Deval Patrick Announcement Video  —  In a spirit of profound gratitude for all the country has given to me, with a determination to build a better, more sustainable, more inclusive American Dream for everyone:  —  I am today announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.

Scoop: Erdogan upends Oval meeting to play anti-Kurd film on iPad  —  An Oval Office meeting yesterday with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took a dark turn when Erdoğan pulled out his iPad and made the group watch a propaganda video that depicted Kurds as terrorists …

Impeachment Is Not a Fair Fight, and on Day One It Showed  —  If it looked like House Republicans were throwing a lot of mud at the wall to see what might stick during the first day of public impeachment hearings, that's because they had settled into a strategy many defense attorneys adopt …

Ambassador's cellphone call to Trump from Kyiv restaurant was a stunning breach of security, former officials say  —  A U.S. ambassador's cellphone call to President Trump from a restaurant in the capital of Ukraine last summer was a stunning breach of security, exposing the conversation …

Crazy for Trump: On the G.O.P. Plan to Keep Impeachment Partisan  —  The hearings open with diplomatic gravitas—and nutty conspiracy theories.  —  It didn't take long for the crazy to start.  Even before the first two witnesses in the public impeachment hearings of Donald Trump had been sworn …

Trump's Best Defense on Impeachment Undermines His Case for Re-Election  —  Insubordinate bureaucrats may save him from being removed from office, but they also show him to be a weak president.  —  The best defense of President Donald Trump on the first day of the House's public impeachment hearings came …

Congress can seek eight years of Trump's tax records, appeals court rules  —  Congress can seek eight years of President Trump's tax records, according to a federal appeals court order Wednesday that moves the separation-of-powers conflict one step closer to the Supreme Court.

Exclusive: Trump DC hotel sales pitch boasts of millions to be made from foreign governments  —  The hotel's biggest selling point though, according to a copy of the brochure seen by CNN, is the one thing that the Trump family insists it didn't take advantage of: profiting off foreign governments.

Elizabeth Warren buys CNBC commercial time to blast billionaires in a fiery new campaign ad  — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is firing back against a group of billionaires who have criticized her plans with a new TV ad set to air on CNBC later this week.  — The ad takes aim at longtime investor …

Facebook fetes Kavanaugh  —  Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has kept a relatively low-profile since the Senate narrowly confirmed him last year amidst serious allegations of sexual assault.  That will change tonight when Kavanaugh is the keynote speaker at the annual convention …

Jon Huntsman to launch his 2020 run for Utah governor  —  Former two-term Gov. Jon Huntsman will try for a third.  —  Huntsman, 59, is expected to make the announcement Thursday and answer media questions after an appearance at the Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics and Public Service at Southern Utah University in Cedar City.

Rush Limbaugh Mocks Bill Taylor, George Kent as ‘Self-Important Nerds’ Who ‘Believe in Their Own Superiority’  —  As the impeachment hearing was underway today, Rush Limbaugh said that both Bill Taylor and George Kent are “self-important nerds” who are only upset because the president wouldn't do foreign policy their way.

POLITICO Playbook: What Democrats and Republicans are telling us about Wednesday's impeachment show  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  DAY ONE IS OVER, and it's hard to encapsulate six hours of hearings in a single headline.  We spent the evening in the Capitol chatting up lawmakers, aides and reporters …

RNC plunges into Louisiana gov's race amid signs of trouble  —  The Republican National Committee is pouring another $1 million into the Louisiana governor's race ahead of Saturday's runoff — a move that comes amid mounting GOP concerns about losing a second major election in a conservative state in as many weeks.

Michael Bloomberg Has a History of Demeaning Comments About Women  —  As he prepares a presidential run, Mr. Bloomberg's crude remarks are likely to draw scrutiny.  His team issued a statement saying that some of them were “disrespectful and wrong.”  —  It was a cheeky birthday gift …

Republicans Propose Automatic Cuts to Critical Programs—and Democrats Help Them  —  A bipartisan budget proposal would set up a reflexive process to reduce spending above a projected threshold.  —  BILL CLARK/CQ ROLL CALL VIA AP IMAGES  —  The past couple weeks in Democratic politics …