memeorandum: Mitch McConnell's Heavy Health-Care Lift (Michelle Cottle/The Atlantic)

McConnell defers vote on Senate health-care bill as McCain recovers from surgery — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put off plans late Saturday to vote on a bill to overhaul the nation's health-care system this week, after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced he would be at home recovering …

Discussion: Political Wire

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

McConnell: Senate to ‘defer’ on Obamacare repeal vote — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed a vote to repeal and replace Obamacare scheduled for early next week after Sen. John McCain announced he'd be out due to surgery, costing Republicans sufficient votes to move forward.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

McCain's surgery puts Obamacare repeal vote in doubt — Sen. John McCain underwent surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye and will stay in Arizona to recover next week - denying Republicans a key vote in their push to repeal Obamacare, where the GOP already has no room for error.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

McCain to miss week, likely delaying healthcare vote — (R-Ariz.) will miss this week's votes in the Senate after undergoing surgery on Friday, depriving Republicans of a key vote on healthcare. — McCain's absence means Senate Republicans almost certainly will not have the 50 votes they'd need to win a procedural vote.

Michelle Cottle / The Atlantic: Mitch McConnell's Heavy Health-Care Lift

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval still doesn't support the Senate health-care bill. That's big trouble for Republicans.

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress and The Mahablog

Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:

Trump Campaign Paid Don Jr.'s Lawyer $50,000 Two Weeks Before Email Scandal … About two weeks before the release of emails showing Donald Trump Jr. seeking opposition research from attorneys representing the Russian government, his father's reelection campaign began paying the law firm …

Discussion: NPR, New York Magazine and Axios

Jordyn Phelps / ABC News:

Russian lawyer obtained Hill hearing seat from former Florida Trump campaign chair's husband — The husband of the former Florida chair of the Trump campaign obtained a front-row seat to a June 2016 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing for Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney …

Discussion: Politico, Associated Press and The Gateway Pundit

Kevin Dolak / ABC News:

Trump campaign paid Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer weeks before Russian meeting was revealed — Almost two weeks before Donald Trump Jr. published screengrabs of purported emails indicating that he arranged to meet with a Russian lawyer, President Trump's re-election campaign paid $50,000 …

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump defends his son — drawing a contrast with Clinton — and says media are ‘distorting democracy’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CBS News and Mediaite

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story: MSNBC interview goes off the rails when Joy Reid holds Trump supporter's feet to the fire on Russia

New York Times:

Soviet Veteran Who Met With Trump Jr. Is a Master of the Dark Arts — MOSCOW — Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian-American lobbyist who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June 2016, had one consistent message for the journalists who met him over the years at the luxury hotels where he stayed in Moscow …

Discussion: Althouse, Business Insider and Power Line

Washington Post:

Poll finds Trump standing weakened since springtime … President Trump's standing with the American people has deteriorated since the spring, buffeted by perceptions of a decline in U.S. leadership abroad, a stalled presidential agenda at home and an unpopular Republican health-care bill …

Discussion: Axios

New York Times:

Trump's Re-Election Campaign Doubles Its Spending on Legal Fees — WASHINGTON — President Trump's re-election campaign more than doubled its spending on legal fees over the past few months as its lawyers assisted the campaign in its handling of investigations into interactions between the president's associates and Russia.

Aida Chavez / The Hill:
Trump re-election campaign doubles spending on legal fees

Discussion: Raw Story

Maggie Severns / Politico:
Trump campaign and fundraising committees raise $13.9 million in second quarter

Discussion: Fox News Insider

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:

Comey's Writing a Book, and Publishers Are Eager to Pay Big Money for It — James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director who was fired in May by President Trump, is writing a book about his experience in public service, including his tumultuous and brief tenure in the Trump administration.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Axios, Political Wire and twitchy.com

David Wooding / The Sun:

TRUMP COWER Donald Trump begs Theresa May to fix a ‘warm welcome’ for his state visit - and says he won't set a date for it until he knows he's going to get ‘a better reception’ — US President warns he will not visit until he can guarantee a good reception and pleas with Theresa May to help influence public

Discussion: Business Insider

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Hillary's White House would be no different from Trump's — Nepotism, self-enrichment, clashes with Congress — that'd be Hillary in the Oval Office. — Getty Images — MORE FROM: … It wouldn't have taken much for Hillary Clinton to prevail on Election Night.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News