Better to have a few rats than to be one  —  In case anyone missed it, the president of the United States had some choice words to describe Maryland's 7th congressional district on Saturday morning.  Here are the key phrases: “no human being would want to live there,” it is a …

Spare Me the Purity Racket  —  WASHINGTON — After I interviewed Nancy Pelosi a few weeks ago, The HuffPost huffed that we were Dreaded Elites because we were eating chocolates and — horror of horrors — the speaker had on some good pumps.  —  Then this week, lefty Twitter erected …

More than 1,000 arrested at Moscow election protest: “Russia will be free!”  —  Russian police wielding batons wrestled with demonstrators and arrested hundreds of people in central Moscow on Saturday at a protest demanding that opposition candidates be allowed to run for the Moscow city council.

Mueller's team told Congress his acuity was not an issue.  Some lawmakers privately worry it was.  —  The whispers started in 2018, though where they originated remains unclear: Robert S. Mueller III, the taciturn Marine veteran leading an investigation of the president of the United States, might not be as sharp as he once was.

You know who was into Karl Marx?  No, not AOC.  Abraham Lincoln.  —  The two men were friendly and influenced each other  —  It was December 1861, a Tuesday at noon, when President Abraham Lincoln sent his first annual message ⁠ — what later became the State of the Union ⁠— to the House and Senate.

Dan Quayle: If Democrats ‘put up some total left winger’ Donald Trump will be re-elected  —  With Mike Pence's election as vice president, Indiana now has six veeps, second only to New York state.  Here's a peek at the Hoosiers who have held the No. 2 position in the land.  (Dwight Adams/IndyStar)

The Roots of Boeing's 737 Max Crisis: A Regulator Relaxes Its Oversight  —  SEATTLE — In the days after the first crash of Boeing's 737 Max, engineers at the Federal Aviation Administration came to a troubling realization: They didn't fully understand the automated system that helped send …

Anti-Gay Brutality in a Polish Town Blamed on Poisonous Propaganda  —  BIALYSTOK, Poland — The marchers at the first gay pride parade here in the conservative Polish city of Bialystok expected that they would be met with resistance.  —  But last week when Katarzyna Sztop-Rutkowska saw …

Washington Post columnist accuses McConnell of doing 'Putin's bidding'  —  Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday after the GOP leader blocked two election security measures this week.  —  In an op-ed published by The Post …

What Kamala Harris Believes  —  The Democratic candidate wants relevant policy, not “a beautiful sonnet.”  Is that enough for voters?  —  LOS ANGELES — At her strongest, Senator Kamala Harris is forceful and pragmatic.  She elates crowds in Iowa and South Carolina with her denunciations …

POLITICO Playbook: Why the GOP retirements are a gut punch for the party  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  WHILE WE WERE ALL watching ROBERT MUELLER and Democrats this week, here's what happened to House Republicans: Three popular and well-respected members of Congress decided they weren't going to run for reelection.