Top Items:

STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON VOTING “NO” ON “SKINNY REPEAL” — Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today on voting “no” on the so-called “skinny repeal” of Obamacare: — “From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare …
RELATED:


The night John McCain killed the GOP's health-care fight — It was the most dramatic night in the United States Senate in recent history. Just ask the senators who witnessed it. — A seven-year quest to undo the Affordable Care Act collapsed — at least for now — as Sen. John McCain …
Discussion:
Shareblue, CNN, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, ThinkProgress, NPR, IJR, The American Mirror and New York Times

The Daily 202: Trump's hardball tactics backfire as ‘skinny repeal’ goes down — THE BIG IDEA: President Trump's attacks on Republican senators are finally catching up with him, and Lisa Murkowski will not be bullied. — A last-ditch effort to keep the Obamacare repeal effort alive went …


How McCain tanked Obamacare repeal — Paul Ryan couldn't persuade him. Neither could Mike Pence. And in the end, President Donald Trump couldn't reel in John McCain either. — The president made a last-ditch effort, calling the Arizona senator and key holdout on the GOP's Obamacare repeal measure …


John McCain saved Republicans from themselves — On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham made a demand: He would vote for the terrible healthcare bill being offered before the Senate, a bill he thought would cause health-insurance market disaster if enacted, as long as he received clear assurances …
Discussion:
Refinery29, AOL, bradford-delong.com, Jezebel, New York Magazine, Pacific Standard and CBS News


Senate Rejects Slimmed-Down Obamacare Repeal as McCain Votes No
Discussion:
Vox, Talking Points Memo, Rewire, Business Insider, Refinery29, WBUR, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Wire, Outside the Beltway, NBC News, THE WARREN (HENRY) REPORT, The Guardian, Deadline, Common Dreams, FiveThirtyEight, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Power Line, Washington Free Beacon, AOL, The Atlantic, CBS Pittsburgh, KQED News, TheStreet, twitchy.com, CANNONFIRE, IJR, Little Green Footballs, The Federalist, CNN and Fox Business

Taking Stock Of Trumpcare's Epic Collapse
Discussion:
bradford-delong.com

Enough about McCain. It was Collins, Murkowski and red-state Democrats who killed Trumpcare.
Discussion:
Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, vice, CleanTechnica and Raw Story

Obamacare Repeal Collapses as Senate GOP Blocks Health Bill
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Vox, NBC News, Washington Examiner, ABC News, CNBC, Axios, ThinkProgress, NPR, Common Dreams, Daily Wire, Shareblue, Mediaite, USA Today, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Washington Post, CBS New York, The Times of Israel, Politicus USA, fox8.com, Scared Monkeys, No More Mister Nice Blog and Vox Popoli

Kellyanne Conway calls GOP who voted against repeal “Loch Ness monsters of the swamp”
Discussion:
IJR

What McCain did was hard. What Murkowski and Collins did was much harder.

Senate ObamaCare repeal bill falls in shocking vote
Discussion:
Politico, CNBC, Politicus USA, New York Times, IJR, Vox, The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon and Balloon Juice


Trump “loved” Scaramucci's quotes — but he hates being upstaged — Top Republicans tell us that yesterday may have been an inflection point in the West Wing meltdown — that if behavior like this continues, apparently sanctioned by the President, people will finally leave.
Discussion:
Politico, ABC News, Mediaite, Daily Kos and Washington Post
RELATED:

Why Anthony Scaramucci's Rant Probably Ticked Off the FBI … In his immediately infamous phone call to a New Yorker staff writer, Anthony Scaramucci didn't just say the White House chief of staff was a “f-king paranoid schizophrenic” or accuse the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, of engaging in autofellatio.


Trump says he wants a ‘general’ to replace Priebus: report — President Trump has said privately that he wants to appoint “a general” to replace White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, The New York Times reports. — The president, the Times reported on Thursday, has so far focused …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, AOL, The Gateway Pundit, New York Times, The Week, ABC News, Political Wire and Mediaite


Onion Fact Checks: Anthony Scaramucci's ‘New Yorker’ Interview
Discussion:
Washington Monthly

Mooch to lower profile after New Yorker fracas
Discussion:
IJR and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »


The Scaramucci Show: New Communications Director Unloads Nasty Attack on White House Colleagues to Opposition Party
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Post, Vox, Above the Law, VICE News, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, CNBC, The Week, Gothamist, vice, Raw Story, JONATHAN TURLEY, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Power Line, CBS Los Angeles, DCReport.org, Salon, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice, Common Dreams, Weekly Standard, New York Times and TheBlaze


Part Four: The Secrets Of The Spy In The Bag — Vladimir Putin's former media czar was murdered in Washington, DC on the eve of a planned meeting with the U.S. Justice Department, according to two FBI agents whose assertions cast new doubts on the US government's official explanation of his death.
Discussion:
Political Wire and The Week, more at Mediagazer »


Sally Yates: Protect the Justice Department From President Trump — The spectacle of President Trump's now daily efforts to humiliate the attorney general into resigning has transfixed the country. But while we are busy staring at the wreckage of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' relationship …
RELATED:

Justice Department briefing at White House fuels ethics worries
Discussion:
Vox


Couple jump to their deaths because they 'can't afford' health care — A couple jumped to their death in Murray Hill early Friday. — Seth Gottfried — Manhattan parents struggling to pay their doctor's bills jumped to their deaths early Friday - leaving double suicide notes pleading …
Discussion:
Conservative News Today, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Raw Story and Daily Wire


House Republicans despair after health care collapse — Speaker Paul Ryan had none of his Eagle Scout-like optimism. — At a closed-door conference meeting with House Republicans hours after Sen. John McCain scuttled perhaps the last best hope of repealing Obamacare, Ryan read an excerpt from …
Discussion:
Politicus USA and Vox
RELATED:


I do not know how to convey how appalling the GOP's health care process or policy is
Discussion:
Politico, Shareblue, NBC News, CNBC, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and IJR

Obamacare Is Alive Because It Has Made Life Better For Millions
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and LGBT Weekly

Trump Is Woody Allen Without the Humor — Half his tweets show utter weakness. They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after dawn. — The president's primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It's not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider.
Discussion:
alicublog and The American Conservative


Mark Meadows: New healthcare bill is coming ‘that can get to 51’ — Rep. Mark Meadows, a key negotiator in the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, said a new effort is underway to write a bill that can pass the Senate that would include proposals offered by Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Ted Cruz, and Rob Portman.


Russia Seizes 2 U.S. Properties and Orders Embassy to Cut Staff — MOSCOW — Russia seized two American diplomatic properties on Friday and ordered the United States Embassy in Moscow to reduce its staff by September, in the Kremlin's first retaliatory steps against proposed new American sanctions.
Discussion:
Vox, Wall Street Journal, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, TASS, New York Magazine, The Resurgent, Shakesville and The Guardian
RELATED:

Russia demands U.S. reduce diplomatic staff in new round of conflict over election hacking
Discussion:
Politico, PEN America and Axios

Why I'm running for president — John Delaney, a Democrat, represents Maryland's 6th Congressional District in the House. — The American people are far greater than the sum of our political parties. It is time for us to rise above our broken politics and renew the spirit that enabled us to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Discussion:
CNN, Outside the Beltway, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Caller


Russia probe could reveal Trump's closest-held secrets — Since Election Day, President Trump's businesses have sold at least 30 luxury condos and oceanfront lots for about $33 million. That includes millions of dollars in properties to secretive shell companies, which can hide the identities …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and The Daily Caller


‘Our beautiful boy has gone’: Little Charlie Gard's parents announce that their brave warrior whose plight touched the world has finally died after battling devastating genetic illness he fought for so long — Charlie's parents had fought a lengthy legal battle to take their severely ill baby son to the US for treatment
Discussion:
Fox News Insider, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze and Patterico's Pontifications

Tobacco Shares Plunge After FDA Proposes Cut to Cigarette Nicotine — Goal is to cut nicotine to non-addictive levels, FDA says — Shares of Altria, British American Tobacco plunge Friday — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will work to cut the amount of nicotine in cigarettes …
Discussion:
NPR
RELATED: