Personal news: why I'm now leaving MSNBC  —  “Just quit.”  —  That's the advice Alec gave a year and a half ago when I expressed concerns about my job.  —  “You just quit.  It's that simple.”  —  “Stay at MSNBC at least until the midterms,” Jeffrey said a couple years back.

Census Cuts All Counting Efforts Short By A Month  —  The Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month shorter than previously announced, the bureau's director confirmed Monday in a statement.  That includes critical door-knocking efforts …

How Changes to the USPS Might Affect Voting by Mail  —  In a tweet Monday morning, President Trump attacked Nevada Democrats for their efforts to expand mail-in voting ahead of this fall's general election.  Along with accusing them of trying to “steal” the election, Trump noted that the USPS …

Watch the full “Axios on HBO” interview with President Trump  —  In this episode of “Axios on HBO”, President Trump discusses his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming election and much more with National Political Correspondent Jonathan Swan.  The interview was filmed on Tuesday, July 28 and aired Monday, Aug. 3 on HBO.

Two Black moms took their kids to the Mall.  Secret Service officers confronted them with guns, they said.  —  It was a hot Thursday afternoon, so India Johnson, 26, and Yasmeen Winston, 25, decided to take their babies to splash in the fountains at the World War II Memorial.

New Emails Detail The Behind-The-Scenes Drama After The Justice Department Recommended A Lesser Sentence For Roger Stone  —  WASHINGTON — At 2:59 p.m. on Feb. 11, Aaron Zelinsky, one of the lead prosecutors in the criminal case against Trump ally Roger Stone, sent an email notifying …

Two People Linked to Kanye West's Campaign Are Active in GOP Politics  —  At least two people with links to Kanye West's nascent presidential campaign are also active in Republican Party politics.  —  One of West's electors in the state of Vermont will also be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte.

After months of favor, Birx raises Trump's ire with grim coronavirus assessment  —  President Trump further disparaged his senior health advisers on Monday even as the pandemic deepened its hold on the nation, as the White House's top coronavirus coordinator, Deborah Birx …

EXCLUSIVE: Karen Bass Denies Links To Nation Of Islam, Despite Photos And Event Appearances, But Doesn't Disavow Radical Group  — California Rep. Karen Bass, a top contender to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's 2020 running mate, denied having ties to the Nation of Islam …

POLITICO Playbook: Nothing is decided  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  HERE'S AN AMAZING FACTOID almost two weeks into the talks aimed at producing a Covid relief bill: The two sides have not resolved a single issue.  Let us say this another way: Speaker NANCY PELOSI and Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER …

'I'm not a communist': Potential Biden running mate Rep. Bass reassures Cuban American voters  —  Rep. Karen Bass, the five-term California congresswoman and potential Joe Biden running mate, urged Cuban American voters Monday to “not believe the lies” of Republicans.  —  “I'm not a socialist.

D.A. Is Investigating Trump and His Company Over Fraud, Filing Suggests  —  The office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new court filing arguing Mr. Trump should turn over his tax returns.  —  The Manhattan district attorney's office suggested on Monday …

Trump's bag of tricks comes up empty against Biden  —  On a Saturday in late July, Rudy Giuliani was having lunch with Donald Trump at the president's golf course in Virginia.  Both men were in unusually good spirits.  Giuliani, the president's sometimes lawyer who is representing Trump …

Massive coronavirus outbreak envelops Rutgers football team  —  The number of COVID-19 cases connected with the Rutgers University football team nearly has doubled from 15 to 28 players, plus multiple staff members, three people with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance Media on Monday night.

De Blasio admits city skipped permit process to paint Black Lives Matter murals  —  City officials ignored their own application process for public art projects to paint Black Lives Matter murals around the five boroughs, in order to mark an important moment in history, Mayor de Blasio …

The Truth Is Paywalled But The Lies Are Free … Paywalls are justified, even though they are annoying.  It costs money to produce good writing, to run a website, to license photographs.  A lot of money, if you want quality.  Asking people for a fee to access content is therefore very reasonable.

Statement of Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers on the Public Release of the Department's Findings with Respect to the 29 FISA Applications that Were the Subject of the March 2020 OIG Preliminary Report  —  Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers stated:

Republicans Lead Senate Races in Alabama, Kentucky and Texas, With South Carolina Tied  —  Polling underscores roadblocks to a filibuster-proof majority for Democrats  — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) leads Democrat Amy McGrath by 17 points, 53% to 36%.

A Line-by-Line Analysis of the Hilarious ‘Case for Trump’  —  Hugh Hewitt occupies a rare place in the media ecosystem.  The white haired, genial talk radio host who used to host a show on MSNBC, was the subject of a somewhat flattering 2005 New Yorker profile, and still writes a column …

Kansas set to decide Kobach's fate — and possibly the Senate's  —  Republicans are about to learn if they have a serious problem in Kansas — and another major threat to their teetering Senate majority.  —  In Tuesday's primary, GOP voters will decide between hard-line conservative Kris Kobach …

Jerry Falwell Jr. Posted — Then Deleted — a Bizarre ‘Vacation Photo’ From Instagram  —  Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. posted — and then apparently deleted — a bizarre Instagram post in which he appeared with his shirt hiked up and his pants unzipped, standing next to a woman identified as a “friend.”

Gettysburg?  The Liberty Bell?  Trump Weighs R.N.C. Speech Options  —  The president and his aides are holding out hope for ambitious convention programming, and have considered a return to Mount Rushmore or a speech by Melania Trump from Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Trump Vaccine Adviser Warns That Scrutiny Of Him Will Delay Arrival Of Coronavirus Vaccine  —  HHS assistant secretary Michael Caputo went even further, arguing the media doesn't want a vaccine to succeed before the election.  “I believe that all the way in my aorta.”  —  Copy

Senate Democrats wade into pricey Texas race  —  The DSCC is making a coordinated investment with the party's nominee, MJ Hegar.  —  Voters cast their ballots in Houston, Texas.  Loren Elliott/Getty Images  —  Senate Democrats' official campaign committee is making its first big investment …

Q&A: What would Sean Hannity's Fox News show look like under a Biden presidency?  —  Sean Hannity is the most-watched personality on cable news.  But a conversation with him quickly reminds you that his roots are in radio, which he still does three hours a day.

Why Stuart Stevens Wants to Defeat Donald Trump  —  Many Republicans have joined the Never Trump camp, but few have previously been more important to the Party than Stuart Stevens.  After working on George W. Bush's two Presidential campaigns and serving as a consultant for several major …

GOP plans “nightly surprise” for revamped convention  —  The reworked Republican National Convention will be a four-night spectacle including still-under-wraps venues, a 10 p.m. “nightly surprise” and guests and themes playing to “the forgotten men and women of America,” two senior Trump campaign officials involved tell Axios.

The Mask Slackers of 1918  —  As the influenza pandemic swept across the United States in 1918 and 1919, masks took a role in political and cultural wars.  —  The masks were called muzzles, germ shields and dirt traps.  They gave people a “pig-like snout.”  Some people snipped holes in their masks to smoke cigars.