Who's Afraid of Howard Schultz?  —  Democrats seem to be afraid he might give them a policy debate.

Bernie Sanders to propose dramatic expansion in estate tax on richest Americans, including 77 percent rate on billionaires  —  Sanders's “For the 99.8% Act” would target the wealthiest 0.2 percent of estates.  —  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will unveil a plan Thursday to dramatically expand …

Why We Are Quitting RedState  —  For more than a decade, RedState was a solid voice in the world of online conservative commentary.  Unfortunately, the allure of Trumpism has left the once great site a shell of its former self.  —  In 2015, before the Republican tide shifted …

‘Whistleblower’ in White House security clearance office gets suspended  —  Tricia Newbold was suspended less than a week after NBC reported Jared Kushner's top secret security clearance was approved over staff objections.  —  WASHINGTON — A White House security specialist …

GOP poised to rebuke Trump  —  Frustrated Republicans say it's time for the Senate to reclaim more power over foreign policy and are planning to move a measure Thursday that would be a stunning rebuke to a president of their own party.  —  GOP lawmakers are deeply concerned …

Virginia lawmaker says she wouldn't have co-sponsored controversial abortion bill if she had read it closely  —  A Virginia lawmaker sent an email to her constituents Wednesday night apologizing for attaching her name to a controversial abortion bill without reading it closely enough.

How Trump defenders try to play down charges against his associates  —  Longtime Trump associate Roger Stone was indicted last week for lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.  Many of the charges brought so far by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III against those close …

POLITICO Playbook: Mulvaney eyeing Commerce ... again  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  WHITE HOUSE BUZZ ... MICK MULVANEY, the acting chief of staff, is interested in succeeding WILBUR ROSS as Commerce secretary, according to several people with knowledge of his plans.

NRA Heavyweight Wanted Access to Putin: Leaked Email  —  “[I]mpressing the NRA's Russian hosts is the quickest way to secure a private interview with President Putin,” an organizer of the NRA's infamous 2015 trip to Moscow wrote.  —  Betsy Woodruff  —  A former NRA president hoped …

Kim Davis Must Pay Legal Fees After Same-Sex Marriage Battle, Kentucky Governor Says  —  Gov. Matt Bevin's lawyers say taxpayers “should not have to collectively bear the financial responsibility for Davis' intransigence.”  —  FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — As a candidate for governor in 2015 …

Amy Klobuchar may be best equipped to send the president packing  —  Surely the silliest aspirant for the Democrats' 2020 presidential nomination is already known: “ Beto ,” a. k.a.  Robert Francis, O'Rourke is a skateboarding man-child whose fascination with himself caused him to live-stream …

Trump Considering Herman Cain for Federal Reserve Board, Sources Say  — President interviewed former Godfather's CEO on Wednesday  — Cain's presidential run ended in sexual misconduct scandal  —  Herman Cain, the former pizza company executive who ran for the Republican presidential nomination …

APNewsBreak: ICE force-feeding detainees on hunger strike  —  Federal immigration officials are force-feeding six immigrants through plastic nasal tubes during a hunger strike that's gone on for a month inside a Texas detention facility, The Associated Press has learned.

Farmington Hills fake university set up by ICE to nab foreign students  —  The Department of Homeland Security set up a fake university in Farmington Hills to target foreign students who wanted to stay in the U.S. without proper authorization, according to federal indictments unsealed in Detroit on Wednesday.

White House preps emergency wall plan while Congress negotiates  —  Congress has until Feb. 15 to discuss a border security deal, but the White House is already finalizing its plan B — declaring a national emergency.  —  The White House is finalizing details of a potential national emergency declaration …

Michael Bloomberg's Secret Plans to Take Down Trump  —  Michael Bloomberg has bigger plans for 2020 than running for president.  The billionaire and former New York City mayor has been openly dreaming of the White House for 25 years, and spent huge amounts of time and money four times …

One Lawyer, 194 Felony Cases and No Time  —  On April 27, 2017, Jack Talaska, a lawyer for the poor in Lafayette, La., had 194 felony cases.  —  113 clients had been formally charged.  The rest are not pictured.  —  High-level felonies carry sentences of 10 years or more and should each …

‘The man who attacked me works in your kitchen’: Victim of serial groper took justice into her own hands  —  Nearly six years ago, on an unseasonably warm April night in Washington, Lauren Clark was cooling down from a jog when she spotted a man in the distance.

Family of Fallen Navy Linguist Fights Regulation That Forced Her Deployment  —  WASHINGTON — Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon Mary Kent wasn't supposed to be in Syria.  —  Last year, the 35-year-old mother of two was slated to attend a clinical psychology doctoral program near Walter Reed …

The 15 Things You Need to Know About Chris Christie's Book  —  Chris Christie's tell-all, Let Me Finish, has now hit shelves, and it's absolutely the second most interesting book about Donald Trump released this week.  —  Is it worth you slogging through the entire 400 pages?  Hard pass.

What an Old Watergate Document Can Teach the House Judiciary Committee  —  The chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary faced a vexing problem: Pressure for impeachment was building, but while lots of evidence against the president was public, key pieces of it were not.

Rand Paul awarded more than $580K after neighbor's attack  —  U.S. Sen. Rand Paul was awarded more than $580,000 in damages and medical expenses on Wednesday in his lawsuit against the neighbor who tackled him and broke several of his ribs in a dispute over lawn maintenance.

Full Transcript Of Trump's Oval Office Interview With The Daily Caller  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump sat for an exclusive Oval Office interview Wednesday with The Daily Caller's Saagar Enjeti and Vince Coglianese for approximately 37 minutes.  —  The transcript is as follows:

The Trump-Russia Investigation and the Mafia State  —  It's been a strange two and a half years.  From the first allegations, in July, 2016, of Russian meddling in the U.S. election campaign, to the arrest of President Donald Trump's former adviser Roger Stone last week …

2020 Democrats weigh how to recapture voters in Midwest  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The clearest path for Democrats to return to the White House runs straight through the upper Midwest, fueling debate over who is best positioned to recapture the region's working-class voters who broke for President Donald Trump in 2016.