Sources: NBC Threatened Ronan Farrow if He Kept Reporting on Harvey Weinstein  —  Ronan Farrow had already left NBC News.  But a top lawyer at the network threatened to smear him if he continued to pursue the Hollywood mogul, multiple knowledgeable sources say.  —  Lachlan Cartwright

Poll: 60 percent disapprove of Trump, while clear majorities back Mueller and Sessions  —  President Trump's disapproval rating has hit a high point of 60 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that also finds that clear majorities of Americans support the special counsel's …

Rudy Giuliani Is Putting Together a ‘Counter-Report’ to Question Robert Mueller's ‘Legitimacy’  —  It's being done with the explicit blessing of Trump who is ‘happy’ that this is part of his legal team's ‘strategy,’ the president's lawyer says.  —  President Donald Trump's legal team is crafting a …

Trump Says Democrats Can't Impeach Him Because He's Doing a ‘Great Job’  — President cites good economy, precedent for future presidents  — Any impeachment effort would face high hurdles in Congress  —  President Donald Trump said that Democrats shouldn't try to impeach him …

Trump Defends His Handling of McCain's Death  —  Opinion  —  Iran's Fake News Is a Fake Threat  —  If the Iranians were any good at social media trolling, it might be something to worry about.  —  August 31, 2018  —  Mark Gongloff  —  Nafta's Dying.  What Comes Next?

DOJ's Bruce Ohr kept Mueller deputy ‘in the loop’ about anti-Trump dossier, sources say  —  Embattled Justice Department official Bruce Ohr had contact in 2016 with then-colleague Andrew Weissmann, who is now a top Robert Mueller deputy, as well as other senior FBI officials …

Washington says goodbye to McCain, who will lie in state at the Capitol  —  Sen. John McCain will lie in state today in Washington, a day after former Vice President Joe Biden gave an emotional tribute to the six-term Republican from Arizona.  —  “I'm a Democrat.

‘First Man’: Neil Armstrong film fails to fly flag for US patriotism  —  When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the American flag on the moon in 1969, it marked one of the proudest moments in US history.  —  But a new film about Armstrong has chosen to leave out this most patriotic of scenes …

I Worked With Avital Ronell.  I Believe Her Accuser.  —  The humanities are ablaze.  This month The New York Times reported that the Title IX office had found Avital Ronell, a professor of German and comparative literature at New York University and a superstar in literary studies …

I Helped Create Insider Political Journalism.  Now It's Time For It To Go Away.  —  Traditional political journalists were the last people to notice in 2016 that the world had changed.  Candidate Donald Trump took advantage of a stubborn refusal to recognize the power of right-wing ideology …

Florida does it again  —  Florida, you have done it again.  —  The nation's biggest swing state has given us many suspenseful elections.  This year, its gubernatorial race will also provide something of a political laboratory experiment.  —  Both parties are testing the proposition that …

‘Tough decisions have to be made’: House Republicans prepare for pain  —  Party officials begin deciding which GOP lawmakers to save and which ones to cut loose.  —  With a massive field of vulnerable House incumbents to defend and limited resources to go around, Republicans are readying …

Judge Rules Against Alex Jones and Infowars in Sandy Hook Lawsuit  —  A Texas judge denied the motion by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought against him and his Infowars operation by the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim, in a ruling released on Thursday.

El Salvador: 3 kids separated in US were abused at shelters  —  SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Three minors from El Salvador separated from their parents after crossing the U.S. border were sexually abused in shelters in Arizona, Salvadoran officials said Thursday.

Homeland Security staffer with white nationalist ties attended White House policy meetings  —  Ian M. Smith, a Department of Homeland Security analyst who resigned this week after he was confronted about his ties to white nationalist groups, attended multiple immigration policy meetings at the White House …

Trump rejects EU offer to scrap car tariffs  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said the EU's offer to scrap tariffs on cars is “not good enough” because European consumers' “habits are to buy their cars, not to buy our cars.”  —  In an interview with Bloomberg published Friday, Trump also said the EU …

Poll Shows NFL Fan Interest Remains Lower, Stark Divisions Over Anthem Protests  —  Fewer people, in particular Republicans, are following the NFL closely than they did four years ago, according to new WSJ/NBC News poll  —  With less than a week until the 2018 NFL season kicks off …

‘Totally dishonest’: Trump asserts only he can be trusted over opponents and ‘fake news’  —  Over roughly the past day, President Trump has decried the “totally dishonest” media, with its “fake news” and “fake books.”  He has argued that Google is biased against conservatives.

Fact-checking Republican attack ads in tight House races  —  Attack ads are our bread and butter at The Fact Checker — and, boy, are we swimming in butter this week.  —  The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), has been running a series …

Is Delaware's Kerri Evelyn Harris the next explosion to rock the Democrats?  |  Will Bunch  —  Kerri Evelyn Harris' secret weapon in her upstart Democratic campaign for a U.S. Senate seat is size — or, more specifically, Delaware's lack of it.  —  The First State is, after all …

A final Syrian showdown looms.  Millions of lives are at risk.  Here are the stakes.  —  With Syria's rebels nearing defeat after seven years at war, President Bashar al-Assad's army says it is turning its firepower against their final stronghold.  The target, Idlib province …

Trump: ‘When you get good ratings, you can say anything’  —  leaned into his attacks against the news media Thursday night at a rally in Indiana, blasting news outlets for what he said was unfair coverage driven by ratings.  —  After mocking a protester who was escorted out at the beginning of his rally …

Why Mark Penn Is Sounding Trumpy  —  The longtime Clinton strategist insists his objection to the Mueller investigation is about principle, not opportunism.  His critics beg to differ.  —  Mark Penn recently moved into a brand new office on Washington, D.C.'s I Street …

'My robot makes me feel like I haven't been forgotten'  —  Internet-connected robots that can stream audio and video are increasingly helping housebound sick children and elderly people keep in touch with teachers, family and friends, combating the scourge of isolation and loneliness.