Team Trump still isn't telling the truth about that 2016 Trump Tower meeting  —  First Read is your briefing from “Meet the Press” and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.  —  WASHINGTON — For all the attention to Rudy Giuliani's …

Cohen, Trump's Ex-Lawyer, Investigated for Bank Fraud in Excess of $20 Million  —  Federal authorities investigating whether President Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, committed bank and tax fraud have zeroed in on well over $20 million in loans obtained by taxi businesses …

Asia Argento, Who Accused Weinstein, Made Deal With Her Own Accuser  —  The Italian actress and director Asia Argento was among the first women in the movie business to publicly accuse the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.  She became a leading figure in the #MeToo movement.

“A blue wave is obscuring a red exodus”  —  Dave Wasserman, the Cook Political Report's House analyst, says the most under-covered aspect of 2018 is that “a blue wave is obscuring a red exodus.”  Republican House members are retiring at a startling clip — a trend that senior White House …

The Dangers in the Trump-Brennan Confrontation  —  President Trump's revocation of former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance brings together in an unfortunate way two pathological trends in the Trump era, and highlights the conundrum of the former intelligence official who wishes …

Korean Families, Separated for 6 Decades, Are Briefly Reunited  —  SEOUL, South Korea — For two hours on Monday, a 92-year-old woman held her son's hand and looked him in the eyes for the first time in more than 65 years, as family members from North and South Korea were permitted a rare chance …

Cuomo, Again?  Heavy is the head that wears this crown.  —  Governor Andrew Cuomo asks the pilot to swing the state helicopter around so he can have a second look.  About 1,000 feet below us, in a patch of Atlantic Ocean two miles south of Shinnecock, Long Island, a cargo ship equipped …

Shots reported outside US Embassy in Turkey  —  Three bullets hit a security booth outside the U.S. Embassy in Turkey early Monday morning, according to an Associated Press report.  —  No one was hurt, the AP reported.  —  According to the Ankara governor's office, suspects …

Zephyr Teachout Is the Right Choice as Attorney General for Democrats  —  The office is a potential firewall against an out-of-control president and a historically corrupt New York State government.  —  The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher.

The Media Keeps Giving Trump the Benefit of the Doubt on Collusion  —  Throughout the Russia scandal, President Trump has acted flamboyantly guilty, most recently by comparing himself implicitly with Richard Nixon during Watergate, and dismissing informants as “rats.”

Congressman Alcee Hastings says ‘something is tragically wrong’ with Donald Trump's mind  —  U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings on stage at the Sunrise Civic Center Theater on Aug. 19, 2018, before he took over as emcee of a “Stronger Together” rally sponsored by 16 Broward County Democratic Clubs.

Inside Trump's Judicial Takeover  —  How conservative operatives and Senate Republicans are helping the president pack the courts at a record pace  —  One evening last November, Don McGahn, the top lawyer in the Trump White House, walked onstage in an opulent ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington …

America is slouching toward autocracy  —  In their book, “How Democracies Die,” political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write: “How do elected authoritarians shatter the democratic institutions that are supposed to constrain them?  Some do it in one fell swoop.

Videogame Developers Are Making It Harder to Stop Playing  —  Videogames have gotten harder to turn off, mental-health experts and parents say, raising concerns about the impact of long gaming sessions on players' lives.

Pulling Their Clearances Is Only the Start - It's Time to Stamp out Elite Privilege  —  Help, I'm being oppressed!  My freedom of speech was been utterly stripped from me because when I retired from the Army those fascist monsters took away my TOP SECRET security clearance.