White House analysis of Obamacare repeal sees even deeper insurance losses than CBO  —  A White House analysis of the GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare shows even steeper coverage losses than the projections by the Congressional Budget Office, according to a document viewed by POLITICO on Monday.

Exclusive — Audio Emerges of When Paul Ryan Abandoned Donald Trump: ‘I Am Not Going to Defend Donald Trump—Not Now, Not in the Future’  —  On a never-before-released private October conference call with House Republican members, House Speaker Paul Ryan told his members in the U.S. House …

Spicer: Trump didn't mean wiretapping when he tweeted about wiretapping  —  Spicer walks back Trump's wiretapping claims  —  (CNN)The White House on Monday walked back key point of President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the 2016 election.

Trump Gave CIA Power to Launch Drone Strikes  —  New authority departs from Obama-era policy under which only the Pentagon conducted the operations  —  WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump has given the Central Intelligence Agency secret new authority to conduct drone strikes against suspected terrorists …

GOP needs to oppose King's re-election, not just King's words  —  Rep. Steve King has apparently ticked off Jeb Bush for making comments about populating the country with “somebody else's babies.”  Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) has the story.  Buzz60  —  CONNECT

Understanding the Angry Mob at Middlebury that Gave Me a Concussion  —  MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — There's nothing like a little violence to focus the mind.  I am the Middlebury College professor who ended up with whiplash and a concussion for having the audacity to engage with the ideas of Charles Murray …

Democrats paralyzed as Gorsuch skates  —  Democrats can't seem to land a punch on Neil Gorsuch — and it's not even clear they want to.  —  President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee has breezed through more than 70 meetings with senators.  Opponents who've scoured his record have found little to latch onto.

Tillerson Used ‘Alias’ Email for Climate Messages, N.Y. Says  —  Secretary of State employed secondary account on climate issue  —  Claim is made in suit over New York's probe into energy firm  —  New York says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used an email alias to discuss climate change …

Presidential Executive Order on a Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch  —  COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR REORGANIZING THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

It's Democrats' Turn to Hint at a Shutdown, Over Border Wall Funding  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats pilloried Republicans for irresponsibly shutting down the government when Barack Obama was president, but as a minority party struggling to show resistance in the era of President Trump …

Federal Inquiry of Fox News Moves to a Grand Jury, but Without Preet Bharara  —  The political drama around the federal courthouse in Manhattan did not end with the sudden, unexplained turnabout of President Trump in firing Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.

How a Wonky National-Security Blog Hit the Big Time  —  A little over a year ago, Benjamin Wittes, the editor in chief of the blog Lawfare, made the case that Donald Trump, as a Republican presidential candidate, represented nothing less than a national-security threat.

White House Seeks to Cut Billions in Funding for United Nations  —  U.S. retreat from U.N. could mark a “breakdown of the international humanitarian system as we know it.”  —  State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs …

Never-Trump Republicans join call for select committee to investigate Russia and Trump  —  Democrats in Congress have long argued that the ongoing intelligence committee investigations into Russia's interference in the presidential election and the Trump campaign's ties to the Kremlin are unlikely to get to the bottom of the issue.

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber says Republicans setting up a ‘scam’  —  MIT economics professor and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber said that any healthcare replacement law the GOP has in store is a “scam.”  —  “Any replace[ment] that they would pass would result in millions …