Trump Calls on Sessions to ‘Stop the Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now’  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation's top law enforcement official to end an inquiry directly in to the president.

‘We are Q’: A deranged conspiracy cult leaps from the Internet to the crowd at Trump's ‘MAGA’ tour  —  On Tuesday evening, the dark recesses of the Internet lit up with talk of politics.  —  “Tampa rally, live coverage,” wrote “Dan,” posting a link to President Trump's Tampa speech in a thread on 8chan …

Kirsten Gillibrand Pays The Price For Speaking Out Against Al Franken  —  A number of Democratic donors are furious at her for calling for Franken's resignation and may not support her in 2020.  —  No one in Congress is more associated with the Me Too movement than Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

Gap Narrows in CD12 Special  —  Motivated base and gains among independents boost Dem  —  West Long Branch, NJ - The race to fill the open seat in Ohio's 12th Congressional District has shifted from a Republican advantage last month to a toss-up now, according to the Monmouth University Poll.

Kobach promised cities help.  It cost them millions — and powered his political rise  —  Kris Kobach likes to tout his work for Valley Park, Mo. He has boasted on cable TV about crafting and defending the town's hardline anti-immigration ordinance.  He discussed his “victory” there at length on his old radio show.

President Trump Calls the Show!  —  RUSH: So I have this note on the call screener computer: “On the hotline...” We don't have a hotline.  “On the hotline, you're receiving a phone call in recognition of your anniversary broadcast.  You'll want to take this immediately.”  Okay.

With Pa. visit looming, Trump's White House snubs Bob Casey at his own bill-signing  —  The White House may well be the people's house, but on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., apparently fell victim to a bit of good, old-fashioned election year politics.

Facing Losses, Condé Nast Plans to Put 3 Magazines Up for Sale  —  Anna Wintour is staying, but the once-plush company behind Vogue and The New Yorker lost $120 million last year.  —  Condé Nast, the company behind Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, became …

Trump's approval ratings so far are unusually stable - and deeply partisan  —  Over the course of an eventful first 18 months in office, President Donald Trump's approval ratings have remained remarkably stable.  There has also been a wider gap between Republicans' and Democrats' views …

Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal  —  Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal.

Top House Republican: Man Killed His Wife ‘Because The Woman Was Unfair’  —  One of the House's most powerful Republicans had some interesting things to say on domestic violence during a recent event back in his district.  —  Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), the chairman of the influential House Rules Committee …

CNN exclusive: TSA considering eliminating screening at smaller airports  —  Washington (CNN)The Transportation Security Administration is considering eliminating passenger screening at more than 150 small and medium-sized airports across the US, according to senior agency officials and internal documents obtained by CNN.

White House Weighs Another Reduction in Refugees Admitted to U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States, picking up where President Trump left off in 2017 in scaling back a program intended …

The Daily 202: Koch network warns of ‘McCarthyism 2.0’ in conservative efforts to harass professors  —  THE BIG IDEA:  —  COLORADO SPRINGS—Leaders of the donor network led by billionaire Charles Koch say they want college students to study Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong.

Poll: Senate race between Cruz, O'Rourke a dead heat  —  The Texas Senate race between Sen. Ted Cruz  —  (D-Texas) is neck and neck, according to a new poll released Wednesday.  —  The 2018 Texas Lyceum Poll showed Cruz leading O'Rourke by a hair — 41-39 percent among likely voters.

Correction: Paul Ryan story  —  In a story July 31 about the upcoming season of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of Gates' wife.  Her name is Marial Iglesias Utset, not Sharon Adams.  —  A corrected version of the story is below:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders uses a debunked story to blame the media for damaging the hunt for bin Laden  —  White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders just accused the media of hindering the American government's pursuit of Osama bin Laden just a few years before 9/11.  But she may want to check her evidence.

Corey Stewart aide compared GOP establishment to a ‘house negro,’ disparaged civil rights leaders  —  Senate candidate takes personal shot at Cuomo  —  (CNN)A top consultant and spokesman for Corey Stewart, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Virginia, has used the term “house negro” …

Trump's Tampa circus proves you can't reason with his base  —  For once, the most memorable thing about one of the president's rallies was not his baldfaced lies nor his attacks on reality.  Rather, Trump's Tampa rally will be remembered for the reporting of CNN's Jim Acosta.

Meet the 81 candidates Obama is endorsing in 2018  —  President Obama released a list of 81 candidates he's endorsing ahead of the 2018 midterm election.  —  Why it matters: Obama is the left's answer to President Trump's continued presence in the primaries.

Democratic socialism, explained by a democratic socialist  —  It's not just New Deal liberalism.  —  “They are not traditional socialists.  There is no call for communal ownership of production,” said an MSNBC anchor while attempting to define “democratic socialism,” a term that has burst onto …

U.S. to Ratchet Up Proposed Tariffs to 25% on $200 Billion in Chinese Imports  —  The original plan called for 10% tariffs  —  WASHINGTON—The White House, looking to ratchet up trade pressure on China, is expected to announced today that it is more than doubling the size of the proposed tariffs …

Wells Fargo to pay $2.09 billion fine in mortgage settlement  —  These companies are trying to win back your trust  —  Wells Fargo has agreed to pay a $2.09 billion fine for issuing mortgage loans it knew contained incorrect income information, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Poll: Biden leads Trump in early 2020 match-up  —  Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in a head-to-head match-up, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.  —  A plurality of registered voters, 44 percent, said they'd choose Biden …

Senate rejects effort to beef up states' election security spending  —  Senators on Wednesday rejected an a Democratic proposal to provide states with more election security funding ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.  —  Senators voted 50-47 against adding an amendment from Sen. Patrick Leahy

Republicans abuzz over Schmidt's divorce from GOP  —  The onetime McCain strategist won't comment on his talks with potential 2020 Democrat Howard Schultz.  —  Steve Schmidt's public break from the GOP and quiet departure from his corporate PR gig earlier this summer are fueling speculation …

Of Course Trump Hates Brutalism  —  Washington is at last making its mark on Donald Trump.  On Sunday, Axios reported that the president had indulged in one of the inveterate hang-ups of D.C. society: complaining about the FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Trump team is running a disinformation campaign about Russian interference  —  Most of the headlines from Vice President Pence's cybersecurity speech Tuesday focused on how he clearly enunciated what President Trump won't: that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.  And he did.