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, Fox News, Townhall, Business Insider, New York Post, Daily Mail, One America News Network, Variety, Daily Kos, Media Matters for America, NBC News, The San Joaquin Valley Sun, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, MS NOW, Newsweek, The Daily Wire, The Wrap, The Gateway Pundit, Alternet.org, RedState, Political.org, HuffPost, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Washington Examiner, The Hill, The Washington Sun, Politico, Crooks and Liars 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:
Talking Points Memo, Straight Arrow, 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, Roll Call, Townhall, Chicago Sun Times, One America News Network, The Gateway Pundit, Newsweek, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, TMZ.com, IJR News, Wall Street Journal, WTTG-TV, The Post Millennial, Axios, Political.org, NewsMax.com, WTOP News, Fox News, Wonkette, Breitbart, The Hill and Scripps News
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, NewsMax.com, The Independent, Washington Examiner, New Republic and Mediaite
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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
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:
The Guardian, Washington Examiner, The Washington Sun, The Hill, The Wrap and The Independent
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Julianne McShane / MS NOW:
White House blocks Politico from Air Force One
White House blocks Politico from Air Force One
Discussion:
Political.org and Mediaite
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 and Alternet.org
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:
CNN, Euronews, The Guardian, Breitbart, Straight Arrow, Axios, The Hill, Forbes, The Daily Wire, The Gateway Pundit and VINnews
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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 and Washington Post
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Jan Crawford / CBS News:
The Alito Court: A rare interview with the influential Supreme Court justice
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 Independent
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
Hamed Ahmadi / The Washington Sun:
Barack Obama to Campaign With Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit — The former president has been stepping up his involvement in this year's midterm elections. — Copy — Former President Barack Obama will campaign with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit later this month, the Michigan Senate hopeful announced on Monday.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Politico, The Hill, Newsweek, twitchy.com, Michigan News Source and Jewish Insider
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Joey Cappelletti / Chicago Tribune:
Barack Obama is to appear with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit
Barack Obama is to appear with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit
Discussion:
Washington Post, Washington Examiner and The Post Millennial
Brittany Wallman / Miami Herald:
Palm Beach GOP endorses candidate accused of child sex abuse — Suspended Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Mike Caruso said he still “intend[s] to win” the November election and has not abandoned his campaign — nor has the local Republican Party abandoned him — even after his August arrest on allegations he molested a small child.
Discussion:
Florida Politics
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
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:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Caller and Alternet.org
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
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?
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 …
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:
Reuters, NewsMax.com, IJR News and Bloomberg
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, Townhall, Breitbart, The Verge, 404 Media, Vanity Fair, NewsMax.com, Politico, HuffPost, Forbes, The Washington Sun, The Japan Times, Marcus on AI, Business Insider, Grabien and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »
Brian Beutler / Off Message:
Don't Bet On The Fever Breaking — Democrats have to be ready to box Trump in, even if Republicans in Congress close ranks around him, the way they always have. — ∙ Paid — Let me inject you with a dash of hopium before we spend the next month huffing into a paper bag.
Discussion:
Alternet.org
Steve Benen / MS NOW:
Job numbers make clear that Trump has a reality problem, not a public relations problem — To date, the White House hasn't even tried to explain why the job market worsened after the president's second term began. — With public opinion polls showing broad public dissatisfaction with the economy …
Discussion:
The Contrarian, WBUR and NewsMax.com
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.
Discussion:
The Hill
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
Christina Jewett / New York Times:
Texas Pediatricians Face Paxton Investigations for Vaccinating Children — Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate, has alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation.
Jessica Nix / Bloomberg:
New York Declares State of Emergency Over Measles Outbreak — New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in response to rising measles cases on Monday, as infections skyrocket nationwide. — The order allows the state to respond more quickly …
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:
Associated Press, The Daily Caller and WTOP News
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 …
David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Supreme Court to weigh whether oil companies can be forced to pay for climate damage — 7 min Click here to listen to this article — Justice Samuel A. Alito, a reliable conservative, withdrew from the case, making a 4-4 tie vote possible. — In its new term, the court will also hear major cases on immigration and guns.
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 …
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 …
Kate Santaliz / Axios:
House GOP whip: Limit spending to districts with “biggest return” … - But with less than a month to go, Emmer acknowledges that some tough decisions are coming about where Republicans spend their money, including walking away from races they don't think they can salvage.

