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.

MSESPN Pulls Asian Announcer Named Robert Lee Off UVa Game To Avoid Offending Idiots  —  UPDATE: ESPN ISSUES OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON MOVING ROBERT LEE FROM VIRGINIA GAME:  —  “We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding …

Arizona GOP uses Margaret Cho sitcom pic to represent Asian Americans  —  Margaret Kim is an Asian American.  She's definitely not a Republican.  She's also not... real.  But that hasn't stopped the Arizona Republican party from using Kim, the 1994 sitcom alter ego of living …

Trump and McConnell Locked in a Cold War, Threatening the G.O.P. Agenda  —  The relationship between President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has disintegrated to the point that they have not spoken to each other in weeks, and Mr. McConnell has privately expressed uncertainty …

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}}

Poll: Trump hits new low after Charlottesville  —  President Donald Trump's approval rating has hit a new low following a week in which a majority of voters believe he did more to divide the country than unite it, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows.  —  Only 39 percent of voters approve …

James Clapper calls Trump speech ‘downright scary and disturbing’  —  (CNN)James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence, said Wednesday morning he questioned President Donald Trump's fitness for office.  —  “I really question his ability to be — his fitness to be — in this office …

Emails: Breitbart editor pledges to do ‘dirty work’ for Bannon, smears Ivanka  —  A self-described “email prankster” seemingly fooled top editors at Breitbart over the weekend into believing he was Steve Bannon, the fired White House chief strategist who returned to the right-wing website as executive chairman on Friday.

U.S. Navy to Relieve Admiral of Command After Collisions  —  Navy tradition of public accountability calls for commanders to be dismissed when superiors lose confidence in their leadership.  —  WASHINGTON—The U.S. Navy plans to remove the commander of the fleet that has suffered four recent collisions …

Kim Wall Is Confirmed Dead as Danish Inventor Is Investigated  —  COPENHAGEN — The Copenhagen police announced on Wednesday that a torso found this week in local waters was that of Kim Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist whose disappearance after boarding a Danish inventor's submarine has stunned many Scandinavians.

Trump claims news media turned off cameras at rally as live coverage goes uninterrupted … President Trump on Tuesday claimed that news outlets covering his rally in Phoenix were turning off cameras and cutting off live coverage of his speech after he criticized the media.

U.S. Has More Troops in Afghanistan Than Publicly Disclosed  —  Pentagon hasn't included 3,500 who slip in and out of theater in force tally  —  WASHINGTON—The Pentagon maintains more than 12,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, defense officials said, currently about 3,500 more than it publicly acknowledges …

What if President Trump Orders Secretary of Defense Mattis to Do Something Deeply Unwise?  —  Secretary of Defense James Mattis takes the oath of office as President Donald Trump looks on.  (White House/Flickr)  —  Plausible hypotheticals sparked by recent events raise the question whether …

While They Rage, Trump Builds  —  What's the highest pleasure known to man?  Christian theologians talk about the visio beatifica, the “beatific vision” of God.  —  Alas, that communion is granted to very few in this life.  For the common run of mankind, I suspect, the highest pleasure is moral infatuation.

Howard Dean: If You Vote Republican in 2018, You're A Racist  —  In yesterday's column from Al Hunt in Bloomberg, the veteran political commentator noted that what Democrats needed was not new policies, but a new message.  And former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean has an idea …

Kushner travels to Middle East for peace negotiations  —  President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is in the Middle East this week as the White House continues Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.  —  Kushner, along with White House deputy national security adviser Dina Powell …

Fake Polls Are A Real Problem  —  Is Kid Rock leading the U.S. Senate race in Michigan?  A story like that is essentially designed to go viral, and that's exactly what happened when Delphi Analytica released a poll fielded from July 14 to July 18.  Republican Kid Rock earned 30 percent to Sen. Debbie Stabenow's 26 percent.

Trump prepared to go to mat for wall funding  —  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.

With alumni in the White House, Goldman sees an opening  —  When Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs' chairman and chief executive, arrived at the Rayburn building on Capitol Hill in late 2010, he was battered and bruised.  At the time his bank was viewed as a vivid example of Wall Street misbehaviour.