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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Michigan ballots tangled in mail delays in advance of Tuesday primary  —  Mail problems marred the delivery of absentee ballots in Michigan in the run-up to Tuesday's primary in the state, testing election administrators and ramping up fears of political pressure on the U.S. Postal Service just three months before Nov. 3.

'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.

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 …

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.

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%.

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 …

American Views 2020: Trust, Media and Democracy  —  OVERVIEW  —  There is a widening gulf between American aspirations for and assessments of the news media.  With each passing benchmark study, the American people render deeper and increasingly polarized judgments about the news media …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Caesar on the Hudson  —  No, Andrew Cuomo didn't handle COVID-19 well.  —  Did Andrew Cuomo and New York state really get the response to COVID-19 right?  —  To judge from the almost universal acclaim in which the governor basks, he must have.  —  Cuomo had emerged “America's governor …

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 …

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 …

The Princeton Faculty's Anti-Free Speech Demands  —  Princeton University is consumed from top to bottom with what seems to be the question of the moment: How should it reorder itself to fight racism?  —  The school's president, Christopher L. Eisgruber, ordered 23 of the institution's …

‘Shame on all of you’: Viral obit blames Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for man's covid-19 death  —  Much of David W. Nagy's obituary, which ran in his local paper in Jefferson, Tex., on July 30, recounted his painful death from the novel coronavirus at age 79 and named his surviving family members.

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:

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.

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.”

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 …

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.