweeps Washington …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Alternet.org
Associated Press:
Soldiers Wounded in Iranian Drone Strike Say They Aren't Getting Proper Care — The shrapnel hit Army Lt. Col. Arturo Lincón's body like shattered glass. — One chunk of metal lodged into the left side of his jaw. Another piece sliced through his salivary gland before bouncing off …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Associated Press and WTOP News
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Andrew Egger / The Bulwark:
A Death. A Funeral. And the Trump Rally Down the Block. — Let's get into it. Happy Monday. — Join Will Sommer and Sam Stein for MAGA Mondays today at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Substack and YouTube. — Grief and Fear in Two Ohios … They buried Pierre Damas Bel on Saturday.
Discussion:
NextDraft, Washington Post and The Atlantic
Allison Detzel / MS NOW:
Outgoing Sen. Tillis regrets pivotal vote for Hegseth: 'He's an actor. He's not a manager' — Tillis, who voted to confirm Hegseth last year, said the defense secretary has “not demonstrat[ed] any knowledge of the Department of Defense.” — Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. …
Discussion:
Associated Press
Politico:
Sam Altman to Decoded: ‘The world should accept some bad things happening’ for the benefits of AI — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said there remains a fundamental difference in worldview between his company and rival Anthropic on artificial intelligence regulation, arguing in an exclusive interview …
Discussion:
Axios, The Verge, 404 Media, Vanity Fair, NewsMax.com, Politico, HuffPost, Forbes, The Washington Sun, The Japan Times, Grabien, Marcus on AI, Business Insider and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »
Aída Chávez / Drop Site News:
CIA Report Warns Israel Could Head Toward Civil War, Total Collapse — As a reader-funded independent news outlet, we operate free from the influence of governments, advertisers, and corporate backers. This is essential to our mission: to report on what matters most, beholden only to the truth.
Discussion:
New York Times
Dave Levinthal / The Washington Sun:
Senator's ‘Zombie’ Campaign Committee Shuts Down 13 Years After His Death — More than 13 years after Sen. Frank Lautenberg died, his Senate campaign committee has officially departed as well. — Lautenberg for Senate filed termination paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday …
Jasper Goodman / Politico:
Crypto PAC to spend in 32 House races — A deep-pocketed super PAC network funded by the cryptocurrency industry is set to deploy its war chest to help 32 House candidates spanning both parties in the final weeks before the midterm elections, the group announced Monday.
Discussion:
CNBC, The Daily Caller and Associated Press
Mother Jones:
“You Kidnapped My Son” — For several days this spring, trapped inside a Texas immigration detention center, Luis made frantic phone calls, one after the other, to everyone he could think of. — Could anyone help him find his 11-year-old son? — He'd last seen Andrés …
Alexandra Hutzler / Democracy Docket:
Supreme Court vacates lower court ruling that Washington map discriminated against Latino voters — The Supreme Court on Monday reversed two pro-voter decisions in cases related to Washington's legislative redistricting, sending them back to a lower court for new proceedings in light …
Andy Craig / The UnPopulist:
A Democratic Senate Should Adopt Secret Impeachment Ballots on a Priority Basis — Such a change, requiring no constitutional amendment, would free senators to vote their judgment instead of their fears — At the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, James Madison was determined to persuade …
Yunior Rivas / Democracy Docket:
DOJ sued for records on ‘unprecedented’ plan to deploy 1,000 election monitors in midterms — The NAACP sued the Trump administration Friday, seeking records about its plan to deploy roughly 1,000 federal personnel to polling places during the 2026 midterms.
Politico:
Trump plans executive order seeking to bring down high diesel costs — President Donald Trump plans to announce Monday executive actions aimed at lowering the high fuel costs weighing on Republicans ahead of the midterms, according to three people familiar with the plans.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, NewsMax.com and IJR News
Phillips P. OBrien / Phillips's Newsletter:
The Key Point Being Overlooked — The Russian escalation talk proves one key thing — Before I get to this piece, I have a little announcement for history readers. My book: The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler—How War Made Them and How They Made War …
Joseph Stieb / Liberal Currents:
You Can't Build a Better Politics on Bad History … Sarah Longwell is a leading anti-Trump conservative and a co-founder of The Bulwark. Before this turn, she was a Republican political consultant. In her new book How to Eat an Elephant, she assesses a variety of voters that Democrats need to reach …


