POLITICO Playbook: Why Mueller's end is only the beginning  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BREAKING OVERNIGHT ... REUTERS' JAMES MACKENZIE in Islamabad and ROD NICKEL in Kabul: “Two U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan”: “[T]he NATO-led Resolute Support mission ... gave no further details …

Republicans resigned to Trump losing 2020 popular vote but confident about Electoral College  —  Senior Republicans are resigned to President Trump losing the popular vote in 2020, conceding the limits of the flamboyant incumbent's political appeal and revealing just how central the Electoral College …

Trump fans launch all-out attack on ex-Navy SEAL GOP lawmaker for defending McCain: 'You'll be a one-term wonder'  —  Retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Dan Crenshaw — who now serves as a Republican congressman — defended former Navy Captain John McCain on Thursday.

‘Kill or Be Killed’: Inside the Ad Boycotts and Power Transfers Shaping the New Fox News  —  Tucker Carlson was in Florida by the time Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group, published the first batch of controversial comments he made years ago on a shock jock radio show.

House Democrats Move to Hobble Primary Challengers  —  The party's congressional campaign arm rolled out new hiring standards to deter firms from working with candidates who run against incumbents.  —  Ally Mutnick  —  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making an early move …

Without Major Sponsors, Tucker Carlson's Show Leans on Ads for Fox Programming  —  ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’ besieged by social media backlash, increasingly is filling commercial breaks with in-house ads and direct-response brand spots.  —  As blue-chip advertisers have abandoned Tucker Carlson's …

From a Swimsuit Model to the Trump Megaphone: The Genesis of ‘Jexodus’  —  WASHINGTON — At 23, Elizabeth Pipko has branded herself on social media as a onetime figure skater, a part-time poet and a former Trump campaign aide, an Instagramista whose feed spotlights her Mar-a-Lago wedding and racy swimsuit and lingerie modeling shots.

The inside story of how John Roberts negotiated to save Obamacare  —  (CNN)Adapted from “The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts” by Joan Biskupic.  Copyright © 2019.  Available from Basic Books.  —  Chief Justice John Roberts arrived at the Valletta campus …

Iowa Republican Steve King slams Hurricane Katrina disaster victims  —  Voters call out Steve King after Facebook post: We care  —  Washington (CNN)Republican Rep. Steve King, who has a lengthy history of incendiary comments related to race, favorably compared the response of his Iowan constituents …

Daily Kickoff: The drive to dominate the pre-AIPAC convo — Trump's Golan gift |  2020 Dems attending?  |  New anti-BDS resolution |  A conspicuous scheduling conflict  —  Tell your friends to sign up for the Daily Kickoff here or for early 7AM access via Debut Inbox

Trump: I hope Barr will 'do what's fair' with regards to investigating Hillary Clinton  —  President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Friday he hopes Attorney General William Barr will “do what's fair” with regards to opening investigations to perceived crimes by his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton …

Airline Assured Flight Attendant She'd Be Safe to Fly to Mexico.  When She Returned, ICE Detained Her.  —  A dream job has turned into a nightmare for a Texas flight attendant who is now sitting in an immigration detention center and facing deportation to South America.

Counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes  —  There is suggestive evidence that Trump's rhetoric matters.  —  During an interview with CBS's “Face the Nation” this past Sunday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) lambasted President Trump for emboldening white nationalism …

How Twitter's algorithm is amplifying extreme political rhetoric  —  New York (CNN Business)Imagine opening up the Twitter app on your phone and scrolling through your feed.  Suddenly, you come across a hyper-partisan tweet calling Hillary Clinton the “godmother of ISIS.”

An online threat of violence shuts down all Charlottesville schools  —  Public school campuses in Charlottesville will be shuttered Friday for a second straight day — and more than 4,300 students will be kept out of classrooms — after a threat of racial violence surfaced online.

Beto O'Rourke standing on countertops, explained  —  His leading opponents are really old.  —  Beto O'Rourke likes to stand on countertops while campaigning for president.  —  It's not a totally unreasonable thing to do.  Normally at a political rally, the featured speaker …

Fox News Promotes Pro-Trump QAnon Conspiracy Theorist  —  A reporter on ‘Fox & Friends First’ uncritically cited Twitter user @QAnon76, a major QAnon promoter, on Friday.  ‘We are the news!’ one QAnon believer rejoiced.  —  A Fox News reporter cited a major promoter of QAnon on-air Friday morning …

Clinton, in newly revealed emails, discussed classified foreign policy matters, secretive ‘private’ comms channel with Israel  —  A newly unearthed batch of heavily redacted, classified emails from Hillary Clinton's personal email server revealed that the former secretary of state discussed establishing a …

Democrats will order FBI, White House counsel to preserve records shared with Mueller  —  The Democratic chairs of the six House committees investigating potential abuse of power by President Trump and his campaign's business and alleged foreign ties will ask several executive branch agencies …

Every report on past presidential scandal was a warning.  Why didn't we listen?  —  Robert Mueller's predecessors investigated Watergate, Iran-contra and Bill Clinton.  They told us that checks and balances aren't enough.  —  “No group of prosecutors and supporting personnel ever …

GOP governor signs law that bans abortion before some women even know they're pregnant  —  Mississippi's governor has signed into law one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, making it even more difficult for women to get abortions in a state where only one clinic still operates.

Can Trump Survive Mueller?  —  “Well,” the newswoman said to Donald Trump, “you're under a tremendous amount of pressure lately.”  —  “Why do you say that?” he asked.  —  It was April 6, 1990, and Paula Zahn on CBS actually had plenty of reasons to think Trump might be feeling anxious.

The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center  —  In the days since the stunning dismissal of Morris Dees, the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, on March 14th, I've been thinking about the jokes my S.P.L.C. colleagues and I used to tell to keep ourselves sane.

The warped history that fuels right-wing terrorism  —  Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter.  —  Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist suspected of killing at least 50 people last week in two New Zealand mosques, saw his murderous rampage as part of a morbid historical fantasy.

Why Trump shouldn't count on the economy to lift him in 2020  —  Poll: Trump's job approval rating rises to 42%  —  (CNN)More Americans say the economy is in good shape than at any point since 2001.  Yet President Donald Trump's approval rating has remained steady over the last two years.

EXCLUSIVE: Questionable hires, low morale plague Palm Beach police  —  Young and veteran officers have left the Palm Beach police force disgruntled and disillusioned, dismayed by the incoming crop of inexperienced officers and pessimistic about the department's future, a Palm Beach Daily News investigation found.