Kellyanne Conway defends Trump after he attacked her husband  —  Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday defended President Donald Trump's attacks on her husband George Conway saying he's “a counterpuncher” and asserting that the president is free to respond when he's accused of having a mental illness.

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Johnny Isakson Stands Up for McCain; Unloads on Trump  —  Georgia's senior senator gives the president a “whipping.”  —  Later today Sen. Johnny Isakson will call out President Trump for his continued disparagement of John McCain.  The chairman of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee …

Bernie Sanders Is Hiring a Former Hillary Clinton Staffer As Research Chief  —  Bernie Sanders is preparing for the coming onslaught of attacks by hiring someone who knows the material best.  The Vermont senator's campaign is bringing on a veteran of Hillary Clinton's research department …

Donna Brazile Explains Why She's Working for Fox News  —  Donna Brazile, who has twice served as the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, is one of the most prominent political strategists of recent times.  Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000, was the first African-American woman …

The Esquire Interview: Mayor Peter Buttigieg  —  The South Bend, Indiana mayor and Democratic presidential candidate talks socialism, the Green New Deal, “I'm With Her,” what Democrats can learn from James Joyce(!), and more.  —  Like seemingly every other Democrat in or out of office …

Beto, Biden and Bernie: The B-Boys and the media's dangerous, self-fulfilling prophecy  —  As amorous embraces go, few could be more ardent than the one Beto O'Rourke got this month from Vanity Fair magazine.  —  The perfectly timed cover treatment was the full monty: Rugged-glam photo …

Federal judge casts doubt on Trump's drilling plans across the U.S. because they ignore climate change  —  The ruling temporarily halts drilling on 300,000 acres of leases in Wyoming.  —  A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the Interior Department violated federal law by failing …

The Time Has Come for Democrats to Impeach Brett Kavanaugh  —  And no, 'he's just not worth it' is not an acceptable excuse.  —  Donald Trump is up for reelection in about 18 months.  Even if he wins, he is term-limited out of office after 2024.  Even if he declares a national emergency …

Bevin exposed his 9 kids to chickenpox, says vaccine not for everyone  —  In a move experts say is medically unsound — and can be dangerous — Gov. Matt Bevin said in a radio interview Tuesday that he deliberately exposed all nine of his children to chickenpox so they would catch the disease and become immune.

Rep. Clyburn calls Trump family ‘greatest threats to democracy in my lifetime’  —  The House majority whip said congressional investigations can set the table for impeachment if “deserved.”  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — The third-ranking Democrat in the House on Tuesday called President Donald Trump and his family …

Brexit is breaking the British Parliament.  Can the damage be repaired?  —  Long-standing rules and practices are collapsing.  —  Last week's Parliamentary defeat for the Brexit deal has just been followed by another major event.  The Parliament's speaker has ruled that the government cannot introduce …

Trump retweets QAnon conspiracy theorist, via Larry the Cable Guy, to slam the TSA  —  From a QAnon conspiracy theorist to actor James Woods to comedian Larry the Cable Guy to the leader of the free world.  Thus travels information in the age of Twitter and President Trump …

IG investigating Shanahan over Boeing comments  —  The Pentagon's inspector general has begun an investigation into Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan's reported Boeing bias, the IG's office said Wednesday.  —  “The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has decided …

No soccer experience, but she still got a spot on elite UCLA team in college admissions scandal  —  Lauren Isackson's athletic credentials were dwarfed by those of her teammates.  She joined the vaunted UCLA women's soccer program in 2017 alongside members of the U.S. and Canadian national teams …

The White House hasn't turned over a single piece of paper to my committee  —  Elijah E. Cummings, a Democrat, represents Maryland's 7th Congressional District in the House, where he is the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.  —  In November, the American people voted overwhelmingly …

The New Left Wants To Stop Joe Biden.  There Just Isn't A Clear Plan To Do It.  —  There's a progressive faction of the Democratic Party very much against Joe Biden for president.  Whether their strategy amounts to more than angry tweets remains to be seen.

FBI joining criminal investigation into certification of Boeing 737 MAX  —  The FBI has joined the criminal investigation into the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX, lending its considerable resources to an inquiry already being conducted by U.S. Department of Transportation agents, according to people familiar with the matter.

NYU Journalism School Hires Ex-New Yorker Fact Checker Who Falsely Said ICE Agent Had Nazi Tattoo  —  New York University has hired Talia Lavin as an adjunct journalism professor less than a year after the former New Yorker fact checker resigned after falsely accusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of having a Nazi tattoo.

The bread crumb papers: Why Cohen document dump should worry Donald Trump and others  —  Redactions can be used to avoid alerting a defendant before he's charged or tipping off suspects in a pending investigation.  Who might that apply to?  —  CONNECT  —  While the case against former …

Trump administration withholds report justifying ‘shock’ auto tariffs  —  A confidential government report has provided President Donald Trump with a legal rationale to impose heavy new tariffs on foreign cars as soon as this spring, a prospect fiercely opposed by White House officials …

Leaker, Liar, Hacker, Hoaxer: The Russian contractor who infiltrated Anonymous  —  Years before the Russian-operated persona Guccifer 2.0 appeared on the internet to claim they were a hacktivist responsible for the DNC breach, a hacker with alleged ties to the Russian government used similar obfuscation strategies.

Trump Has Now Shifted $1.3 Million Of Campaign-Donor Money Into His Business  —  Donald Trump has charged his own reelection campaign $1.3 million for rent, food, lodging and other expenses since taking office, according to a Forbes analysis of the latest campaign filings.

The Federal Courts Are Running An Online Scam  —  Every day, dozens of hungry reporters lurk inside something called PACER, the online records system for America's federal courts.  These days, they're mostly looking for the latest scraps of intel on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation …

Federal Reserve, rejecting Trump's growth forecast, confirms rate-hike pause  —  The Federal Reserve sent a clear signal Wednesday that it's unlikely to raise interest rates at all this year, a striking change from December when central bank officials judged that two more hikes might be necessary in 2019.

Florida felon voting rights imperiled amid GOP opposition  —  TALLAHASSEE — Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature is moving to roll back parts of a historic November constitutional amendment that reinstated voting rights for convicted felons, drawing sharp opposition from Democrats in a key 2020 presidential battleground.

World leaders tell Biden: We need you  —  When Joe Biden attended the annual Munich Security Conference last month, the wonky foreign policy confab promised an escape from the nonstop speculation back home about the former vice president's political plans.  —  Instead, Biden's 2020 intentions were the talk of the conference.

The Complex Relation Between Receptivity to Pseudo-Profound Bullshit and Political Ideology  —  https://doi.org/10.1177/014616721983041 5  —  Abstract  —  This research systematically mapped the relationship between political ideology and receptivity to pseudo-profound bullshit—that is …

Ocasio-Cortez Joins De Blasio In Call To Punish Asian Students  —  Progressives want to lower the standards of admission at New York's top public high schools in the name of diversity.  And they don't care how many Asian students it harms.  —  The battle over the admissions standards …

This Iranian Lawyer Saved My Life.  Now We Must Save Hers  —  Shajarizadeh is a former Iranian political prisoner and women's rights leader who was freed by human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.  She is a Senior Fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

The Mueller Report Is Highly Anticipated.  Here's What We Already Know  —  After more than two years of criminal indictments and steady revelations about contacts between associates of Donald J. Trump and Russia, we already know a lot about the work done by Robert S. Mueller III …

MoveOn asks 2020 Dems to boycott AIPAC conference  —  The liberal group MoveOn is calling on Democratic presidential candidates to skip this year's AIPAC policy conference, citing its links to the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu and charging that AIPAC has flirted with Islamophobia.