Michael Avenatti Arrested for Felony Domestic Violence, Confident He'll Be Exonerated  —  5:50 PM PT — Avenatti bailed out and held a brief news conference, saying, “I have never struck a woman.  I will never strike a woman.”  He added he's looking forward to the investigation and is confident he'll be “fully exonerated.”

Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis  —  Sheryl Sandberg was seething.  —  Inside Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, top executives gathered in the glass-walled conference room of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.  It was September 2017 …

“Insanity,” “Furious,” “On His Own”: Trump's Post-Midterms Blues Are Vexing His Staff and Roiling the White House  —  He's lashing out at aides and press and foreign leaders, and threatening to roll West Wing heads—but at least he didn't get his hair wet at the Belleau Wood memorial.

In Florida Recount, Sloppy Signatures May Disqualify Thousands of Votes  —  RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The nuns at Zina Rodriguez's Catholic school in the Bronx thwacked her knuckles to punish sloppy handwriting, so she was shocked when her mail-in ballot in Florida was rejected because her signature …

Exclusive text messages show Roger Stone and friend discussing WikiLeaks plans  —  “Big news Wednesday ... Hillary's campaign will die this week,” Randy Credico appears to have texted Stone six days before WikiLeaks email dump.  —  Six days before WikiLeaks began releasing Hillary Clinton …

‘He was yelling’: Whitaker pushed back against early fraud complaints about company he advised  —  Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker received early warnings that customers were complaining that an invention-marketing company he advised might be a fraud, according to several people familiar …

EXCLUSIVE: President Trump Calls For Brenda Snipes To Be Fired  —  President Donald Trump believes that the embattled Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes is a “disgrace” and that she should be fired and removed from office.  —  President Trump spoke to The Daily Caller in an exclusive …

Saudi Arabia seeks death penalty for five suspects in killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi  —  ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia said Thursday it has indicted 11 people in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month and that it is seeking the death penalty against five …

Theresa May buffeted by resignations over her Brexit deal  —  LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May faced a slew of resignations from her Cabinet on Thursday in protest at her Brexit deal, complicating her efforts to sell it to the House of Commons and the British public and possibly jeopardizing her hold on office.

Man shouts ‘Heil Hitler, Heil Trump’ during intermission of Baltimore performance of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’  —  The audience reacts after a man interrupts the “Fiddler on the Roof” performance at the Hippodrome Theatre.  (Video courtesy of Rich Scherr)  —  A man shouted a pro-Nazi …

Mattis Visited The Troops Deployed To The Border And They Had Some Questions For Him  —  “Sir, I have a question.  The wire obstacles that we've implanted along the border...are we going to be taking those out when we leave?”  —  On a visit to US troops on the southern border on Wednesday …

The #FiveWhiteGuys Are Offering a Sucker's Bet to Anti-Pelosi Democrats  —  There is no need for any of this.  —  The battle for the leadership of the incoming Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is already a mess.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.

This Is the Saturday Night Massacre  —  With the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, America is in uncharted territory.  The last time a president made a personnel change to undermine an investigation of his associates, Congress forced him to resign.  That was when President Richard Nixon pushed …

Rep. Marcia Fudge weighing a bid for House Speaker  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. - Warrensville Heights Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge says she's considering challenging California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker.  —  Fudge said she does not believe Pelosi has enough votes to win the job …

Second Trump-Kim summit to go ahead without list of nuclear North Korean weapons, Pence says  —  “It will be absolutely imperative ... that we come away with a plan for identifying all of the weapons in question,” the vice president told NBC News.  —  SINGAPORE — The U.S. will not require North Korea …

MacArthur loses New Jersey House race to Democratic challenger Andy Kim  —  Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) lost his seat to Democratic challenger Andy Kim on Wednesday, resulting in a near-wipeout for the GOP in the state, The Associated Press reported.  —  With MacArthur's loss …

The looming threat to Trump's booming economy  —  President Donald Trump, already in a grumpy post-midterm mood, faces a growing list of economic problems that could irritate him even more next year.  Chief among them is a withdrawal from the economy's sugar high.

Mitch McConnell Just Blocked A Bipartisan Bill To Protect Robert Mueller  —  WASHINGTON — A bill that would make it harder for President Donald Trump to remove special counsel Robert Mueller was rejected on the floor of the Senate Tuesday.  —  Republican Sen. Jeff Flake and Democratic …

House blocks bill to end support for Saudi coalition in Yemen as UK yields diplomatic progress  —  The House of Representatives voted to block the passage of a bill that would have ended U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

CBC votes no confidence in Democratic Chair Perez  —  The Congressional Black Caucus passed a vote of no confidence in Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday, the latest sign of lingering bad blood between lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the Democratic Party's top official.

This 31-year-old had had enough.  So she ran.  And won.  —  What finally did it for Kathy Hoffman was watching the confirmation hearing of Betsy DeVos nearly two years ago.  —  Hoffman, then a 31-year-old speech therapist in a suburban Phoenix public school district …

A presidential map for the 21st century  —  Note: Nebraska and Maine split their electoral college votes according to statewide popular vote and the vote within each congressional district; Data: Doug Sosnik; Chart: Axios Visuals  —  To win re-election, President Trump must wage a two-front war …

Trump to Nominate Handbag Designer as Ambassador to South Africa  —  Lana Marks is a member of the president's Mar-a-Lago Club  —  WASHINGTON—President Trump intends to nominate Lana Marks, a Palm Beach, Fla.-based handbag designer and a member of Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club resort, to serve as the U.S. ambassador to South Africa.