As Trump ranted and rambled in Phoenix, his crowd slowly thinned  —  PHOENIX — Just before President Trump strolled onto the rally stage on Tuesday evening, four speakers took turns carefully denouncing hate, calling for unity and ever so subtly assuring the audience that the president is not racist.

Exclusive: Top Trump aide's email draws new scrutiny in Russia inquiry  —  Washington (CNN)Congressional investigators have unearthed an email from a top Trump aide that referenced a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials …

Trump clashed with multiple GOP senators over Russia  —  President Donald Trump privately vented his frustration over Russia-related matters with at least two other Republican senators this month, according to people familiar with the conversations — in addition to the president's public admonishments …

Wall Street Journal Editor Admonishes Reporters Over Trump Coverage  —  Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, has faced unease and frustration in his newsroom over his stewardship of the newspaper's coverage of President Trump, which some journalists there say has lacked toughness and verve.

Donald Trump's 57 most outrageous quotes from his Arizona speech  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump went to Arizona on Tuesday night and delivered what has now become a trademark speech: Full of invective, victimhood and fact-free retellings of recent historical events.

Shutdown threat grows as Trump digs in on wall  —  President Donald Trump's vow Tuesday to close down the government if he doesn't get money for the border wall mirrors private comments he has made to advisers in recent days — and could cause significant rifts within his own party if he follows through.

Trump Holds Steady After Charlottesville; Supporters Think Whites, Christians Face Discrimination  —  PPP's newest national poll finds that Donald Trump's approval rating is pretty steady in the wake of the Charlottesville attack, probably because his supporters think that whites and Christians …

White House has paperwork ready for Joe Arpaio pardon  —  (CNN) The White House has prepared the paperwork for President Trump to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio when he makes the final decision to do so, CNN has learned.  —  An administration official said the White House …

Exclusive: Hillary Clinton in her own words  —  Hillary Clinton reflects on the 2016 campaign in her new book ‘What Happened.’ Morning Joe has an exclusive first look. ...  more Duration: {{video.duration.momentjs}}

State Department Science Envoy Quits With Not-So-Secret Message For Trump: ‘IMPEACH’  —  The acrostic was included in a letter of resignation.  —  WASHINGTON A science envoy for the Department of State sent a resignation letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday with a not-so-subtle secret message: “IMPEACH.”

Rescued piglets served up as sausages to firefighters  —  A litter of piglets whose bacon was saved from a barn fire has been served up as dinner to the firefighters who rescued them.  —  The 18 piglets and two sows survived the fire in Wiltshire in February, which saw 60 tonnes of hay catch fire.

The Guardian: We expect Rep. Gianforte ‘to be a man of his word’  —  Civility prevailed at the June 12 sentencing hearing for Greg Gianforte.  Just weeks earlier, Gianforte, heading toward a successful bid for Montana's sole congressional seat, body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs instead …

The Insidious Libertarian-to-Alt-Right Pipeline … Libertarianism has an alt-right problem.  Many prominent leaders of the alt-right have, at some point, identified as libertarian.  I am curious as to... why?  —  Milo Yiannopoulos has billed himself (and has been billed by others) as libertarian.

The strange story of that ‘Blacks for Trump’ guy standing behind POTUS at his Phoenix rally  —  At a number of political rallies over the year, a character calling himself “Michael the Black Man” has appeared in the crowd directly behind Donald Trump, impossible to miss and possibly planted.

CNN's Big Secret  —  BREAKING: Host reveals that journalists don't like Trump.  —  Now it can be told.  A CNN host named Brian Stelter confided to his audience this week about conversations occurring off-camera and off the record across the media landscape.  According to Mr. Stelter:

I was detained for protesting Trump.  Here's what the Secret Service asked me.  —  Like many events that end up with a person in handcuffs, my story begins in a bar.  I was in Atlanta earlier this month for Netroots Nation, the annual meeting of progressive organizers and writers …

August 23, 2017: U.S. Department of Treasury - Mnuchin  —  CREW requests:  — copies of all records concerning authorization for and the costs of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's use of a government plane to travel to Lexington, Kentucky on Monday, August 21, accompanied by his wife Louise Linton.

ISIS Uses American Boy to Threaten Trump in New Video … ISIS for the first time apparently used an American child in a propaganda video, a boy living in the so-called Islamic State.  —  “My message to Trump, the puppet of the Jews: Allah promised us victory, promised you defeat,” …

Trump snubbed missing US sailors during Arizona speech, referenced himself nearly 250 times  —  During his televised pity party Tuesday night in Phoenix, where Donald Trump spent huge chunks of time complaining about press coverage, Trump made no mention of the 10 U.S. sailors who remain missing …

Off The Wall  —  Chuck Atkins says...  “One of the tenants of white nationalism is that college educated people are academic elitests.  Comment?  No?  I'm not surprised.  You never take a political stand because you don't want to alienate anybody.  Its bad for business.  I get it.

16-year-old MPS student arrested after punching teacher several times in the head  —  MILWAUKEE — A teacher at South Division High School punched by a student.  The whole thing was captured on camera.  —  The video shows a student punching a teacher several times in the head.

After ESPN's Robert Lee moment and other insanity, it's clear: Trump has won the monument debate  —  A pair of parallel events occurred last night that perfectly capture the surreal and troubling times in which we are living.  —  First, President Trump held a rally in Phoenix …