Trump's illuminating defense of Kyle Rittenhouse  —  At the start of and throughout his news conference Monday evening, President Trump attacked Joe Biden for condemning violence but not specifically the left-wing perpetrators of it.  —  By the end of the news conference …

Journalist Quits Kenosha Paper in Protest of Its Jacob Blake Rally Coverage  —  Daniel Thompson, an editor at The Kenosha News, resigned over a headline that highlighted a speaker who made a threat during a peaceful protest.  —  A journalist resigned on Saturday from his job at The Kenosha News …

Trump urges keeping tax returns away from Manhattan's top prosecutor  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged a federal appeals court on Monday not to let Manhattan's top prosecutor get eight years of his tax returns, saying the handover would cause him irreparable harm.

Barr's removal of career national security official, weeks before election, raises concerns  —  A little-known office in the Justice Department has lost its long-time chief.  —  Current and former national security officials are raising concerns over Attorney General William Barr's recent decision …

Pence was on standby to ‘take over’ during Trump's unannounced Walter Reed visit, new book reports  —  Washington (CNN)Vice President Mike Pence was put on standby to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency during President Donald Trump's unannounced visit to Walter Reed hospital in November 2019 …

How Has Donald Trump Survived?  —  DONALD TRUMP V. THE UNITED STATES  —  Inside the Struggle to Stop a President  —  When a Republican-led Senate committee issued a nearly 1,000-page report in mid-August that detailed the prodigious extent of the contacts between Russian officials and members …

HHS bids $250 million contract meant to ‘defeat despair and inspire hope’ on coronavirus  —  As the presidential election fast approaches, the Department of Health and Human Services is bidding out a more than $250 million contract to a communications firm as it seeks to “defeat despair and inspire hope” …

It Has Come to This: Ignore the C.D.C.  —  The agency's new guidelines are wrong, so states have to step up on their own to suppress the coronavirus.  —  Harold Varmus is a former director of the National Institutes of Health.  Rajiv Shah is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

After Trump, the reckoning … As voters prepare to pass judgment on Donald Trump's presidency in November, they might want to entertain a few counterfactuals.  Imagine that Russia had annexed Crimea during the Trump years rather than while Obama was president.

U.S. Faces A ‘Perfect Storm’ Of Political Violence Heading Into November Election  —  There have been nearly 11,000 demonstrations in the U.S. this summer — as well as a rising tide of state repression and vigilante violence.  —  Law enforcement and other authorities used force while intervening …

From students to our coach, one last huge hug for Big John Thompson  —  From the front row of the Seattle Kingdome on April 2, 1984, Georgetown students felt like we too were being hugged by John Thompson Jr.  —  First, the huge coach hugged Fred Brown, the hug that brought a great story full circle.

Twitter deletes claim minimizing coronavirus death toll, which Trump retweeted  —  After President Trump retweeted a claim that discounted the coronavirus death toll in the United States over the weekend, Twitter took down the post that spread false information.

No, Wisconsin won't make Democrats lose  —  Stuart Stevens is a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project and author of “It Was All A Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.”  —  Open your window and you can hear the nervous chatter of Democrats across the country worried that the images …

White House privately warned states of Covid-19 ‘red zone’ threat, records show  —  Senior Trump administration officials in June privately warned seven states about dangerous coronavirus outbreaks that put them in the highest risk “red zone” while publicly dismissing concerns about a second wave of Covid-19 …

How Trump Brought Nazis Into Republican Politics  —  Yesterday, President Trump retweeted a video of a man on a New York subway platform shoving and injuring a white woman.  In normal times, it would have been unfathomable to determine why the president of the United States would take an interest in this case.

Man under investigation in fatal shooting of right-wing demonstrator in Portland was outside mayor's condo night before with daughter  —  Michael Reinoehl in front of Ted Wheelers residence, August 28, 2020  —  Michael Forest Reinoehl, the 48-year-old man under investigation …

DHS Chief Tells Tucker the Feds Are ‘Working On’ Corruption Charges Against BLM Leaders  —  “Well, this is something that I have talked to [Attorney General William Barr] personally about,” Wolf said.  “I know that they are working on it.”  —  For months now, Fox News host Tucker Carlson …

Julia Reed, journalist and author who chronicled Southern foodways, dies at 59  —  Julia Reed, a Mississippi native who wrote about presidential politics and fashion for Vogue before emerging as an irreverent and stylish chronicler of Southern life and food, died Aug. 28 at a hospital in Newport, R.I. She was 59.

Mark Mothersbaugh nearly died from COVID-19.  FaceTiming with his family kept him alive  —  As Mark Mothersbaugh lay in a Cedars-Sinai hospital bed in early June after contracting the novel coronavirus, a ventilator tube snaking into his throat to help him breathe, the Devo cofounder …

A 26-year-old film editor's descent into coronavirus vaccine conspiracy theories  —  It began as a freelance job.  Micah Conrad would wake up midmorning, check his email and begin downloading videos that had arrived while he slept.  He would brew coffee, drinking it on the narrow patio …

Melania's ex-friend: Trump family tainted by ‘deceit, deception’  —  “It was amateur hour then, and it's amateur hour now,” said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, formerly a close friend of Melania Trump.

The director of national intelligence is providing cover for Putin  —  AFTER THE intelligence community briefed members of Congress in late July about threats to the upcoming election, Democrats expressed alarm about what they had learned — and about the fact that the information had not been shared with the American public.

Macron's ‘risky bet’ in Lebanon  —  In POLITICO interview, French president lays out his strategy.  —  BEIRUT — Emmanuel Macron says he's making a “risky bet” by working to avoid a political collapse in Lebanon, but is limited in what he can achieve.  —  “It's the last chance for this system …

Trump Books Keep Coming, and Readers Can't Stop Buying  —  White House memoirs, journalistic exposés, full-throated defenses of the president: Publishers are producing books for every partisan and wondering if the gravy train ends on Election Day.  —  Since it was released in May …

E.P.A. Relaxes Rules Limiting Toxic Waste From Coal Plants  —  The agency weakened Obama-era rules meant to keep metals and other pollution out of rivers and streams, saving industry tens of millions of dollars.  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday relaxed strict Obama-era standards …