We need someone who can lift us up again.  Enter President Obama.  —  An open letter to Barack Obama:  —  Mr. President, it is time.  You must speak.  Your country needs you.  —  Eleven summers ago, as you accepted the Democratic nomination for president, you announced: “Tonight …

George Conway: Trump is a racist president  —  George T. Conway III is a lawyer in New York.  —  To this day, I can remember almost the precise spot where it happened: a supermarket parking lot in eastern Massachusetts.  It was the mid-1970s; I was not yet a teenager, or barely one.

Pelosi torpedoes White House debt limit plan, throwing budget talks into chaos  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Monday said the House of Representatives would not raise the debt ceiling unless it is part of a broader budget deal, putting extreme pressure on the White House and congressional leaders to cut a deal within days.

After 2016 Bible Slip, Trump Lashed Out at ‘So-Called Christians,’ Book Says  —  Furious after he was criticized by evangelicals for stumbling in his reference to a book of the Bible during the 2016 campaign, Donald J. Trump lashed out at “so-called Christians” and used an epithet in describing …

A Neo-Nazi Blogger Was Ordered To Pay $14 Million To A Woman Who Was Targeted In A Racist “Troll Storm”  —  A federal judge awarded more than $14 million to a woman who was barraged with anti-Semitic and threatening messages online after a neo-Nazi blogger instructed his followers to target her and her family with a “troll storm.”

Beto O'Rourke's Fund-Raising Falters as 2020 Democrats Announce Finances  —  The gap between the rich and the poor in the Democratic presidential primary is growing — and Beto O'Rourke has landed on the worrisome side of the dividing line.  —  Mr. O'Rourke, who had entered the race in March …

Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling  —  Watch this story on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer at 6 p.m. ET and on Anderson Cooper 360 at 8 p.m. ET.  —  Atlanta (CNN)New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal …

Jeffrey Epstein Had ‘Piles of Cash,’ Diamonds, Foreign Passport in Safe  —  Prosecutors are arguing he should be held without bail until trial because he's a flight risk.  —  FBI agents found “piles of cash,” dozens of diamonds and a expired foreign passport in Jeffrey Epstein's safe …

Harris blasts, and takes money from, Epstein's law firm  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris bemoaned the influence of the powerful and connected elite last Tuesday when she called on top Justice Department officials to recuse themselves from any matter related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Peter Thiel tells Tucker Carlson which 2020 Dem has him ‘most scared’  —  Billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel says there is one Democratic presidential candidate who makes him most concerned ahead of the 2020 elections.  —  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is the only Democratic …

Kamala Harris rises into second place in new Saint Anselm College poll of NH primary voters  —  California senator 3 percentage points behind Biden; Sanders drops to fifth place  —  MANCHESTER, N.H. —  Sen. Kamala Harris has moved into second place among Democratic presidential contenders …

Kellyanne Conway defies subpoena, skips Oversight hearing  —  White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday defied a congressional subpoena, refusing to show up for testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee about her violations of the Hatch Act and prompting House Democrats to threaten to hold her in contempt of Congress.

None dare call it racism: Afraid of the r-word, Republicans?  Here's a better one to describe this president  —  The canary in the coal mine for our current moment was Judge Gonzalo Curiel.  An Indiana-born jurist who had the misfortune to catch the Trump University fraud lawsuit.

House orders Pentagon to say if it weaponized ticks and released them  —  The House quietly voted last week to require the Pentagon inspector general to tell Congress whether the department experimented with weaponizing disease-carrying insects and whether they were released into the public realm — either accidentally or on purpose.

3-Year-Old Asked To Pick Parent In Attempted Family Separation, Her Parents Say  —  Toggle more options  —  At a Border Patrol holding facility in El Paso, Texas, an agent told a Honduran family that one parent would be sent to Mexico while the other parent and their three children could stay …

Philadelphia D.A. Asks Court to Declare Death Penalty System Unconstitutional  —  Larry Krasner says the punishment is ‘really about poverty’ and race.  —  Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner—who vowed as a candidate not to seek the death penalty—has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court …

WH projects $1 trillion deficit for 2019  —  The White House projects that the federal deficit will surpass $1 trillion this year, the only time in the nation's history the deficit has exceeded that level, excluding the four-year period following the Great Recession.

BBC Accepts Iran's Demand Of Blackout On Its Persian Sites Amid Regime's Attacks On Press  —  A deal to not share reporting from Iran on BBC Persian has angered staffers who see it as complicity with a government that imprisons, tortures and kills journalists.

Tariffs on China Don't Cover the Costs of Trump's Trade War  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday portrayed America as being on the winning end of his trade war, saying tariffs are punishing China's economy while generating billions of dollars for the United States …

Define ‘Homophobic’  —  Imagine my surprise when late last week, I, an out gay man, found myself enrolled in an online course on homophobia that was attempting to teach me something I didn't know.  I thought I'd seen it all: the withering glances, the systemic discrimination …

Sufjan Stevens and the Curious Case of the Missing 48 States  —  More than 15 years ago, a young indie folk artist set a course to traverse the United States of America through song, accruing acclaim, a fan base, and lots of anticipation along the way.  Or did he?  —  Part I: The Great Lakes State