Trump calls bluff of critics in July 4th speech  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump was as good as his word Thursday: He saluted America.  —  In one of the least polarizing speeches of his presidency, Trump paid tribute to America's armed forces at a July Fourth appearance before the Lincoln Memorial …

CNN Exclusive: Joe Biden says he wasn't prepared for Kamala Harris to confront him the way she did  —  Des Moines, Iowa (CNN)Former Vice President Joe Biden said in an exclusive interview with CNN airing Friday that he wasn't prepared for California Sen. Kamala Harris to confront him on issues …

Trump tried to make Independence Day all about him.  He ended up looking small.  —  President Trump chose the wrong backdrop for his attempt to make Independence Day all about himself.  Standing beneath the majestic statue of Abraham Lincoln, occupying a space where great orators have stood, Trump looked and sounded quite small.

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity  —  Last week, Ralph Reed, the Faith and Freedom Coalition's founder and chairman, told the group, “There has never been anyone who has defended us and who has fought for us, who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump.  No one!”

'This doesn't look like the best economy ever': 40% of Americans say they still struggle to pay bills  —  Sommer Johnson thought everything was finally coming together for her last year.  She was engaged, working full time and doing well in online college classes when her fiance's mother died …

Trump's Not-Crazy Speech Just Highlighted Norms He's Crushed  —  It was a speech that had all the excitement of an excerpt from one of Bill O'Reilly's YA history books.  —  It was a triumph of low expectations.  —  Donald Trump's “Salute to America” speech could have easily devolved into chants of …

How the Supreme Court will upend 2020  —  The Supreme Court is already poised to drop some big political bombshells right into the heat of the 2020 campaign.  And there are even more waiting in the wings.  —  Why it matters: The court will likely hand down rulings on some of the most contentious issues …

Trump's sad, strange, somewhat Soviet Fourth of July spectacle  —  Let's get an obvious point about President Trump's Independence Day speech out of the way right at the top.  It was a bad speech.  —  It wasn't bad in the way most of Donald Trump's speeches are bad, in that it was not overtly objectionable.

It's Not Just the White House in 2020.  The Power to Draw Maps Is Also at Stake.  —  DALLAS — Only hours after the United States Supreme Court said it could do nothing to stop partisan gerrymandering of the nation's political maps, Eric H. Holder Jr. had a message for his fellow Democrats in downtown Dallas.

CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller's Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims  —  At a May press conference capping his tenure as special counsel, Robert Mueller emphasized what he called “the central allegation” of the two-year Russia probe.  The Russian government, Mueller sternly declared …

Trump administration scrambles to save citizenship question on census  —  Spurred on by President Trump, government lawyers scrambled Thursday to find a legal path to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 Census, despite their conclusions in recent days that no such avenue exists.

Why American conservatism failed  —  Today's crisis of conservatism has produced surprisingly few books that try to understand what exactly has happened to the venerable creed.  For decades, conservatism was a dominant ideology in the Western world, championed by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Strong job growth is back: Payrolls jump in June well above expectations  —  KEY POINTS  — Nonfarm payrolls rose 224,000 in June, well above market expectations of 165,000, according to the Labor Department.  —  US adds 224,000 jobs in June, vs 165,000 expected

Trump's Fourth of July history speech: Turns out there weren't airports back then  —  President Trump broke with decades of tradition Thursday by not only attending the Independence Day celebration on the Mall in Washington but making a speech as part of his ‘Salute to America.’

Trump's Cherry-Picked Polls Still Show More than Half The Country Doesn't Approve  —  The president has tweeted out 28 polls during his time in office.  The average approval rating of those show him at about 49% approval.  —  As he departed on a flight last week to Japan to attend the G20 summit …

Former Rio de Janeiro governor tells judge he paid $2 million bribe to host 2016 Olympics  —  RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The former governor of Rio de Janeiro state said in court testimony on Thursday that he paid $2 million (1.59 million pounds) to buy votes to ensure the sprawling Brazilian seaside city …

Ordered Deported, Then Sent a $497,777 Fine From ICE  —  Edith Espinal spends her days praying, reading and, when feeling brave, taking short accompanied walks outside the Mennonite church in Columbus, Ohio, where she has been living for 21 months.  Church leaders have been protecting Ms. Espinal …