Ex-aide says she refused hush money, pens White House memoir calling Trump racist  —  Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a $15,000-a-month contract from President Trump's campaign to stay silent after being fired from her job as a White House aide by Chief of Staff John F. Kelly last December …

GOP Operative Made “Suspicious” Cash Withdrawals During Pursuit Of Clinton Emails  —  In one of the most intriguing episodes of the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican activist Peter W. Smith launched an independent effort to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails to help defeat her and elect Donald Trump.

Witness in Mueller probe refuses to appear before grand jury  —  A witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation has refused to appear for scheduled grand jury testimony Friday, prompting a sealed hearing before a federal judge.  —  Andrew Miller, a former aide …

Sheriff Joe on Sacha Baron Cohen interview: ‘I made a bad mistake’  —  PHOENIX — Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio admits that he made a “bad mistake” by allowing himself to be interviewed by Sacha Baron Cohen as part of an undercover television show.

Democratic National Committee Proposes Reversing Its Ban On Fossil Fuel Donations  —  The move comes just two months after the party adopted a resolution to prohibit oil, gas and coal company contributions.  —  The Democratic National Committee plans to vote on a resolution Friday afternoon …

Kansas governor questions opponent's role in vote counting  —  TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said Friday that he believes Secretary of State Kris Kobach has told counties as part of his job as the state's top elections official not to accept some legitimate ballots in their hotly contested Republican primary race.

‘I hate this county.  I prayed to God that he would curse it’: Footage shows DUI arrest of congressional candidate (with VIDEO)  —  Editor's note: Some of the language in this story may be offensive to some readers.  —  The Democratic congressional candidate who was found guilty this week …

Manafort trial Day 9: Witness suggests Trump role helped Manafort nab loans  —  The bank- and tax-fraud trial of former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resumed Friday afternoon without any public explanation for an unusual delay in the proceedings, but quickly produced revealing …

Explain the Chinese spy, Sen. Feinstein  —  Imagine if it emerged that the Republican chairman of the House or Senate intelligence committee had a Russian spy working on their staff.  Think it would cause a political firestorm?  Well, this month we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein …

Trump Administration Seeks to Withhold Millions in Aid to Palestinians  —  Kushner hopes cuts will pressure Palestinians to accept a U.S. peace plan.  —  The White House is seeking to withhold up to $200 million in relief aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank …

The only way to save the GOP is to defeat it  —  University of Chicago researchers — who clearly have a lot of time on their hands — have found that the use of certain brands and products is a good predictor of your level of affluence.  This is an exercise in the obvious when it comes to a $1,000 iPhone.

Flat Earthers Call Trump's Space Force Idea ‘Impossible’ … President Donald Trump wants a Space Force to expand U.S. military power beyond the globe.  That's a problem for flat earthers who incorrectly believe the world is a flat disc floating through space.

In America, wage growth is getting wiped out entirely by inflation  —  U.S. workers' paychecks are worth less than they were a year ago, the labor department reported Friday, as modest wage gains have failed to keep pace with inflation.  —  Inflation rose 2.9 percent from July 2017 to July 2018 …

NPR interviewed the racist behind ‘Unite the Right 2’ and it was a disaster  —  Two days ahead of what is expected to be a small white supremacist rally in Washington, D.C., NPR gave rally organizer Jason Kessler a national platform to peddle junk “race science.”

Iran test-fires ballistic missile for first time in 2018, officials say  —  EXCLUSIVE - For the first time in more than a year, Iran test-fired a ballistic missile in a brazen display of defiance months after President Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear deal and days …

NEW: Daily Beast Working on Major NBC News Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Story  —  The Daily Beast is working on a major story about sexual harassment and misconduct at NBC News, sources tell Mediaite.  —  The story involves varying allegations against senior NBC News executives …

Eye of the Hurricane  —  Minnesota could be the decisive battleground in November, and the national media are beginning to notice.  The Associated Press reports: “Democrats' hopes to take House could stumble in Minnesota.” … I would say, formerly one of the nation's bluest states.

We Researched Hundreds Of Races.  Here's Who Democrats Are Nominating.  —  This story was produced in collaboration with ABC News and Ballotpedia.1 Research by Ballotpedia and Roey Hadar, Lee Harris, Adam Kelsey, Adia Robinson, Meena Venkataramanan and John Verhovek of ABC News.

The White Nationalists Are Winning  —  The year since the white-supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been difficult for the rogues gallery of Nazis and pseudo-Nazis who championed it.  —  Jason Kessler, one of the organizers, was practically run out of town …

N.J.'s Bob Menendez is top foreign relations Democrat in Senate.  His campaign chief is a lobbyist for Qatar.  —  Michael Soliman is a longtime aide and confidant to Sen. Bob Menendez.  Now the New Jersey Democrat's campaign chairman, he naturally wants his boss to win reelection this year.

Russian state TV warns Trump to ‘do what we say’ if you want ‘support in the elections’  —  One of Russia's state-run TV news programs this week expressed displeasure with newly announced sanctions being leveled against the Kremlin — and one guest said that it was time to put direct pressure …

Rubio Goes Nationalist  —  Meet the new Marco . . .  In June 2016, Marco Rubio changed his mind and announced that he would not be retiring from the Senate as he had planned.  A major reason he was seeking a second term, Rubio said, was to help the Senate exercise what …

Rod Rosenstein Defends Bad Forensic Science  —  U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended several questionable forms of forensic evidence Tuesday.  —  “Most of you work on the front lines of the criminal justice system, where forensic science has been under attack in recent years …

Will Broadcast, Cable Nets Cover?  Democrat Jokes About Wanting Blackburn to Commit Suicide  —  Behold Friday's installment of things you won't see six-person CNN panels on.  In a story published Friday morning by the left-leaning Huffington Post, reporter Kevin Robillard released video …

Fed-up locals are setting electric scooters on fire, smearing them with poop and burying them at sea  —  They've been crammed into toilets, tossed off balconies and set on fire.  They've even been adorned with dangling bags of dog droppings.  —  As cities from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills struggle …

NASA package that fell from sky with note mentioning Trump sparks alarm in New Jersey  —  SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A suspicious package that fell from the sky over New Jersey caused some alarm because it contained a note that mentioned President Donald Trump.